Patent Application
20050246241
Not applicable.
Not applicable.
The present invention relates to a method and system that allows a software supplier to determine how effectively and successfully its customers are using the software.
Software of various types is commonly supplied on a subscription basis where customers decide to renew or not to renew at the end of each subscription term. It is to the benefit of the supplier that its customers use the software successfully because the customers are then more likely to renew the subscription and generate additional revenue to the supplier. However, prevalent practice has been for the suppliers to simply license the software and check near the end of the subscription term to seek renewal, without the suppliers knowing how successfully its customers are using the software or having any ability to affect how it is being used. For example, if software has a variety of features that are available, a customer may not use one of the features which, if used, could significantly enhance the value the customer could obtain from the product. Accordingly, at the end of the subscription term, such a customer may decide not to extend the subscription without ever knowing that the software could greatly benefit his business operations if it were to make use of all of the features the software offers.
It is evident that both the customers and the suppliers could benefit if the suppliers maintain awareness of how the customers are using their products and have the ability to suggest ways to use them more effectively, especially in situations where customers are not taking full advantage of all of the functions and features that are available. If the customers are made aware of ways in which they can use the software more effectively, their business operations would be more successful. This would also benefit the supplier because the customers would be pleased with the software due to their successful use of it and more likely to renew their subscriptions. However, past practice has largely been for the suppliers to have little or no interaction with their customers and little or no awareness of the way their software is being used at the customer level.
The present invention generally relates to a method and system that allows a software supplier to monitor the level of success with which its software is being used. The principal advantage is that the supplier can attempt to redress deficiencies in the software use in order to improve the way in which its products are used. In turn, the customer can make more effective use of the software and can obtain more value from it. The supplier benefits because the more successful use by the customer makes the customer more likely to renew its subscription.
It is an important object of the invention to provide a method and system for determining how successfully software customers are using their application software.
Another important object of the invention is to provide a method and system of the character described in which both the supplier and the customer have available to them data indicating the success level with which the software is being used. If the customer is not using the product successfully, it is informed of that fact and is also informed of what it can do to improve its usage. Because the supplier also knows of the deficiency in use, the supplier can contact and work with the customer to attempt to improve the way the software is used, to the benefit of both the supplier and the customer.
A further object of the invention is to provide a method and system of the character described that makes use of a unique algorithmic process to accurately determine the level of success with which the software is being use. It is an important feature of the invention in this respect that the algorithm is based on factors that are known to be common to successful users, so applying those factors to each user provides an accurate measure of the success level for each user.
An additional object of the invention is to provide a method and system of the character described wherein the algorithmic process is adjusted as conditions change due to business considerations or general across the board improvement in one aspect of use that makes one of the success factors no longer an accurate indication of successful usage. In this regard, the system is arranged so that it can be adjusted and updated to current conditions by replacing one of the success factors with a new one if a time comes that one of the factors has essentially served its purpose and is no longer a valid measure of successful use. Additionally, the system can be custom tailored to fit each customer such that if one of the success factors is inapplicable to a particular customer, that factor is removed from the algorithmic process for that customer in order to avoid an inaccurate or invalid score.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a method and system of the character described in which an alert indication is provided if there is an unduly low success level for any customer or a relatively sudden deviation in the level of success for any customer.
A still further object of the invention is to provide a method and system of the character described wherein the success ratings for the customers are available to be displayed in a variety of ways such as in a display containing all customers of the supplier, a display identifying account managers of the supplier and the customers assigned to each account manager, or a display containing only selected customers, with each display including the success level of the customer and a rating of each customer as to each of these success factors. The variety of different displays that are available provides great flexibility so that information obtained by the system can be made available to a number of different people in a number of different formats that can be selected to provide the proper people with the information they need to make effective use of the system.
Other and further objects of the invention, together with the features of novelty appurtenant thereto, will appear in the course of the following description.
In the accompanying drawings which form a part of the specification and are to be read in conjunction therewith and in which like reference numerals are used to indicate like parts in the various views:
The present invention is directed to a method and system that functions, in a preferred embodiment, to monitor the success level at which software is being used by a customer of a software supplier that licenses application software on a renewable subscription basis. For explanatory purposes, the preferred embodiment of the invention will be directed to a company that licenses application software used by its customers in connection with websites that allows visitors to the website to ask questions and to send e-mails seeking information or including questions about the products or services that are offered by the company sponsoring the website. For example, the company that maintains the website may be a retailer, and its website may be either maintained by the company itself or hosted by the supplier of the software. In either case, again for explanatory purposes, the website may have a knowledge engine that contains answers to commonly asked questions, and optionally, the capability of receiving e-mails seeking information that is outside of the scope of anything contained in the knowledge engine, thus requiring intervention by a human operator to answer questions that go beyond what is available in the information base contained in the knowledge engine.
Referring initially to
In block 16, the success factor data gathering algorithm is executed in order to populate the database of the method and system in the present invention. In block 18, the success factor monitoring algorithm is executed. Block 20a is an optional block that can be entered between blocks 16 and 18 for particular customers. As will be explained more fully, some customers may operate their businesses in a manner where one or more of the success factors that are generally applicable do not provide an accurate indication of success. Accordingly, the factors that are not indicative of success for particular customers are removed before the algorithmic process is executed in block 18. From block 18, block 20 is entered and a determination is made as to whether the data for a particular customer indicate that an alert should be generated for that customer. If the alert criteria are not met by the data, the program simply loops back as indicated at 22. If the alert criteria are met, block 24 is entered and an alert is generated and sent. The program then loops back as indicated at 26.
With reference to
The processing and alerting engine 36 implemented in accordance with the present invention may be used to provide a variety of different displays which are available to different people and in different formats. For example, block 40 represents a corporate “dashboard” which is a display that may be made available on computer terminals (or other monitors) to the entire organization of the software supplier. Another display 42 may be available only to selected executives of the software supplier. A further display 44 may be made available only to personnel of the software supplier who are involved in sales management. Another display 46 may be made available to those personnel associated with the software supplier who provide customer service. Finally, each customer of the software supplier may be provided with its own display 48 that contains information applicable to that particular customer.
One factor identified in
The “tune up” factor 50 may be a technique used by the software supplier to periodically check with the customer at various times during the life cycle of the product in order to determine how the customer is doing with the software (much like a periodic tune up of an automobile). Some of the information used by a tune up consultant associated with the software supplier may be determined programmatically if the customer is using a system that is hosted by the software supplier. Other information required for the tune up may be obtained from the customer.
In any case, a scoring system for the tune up factor 50 may include ten points attributable to the recency of the tune up and another ten points attributable to the score of the tune up. For example, if there has been a tune up as current as six months ago, a score of ten points may by assigned to the customer. If a tune up has occurred in the time period of six to twelve months ago, a score of five points may be assigned to the customer. A tune up greater than twelve months ago or if none has ever been performed yields a score of zero for the customer. Similarly, if the tune up score for the last tune up is eighty or above, a grade of A may be assigned to the customer and a score of ten points may be attributed to the tune up score. A tune up score between sixty and seventy-nine may be assigned a rating of B and a score of five points. A tune up score between zero and fifty-nine may be given a grade of C and assigned a score of zero. As indicated in
It has been determined that having the most recent software version is an important aspect of the success level with which customers use the software. Accordingly, a customer having the latest major software version is assigned a score of twenty, while all other customers are assigned a score of zero. Thus, twenty total points are available based on the software version factor 56, with the score being an all or nothing situation depending upon whether or not the customer has the latest major software version that is available.
The next factor is the features enabled factor 58. It has been determined that certain features must be used in order for customers to generally operate the software in a successful manner. For example, there may be a self service feature of the software which allows customers to find their own answers on the website of the software customer, but this can only be done if the “answers on” function is enabled. Likewise, in a situation where an answer is not available in the knowledge engine database, the customer must have the “ask/e-mail on” feature enabled so that customers can send in an e-mail and obtain a valid answer, either from a database or from a human operator. Additionally, the software functions most effectively if the business portion of the application software is used in a manner involving work flow or escalation rules, of which the software customer should use more than two. Thus, if all three of these functions are enabled, a particular customer would achieve a score of twenty for the features enabled factor 58. Again, this is an all or nothing proposition in that all three of these functions or features must be in use in order for the customer to obtain a score of twenty, whereas less than all of these features being enabled results in a score of zero.
The fourth success factor is a traffic factor 60. If the website of the software customer achieves traffic of zero to one thousand hits per month, a score of zero is assigned. Higher traffic levels achieve higher scores, with a total possible score attributable to the traffic factor 60 being twenty, as indicated in
The final success factor relates to how recently the software customer has had a technical service incident which most commonly is a request for technical service. By way of example, if there has been no technical service incident within one hundred and eighty days, a score of zero can be assigned. An incident in the time frame of ninety to one hundred eighty days may result in a score of five for this factor. Finally, if a technical service incident has occurred within ninety days, the customer may achieve a score of twenty. Again, the total possible score available for factor 62 is twenty points.
Thus, each of the five factors has a total possible score of twenty such that one hundred points is the maximum number of points available for the overall score.
One or more of the success factors may be inapplicable to a particular customer. For example, a particular customer might simply operate a call center and not allow customers to use the “self service” aspect of the application software due to the business model under which the customer operates. In this case, the features enabled factor 58 is inapplicable to the customer. Accordingly, factor 58 is removed from the algorithmic process used to determine the score of that customer. The customer is given a score based on the other four factors which are re-weighted to take into account the deletion of the features enabled factor 58. In this way, a factor that is inapplicable to a particular customer is removed so that the score obtained for that customer is not made inaccurate or invalid due to the inapplicable factor. It is noted that other factors may be inapplicable to certain customers for other reasons, including the business model under which the customer choose to operates. The size of the customer may invalidate the traffic factor 60, at least insofar as the “hits per month” numbers are applicable. The remaining factors may be inapplicable to certain customers for other reasons.
In accordance with the invention, data are gathered from each customer that is using the software of the software supplier, and the five success factors (or less in some cases) are applied to each customer using the algorithmic process to provide a “score” for each customer according to the way in which the factors are considered in the chart of
In the example shown in
Because the method and system of the present invention allows both the customer and the software supplier to monitor the success level with which the customers are using the supplier's software, deficiencies in the success level can be monitored and improved. Accordingly, improvements can easily be made in the various success factors shown in the chart of
The algorithmic process of the present invention contemplates dropping one or more of the success factors if a time should come when such factor or factors are being used successfully by nearly all of the customers. The factor that is dropped may be replaced by a new success factor. An example of a new factor that may be added to the algorithmic process in place of a factor that is dropped is a factor that measures how well the software is being integrated with various business systems the customer may use in its operations. In this way, the algorithmic process is maintained current as an accurate measure of the success level with which the customers are using the software.
The algorithmic process can be updated to current conditions at any desired interval. It is contemplated that it will be checked on a daily basis and adjusted to fit the current conditions so that current information will always be available, both to the appropriate personnel of the software supplier and to the customers.
In the event that the algorithmic process provides a score for a particular customer that is below a selected acceptable level, an alert can be immediately generated electronically or otherwise, both to the software supplier and to the customer. The alert indication that is provided preferably includes the score of the customer, along with an indication of the particular features or functions or other factor that has caused the score to drop below the acceptable level. Similarly, if there is a sudden deviation in the score of the particular customer that exceeds a predetermined amount indicative of a problem that should be addressed, an alert indication can be given to both the sales personnel of the software supplier and to the customer. Again, the alert indication preferably includes an indication of what feature or function or other factor has caused the sudden deviation in the score of the customer.
The alert indications that may be provided due to an unusually low score or an abrupt deviation in the score of any customer are preferably provided in a display that is available on the computer monitors of personnel in the sales organization of the software supplier. In particular, each account manager or sales manager assigned to a customer whose score has dropped to an unacceptable level or has been subject to a sudden deviation may be provided with a display that includes the alert indication, including an indication of what has caused the unduly low score or the sudden deviation in the score. The alert indications are preferably given periodically such as on a daily or weekly basis.
Thus, the method and system of the present invention provides for the monitoring of the success levels with which customers of application software are using the software. The success factors that are used in the algorithmic process of the invention are obtained by identifying features and factors that are used by users of the software that are know to be using it with a high level of success. These success factors thus provide an accurate measure of the success level at which the software can be used. By making use of these features and factors in an algorithmic process in order provide a scoring system such as exemplified by
Further, the various displays that can be provided are made available, preferably on computer screens that appropriate personnel can access with little difficulty. Each account manager or sales manager can easily call up on his or her computer screen a chart such as that shown in
As previously indicated, success factors that are inapplicable to a particular customer can be removed from inclusion in the algorithmic process that is used to provide a success level score. Also, if one of the success factors or features is being used by customers at a collective success level that is above a selected level, thus indicating that such factor is no longer an accurate indication of the successful use of the software, that factor can be dropped out of the algorithmic process and replaced with a new factor which results in the creation of a new scoring system that is then applied to all of the customers in order to provide a new score for each of the customers. This maintains the accuracy of the scoring system and its validity as an indication of the level of success with which the software is being used.
From the foregoing it will be seen that this invention is one well adapted to attain all ends and objects hereinabove set forth together with the other advantages which are obvious and which are inherent to the structure.
It will be understood that certain features and subcombinations are of utility and may be employed without reference to other features and subcombinations. This is contemplated by and is within the scope of the claims.
Since many possible embodiments may be made of the invention without departing from the scope thereof, it is to be understood that all matter herein set forth or shown in the accompanying drawings is to be interpreted as illustrative, and not in a limiting sense.
