Patent Application
20120084109
In today's corporate world, improvements in efficiency, reduction in costs and improvement in customer service are factors to success. Accordingly, companies are constantly striving to achieve these factors. However, increasing numbers and types of options for providing services, performing work functions, etc. may complicate business decisions. Further, subjective decision making at various levels within a business entity may result in inconsistent decisions throughout the business entity, which may result in additional complexities as companies strive to improve efficiency, reduce costs and improve customer service. Accordingly, decisioning guidelines and framework to filter out eligible solution options for various decisions would be advantageous.
The following presents a simplified summary in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the present disclosure. The summary is not an extensive overview of the disclosure. It is neither intended to identify key or critical elements of the disclosure nor to delineate the scope of the disclosure. The following summary merely presents some concepts of the disclosure in a simplified form as a prelude to the description below.
According to one or more aspects, a system and method of identifying one or more locations eligible to perform an identified work function based on one or more filtering parameters is provided. The system and method may include receiving a first plurality of locations and filtering the first plurality of locations, based on a first filtering parameter, to identify a second plurality of locations eligible to perform the work function. In some examples, the first filtering parameter may be one of safety/security risk, communication skills desired, and capability maturity of the location. The system and method may further include filtering the second plurality of locations, based on a second filtering parameter, to identify a third plurality of eligible locations. The second filtering parameter may be another of safety/security risk, communication skills desired, and capability maturity of the location. In some examples, the system and method may further include filtering the third plurality of eligible locations, based on a third filtering parameter, to identify a fourth plurality of eligible locations. The third filtering parameter may be yet another of safety/security risk, communication skills desired, and capability maturity of the location.
In some examples, the fourth plurality of locations may be transmitted to a user for further analysis/evaluation. The user may then select a location to perform the work function from the fourth plurality of locations.
The present disclosure is illustrated by way of example and not limited in the accompanying figures in which like reference numerals indicate similar elements.
In the following description of various illustrative embodiments, reference is made to the accompanying drawings, which form a part hereof, and in which is shown, by way of illustration, various embodiments in which the claimed subject matter may be practiced. It is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and structural and functional modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the present claimed subject matter.
I/O 109 may include a microphone, mouse, keypad, touch screen, scanner, optical reader, and/or stylus (or other input device(s)) through which a user of server 101 may provide input, and may also include one or more of a speaker for providing audio output and a video display device for providing textual, audiovisual and/or graphical output. Software may be stored within memory 115 and/or other storage to provide instructions to processor 103 for enabling server 101 to perform various functions. For example, memory 115 may store software used by the server 101, such as an operating system 117, application programs 119, and an associated database 121. Alternatively, some or all of server 101 computer executable instructions may be embodied in hardware or firmware (not shown).
The server 101 may operate in a networked environment supporting connections to one or more remote computers, such as terminals 141 and 151. The terminals 141 and 151 may be personal computers or servers that include many or all of the elements described above relative to the server 101. The network connections depicted in
Computing device 101 and/or terminals 141 or 151 may also be mobile terminals (e.g., mobile phones, PDAs, notebooks, etc.) including various other components, such as a battery, speaker, and antennas (not shown).
The disclosure is operational with numerous other general purpose or special purpose computing system environments or configurations. Examples of well known computing systems, environments, and/or configurations that may be suitable for use with the disclosure include, but are not limited to, personal computers, server computers, hand-held or laptop devices, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based systems, set top boxes, programmable consumer electronics, network PCs, minicomputers, mainframe computers, distributed computing environments that include any of the above systems or devices, and the like.
The disclosure may be described in the general context of computer-executable instructions, such as program modules, being executed by one or more computers and/or one or more processors associated with the computers. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Aspects of the disclosure may also be practiced in distributed computing environments where tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linked through a communications network. In a distributed computing environment, program modules may be located in both local and remote computer storage media including memory storage devices.
The above-described systems may be used in various businesses, companies, organizations, entities, etc. to evaluate and determine one or more locations eligible for performing a work function of the business, company, organization, entity, etc. For instance, various computing systems may be used to evaluate one or more locations and filter out locations not eligible to perform an identified work function. One or more filtering factors or parameters may be used to evaluate the locations and the locations remaining at the conclusion of the filtering process may be further evaluated or a location to perform the work function may be selected from those remaining locations, as will be discussed more fully below. A location may be any building, area within a building, street address, city, town, state, country, and the like at which the work function may be performed.
The system 200 may further include one or more location modules 203. The location module 203 may store a plurality of locations in which one or more work functions may be performed. The location module 203 may further include information related to each location such as communication skills available (e.g., languages spoken, writing skills available, etc.) security or travel risk associated with a location, skill level of suppliers within a location, and the like.
A work function may be a new work function not currently being performed and for which a desirable or appropriate location for performing the work function is being identified, or an existing work function identified as having potential for efficiency improvement, cost savings, improved customer service, etc. by performing the work function in a location Accordingly, the identified work function and associated information may be transmitted from the work function module 204 to a location filtering system 208. The location filtering system 208 may also receive locations from the location module 203. The location filtering system 208 may receive user input, such as via computing devices 210a-210c, indicating various filter parameters or filter parameter settings. Accordingly, the location filtering system 208 may filter the received locations to identify one or more locations eligible to perform the identified work function. The identified locations may, in some examples, be transmitted to a user, such as to a user computer terminal 210a (e.g., laptop computer, desktop computer, notebook computer, etc.), a cell phone or smart phone 210b and/or a personal digital assistance (PDA) 210c. Communication between the user computing devices 210a-210c and the location filtering system 208 may be done via a network, such as the Internet, and/or via an internal communication system such as an intranet of the entity implementing the system.
In some examples, the locations may be filtered through a plurality of location filters. For instance, the identified locations in filtered location module 1214 may pass through another location filter, such as location filter 2216. This location filter may include a second filtering parameter that may, in some examples, be different from the first filtering parameter. In some examples, the second filtering parameter may include desired communication skills, such as languages spoken, writing skills, etc. for performing the work function. Accordingly, locations from filtered location module 1214 may be further filtered to identify locations having the desired communication skills. The identified locations may be stored in filtered location module 2218. Although two filters are shown in
In step 404, the first plurality of location is filtered based on a first filtering parameter to identify a second plurality of locations. For instance, the first plurality of locations may be filtered based on one of safety and/or security risk, communication skills desired, capability maturity of the location, and the like. Locations meeting the filtering criteria may be identified and included in the second plurality of locations. In some arrangements, the locations may be associated with a score for each filtering criteria. For instance, the locations may have a score on a scale of 1 to 10 for each of safety/security risk, communication skills and/or capability maturity. The filtering parameters may then determine eligible locations based on the location score meeting a predetermined threshold score for each filtering parameter. Alternatively, the locations may be categorized for each filtering parameter (e.g., for capability maturity the locations may be categorized as mature, credible, emerging, or non-existing) and the filter may identify as eligible locations in predetermined categories. The threshold levels for eligibility may be input by a user, such as via use computing devices 210a-210c in
In step 406, the second plurality of locations may be further filtered based on a second filtering parameter to identify a third plurality of locations (of the second plurality of locations) that may be eligible to perform the work function. For instance, if the first filtering parameter identified locations with an acceptable safety/security risk, the second filtering parameter may identify locations eligible based on communication skills. In step 408, the third plurality of locations may be further filtered based on a third filtering parameter to identify a fourth plurality of eligible locations (of the third plurality). Continuing the above example, the third filtering parameter may be capability maturity of the location. Capability maturity may, in some examples, include market activity of the capability, scalability of resources within the location, experience working in the location, number of suppliers within the location, and the like. For instance, a location having well developed technology capabilities may be better suited to performing the identified work function than locations having minimal technology capability. If the system provides three filters, this fourth plurality of locations may be transmitted (such as, to a user) for further evaluation, analysis or selection as the desired location in step 410.
If the location is eligible based on the first filtering parameter in step 504, a determination may be made in step 506 as to whether the location is eligible to perform the work function based on a second filtering parameter. If the location is not eligible, a determination of whether there are additional locations to evaluate is made in step 512. If the location is eligible, a determination is made in step 508 as to whether the location is eligible based on a third filtering parameter. If the location is not eligible, whether additional locations are available is determined in step 512. If the location is eligible in step 508, the location may be transmitted, such as to a user, for further evaluation and/or selection in step 510. As discussed above, a determination of whether additional locations are available for evaluation is made in step 512 and, if so, the process may return to step 502 to identify another location for evaluation. Although three filtering steps are shown in the figure, more or fewer filtering steps, filters and/or filtering parameters may be used without departing from the invention.
One illustrative example of various aspects of the present disclosure is provided below. However, this is merely one example and nothing in the specification should be viewed as limiting the disclosure to only the features discussed below.
In one example, a business entity, Company A, may identify a work function, Work Function A, that may have one or more advantages to being performed in a variety of different locations. .FIX THIS For instance, Work Function A may be a newly defined work function and a location for performing the work function is desired. Accordingly, a filtering system, such as location filtering system 208 in
The system may filter the received locations based on a first filtering parameter, such as safety and/or security risk.
A second filtering parameter may be used to further determine eligible locations.
Although three filters are shown in this example, more or fewer filters may be used. Further, the order of the filtering parameters implemented may be changed without departing from the disclosure.
The above described location filtering system and framework may provide a consistent, repeatable decisioning tool to aid in determining where a work function may be performed and/or recommending advantageous locations for performing the work function. Use of the system and method described herein may aid in providing consistency across the process by relying on substantially similar factors, parameters, etc. for each location decision, thereby reducing the use of subjective factors in the location decisioning process.
The methods and features recited herein may further be implemented through any number of non-transitory computer readable media that are able to store computer readable instructions. Examples of non-transitory computer readable media that may be used include RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, DVD, or other optical disc storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic storage and the like.
While illustrative systems and methods described herein embodying various aspects are shown, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that the disclosure is not limited to these embodiments. Modifications may be made by those skilled in the art, particularly in light of the foregoing teachings. For example, each of the elements of the aforementioned embodiments may be utilized alone or in combination or sub-combination with the elements in the other embodiments. It will also be appreciated and understood that modifications may be made without departing from the true spirit and scope of the present disclosure. The description is thus to be regarded as illustrative instead of restrictive on the present disclosure.
