Patent Application
20150356495
This application claims the benefit of priority of Indian provisional application serial number 2775/CHE/2014, filed 5 Jun. 2014, and the corresponding Indian non-provisional application serial number 2775/CHE/2014, filed 21 May 2015.
This disclosure relates to a digital collaboration system including a rule-based processing engine and communication architecture that facilitates completion of complex tasks and information exchange among task stakeholders.
Rapid advances in sophisticated software tools (e.g., business process management (BPM) tools) have changed the fundamental way that organizations accomplish their workflows. At the same time, the number of stakeholders involved in the workflows has increased dramatically, along with the number and type of social and collaboration tools by which the stakeholders communicate. Improvements around these tools will help businesses continue to meet their increasingly sophisticated workflow goals as they become more complex and as more stakeholders become involved with the workflows.
The system 100 includes communication interfaces 112, system circuitry 114, and a user interface 118. The system circuitry 114 may include any combination of hardware, software, firmware, or other circuitry. The system circuitry 114 may be implemented, for example, with one or more systems on a chip (SoC), application specific integrated circuits (ASIC), discrete analog and digital circuits, and other circuitry.
The system circuitry 114 is part of the implementation of any desired functionality in the system 100, such as providing a digital workspace. The system circuitry 114 may, as just a few examples, run applications, accept user inputs, save and retrieve application data, exchange messages between applications, the user, and the display, and display information on the user interface 118.
The user interface 118 and the input/output interfaces 128 may include a graphical user interface (GUI), touch sensitive display, voice or facial recognition inputs, buttons, switches, speakers and other user interface elements. Additional examples of the inputs 128 include microphones, video and still image cameras, headset and microphone input/output jacks, Universal Serial Bus (USB) connectors, memory card slots, and other types of inputs. The input/output interfaces 128 may further include Universal Serial Bus (USB) interfaces, audio outputs, magnetic or optical media interfaces (e.g., a CDROM or DVD drive), network (e.g., Ethernet or cable (e.g., DOCSIS) interfaces), or other types of serial, parallel, or network data interfaces.
The communication interfaces 112 may connect the system 100 to other systems. For instance, the system 100 may receive workflow inputs through the networks 134 (including, e.g., Internet connections) from many different sources, such as remote systems 136. That is, stakeholders using the remote systems 136 may interact with enterprise software or other applications running locally or in the system 100. The system 100 may implement a digital workspace to facilitate completion of the workflow.
The system 100 may access databases either locally or remotely (e.g., over the networks 134). The databases may include, as examples, metadata databases 146 for tagging messages and other information communicated by the system 100 between applications, stakeholder databases 148 that define or identify stakeholders for applications and workflows, databases 150 that identify the collaboration applications, social applications, and enterprise applications that the system may join into a digital workspace, or other databases.
The system circuitry 114 may include one or more processors 116 and memories 120. The memory 120 stores, for example, control instructions 122 that the processor 116 executes to carry out desired functionality for the system 100. The control instructions 122 operate with parameters specified by the control parameters 124. The control instructions 122 may create a digital workspace 126 that connects enterprise applications 162 (e.g., BPM applications), social applications 164 (e.g., Facebook™ or Twitter™ or Jive™ applications), and collaboration applications 166 (e.g., SharePoint). The digital workspace 126 may connect the applications with a rule-based exchange 168, e.g., as described further below.
In some implementations, the control instructions 122 implement the digital workspace 126 by identifying an enterprise application executing to support completion of a workflow, e.g., a BPM application, identifying stakeholders in the workflow, identifying a collaboration application through which the stakeholders interact to support the completion of the workflow, and identifying a social application through which the stakeholders receive messages in support of the completion of the workflow. The control instructions 122 then create a digital workspace in which rule-based process mediation service circuitry is in communication with the enterprise application and collaboration hub service circuitry is in communication with the rule-based process mediation service circuitry and the social application. The control instructions 122 execute executing messaging exchange in support of completion of the workflow for the digital workspace 126, including receiving a task completion (or other status update) message from the enterprise application 162, executing a matching task rule with the rule-based process mediation service circuitry responsive to the task completion message, and in response, issuing a collaboration message to the collaboration application 166, issuing an information message to the social application 164, or both.
The rules may determine whether and when messages are issued by the intelligence engine 204 to other applications, and the content of the messages. For instance, the intelligence engine 204 may issue collaboration messages 210 to the collaboration applications 208, and issue information messages 212 to the social applications 206. The collaboration messages may specify, for instance, a desired collaboration action between stakeholders in support of completion of the workflow (e.g., to meet and discuss an action item, or to provide edits on a draft, or to approve a proposed revision). As further examples, the collaboration messages may provide an active link to start a real-time dialogue between the stakeholders. Information messages may be presented through the digital workspace plugin 174 as a notification to the user completing the workflow within the enterprise application 202. For example, the notification message may alert the user of information relevant to an intermediate step of the workflow. Information and collaboration messages may be triggered, for example, by rules that identify keywords or other types of input made by the user during completion of steps of the workflow.
In more detail, the service circuitry 308 may include a set of services which interact with the formal workflow systems 302. The service circuitry 308 may perform abstraction of the process information, set up the process rules which govern the collaboration actions in support of executing the workflow, determine the context of a particular/current process step in the workflow, form a status message to post to the social application or collaboration application, and identify stakeholders for the workflow, e.g., by querying the enterprise application 302, a human resources database, or another source of stakeholder information.
The collaboration hub service circuitry 310 may include a set of services that interact with the social applications 304. The circuitry 310 may abstract the collaboration information, identify relevant stakeholders within any collaboration or social application, form an information feed based on the context provided, post messages to the relevant groups and stakeholders, tag the messages with descriptive metadata, convert actions within any given social or collaboration application into status messages or updates within the enterprise application, or parse process mediation services generated messages (e.g., determine which rules to apply, if any) to update informal application components.
The digital workspace 300 facilitates collaboration among stakeholders in a workflow. With regard to formal process and workflow setup, the system 100 may automatically create the digital collaboration workspace (e.g., using SharePoint or Chatter) for coordination and information exchange when a workflow or process is initiated in an enterprise application (e.g., the Pega BPM application), assist in identification of relevant stakeholders using information from the enterprise application, and assist in identification of relevant documents and knowledge in various forms.
Upon process or workflow execution, the digital workspace may help reduce noise by posting comments to relevant identified stakeholders, provide a contextual and content rich information feed displayed and updated real time (e.g., in the workspace plugin 174) as workflow progresses in the enterprise application, and provide automated and actionable forming of comments for status updates to various stakeholders, e.g., through the collaboration and social applications, and take rule-based collaboration actions based on activity in the enterprise application. Content provided in the information feed may include text, video, static images, hyperlinks, or any other type of content.
Regarding coordination and information exchange, the digital workspace may: automatically post to the information feed activities within other applications, such as collaboration and social applications Chatter and SharePoint, which appears as part of the workflow; update formal process/workflow systems based on actions within collaboration and social applications; and tag with descriptive metadata comments posted, e.g., in collaboration and social applications and add the tagged comments into a knowledge database.
The workspace plugin 408 facilitates communication between the enterprise application and the social and collaboration applications, for example, by displaying information messages in the workspace plugin 408 to prompt collaboration or other actions by stakeholders. In the example, the agent 410 is an insurance broker using an underwriting enterprise application to prepare a new insurance policy for a client 412. The underwriting application communicates with the message exchange architecture 306 regarding, e.g., new insurance policy applications, workflow status (e.g., current workflow step, errors to resolve, and agent questions on the workflow).
The client 412 may communicate with the agent 410 by sending messages from a local messaging client (e.g., a Chatter client) to the workspace plugin 408 directly, or through the messaging architecture 306. The underwriting team 414 communicates with the agent 410 through the messaging architecture 306 as well, e.g., via an integration module configured in their local enterprise application (e.g., an instance of the underwriting application executed by the agent, or a separate underwriting support application), to provide and exchange, e.g., underwriting information and complete underwriting workflows.
In
In this regard, the messaging architecture 306 may send the verification message to a specific collaboration or social application associated with the supervisor. The supervisor receives the request to verify the 24 hour status, and sends a response. The messaging architecture 306 directs the response back to the digital workspace plugin 504. Note that the workspace plugin 504 may organize messages by type, and allow a user to view the messages received by selecting an application tab, such as tab 506 to view Chatter messages, or tab 508 to view Twitter messages.
In this manner, the messaging architecture 306 automatically alerts identified stakeholders (e.g., the supervisor in the underwriting team 414) that an agent has indicated, in their new policy workflow application, a lack of 24 hours service at the fire station. In response, the supervisor may provide a response, such as specifying whether to proceed with the policy, or by how much to increase the policy premium.
Any other types of exchanges may take place as well. For instance, the agent 410 may reply to clarify the reason for the initial setting for the fire station, and provide documentation into the enterprise workflow system. The documentation may take the form of audio or video files, text documents, digital photographs, or other files. The messaging architecture 306 may store the files in any specified collaboration application, e.g., in a SharePoint database or a Document Management System (DMS). For example, the agent 410 may respond that, e.g., “There is a new fire station nearby, and it is 24 hrs. The national database of fire-stations is not updated yet. I will send you a letter from the county confirming.” As shown in
The logic 800 may create a group within the social application where messages may be posted (809). Once the group is created, the logic 800 may add the identified stakeholders to the group (810). For example, stakeholders identified using the resources discussed above. In some cases, once the task is completed the groups may be disbanded, deleted or otherwise cease to exist. For example, the logic 800 may set the group to expire once the duration of the task has expired. The group may be used to exchange messages during the task.
The logic 800 also establishes the rule-based process mediation service circuitry 308 in communication with the enterprise application (811). In one implementation, the service circuitry 308 includes a processor 116 executing control instructions 122 that exchange messages between enterprise applications, collaboration applications, and social applications. The implementation may also receive, e.g., workflow status messages, search a rule database 314 for applicable rules, and execute the rules to facilitate collaboration among stakeholders. The logic 800 also establishes collaboration hub service circuitry 310 in communication with the rule-based process mediation circuitry 308 and the enterprise, collaboration, and social applications (812). In some implementations, the collaboration hub services circuitry 310 may also use the processor 116 to execute control instructions that exchange messages between the social applications, interact with collaboration applications (e.g., to store and retrieve documents), and to direct messages between the enterprise applications, collaboration applications, and the social applications as directed by the rules processed by the mediation service circuitry 308. As noted above, the collaboration hub services circuitry 310 may direct messages through the interface adaptors 312 to meet the message format and content specified by the applications.
The logic 800 executes messaging exchange in support of completion of the workflow (814). In that regard, the logic 800 may receive a workflow status message, e.g., a task completion message, from an enterprise application (816) and search for a matching task rule (818) based on any of the information in the workflow status message. The logic 800 may also execute the matching task rule(s) and take any specified actions in response. For instance, the logic 800 may issue a collaboration message to the collaboration application, store or retrieve a document using the collaboration application, issue an information message to the social application, or take any other action or combination of actions. Messages and documents may flow in both directions between the applications, and thus the logic 800 may also obtain responses including messages, documents, and links from the applications, and provide the responses to the enterprise application (822).
The methods, devices, processing, and logic described above may be implemented in many different ways and in many different combinations of hardware and software. For example, all or parts of the implementations may be circuitry that includes an instruction processor, such as a Central Processing Unit (CPU), microcontroller, or a microprocessor; an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), Programmable Logic Device (PLD), or Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA); or circuitry that includes discrete logic or other circuit components, including analog circuit components, digital circuit components or both; or any combination thereof. The circuitry may include discrete interconnected hardware components and/or may be combined on a single integrated circuit die, distributed among multiple integrated circuit dies, or implemented in a Multiple Chip Module (MCM) of multiple integrated circuit dies in a common package, as examples.
The circuitry may further include or access instructions for execution by the circuitry. The instructions may be stored in a tangible storage medium that is other than a transitory signal, such as a flash memory, a Random Access Memory (RAM), a Read Only Memory (ROM), an Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EPROM); or on a magnetic or optical disc, such as a Compact Disc Read Only Memory (CDROM), Hard Disk Drive (HDD), or other magnetic or optical disk; or in or on another machine-readable medium. A product, such as a computer program product, may include a storage medium and instructions stored in or on the medium, and the instructions when executed by the circuitry in a device may cause the device to implement any of the processing described above or illustrated in the drawings.
The implementations may be distributed as circuitry among multiple system components, such as among multiple processors and memories, optionally including multiple distributed processing systems. Parameters, databases, and other data structures may be separately stored and managed, may be incorporated into a single memory or database, may be logically and physically organized in many different ways, and may be implemented in many different ways, including as data structures such as linked lists, hash tables, arrays, records, objects, or implicit storage mechanisms. Programs may be parts (e.g., subroutines) of a single program, separate programs, distributed across several memories and processors, or implemented in many different ways, such as in a library, such as a shared library (e.g., a Dynamic Link Library (DLL)). The DLL, for example, may store instructions that perform any of the processing described above or illustrated in the drawings, when executed by the circuitry.
Various implementations have been specifically described. However, many other implementations are also possible.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2775/CHE/2014 | Jun 2014 | IN | national |
