Asset data collection, presentation, and management

• US 10,242,117 B2
• Filed: 09/17/2007
• Issued: 03/26/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 09/15/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ent Services Development Corporation LP (DXC Technology Company)
• Original Assignee: Ent Services Development Corporation LP (DXC Technology Company)
• Inventors: Wilson, Robert A., Mamon, Bernard E., Vos, Douglas J., Ridenour, Dwayne G., Grau, Beverly E., Hill, Kathleen J., Hodgins, Steven E., Abraham, Anthony S., Mannino, Shelley A., Elston, Jessica, Kelly, Darren, Scamehorn, John
• Primary Examiner(s): Marcus, Leland
• Application Number:
  US11/856,675
• Publication Number:
  US 20080086345A1
• Time in Patent Office: 4,208 Days
• Field of Search: 705 7
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management

Abstract

Systems and methods for asset data collection, presentation, and management. In one general aspect, a Web portal provides a centralized end-to-end view of IT operations of an organization. The portal may, for example, provide an organization'"'"'s view of operations and asset data. Visibility of accurate data on an organization-wide scale allows managers to spot issues immediately, respond quickly, and offer continuous improvement.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of managing assets for an organization comprising:

generating, by a computer system, a web portal to provide real-time access to asset data across one or more organizations, wherein the asset data comprises information about assets for at least one of the organizations, wherein at least one of said assets comprises a computer, the web portal comprising;

links to service management consoles, wherein selection of a link presents a service management console, and wherein each service management console;

retrieves asset data for a category of service management related to the service management console for a specified time period;

analyzes the asset data; and

generates an interface to present the asset data to a user;

a dashboard, wherein the dashboard comprises an interface that includes an overview of asset data, and wherein the dashboard comprises;

indicia indicative of the status of at least one of incidents related to assets or corrective action related to incidents, wherein the indicia indicative of the status includes at least one of virus compliance indicia and virus vulnerabilities indicia; and

a report upload interface, wherein the report upload interface allows a user to upload reports related to the asset data;

determining virtual servers assigned to web sites associated with a web server hosting the web portal, wherein users access the web portal through the web sites and different ones of the web sites have different corresponding authentication services;

storing aliases representing assignments of the virtual servers to the web sites;

differentiating the users accessing the web portal based on the web sites through which the users are accessing the web portal; and

authenticating each of the users according to the authentication service corresponding to the web site and the virtual server by which the user is accessing the web portal.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein analyzing the asset data comprises:

identifying units for the asset data; and

generating the asset data in similar units.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising categorizing the asset data for one of the organizations with respect to geographic region that the asset data is related to and presenting the categorized asset data based on geographic region.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising categorizing the asset data for one of the organizations and presenting the categorized asset data based on geographic region.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the indicia indicative of the status includes regional changes.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising restricting access to at least a portion of the asset data based on user information, wherein a user provides user information prior to accessing the web portal.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

generating a user interface that presents the web portal to a user;

receiving one or more commands from a user to alter the presentation of asset data in a service management console; and

altering the presentation of asset data in the user interface.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the indicia is presented on a map, and wherein the indicia indicates the status for at least one of incidents related to assets or corrective action related to incidents for one or more geographic regions associated with at least one of the organizations.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

generating a user interface that presents the web portal to a user;

receiving a selection of a link to one of the service management consoles, wherein the service management console presents asset data related to the service management console, and wherein the asset data is categorized;

generating a link to one or more of the categories of asset data on the service management console;

receiving a selection of one of the categories of asset data; and

generating an interface including a more detailed view of the asset data in the category.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein at least one of the service management consoles comprises:

an incident management console;

a problem management console;

a patch management console;

a security management console;

or

a service desk console.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a user interface that presents one of the service management consoles to a user; and

generating links to one or more other service management consoles in the presented service management console interface.

12. The method of claim 1 further comprising restricting report uploading on the report upload interface based on user information, wherein a user provides user information prior to accessing the web portal.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving a report from a user through the report upload interface, wherein the report is associated with one of the service management console; and

storing the report.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving a search query related to reports;

analyzing reports accessible in the web portal based on terms of the search query; and

generating a listing of reports satisfying the search query for presentation to the user.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

analyzing reports uploaded through the report upload interface to identify users who have not uploaded required reports; and

transmitting a message to the identified users.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the web portal provides real-time access to asset data across a plurality of organizations, and further comprising:

categorizing the asset data based on organization; and

generating a user interface to present the asset data to a user based on the organization.

17. A system for managing assets for an organization and for providing real-time access to asset data across one or more organizations, wherein the asset data includes information about assets for at least one of the organizations, the system comprising:

a web server including at least one processor; and

a web portal hosted by the web server, the web portal comprising;

links to service management consoles, wherein selection of a link presents a service management console, and wherein each service management consoles;

retrieves asset data for a category of service management related to the service management console and for a specified time period;

analyzes the asset data from said assets, wherein at least one of said assets comprises a computer; and

generates an interface to present the asset data to a user;

a dashboard, wherein the dashboard comprises an interface that includes an overview of asset data, and wherein the dashboard comprises;

indicia indicative of the status of at least one of incidents related to assets or corrective action related to incidents, wherein the indicia indicative of the status includes at least one of virus compliance indicia and virus vulnerabilities indicia; and

a report upload interface, wherein the report upload interface allows a user to upload reports related to the asset data,

wherein the web server is to;

determine virtual servers assigned to web sites associated with the web server, wherein users access the web portal through the web sites and different ones of the web sites have different corresponding authentication services;

store, in a data storage device, aliases representing assignments of the virtual servers to the web sites;

differentiate the users accessing the web portal based on the web sites through which the users are accessing the web portal; and

authenticate each of the users according to the authentication service corresponding to the web site and the virtual server by which the user is accessing the web portal.

18. The system of claim 17 wherein the web portal further comprises a user interface for presentation of at least one of the service management consoles.

19. The system of claim 17 wherein at least one of the service management consoles comprise:

an incident management console;

a problem management console;

a patch management console;

a security management console;

or

a service desk console.

20. The system of claim 17 wherein the web portal further comprises a map, wherein the indicia is presented on a map, and wherein the indicia indicates the status for at least one of incidents related to assets or corrective action related to incidents for one or more geographic regions associated with at least one of the organizations.