Thomas M. Anderson
Physician at High St, Denver, CO

2002010, Aug 8, 2002

Dec 10, 2000

09/734911

Donald Kark - Highlands Ranch CO, US
Eddie Tuggle - Parker CO, US
Jon Mottram - Denver CO, US
Thomas Anderson - Aurora CO, US

G06F017/60, G06F007/00, G06F017/30, G06F012/00

705/027000, 705/007000, 707/009000, 707/010000, 707/203000

Methods and associated systems for multi-layered channel marketing catalog generation and maintenance. A plurality of hierarchically related product/service catalogs are maintained so as to maintain commonality with regard to information contained in the catalogs and to permit customization at each layer. Information from a plurality of manufacturer catalogs are provided and integrated into a single master industry catalog Channel marketing partners of the several manufacturers extract information from the industry catalog for the particular manufacturers with whom they have established marketing agreements. The extracted information is then presented as a channel partner catalog to customers/users of the channel partner. Resellers having established relationships with one or more channel partners extract information from the channel partners' catalogs to create a reseller's catalog. Still lower layers of the marketing channel extract information from the next higher layer catalog to generate their own custom layer catalog. Each layer catalog includes processing to periodically review the higher layer's catalog to identify new or revised information and may accept or reject the updates for inclusion in their layer. Revision index values are preferably used in each layered catalog to identify updates and additions. In the preferred embodiment, information is exchanged between the catalogs using standard XML messaging formats and protocols.