Patent Application
20070143114
The invention relates generally to computer implemented application dialogues, and more particularly, to an architecture and toolset for implementing application dialogues.
The evolution of information technology can be characterized by distinct phases of adoption. The first phase involved the proliferation of the mainframe, followed by the Personal Computer (PC) and then the Internet, or the e-business phase. Information technology has now entered into its next phase. Whether it is called the on demand Business (IBM), the Adaptive Enterprise (HP), Business Agility (Microsoft) or the Real Time Enterprise (Gartner), there is now significant innovation through technologies such as grid and autonomic computing.
The technologies being developed in this new phase are “smart” technologies. To provide insights into how “smart” applications may evolve, a business model may be adopted comprised of a three level triangle with Plan at the top, Control in the middle and Operate as the lower level. There are two types of information processes and flows occurring within the triangle; (a) transactions, and (b) business dialogues. This information flow can be viewed as transaction processing at the Operate level moving in a horizontal manner with vertical business dialogues occurring between the layers of the triangle. The process of Plan, Control and Operate are linked to provide an upwards dialogue flow for feedback or a downwards dialogue flow for direction/guidance creating a systematic, on going dialogue loop.
At the Operate layer the automation of processes is supported by transaction processing applications. These could include a bank deposit transaction, a point-of-sale credit card transaction, a new book ordered through the Internet or an inventory inquiry for goods in a warehouse. These types of transactions are short in duration, containing small amounts of data and while they were designed as discrete transactions, they can be strung together into a transaction flow. For instance, a customer may want to inquiry into their bank account balance, then transfer funds from their savings to checking account and finally, make a payment from their checking account. The data used in these transactions are of fixed format based upon physical information such as a bank account, the price of a product or the amount of inventory for a product.
Information that moves between the three layers produces business dialogue flows. Hence, the Operate transactions are monitored and managed by the Control layer. Exceptions to the operational processes are passed to the Control layer where experts are consulted to provide advice or modification to the business rules to standardize how these exceptions are handled. Information is summarized at the Control layer and passed to the Plan layer for performance evaluations and further dialogues. As new plans or targets are developed they are then filtered down as instructions to the Control layer and then to the Operate layer for execution.
These business dialogues can run for a few minutes such as when a user is seeking expert advice or several hours as in the case of a compliance assessment. A two-way information exchange results that goes beyond the regular transaction flow because expert knowledge is required to drive the discussion. Unlike information intensive applications which search and display content for users to determine their relevancy, business dialogues are prescriptive in nature. That is, their purpose is not just to find related information but to deliver advice within the context of the user situation. Examples of vertical dialogues include:
Note that these types of dialogues are not strictly limited to business environments, but occur for other applications such as academia. Thus, for the purpose of this disclosure, the term “application dialogue” generically refers to all such dialogues. An important characteristic of these application dialogues are that they are two-way, interactive discussions between two parties, a user and a Subject Matter Expert (SME), involving specialist advice and content.
Because most organizations tend to have their own unique issues, best practices, information content, and expertise, typical application dialogues will vary significantly among different organizations. For instance, the type of business dialogue that might occur between a sales person and a sales consultant will be completely different than a person seeking guidance from an expert in performing a compliance assessment. Thus, the process of providing a computer implemented application dialogue infrastructure, e.g., where a user can obtain guidance from an expert base of knowledge, can be extremely costly, since the base of knowledge and types of inquiries are constantly changing. In most instances, significant programming skills are required to develop and maintain such an infrastructure. In most cases, the subject matter experts who are needed to populate such a knowledge base do not possess such programming skills.
Accordingly, a need exists for an architecture and toolset that will support computer implemented application dialogues without the need for significant programming skills.
The present invention addresses the above-mentioned problems, as well as others, by providing an architecture and toolset that will support computer implemented application dialogues without the need for significant programming skills.
In a first aspect, the invention provides an application dialogue toolkit for creating an application dialogue in accordance with a predefined architecture, comprising: a configurator tool for defining at least one frame, wherein each frame includes a set of talking points capable of being presented to an end user, and wherein the configurator tool includes a system for defining a unique model to be associated with each frame; and a content editor for populating and managing a content database associated with the application dialogue.
In a second aspect, the invention provides a computer program product stored on a computer readable medium for creating an application dialogue in accordance with a predefined development protocol, comprising: program code configured for defining at least one frame in accordance with the predefined development protocol, wherein each frame includes a set of talking points capable of being presented to an end user; program code configured for defining a unique model in accordance with the predefined development protocol to be associated with each frame; and program code configured for populating and managing a content database associated with the application dialogue in accordance with the predefined development.
In a third aspect, the invention provides a method of creating an application dialogue in accordance with a predefined architecture, comprising: providing a development platform for building the application in accordance with a predefined development protocol; selecting at least one frame, wherein each frame includes a set of talking points capable of being presented to an end user; defining a unique model to be associated with each frame; and populating and managing a content database associated with the application dialogue.
In a fourth aspect, the invention provides a computerized architecture for implementing an application dialogue constructed in accordance with a predefined development protocol, comprising: a user interface; a runtime environment having a set of frames that make up the application dialogue, wherein each frame includes a set of talking points that can be used to display expert knowledge and receive input from an end user via the user interface, and wherein the each frame includes an associated model and logic that determines what talking points should be displayed to the end user within a frame, and when to switch between frames; and a content database for storing expert knowledge.
In a fifth aspect, the invention provides a method for deploying an application dialogue architecture and toolkit, comprising: providing a computer infrastructure being operable to: provide a user interface; provide a runtime environment having a set of frames that make up the application dialogue, wherein each frame includes a set of talking points that can be used to display content and receive input from an end user via the user interface, and wherein the each frame includes an associated model and logic that determines what talking points should be displayed to the end user within a frame, and when to switch from a first frame to a second frame; provide a content database for storing content; and provide a toolkit for defining the set of frames and associated model and logic, and for populating and managing a content database associated with the application dialogue.
These and other features of this invention will be more readily understood from the following detailed description of the various aspects of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:
Referring now to drawings,
Architecture 10 includes a user interface 12, a runtime environment 14 and a content database 16. User interface 12 may comprise any type of interactive interface that allows information to be inputted and outputted from the runtime environment 14. For instance, user interface 12 may be implemented in a Web application, a Windows environment, a handheld device, etc. Runtime environment 14 may be implemented using any computing platform, e.g., a personal computer, a handheld device, a laptop, etc.
Using the application dialogue toolkit 48 (described below), a developer, such as a subject matter expert, can create one or more discussion topics, or frames 18. Frames 18 can then be loaded into runtime environment 14, which can then be accessed by a user via user interface 12. Each frame 18 includes a set of talking points 22, which provide an interactive platform for exchanging information between the user and the subject matter expert's knowledge, which is stored in content database 16. Thus, the talking points 22 become the mechanism through which the user can explain their situation and express comments, and the subject matter expert can provide their point of view and expertise. Talking points 22 provide the basic elements that allow a detailed conversation within the frame to occur. Talking points 22 also provide a mechanism for organizing content within a particular context. Thus, by using talking points 22, only the relevant information that is needed by the user is presented, as opposed to overwhelming the user with large amounts of information at one time.
The runtime environment 14 is thus based upon a series of user interactive frames 18 that simplify the navigation through a dialogue and present content in manageable chunks so that the user is not overwhelmed by mountains of information. Behind each frame 18 is a unique model 20 that support each of the frames 18. To ensure that there is traceability in the logic flow, there is programming logic and a mapping 24 that ties each of the models 20 together so that each frame 18 can stand on its own and function within an overall application dialogue. Each model 20 provides access to the content database 16, where the subject matter expert's advice and knowledge for that particular application dialogue are stored.
Next, the dialogue would proceed to the benefits frame, where the user would be presented with benefits of improving upon the identified gap, in this case, insufficient IT resources. In this example, the benefits frame is implemented with an impact model. Finally, the dialogue would proceed to a recommendations frame, where the user would be provided with various recommendations, based on a recommendations model, to address the identified gap in the business process. Obviously, the example shown in
As shown in
In the embodiment shown in
The next tool is the application dialogue content editor 54, which provides an easy to use facility for entering content to populate/manage the content database 16, without requiring any knowledge of the underlying database or technical infrastructure. The final end user tool is the administration tool 56 used for administration functions. This is where, e.g., authorization tables can be set up so that different access privileges can be given to SMEs, users or Administrators.
Once created, an application dialogue 19, comprised of a set of frames 18, can be run in a runtime environment 14 by an end user. Illustrative runtime environments 14 may include, e.g., a computer, client server environment, etc.
The application dialogue toolkit 48 allows SMEs to create or change the application dialogue 19 without IT involvement or support. This means that the moment the SME decides a new application dialogue 19 is needed, the application dialogue 19 can be easily built by the SME, and once completed, and the application dialogue 19 is ready to be used. Application dialogues can be launched as needed and can be dynamically built during runtime execution pulling in the latest expert advice based upon the user's situation.
Note that any type of application dialogue 19 may be built using the toolkit 48 described herein. Examples include, but are not limited to: advising, consulting, consultative selling, compliance, and assessments and diagnostics executed in support of an existing business process or transaction.
In general, computer system 40 (
I/O 44 may comprise any system for exchanging information to/from an external resource. External devices/resources may comprise any known type of external device, including a monitor/display, speakers, storage, another computer system, a hand-held device, keyboard, mouse, voice recognition system, speech output system, printer, facsimile, pager, etc. Bus 47 provides a communication link between each of the components in the computer system 40 and likewise may comprise any known type of transmission link, including electrical, optical, wireless, etc. Although not shown, additional components, such as cache memory, communication systems, system software, etc., may be incorporated into computer system 40.
Access to computer system 40 may be provided over a network such as the Internet, a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), a virtual private network (VPN), a wireless network, etc. Communication could occur via a direct hardwired connection (e.g., serial port), or via an addressable connection that may utilize any combination of wireline and/or wireless transmission methods. Moreover, conventional network connectivity, such as Token Ring, Ethernet, WiFi or other conventional communications standards could be used. Still yet, connectivity could be provided by conventional TCP/IP sockets-based protocol. In this instance, an Internet service provider could be used to establish interconnectivity. Further, as indicated above, communication could occur in a client-server or server-server environment.
It should be appreciated that the teachings of the present invention could be offered as a business method on a subscription or fee basis. For example, a computer system 10 comprising an application dialogue toolkit 48, as well as the runtime environment 44, could be created, maintained and/or deployed by a service provider that offers the functions described herein for customers. That is, a service provider could offer to provide a toolkit for building application dialogues and/or a runtime environment for executing application dialogues as described above.
It is understood that the systems, functions, mechanisms, methods, engines and modules described herein can be implemented in hardware, software, or a combination of hardware and software. They may be implemented by any type of computer system or other apparatus adapted for carrying out the methods described herein. A typical combination of hardware and software could be a general-purpose computer system with a computer program that, when loaded and executed, controls the computer system such that it carries out the methods described herein. Alternatively, a specific use computer, containing specialized hardware for carrying out one or more of the functional tasks of the invention could be utilized. In a further embodiment, part or all of the invention could be implemented in a distributed manner, e.g., over a network such as the Internet.
The present invention can also be embedded in a computer program product, which comprises all the features enabling the implementation of the methods and functions described herein, and which—when loaded in a computer system—is able to carry out these methods and functions. Terms such as computer program, software program, program, program product, software, etc., in the present context mean any expression, in any language, code or notation, of a set of instructions intended to cause a system having an information processing capability to perform a particular function either directly or after either or both of the following: (a) conversion to another language, code or notation; and/or (b) reproduction in a different material form.
The foregoing description of the invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise form disclosed, and obviously, many modifications and variations are possible. Such modifications and variations that may be apparent to a person skilled in the art are intended to be included within the scope of this invention as defined by the accompanying claims.
