Patent Application
20110010349
We have invented a method and device for enabling users of enterprise software products to create, publish, and share reviews of enterprise software products. This useful, concrete and tangible result is accomplished through a server-hosted website accessible through the Internet. There are unique challenges with creating and sharing reviews of enterprise software products (compared to other products), and our invention solves these problems using several new and innovative methods we created, which form the basis of this application. Using this website, users of enterprise software can create a review of a product they are using or deploying, and also view reviews created by other users about the enterprise software products they are interested in. With usage, this invention becomes a global repository of enterprise software product reviews and a resource for users worldwide to share opinions and experiences to help each other evaluate, select, buy, and use enterprise software products.
A. The Current Enterprise Software Evaluation Process
Enterprise software is defined as software products that companies buy to run their businesses more effectively and efficiently. However, the current process to select, evaluate and purchase this software is ad-hoc, esoteric and complex. The first step is usually the establishment of a group of people (from the IT department and various lines of business) to evaluate the various vendors. The process involves creating a Request for Information (RFI) that is sent to the various candidate vendors that make that particular enterprise software product. The vendors respond to the RFI and based on these responses, some subset of the vendors may be asked to present their solution, show a demonstration of their enterprise software product, and possibly a proof-of-concept or pilot of the enterprise software product with the company's data or to the company's specific requirements.
As part of this process, the company may also solicit opinions and advice from third parties such as industry analyst firms or consulting/systems integration firms. The industry analyst firms provide research, analysis, and commentary on the enterprise software market and the various enterprise software product vendors by talking to the vendors, other companies and bringing to bear their significant expertise and opinion in the domain. Consulting/systems integration firms are often involved because of their experience in using or implementing the software at other companies. Finally, the company may request a ‘reference’ from another customer of the software vendor that is also using the same enterprise software product, and may speak with that customer in a ‘reference call.’ Based on all of the above, the company will begin discussions regarding commercials and terms with the vendors and make a decision.
This process is made especially challenging by the fact that the selecting and buying is done in a relative vacuum, with little discussion between the buying company and other users of that enterprise software product. The experiences of other customers are filtered through the lens of an industry analyst firm or a consulting/systems integration firm. And when there is a direct interaction with another user of the enterprise software product as part of the ‘reference call’, that discussion is restricted to talking to a few ‘reference customers’ that the software vendors provide. These ‘reference customers’ are usually carefully chosen by the software vendor and may or may not be an accurate representation of the experiences of most of the users of that enterprise software product or germane to the specific requirements or unique situation of the company evaluating the software.
The best information about any product in the world comes from others who have already evaluated, selected, bought, deployed, or used the same product, and the enterprise software purchase process employed by most companies today is missing this important component. In other realms, talking to other users not only provides the pros and cons of the various products but also the risks, what others did about it and what worked and what didn't.
While it is true that enterprise software users sometimes interact with other users, it is usually in a highly controlled environment established by the software vendor—a reference call, a vendor conference, or a user group. In these controlled environments, enterprise software users often cannot and do not share real, honest, unbiased opinions for a number of reasons—the greatest of which is discomfort attaching their name to that opinion publicly because of the potential negative ramifications against their company, their group or themselves.
B. Why Traditional Online User Review Forums Cannot Facilitate Enterprise Software Reviews
On the Internet, there are a number of websites for users of consumer products and services to share opinions and reviews with each other anonymously, thereby enabling the reviews to be honest and unbiased. However, enterprise software cannot be reviewed on these sites because of two major problems:
We have invented a method and device for enabling users of enterprise software products to create, publish, and share reviews of enterprise software products. This is accomplished through a server-hosted website accessible over the Internet to all users of enterprise software products. Using this website, users of enterprise software can create a review about an enterprise software product they are using or deploying and also view reviews by other users on the enterprise software products that those users are using.
There are some unique challenges with creating and sharing reviews of enterprise software products, specifically:
Our Invention solves these problems using two new and innovative techniques we created, which form the basis of this application.
A. Solving the Two Challenges of Online User Reviews of Enterprise Software Products with Two Novel Methods
While we will detail the workings of our Invention in Sections 5 and 6, we will now give a brief overview of our Invention that enables users to post and view reviews of enterprise software products with the following two novel concepts that address the two challenges described above.
1. A Common Set of Dimensions for Reviews of Enterprise Software Products
We have created a list of 11 common dimensions to review enterprise software products. These 11 dimensions are Installation/Configuration, Ease of Use, Functionality, Architecture, Ease of Integration, Quality, Scalability/Performance, Reliability, Administration/Security, Customizability, and Standards Compliance. These 11 dimensions are relevant, germane and applicable across the entire gamut of enterprise software products.
In our Invention, when a user reviews an enterprise software products, they can provide a overall quantitative rating, recommendation and comments on the enterprise software product but also provide a quantitative rating (eg. 2 out of 5, 4.5 out of 10, etc) for the enterprise software product on each of the 11 dimensions listed above. In addition, for each of the 11 dimensions, the user may also provide a qualitative review by writing specific comments about the enterprise software product along that specific dimension that could reinforce or provide more detail into the quantitative rating provided. This allows the various reviews about an enterprise software product to be compared and contrasted with each other and to be aggregated and averaged along each of the 11 dimensions to provide a consolidated score to a user. In addition, a common set of reviews also enables two different enterprise software products to be compared against each other on the same dimensions in an apples-to-apples fashion.
2. Adding a Stack Configuration to a Review
Our Invention enables users creating a review to specify the stack configuration or software environment in which they are running the specific enterprise software product they are reviewing. This stack configuration is made up of a set of other enterprise software products and their versions as well as the hardware platform they are deployed on. Every review can have a configuration or environment attached to it and the stack configuration becomes an integral and inseparable part of the review. By enabling every review to include a stack configuration, users can filter their searches and find only reviews with specific stack configurations in which they are interested—resulting in the user being able to compare and contrast more effectively two reviews about the same enterprise product and also compare reviews across enterprise software products.
Our invention also helps those evaluating an enterprise software product to determine which stack configurations may be optimal for a that product, and how user experiences with that enterprise software product may vary across different stack configurations.
In Section 4 and 5, we will provide additional details of how these two novel methods form the core of our Invention, and also detail other new and innovative functions and processes that are part of our Invention.
B. Prior Art
The prior art in this area are the following:
Websites that provide articles, blogs, and discussion boards on the various topics and areas of specialization within information technology and enterprise software. At these sites, through the discussion boards/blog functionality, users may share experiences with each other by posting questions/answers/comments.
Online and offline analyst reports, magazines, and journals that provide reviews and evaluations of specific enterprise software products.
Product/Service review websites such as epinions.com and yelp.com primarily targeting consumers but where one can add a review about an enterprise software product.
We will now go through each prior art and detail its problems or shortcomings, how it differs from our Invention and why our Invention is a better solution.
1. IT Websites, Blogs, Discussion Boards
There are a myriad of information technology and enterprise software websites where users can get and post information about all things related to software. Many of these websites include a blog or discussion board where users can post questions and start discussions, and many of these discussion threads include users expressing their opinion, evaluation, or review of a specific enterprise software product. Each of these posts tends to be a free form text field where the user may write anything they choose. Unlike our Invention, websites with blogs and discussion boards do not address the two challenges of reviewing enterprise software products (Section 1.1) since:
They don't use a predefined list of common dimensions for reviewing enterprise software products. Every posting by a user may use different dimensions to review an enterprise software product making it impossible to objectively and effectively compare and contrast different reviews on the same enterprise software product or compare two different enterprise software products.
They don't provide a mechanism by which users posting a comment can provide the stack configuration they have deployed that enterprise software product on. As mentioned earlier, the stack configuration is a crucial piece of information in determining both relevance and applicability of a particular review to a user. Furthermore, they don't help the user identify or search for reviews based on a stack configuration.
2. Magazines, Journals, Research Reports, and Blogs
There are a variety of analyst reports and research, magazines, journals, and blogs (both online and offline, print and media) where writers and experts discuss their reviews of specific enterprise software products they have tested, evaluated, or recommend.
Unlike our Invention, these do not address the software evaluation problem (section 1) because:
The person writing the article or report is typically an analyst, journalist, consultant or freelancer—and almost never a user of the enterprise software product. The goal of our Invention is to help users of enterprise software products share reviews with other users of enterprise software products.
These reviews rely on the opinion of a single person or small group of people writing the article or report. The opinion is derived by applying individual filters and criteria to whatever information the author has personally gathered about the product. As such, these forums do not allow for multiple or dissenting opinions. They also do not facilitate the comparing and contrasting of different options.
Any evaluation comprises a relatively short timeframe for the explicit purpose of writing the article or report, while real user reviews of enterprise software products will take into account months and sometimes years of experience going through the entire software deployment lifecycle.
While some authors may define their own review dimensions, these are not consistently applied across all types of enterprise software products, or across all articles and reports.
Although some authors may include information about the specific stack configuration used for the evaluation, this evaluation does not help users interested in alternative stack configurations or help users contrast different stack configurations for the same enterprise software product.
In summary, such an approach fails to help users of enterprise software products view a number of reviews from other users and decide for themselves which ones are most appropriate based on the stack configuration and evaluation along a common set of dimensions.
3. Consumer Product Review Websites
There are number of user review websites for consumer products and services, but unlike our Invention, these do not address the two challenges of reviewing enterprise software products (Section 2.1 ) since:
The dimensions, if any, of the reviews stemming from consumer products and services are not suited or applicable to enterprise software products. These dimensions are not commonly applied across all types of enterprise software products or across reviews of a particular enterprise software product.
The reviews don't provide a mechanism by which users can provide the stack configuration they have deployed that enterprise software product on. The stack configuration is a crucial piece of information in determining both relevance and applicability of a particular review to a user. Furthermore, these websites don't help the user identify or search for reviews based on a stack configuration, so the user is unable to find the reviews that are most appropriate.
C. Components of the Invention
The Invention is based on the following components. The specification of these components and the methods with which they are applied to create a system for user reviews of enterprise software products constitute an important part of our Invention.
The above hierarchy of entities and their relationships which enable easy access and navigation across Platforms, Review Dimensions, ProductTypes, Providers, Products, ProductVersions, Reviews, Stack Configurations, Discussions, and History form a key component and novel concept of our Invention.
D. Operation of the Invention
This section describes the operation of the Invention. The Invention is a method and device for enabling users of enterprise software products to create, publish, and share reviews of enterprise software products. The System shown in
There are two primary use cases for the Invention and we will walk through the operation of the Invention for these two use cases: (1) using the system to create a review of an enterprise software product; and (2) using the system to find reviews of an enterprise software product. All numbers in brackets ( ) refer to the corresponding component in the system diagram (
1. Writing a Review
This approach is illustrated in
To create a review, the system (102,103) requires users to first enter the Provider name and/or the Product name that they want to write a review about. The system (103,105) then searches for this name in the system database (106,107) holding all the Products and Providers and finds a list of all enterprise software products stored in the database that match at least one of these entered fields. The system (102) allows the user to select an enterprise software product from the list returned by the system (103,105) or choose to add a new product to the system's database (107). Adding a new product requires the user to know its Provider, Product name, and Product Type and enter that information so the system (102, 103, 104, 106) can create a new Product in its database (107, 108) and then allow the user to write a review about that Product.
Regardless of whether the user selects a Product already in the system (107) or enters a new one, the system (103) needs to determine which version of the product the user wants to review once the product has been selected. If ProductVersions are known for the Product, the system (103, 106, 107) will return a list of them. The user must then choose the ProductVersion for the review from the list that the system (102, 103) has provided. If the Product has no ProductVersions or if the ProductVersion the user is seeking is not in the database (107) already, the system (102, 103, 104) allows the user to create the appropriate ProductVersion by providing the ProductVersion Name and Edition Name. The system (106, 107) then stores this ProductVersion in the database by adding it to the list of ProductVersions for that specific Product. The system (102) thus makes the user establish which ProductVersion to review (either by selecting it from the list provided by the system or adding it to the system), and then takes the user to the review form webpage.
To write a review, the system (102) requires the user to provide the following information. Once the review passes the system's (103, 104) validation (described per field below), the system (106) stores all the information as a review in its database (107) and associates it to the respective ProductVersion.
Once the user has completed the above and submits the review, the system (102, 103, 106) stores the review in its database (107) and the system then makes this this review available for viewing and searching by all users (102,105, 100). This review that has been created can be found by users using all the methods described in the section below: Finding a Review.
2. Finding a Review
The system (100) allows the user (110) to find a review by entering the relevant search phrases or words into the system's search functionality (102, 113). When the ‘search’ button is clicked, the system (102, 104, 105) will go through its database of reviews (108) and return a list of reviews that match the search words by looking across the entire set of reviews across all Providers, Products and ProductVersions. The system (100) also allows for another method for finding reviews by browsing the system hierarchy, starting with either the Provider or ProductType (106, 107). We describe each of these two approaches below. These approaches are also illustrated in
3. Additional Functionality
This section describes some additional functionality in the Invention not covered in Sections 5.1 or 5.2:
4. Definition of Computer Readable Medium
While the foregoing is directed to embodiments of the present invention, other and further embodiments of the invention may be devised without departing from the basic scope thereof. For example, aspects of the present invention may be implemented in hardware or software or in a combination of hardware and software. One embodiment of the invention may be implemented as a program product for use with a computer system. The program(s) of the program product define functions of the embodiments (including the methods described herein) and can be contained on a variety of computer-readable storage media. Illustrative computer-readable storage media include, but are not limited to: (i) non-writable storage media (e.g., read-only memory devices within a computer such as CD-ROM disks readable by a CD-ROM drive, flash, memory, ROM chips or any type of solid-state non-volatile semiconductor memory) on which information is permanently stored; and (ii) writable storage media (e.g., floppy disks within a diskette drive or hard-disk drive or any type of solid-state random-access semiconductor memory) on which alterable information is stored. Such computer-readable storage media, when carrying computer-readable instructions that direct the functions of the present invention, are embodiments of the present invention.
E. Reducing to Practice
The Invention described above has been reduced to practice by building a Website that can be found on the Internet at http://www.i11e.com. The Website is currently under an alpha program which restricts access by invitation only and requires a username and password to access the Website. We have created a login for the US Patent Office to review our Invention. Please use the following login to access the Website:
Username: “i11e@uspto.gov”
Password: “U$p+0”
Please note the email address in the username above is clearly not a valid or real one and any functionality on the Website that involves sending an email to the user's email address will not work. We suggest creating a new account with a valid email address to explore that functionality.
F. Alternative Ways to Achieve the Result
There are a number of alternative ways for our Invention to achieve its result outside the methods and processes above and we would like to include them in our Patent Application. These are all small variations of the methods and processes above and we would like to protect them in the patent we are seeking.
Installation, Configuration, Ease of Use, Functionality, Architecture, Ease of Integration, Quality, Scalability, Performance, Reliability, Administration, Security, Customizability, Standards Compliance.
G. Conclusion
This concludes the description of our invention for the new methods and processes we have created to enable users of enterprise software products to share reviews with each other about the enterprise software products they are interested in.
H. Exhibit 1
Below is the list of predefined Platforms in the system.
I. Exhibit 2
Below is the list of predefined Product Types in the system.
V. Drawings
A. Description of Drawings
FIG. 1—i11e System Diagram that depicts “The System”
FIG. 3—Flow Diagram for Searching Reviews
FIG. 4—Flow Diagram for Browsing Reviews
This application claims the priority benefit of Provisional U.S. Patent Application Ser. No. 61/134,369, filed Jul. 8, 2008, the subject matter of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
