Patent Application
20080015962
Other aspects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become more fully apparent from the following detailed description, the appended claims, and the accompanying drawings in which:
The present invention is a web-server or a network-based service wherein one or more customized reports is drawn from a database configured by a user to be delivered to the user to the user's surrogates at specified times in specified formats at a price per data field.
The user will build a configuration profile in accordance with the present invention. This configuration file is a web server or network-based data file that specifies the back-end database and its operation and also: the data fields to be accumulated; data entry and edit rights and roles for the user and the user's surrogates; forms and formats for capturing, reporting, structuring and calculating data entered; rules to trigger notifications and for generating reports; rules and processes to configure reports for the user and the user's surrogates; and rules to distribute reports to the user or the user's surrogates in specified report formats at specified times. For example, a user may create a configuration profile which requests that on weekdays, performance ratings of employees that are 3 or lower on a likert scale should be delivered to the employee's Department Head every morning at 6:00 AM; and on Fridays, only performance ratings of employees that are 4 or above on a Likert scale be delivered to the Department Head at 10:00 AM. The configuration profile may include more than one set of report configuration and requests. For example, the configuration profile may also include a request of equipment utilization and customer complaints to be delivered at 2:00 PM everyday to his office computer with subsets of the report delivered to supervisors who report to him with data about their subordinates only.
According to the principles of the present invention, first, a user creates a configuration profile which includes requests for one or more customized reports. The configuration profile also specifies a preferred format and preferred time for delivery of each report. The user has the option to also set cumulative or individual price thresholds to trigger a notification of the price for the next round of reports.
A web server or a network-based server owned or operated by a service provider or a user stores the configuration profile created and data input by the user and the user's surrogates, and then at scheduled times, prepares and automatically delivers the requested reports to the specified recipients. The web-server or network-based server is configured to automatically deliver the requested information at the scheduled times, however, the user can override the report configuration, the delivery time, or the recipients in order to manage costs and address other data supply chain considerations.
During the preparation of each report, the data fields are posted from the dataset assigned to the user. This may include comparative or benchmark data fields from other users on the site that have entered into agreements for data sharing. After building one or more customized reports, if necessary, the software converts the format of the report into the format specified in the configuration schema set by the user, e.g., csv or xml.
The principles of the present invention provide users and/or service providers flexibility to improve upon their existing services. To improve the quality of the data entry protocols or forms, the website administrator and users may provide best of class templates for the business process, knowledge management or business intelligence domain. Collaborating researchers who opt to share their protocols may also contribute data formats, protocols, templates and policies.
The user may also have the option of improving upon the existing service by enabling other enrichment of the data supply chain process such as doing remote administration via a telephone or other devices. For example, the user may redirect reports to a device other than a Personal Computer that has internet access.
The principles of the invention may be expanded to enhance services provided by the service provider, e.g., the service provider may append applications that further enrich the quality utility and ease of using the data supply chain, such as scheduling tools, advanced calculation or analysis tools, and collaborative infrastructure tools and resources.
A (1) User of a network-based service in accordance with the principles of the present invention is connected to the internet address of a service provider via a user computer or similar device used for accessing the Internet. The service provider may be any vendor who is licensed to use the database and the software that drives this invention. In general, such service provider will usually be an Internet service provider. Interconnection between the service provider and user computer may be a land-line connection or a wireless connection.
The (1) User has registered as a User or a Subscriber to the data supply chain services on the website and entered contact and billing information as well as identified his (2) Surrogates and assigned them to roles or positions. The (1) User also defines his (3) Research Targets or (3) Subjects or (3) Domains and assigns these in various configurations to his surrogates. The (1) User establishes his (6) Data Input Instructions or his (6) Research Topics and configures each (7) Topic or (7) Question. Through configuring the topics and questions the user builds a data supply chain protocol or booklet. The (1) User may, at this stage, elect to connect particular (2) Surrogates with (6) Topics to establish relationships between them for reporting.
The (1) User now builds his (8) Policy Set to establish relationship among different components of the invention. The (8) Policy Set links back to the (3) Research Target established by the (1) User and establishing the business rules for accessing the invention and inputting (4) Entries or (4) Observations and for the manner the (5) Algorithm will perform calculations. The (8) Policy Set additionally is linked by the (1) User to one or more (9) Pivot Research Targets. The connection to the (9) Pivot Research Targets links the (4) Entries or Observations with the (10) Algorithm so the business rules established by the (8) Policy Set can be applied to the calculation of both the data and fees for the reports of the data.
As the User builds relationships between protocols and persons, and protocols and roles and defined the labels for fields and relationships among fields, the data supply chain emerges. As the entries or observations are accumulated in the database, the algorithm implements the Policy Set to perform calculations upon fields and field contents, and posts these into reports as instructed by the User in the Report Configuration and Calculation Algorithm.
The (1) User has tremendous flexibility in creating a configuration profile for the data supply chain. In one implementation, the user is presented with a series of graphical user interfaces (GUIs) through the internet asking the user to enter or select preferences through a wizard driven interface; but there are other possible embodiments of the invention including tabular, drop down selection, and radio button selections that can configure the implementation of the invention.
After the customized reports have been prepared for the user or the user's surrogates according to the Policy set, the report may be, if necessary, changed into alternate formats. If the report has been converted into another format, it is delivered to the user or the user's surrogates in the format at the time or times indicated in the Policy Set.
The Research Protocol is the set of instructions that links the access rights and other policies of the Research Target to the (8) Data Entry or Observation. An Observation consists of at least one (9) Protocol Item and at least one (10) Input Value. Any number of (8) Observations can be linked to any number of (9) Protocol Items and (10) Input Values. A Research Protocol also houses a subset of the (11) Comprehensive Element or Datapoint List housed in the master (publisher) database. These are the fields that will end up being reported and for which a report generation fee will be charged according to this embodiment of the invention. Each (12) Element or Datapoint has a set of potential attributes such as its mask, its question type, and its (10) Input Value options.
The principles of the present invention are flexible. For example, data may be downloaded in real-time or queued on a user's to be downloaded at a specified time. Also, a user may create his configuration profile days or even months in advance. It should be noted that the user can build and accrete additional Policy Sets to enable the software to manage many or even all aspects of the user's data supply chain. The user has flexibility to change the policy sets in the configuration profile. For example, the user may elect to change the times or content of a report. The changes may be made in a variety of ways. For example, the user may access a calendar (not shown) to select a year, month, and day corresponding to a new specified time. The user may select the specified time with even more precision (e.g., hours and minutes) by using a time-of-day filed within the calendar.
The user may request changes in the selection of the target for notifications, e.g., change the routing of a report from an internal accountant to an external accounting firm. The user also has flexibility in selecting a desired format for the report. Depending on the implementation, the user have drop down configuration options tot point and click formats or targets or notification triggers.
Also, the principles of the invention include providing control capabilities to the user to control the labels to be used for the data fields. For one user a data field label may knockout ratio, and for another user the label for the same kind of field calculated the same way with the same policy set associated with it may be labeled “homerun ratio.
In addition to the embodiments described above, the present invention may be applied to a variety of other configurations. For example, although the invention has been described in the context of the world-wide web, the invention can also be implemented in the context of other types of computer networks, including intranets. The present invention can also be implemented in the context of accessing a server that is not a part of a larger network.
It will be further understood that various changes in the details, components, and arrangements of the parts which have been described and illustrated in order to explain the nature of this invention may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the principle and scope of the invention as expressed in the following claims.
