FORM 2
THE PATENT ACT, 1970
(39 OF 1970)
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION
(See Section 10 and rule 13)
"SELF SERVICE KIOSK SYSTEM FOR MULTI-UTILITY PERSONALISED CUSTOMER TRANSACTION SYSTEM"
Applicant' Name : Forbes Technosys Limited
Address : Plot No C-17/18, Road No 16,
Wagle Industrial Estate, Thane-400604 , Maharashtra, India.
The following specification particularly describes the invention and the matter in which it is to be performed

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates generally to the self service kiosk system for multi-utility personalized customer transaction system, more particularly to an electronic device for payment transaction for public use.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The Indian economy is growing at a rate of 8-9 % over the past few years. This growth has also resulted in transaction growth of about 20-25 % CAGR.
A study conducted by Feedback ventures on transaction growth has indicated that the following are the fastest growing sectors in terms of transaction growth:
Telecom
Banks, Insurance & Financial Institutions
Public Utilities-Power
Transport Utilities- Airlines
Government
The growth in transactions has been largely driven by increase in the number of subscribers and consumers of these services. The Telecom industry alone has added close to 100 million subscribers in the last one year.
Existing systems that handle transactions within an organization have been found wanting in dealing with this transaction growth and they are seeking newer methods to provide better services at lower cost.
Transaction Management can be done through both manual and automated modes. However, keeping the cost and efficiency angle in mind organizations are increasingly looking towards automated solutions to meet consumer needs in the most cost effective manner.
One of the major areas that is directly linked to more efficient revenue management is that of providing consumers with cost effective and convenient bill payment options. This has benefits for both the biller and the consumer. The biller makes it easier for the

consumer to make payment by providing him different modes of making payment, while the consumer does not have to travel long distances, stand in queues and go through great discomfort to pay the bill.
The bill payment industry sub-segment represents the most promising opportunity within the transaction management space, where billers and consumers are both willing to avail the services of third parties who can make this process work for them efficiently at low cost. The Indian Scenario
Of the four different models of walk-in bill payment services, currently the unattended direct option is the least prevalent in the absence of third party networks. It is this opportunity that Forbes Pay Network is targeted at. Like in the US, India also has a large unbanked population which can be well served through a network of transaction stations as attended aggregation (manual collection) is not able to keep pace with growth and is also the most expensive for the biller.
Telcom, Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions, Public Utilities and Government agencies make up over 60-70% of all payment transactions that take place. Broadly, the following modes of bill payment collection are in existence today:
Over-the-counter payments
Payments through Internet gateways using credit cards
Payments made via ecs-electronic settlement through banks
Manual aggregators
Payment services via mobile SMS
Self Service automated transaction stations or reverse ATMs
Under each of these modes the approximate flow through of transactions is as follows:
Over the counter -over 80% of the transactions Internet payment gateway-< 1 % ECS-< 1 % Mobile-negligible

Manual Aggregators->15% Self service < 1 %
A study by IAMAI (Internet & Mobile Association of India concluded that 51% of the people studied (SAMPLE SIZE 3000) were comfortable paying their bills in cash while 37% preferred to make payment by cheque.
Increasingly, in urban and semi-urban centres, with the proliferation of the ATM culture, there is a movement towards self service systems in bill payment and other transaction areas like mobile recharges, government to citizen services etc.
Over time, it is expected that a large number of transactions that are being carried out over the counter, will move towards self service systems. Similar movements have happened in the cash withdrawal space where ATMs are today the preferred choice both by banks and consumers over teller counters.
The shift in movement of these transactions from over-the-counter to self service have been facilitated by the deployment of ATM networks by individual banks and the interconnectivity that exists today across multiple banks. Similarly, the presence of a pan India bill payment network can drive a sharp shift from over-the-counter payments to self-service stations.
To date, self-service terminals such as kiosks have primarily been used to provide a specially-targeted product or service. For example, a movie ticket kiosk can sell movie tickets at a theater. Likewise, an Internet kiosk can provide pay-as-you-go Internet access at airports and malls. Furthermore, purchases through kiosks are often single instance purchases, impersonal and lack customer friendly functionality.
The customer environment in the bifl payment and collection segment includes both billers and end consumers of their services. In order to understand the customer environment we need to study the limitations of each existing type of payment system. Firstly, the over-the-counter system. It allows all types of transactions including cash and credit card payment, but suffers from the following limitations: Limited to working hours

Requires travel as it is located within offices
Queues and time delays
Limitation on number of counters
Most expensive in terms of transaction costs
Not always a good experience for the consumer
Internet, ECS and Mobile all cater to a limited part of the population that has access to the Internet and is in a position to avail banking and credit card services. While transaction costs are low, consumers perceive absence of control(ECS),Fraud(credit card payments) and general discomfort in case of billing disputes.
Manual aggregators have been most effective in recent times in expanding biller reach and processing payment transactions. However, some consumer discomfort felt in this mode is the absence of receipts for payments made, lack of on-line access to billing information, and the fact that cash transactions are not possible.
A self service option as is devloped by Forbes can provide greater benefits to both billers and consumers as well as provide a consistently high standard of service.
At present there is a lack of a single window mechanism for multiple payment deposits & service requests. Different public and private utilities such as electric supply, telephone bill payments, government department offices where cash, cheque or card payments are done at counters throughout city, mainly during restricted working hours, which requires multiple visits, lack of concern / empathy from employees, lack of transparency of procedures, encourages brokers, agents and corruption. Currently a person has to visit multiple locations / offices to make payments or lodge request for service, mainly during working hours only.
AH current methods are either manned counters or online systems. Manned counters operate during working hours only and hence restrict the payees' access. Locations are also restricted due to high cost of real estate. Single window for multi-utility payments are not available. Lack of transparency in Government services encourages agents/corruption. Online services limited to very few people.

However, there exist large segments of the population that neither have bank accounts nor internet access. These people have been left with few payment options for common household bills such as phone, electricity, cable, etc. Furthermore, the currently available options do not allow users access to features and services available to those with bank accounts or internet access. Existing bill payment systems fail to provide an adequate solution to these problems.
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
Therefore the main object of the present invention is to provide a device and system for efficiently processing payments through multiple modes-cash,cheque & credit card and also for multiple services like electricity bills, prepaid and post paid bills for Telecom & Power Utilitues, Insurance Premium payments, Ticket booking for Air.Rail & Road, Governement Challans etc. So far kiosks deplyed have only supported payments to single entities or utitlities. The Self Service Kiosk System for Multiple -Utilities developed by Forbes is designed to accept payments made to serveral utilities on the same kiosk.
The Self Service Kiosk, while providing a printed receipt to the consumer also is connected to a backend server that records the transaction and updates the payment to the biilers account.
The following specification, examples and data provide a complete description of the structure and use of exemplary embodiments of the invention. Since many embodiments of the invention can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, the invention resides in the claims. In particular, it should be understand that the described technology may be employed independent of a personal computer. Other embodiments are therefore contemplated
While the invention will be described in connection with a preferred embodiment, it will be understood that it is not intended to limit the invention to this embodiment. On the contrary, it is intended to cover all alternatives, modifications and equivalents as may be included within the spirit and scope of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
Figure 1 illustrates exemplary application architecture of the self service kiosk with combinations of modules.
Figure 2 illustrates a deployment diagram of the self service kiosk with web based
system of data transfer and storage.
Figure 3 schematically illustrates a personalized workflow for post paid mobile bill
payment.
Figure 4 schematically illustrates a personalized workflow for pre paid recharge or top up payment through online recharge server.
Figure 5 schematically illustrates a personalized workflow for pre paid recharge or top up payment through PINs stored in Kiosk.
Figure 6 schematically illustrates a personalize workflow for activating and deactivating respective service of mobile.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to the self service kiosk system for multi-utility personalized customer transaction system, more particularly to an electronic device for payment transaction for public use.
In one of the embodiment of the invention provides a Central Office Application (Controls kiosks centrally) based self service kiosk machine (SSK) that operates on a 24/7 basis. The SSK is intended to help the individual user to carry out a transaction on the "Self Service Kiosk Machines" in an effective manner as well as help the deployed user, manage and maintain the kiosk network efficiently.
The SSK has a proprietary software application by which Self Service is delivered by integrating hardware devices as shown in schematic illustrated figures that are typically

used in the transaction process, building business logic for software flow and generation & transfer of MIS from the kiosk to the deployed user.
In one of the embodiment of the present invention the SSK is built on the state of the art platforms used in today's enterprise applications such as MS .Net, PHP and uses web based network tools for communication. The present invention provides a the Kiosk Software having the front end application wherein the said application runs on the kiosk and can be configured to carry out transactions such as Bill Payments in Cash, Cheques and Credit Cards, Cheque Deposits for Banking applications, Mobile top-ups for prepaid cell phones, Internet Banking, booking of various tickets, download of Value Added Services (VAS) and many other applications Such as generation of proof of transaction in the form of a printed receipt, Communicate with local data base or remote back end servers for data validation- and data updating, Send transactional data to Central Office (CO) for records or maintain local data (in case of non-connected scenario), Receive new configuration from CO and reconfigure itself.
In yet another embodiment of the invention there is provided a Central Office" - Remote Configuration & Monitoring System which allows the internal users to configure individual kiosks remotely, It Configure Business Logic, Biller-wise and Kiosk-wise, it Receive data form kiosks in real time basis, It also Communicate to biller data base for remote validation or updation, It facilitates the Kiosk network health monitoring, It Maintain Masters for support functionalities and Generate various reports.
The present invention also provides an operating system or environment for the kiosk software having user interface at kiosk side comprising of Microsoft .NET which Works on PCs with Windows XP, 2000 (screen resolution 800 X 600) and works with specific keyboard and mouse settings. It has a data storage database in the form of Microsoft MSDE for local storage. There is a web based communication is implemented with co Central Office and co has its operations on software such as PHP with My-SQL,

The present invention also provides a design and implementation features of the said kiosk wherein it is function as in a stand alone mode in case of non connected kiosks. However, if some biller specific validation is required local database may be present on the Kiosk. In case of a Networked Kiosk, either with CO or with biller data base can validate data on an on line basis. As KS is single user software and not more than one operation is supported at any given point in time. The kiosks are configurable from the CO and no local configuration is required. In case of online or intermittently connected kiosks, the configuration settings and other required inputs are "Pulled" from the CO. Data is transferred in an asynchronous mode.
There is a synergy of work flow on the SSK whereby there are terminal application such as cheque deposit for bill payment and only bill payments wherein KS supports multilingual functionality to the users; it also accepts all the required inputs from the user in an easy, user friendly and idiot-proof interface, it validates all the inputs depending on the "Biller Specific Settings" and display appropriate messages for the user to be able to proceed.
It has a mechanism of an appropriate time-out messages which are being displayed during all the phases of user interaction, It has an interfaces with all the relevant mentioned peripheral devices, keeping the track of all the unsuccessful transactions and incomplete transactions. Therefore KS is capable of working in offline scenario and in such a scenario; the required validations shall be done through the local database available on the kiosk.
In one of the embodiment of the present invention there is provided a separate KS background process which handles transfer of transactional data as well as the images captured in case of image scanner to CO server. This process is also used to pull the new configurations/setting by the Kiosks. This activity takes place in case of kiosks that have either full or partial connectivity. This process is started automatically once the connectivity between kiosk and CO established. No special user action is necessary after establishing the connection.
The Key Features of the Ks background process has various advantages such as it is a faceless process (i.e. without any user interface), it logs errors in the system event

" viewer and it connects to the CO in case of disruption in connectivity at predefined intervals.
The present invention provides an elaborate "Configuration Function" which is available at the CO for setting the specific biller configuration and kiosk configuration. The Configuration changes happening at the CO will be effective at the kiosk after the respective configuration setting file is available at the kiosk either through direct kiosk-CO connectivity or by manually copying these settings at the kiosk.
The CO supports an elaborate configuration facility at the CO for setting up of the following:
A. Business logic configuration
B. Biller configuration
C. Kiosk configuration
CO provides the facility of changing the configuration of the kiosk, the screen layouts [choosing templates and applying colours] by remote configuration and no code level changes are required for the same.
CO: Reports this feature enables various users at the CO to generate reports of activities and transactions happening at various Kiosks and CO. The KS and CO both have functionality for building the required test reports. Report printing and exporting (in CSV format) facilities are incorporated.
Types of Reports Generated:
Report Description
Day-wise collection reports for These are the reports to analyze sales
cash/cheque sorted by data for various kiosks and billers.
kiosk/location/biller
Location wise Summary reports Summary reports for various locations
and billers transactions.
Kiosk Reports Reports giving information about all the
kiosks present.

Kiosk Register
Kiosk Configuration
Kiosk biller map
Kiosk Health Report Detailing health of every kiosk with
highlight on kiosks with problems.
Deviation Report Report on deviation in the raw and
processed data.

"WE CLAIM:
1. A self service kiosk for bill payments, mobile phone recharge, VAS (Value Added services)
and E-Governance comprising:
a central office terminal for controlling kiosk centrally,
web based software such as MS .Net, PHP and network tools for communication, with
local data base or remote back end servers for data validation and data updation,
Centra! Office Application (Controls kiosks centrally) based self service kiosk machine
(SSK),
an operating system or environment for the kiosk software
2. A self service kiosk as claimed in claim 1 wherein Central Office Remote Configuration & Monitoring System allows the internal users to configure individual kiosks remotely, It Configure Business Logic, Biller-wise and Kiosk-wise, it Receive data form kiosks in real time basis, It also Communicate to biller data base for remote validation or updation, It facilitates the Kiosk network health monitoring, It Maintain Masters for support functionalities and generate various reports.
3. A self service kiosk as claimed in claim 1 wherein an operating system or environment for the kiosk software having user interface at kiosk side comprising of Microsoft .NET which Works on PCs with Windows XP, 2000 (screen resolution 800 X 600) and works with specific keyboard • and mouse settings.
4. A self service kiosk as claimed in claim 1 wherein a data storage database is in the form of Microsoft MSDE for local storage having a web based communication implemented with co Central Office and co has its operations on software such as PHP with My-SQL.