E-service management through distributed correlation
First Claim
1. A method of managing business-to-business cooperation among multiple electronic service providers which enter transactions using computer processing, said method comprising the steps of:
- enabling distributed interaction correlation processing among said electronic service providers by attaching tags to transmission interactions among said electronic service providers, said transmission interactions including requests and responses relating to said transactions, each said tag including information that uniquely identifies a particular transaction that is related to the transmission interaction to which said tag is attached, each said tag that is attached to one of said responses including management information indicative of operational parameters that are specific to a responding electronic service provider transmitting said response and indicative of operational parameters specific to all other electronic service providers from which management information was received by said responding electronic service provider in tags attached to same-transaction responses from said other electronic service providers, said management information being accessible separately from said responses; and
utilizing information within said tags to correlate said transmission interactions with said transactions, including identifying said operational parameters of said responding electronic service provider and said any other electronic service provider when one of said responses is received by an originating site in a succession of said electronic service providers that are cooperative in entering a specific transaction.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The management of end-to-end cooperation among multiple e-service providers is enabled in a distributed correlation manner by locally appending a tag to each outgoing document, with each tag uniquely identifying the transaction to which it is related and identifying management information. The tags are management information structures that are updated at each participating e-service provider. Consequently, in a succession of e-service providers, the parent e-service is furnished with management information for each of the participating e-services and is able to discern the contributions of each such e-service. The different providers maintain separate management information libraries which are used in registration and correlation processes.
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Citations
18 Claims
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1. A method of managing business-to-business cooperation among multiple electronic service providers which enter transactions using computer processing, said method comprising the steps of:
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enabling distributed interaction correlation processing among said electronic service providers by attaching tags to transmission interactions among said electronic service providers, said transmission interactions including requests and responses relating to said transactions, each said tag including information that uniquely identifies a particular transaction that is related to the transmission interaction to which said tag is attached, each said tag that is attached to one of said responses including management information indicative of operational parameters that are specific to a responding electronic service provider transmitting said response and indicative of operational parameters specific to all other electronic service providers from which management information was received by said responding electronic service provider in tags attached to same-transaction responses from said other electronic service providers, said management information being accessible separately from said responses; and
utilizing information within said tags to correlate said transmission interactions with said transactions, including identifying said operational parameters of said responding electronic service provider and said any other electronic service provider when one of said responses is received by an originating site in a succession of said electronic service providers that are cooperative in entering a specific transaction. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A method of managing business-to-business cooperation among multiple electronic service (e-service) providers which enter transactions using computer processing, wherein for each e-service provider said method comprises the steps of:
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locally registering each potential transaction initiated by said e-service provider, including assigning a unique transaction identification to each said potential transaction;
locally appending a tag to each request transmitted to a remote e-service provider, said tag including a specific said transaction identification assigned to a transaction with which said request is associated;
receiving responses from said remote e-service providers, including receiving appended tags with said responses, each said appended tag including the specific transaction identification assigned to the transaction with which said response is directed and including management information indicative of management parameters for each said remote e-service provider with which interaction occurred in generating the particular response of said appended tag, each appended tag thereby indicating a provider tree of transaction interaction;
updating said management information to include local management parameters in each said tag for which a received response from a responding remote e-service provider is relevant to a received request from a requesting remote e-service provider, including updating said provider tree to indicate local transaction interaction;
transmitting responses to requesting remote e-service providers, including appending a specific tag that is indicative of a specific transaction and a specific provider tree for each said response; and
locally correlating said requests with said responses using said tags, thereby enabling local determinations of end-to-end transaction management. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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14. An electronic service (e-service) provider system comprising:
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a document engine configured to generate e-service documents, including requests and responses;
a management library having storage for registering transaction instances, such that each said transaction instance has a unique identification;
a header generator for appending header information to each said e-service document generated by said document engine, said header information including said unique identification of a specific transaction instance which corresponds to said e-service document for which said header information is generated and further including management information relevant to handling of said specific transaction instance, said header generator being configured to update remote management information received from a responding remote e-service provider when said management information is forwarded as updated header information with a response to a second remote e-service provider, such that updated header information includes management information for each response in a succession of responses;
a network interface connected to transmit and receive said e-service documents and separately accessible header information to and from said responding remote and second remote e-service providers via a network; and
a correlation engine configured to cooperate with said management library to correlate said e-service documents on a basis of said header information and said updated header information received via said network interface, thereby enabling end-to-end determinations of transaction management.
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Specification