1. A data processing system, comprising
a consumer database storing transactional data and demographic data for a plurality of consumers, wherein each transaction data entry corresponds to a purchase by one of the consumers, wherein the demographic data comprises non-personally identifiable information, and wherein said consumer database prevents exposure to personally identifiable information by a market researcher;
a market survey database storing market survey data received from the market researcher, and storing market survey responses from a plurality of consumers selected to participate in the market survey, wherein each consumer is selected based on his or her corresponding demographic data as compared to one or more predefined preferred demographic data metrics identified by the market researcher;
a participation module for receiving bids from consumers to participate in the market survey, wherein each bid represents a reward the corresponding consumer desires to receive in exchange for participation in the survey, and for determining whether to accept the consumer for participation in the survey based on predefined rules identifying maximum acceptable bids based on the comparison of the consumer’s demographic information compared to the one or more predefined preferred demographic data metrics; and
a marketing list generation module for generating a consumer list based on predefined criteria specified by a market researcher, wherein said consumer list includes contact information for a plurality of consumers meeting the predefined criteria specified by the market researcher, wherein said plurality of consumers have each opted-in for inclusion in said consumer list.
2. A system, comprising:
a consumer database storing transactional data and demographic data for a plurality of consumers, wherein each transaction data entry corresponds to a purchase by one of the consumers, wherein the demographic data comprises non-personally identifiable information, and wherein said consumer database prevents exposure to personally identifiable information by a market researcher; and
a market survey database storing market survey data received from the market researcher, and storing market survey responses from a plurality of consumers selected to participate in the market survey, wherein each consumer is selected based on his or her corresponding demographic data as compared to one or more predefined preferred demographic data metrics identified by the market researcher.
3. The system of claim 2, further comprising:
a participation module for receiving bids from consumers to participate in the market survey, wherein each bid represents a reward the corresponding consumer desires to receive in exchange for participation in the survey, and for determining whether to accept the consumer for participation in the survey based on predefined rules identifying maximum acceptable bids based on the comparison of the consumer’s demographic information compared to the one or more predefined preferred demographic data metrics.
4. The system of claim 2, further comprising a user interface in the consumer database through which each consumer can update his or her corresponding demographic data.
5. The system of claim 2, wherein the market survey database reviews the market survey to ensure that the market survey is consistent with brand, consumer advocacy, marketing, and privacy guidelines.
6. The system of claim 3, wherein the participation module sends a notification to the consumer upon an occurrence of a predefined event associated with a status of the market survey.
7. The system of claim 3, wherein the participation module generates a report that lists the accepted consumers based on the selection of the consumers using the corresponding demographic data as compared to the one or more predefined preferred demographic data metrics identified by the market researcher
8. The system of claim 2, wherein the one or more predefined preferred demographic data metrics include at least one age, financial data, race, geographic location, and gender.
9. The system of claim 2, wherein the one or more predefined preferred demographic data metrics comprises the consumer being associated with a predefined transaction.
10. The system of claim 3, wherein the participation module credits the reward to a consumer’s bank account when the consumer has completed the market survey.
11. The system of claim 3, further comprising a user interface through which corporate affiliates can add more transactional and demographic data about the consumer.
12. The system of claim 11, wherein the participation module directly credits the reward to the consumer’s account at the corporate affiliate.
13. A method comprising:
receiving transaction data and demographic data for a plurality of consumers;
storing the transaction data and demographic data for the plurality of consumers in a consumer database, wherein each transaction data entry corresponds to a purchase by one of the consumers and wherein the demographic data comprises non-personally identifiable information;
preventing exposure to personally identifiable information by a market researcher;
storing market survey data received from the market researcher in a market survey database;
selecting a plurality of consumers based on each consumer’s corresponding demographic data as compared to one or more predefined preferred demographic data metrics identified by the market researcher;
receiving market survey responses from the plurality of consumers; and
storing the market survey responses from the plurality of consumers selected to participate in the market survey in the market survey database.
14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:
receiving bids from the plurality of consumers to participate in the market survey, wherein each bid represents a reward the corresponding consumer desires to receive in exchange for participation in the survey; and
determining whether to accept the consumer for participation in the survey based on predefined rules identifying maximum acceptable bids based on the comparison of the consumer’s demographic information compared to the one or more predefined preferred demographic data metrics.
15. The method of claim 13, further comprising receiving updated demographic data from the consumer and updating the database with the updated demographic data.
16. The method of claim 14, further comprising generation of graphs and reports to visualize results of the survey.
17. The method of claim 14, further comprising sending a notification to the market researcher upon an occurrence of a predefined event associated with a status of the market survey.
18. The method of claim 14, further comprising generating a report that lists the accepted consumers based on the selection of the consumer using the corresponding demographic data as compared to the one or more predefined preferred demographic data metrics identified by the market researcher.
19. The method of claim 13, wherein the one or more predefined preferred demographic data metrics include at least one age, financial data, race, geographic location, and gender.
20. The method of claim 13, wherein the one or more predefined preferred demographic data metrics comprises the consumer being associated with a predefined transaction.
21. The method of claim 14, further comprising crediting the reward to a consumer’s bank account when the consumer has completed the market survey.
22. The method of claim 13, further comprising reviewing the market survey to ensure that it is consistent with brand, consumer advocacy, marketing, and privacy guidelines.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A system comprising:
an external firewall connected to an external communication network and a DMZ;
an internal firewall connected to an internal communication network and the DMZ;
an IP-PBX connected to the internal communication network; and
a VoIP proxy server connected to the DMZ, the VoIP proxy server configured to receive VoIP messages from the external communication network through the external firewall and forward the VoIP messages through the internal firewall to the IP-PBX.
2. A method comprising:
receiving a request from a remote user’s ephone;
identifying a source IP address in the request;
pushing a firewall policy change to an external firewall;
opening a port for the source IP address in response to the policy change;
forwarding a call control message from the ePhone to an IP-PBX via an internal firewall; and
forwarding a registration request from the IP-PBX to the ePhone through the external firewall.
3. The method of claim 2 further comprising:
retrieving a configuration file for the ePhone based on a MAC address of the ePhone; and
authenticating and authorizing the user based on the configuration file.
4. The method of claim 2 wherein the step of forwarding a call control message further comprises replacing a destination IP address of an incoming packet with an IP address of the IP-PBX.
5. The method of claim 2 wherein the step of forwarding a registration request further comprises replacing a source IP address of the registration request with an IP address of an VoIP proxy server.
6. The method of claim 2 wherein the step of forwarding a call control message further comprises adding a header containing an internal IP address of the IP-PBX.
7. The method of claim 2 wherein the step of forwarding a registration request further comprises removing a header containing an internal IP source address from the registration request.
8. A method comprising:
connecting an ePhone to an external communication network;
sending a request to a VoIP proxy server;
sending a call control message to an IP-PBX through the VoIP proxy server;
receiving a registration request from the IP-PBX through the VoIP proxy server; and;
placing a call on the ePhone, the call routed through the VoIP proxy server.
9. The method of claim 8 wherein the VoIP proxy server resides in a DMZ of an internal communication network, the DMZ connected to the external communication network through an external firewall.