Automated prescription workflow for device management

• US 10,296,717 B2
• Filed: 05/14/2015
• Issued: 05/21/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 05/14/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Inventors: Isaacs, Charlie
• Primary Examiner(s): Maskulinski, Michael
• Application Number:
  US14/712,435
• Publication Number:
  US 20160335414A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,468 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0766 Error or fault reporting or storing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/079 Root cause analysis, i.e. error or fault diagnosis in a hardware test environment G06F11/22; in a software test environment G06F11/36
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0793 Remedial or corrective actions recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/022 Knowledge engineering; Knowledge acquisition
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/10 relating to drugs or medications, e.g. for ensuring correct administration to patients
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/60 relating to nutrition control, e.g. diets
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/40 for the management of medical equipment or devices, e.g. scheduling maintenance or upgrades
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 70/40 relating to drugs, e.g. their side effects or intended usage

Abstract

Disclosed are some examples of systems, apparatus, methods and storage media for automated device management, and more specifically, for detecting exceptions in devices and facilitating workflows to resolve the exceptions. In one innovative aspect, a database system is configurable to maintain at least one knowledge database storing a plurality of prescriptions, each prescription defining a respective action-oriented workflow for one or more exceptions. The system is further configurable to receive device data associated with the devices, analyze the received device data, and detect occurrences of exceptions based on the analysis. The system is further configurable to determine whether the knowledge base includes a prescription for a detected exception, and responsive to a determination that the knowledge base includes a prescription for the detected exception, trigger a first workflow for remedying the detected exception based on the prescription.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a database system implemented using a server system comprising one or more hardware processors, the database system configurable to cause;

obtaining device data associated with a first device;

analyzing the device data;

detecting, based on the analysis, an occurrence of an exception associated with the first device;

determining that a knowledge database storing one or more knowledge data objects identifying a plurality of prescriptions does not include a prescription applicable to the detected exception, each prescription of the plurality of prescriptions defining a respective action-oriented workflow for remedying one or more exceptions;

triggering, responsive to determining that the knowledge database does not include an applicable prescription, a plurality of different workflows, each workflow including, respectively;

tasking one or more designated persons to remedy the detected exception, and creating a troubleshooting data object configured to record actions performed by the one or more designated persons in attempting to remedy the detected exception;

performing an action analysis on actions recorded by the troubleshooting data object for one or more of the different workflows;

performing a correlative analysis on sets of actions recorded by the troubleshooting data object for the different workflows;

generating an automated script for remedying the detected exception based at least in part on both the action analysis and the correlative analysis; and

creating a new prescription in the knowledge database, the new prescription identifying the automated script.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the database system is further configurable to cause:

creating a case record for the detected exception.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the database system is further configurable to cause:

updating a status of the case record based on the performance of one or more steps in a workflow.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the new prescription includes a file, or a link to a file, that includes a software or firmware update; and

remedying the detected exception includes communicating the file to the first device for installation to the first device.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein

the different workflows include a first workflow and a second workflow.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the database system is further configurable to cause:

analyzing activities recorded by other troubleshooting data objects; and

correlating results of the analysis of the activities recorded by the other troubleshooting data objects;

wherein the automated script for remedying the detected exception is further generated based on the analysis of the activities recorded by the other troubleshooting data objects and the correlation of the results.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein a workflow further includes identifying one or more second devices having one or more common characteristics with the first device and updating the second devices based on the new prescription.

8. A method for using a database system, the method comprising:

receiving device data associated with a first device;

analyzing the device data;

detecting, based on the analysis, an occurrence of an exception associated with the first device;

determining that a knowledge database storing one or more knowledge data objects identifying a plurality of prescriptions does not include a prescription applicable to the detected exception, each prescription of the plurality of prescriptions defining a respective action-oriented workflow for remedying one or more exceptions;

triggering, responsive to determining that the knowledge database does not include an applicable prescription, a plurality of different workflows, each workflow including, respectively;

tasking one or more designated persons to remedy the detected exception, and

creating a troubleshooting data object configured to record actions performed by the one or more designated persons in attempting to remedy the detected exception;

performing an action analysis on actions recorded by the troubleshooting data object for one or more of the different workflows;

performing a correlative analysis on sets of actions recorded by the troubleshooting data object for the different workflows;

generating an automated script for remedying the detected exception based at least in part on both the action analysis and the correlative analysis; and

creating a new prescription in the knowledge database, the new prescription identifying the automated script.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

creating a case record for the detected exception.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

updating a status of the case record based on the performance of one or more steps in a workflow.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein:

the new prescription includes a file, or a link to a file, that includes a software or firmware update; and

remedying the detected exception includes communicating the file to the first device for installation to the first device.

12. The method of claim 8,

wherein the different workflows include a first workflow and a second workflow.

13. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

analyzing activities recorded by other troubleshooting data objects; and

correlating results of the analysis of the activities recorded by the other troubleshooting data objects;

wherein the automated script for remedying the detected exception is further generated based on the analysis of the activities recorded by the other troubleshooting data objects and the correlation of the results.

14. The method of claim 8, wherein a workflow further includes identifying one or more second devices having one or more common characteristics with the first device, and updating the second devices based on the new prescription.

15. A system comprising:

database system software stored on at least one non-transitory data storage medium for execution by at least one server of a database system, the database system software configurable to cause;

obtaining device data associated with a first device;

analyzing the device data;

detecting, based on the analysis, an occurrence of an exception associated with the first device;

determining that a knowledge database storing one or more knowledge data objects identifying a plurality of prescriptions does not include a prescription applicable to the detected exception, each prescription of the plurality of prescriptions defining a respective action-oriented workflow for remedying one or more exceptions;

triggering, responsive to determining that the knowledge database does not include an applicable prescription, a plurality of different workflows, each workflow including, respectively;

tasking one or more designated persons to remedy the detected exception, and

creating a troubleshooting data object configured to record actions performed by the one or more designated persons in attempting to remedy the detected exception;

performing an action analysis on actions recorded by the troubleshooting data object for one or more of the different workflows;

performing a correlative analysis on sets of actions recorded by the troubleshooting data object for the different workflows;

generating an automated script for remedying the detected exception based at least in part on both the action analysis and the correlative analysis; and

creating a new prescription in the knowledge database, the new prescription identifying the automated script.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein

the different workflows include a first workflow and a second workflow.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the database system software is further configurable to cause:

creating a case record for the detected exception.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein:

the new prescription includes a file, or a link to a file, that includes a software or firmware update; and

remedying the detected exception includes communicating the file to the first device for installation to the first device.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein the database system software is further configurable to cause:

analyzing activities recorded by other troubleshooting data objects; and

correlating results of the analysis of the activities recorded by the other troubleshooting data objects;

wherein the automated script for remedying the detected exception is further generated based on the analysis of the activities recorded by the other troubleshooting data objects and the correlation of the results.

20. The system of claim 15, wherein a workflow further includes identifying one or more second devices having one or more common characteristics with the first device, and updating the second devices based on the new prescription.