Digital workroom

US9940594B1 · kind B1 · utility

Assignee

• Elance, Inc. · US

Inventors

• Fabio Rosati · Palo Alto, US
• Yuet Ping Poon · Cupertino, US
• Rajasekhar L. Kovuru · Sunnyvale, US
• Ved Ranjan Sinha · Menlo Park, US
• Ayyappan Arasu · Cupertino, US
• Maurizio A. Gianola · Palo Alto, US
• Anthony M. Hahn · San Jose, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Aug 8, 2013
• Grant date: Apr 10, 2018
• Expiry date: Aug 8, 2033

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G06Q10/1053
• WIPO field: IT methods for management
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

A workroom is automatically established for each job created and is associated with a unique email address. The workroom allows members to hold live meetings, communicate in real-time, including via email, upload/manage/share files, and automatically provide transcripts of communication. The workroom also allows team members to launch work trackers directly from the workroom. A work tracker collects work information and directly generates one or more status reports based on the work information collected. A status report includes a back-end version viewable and modifiable by a service provider and a front-end version viewable by a buyer. The status report directly generates an invoice based on the information from the status report. The invoice is submitted to the buyer and allows the buyer to directly pay the service provider.