System and method for managing contracts using text mining

• US 20030115080A1
• Filed: 10/23/2002
• Published: 06/19/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 10/23/2001
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Electronic Data Systems Corporation (Perspecta, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Electronic Data Systems Corporation (Perspecta, Inc.)
• Inventors: Varadarajan, V. Sundara, Kruk, Jeffrey M., Quigney, Peter P., Kasravi, Kasra
• Application Number:
  US10/279,189
• Publication Number:
  US 20030115080A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/34 Browsing; Visualisation therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2216/03 Data mining
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/237 Lexical tools
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/247 Thesauruses; Synonyms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/30 Semantic analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06312 Adjustment or analysis of established resource schedule, e.g. resource or task levelling, or dynamic rescheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06313 Resource planning in a project environment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06315 Needs-based resource requirements planning or analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0637 Strategic management or analysis, e.g. setting a goal or target of an organisation; Planning actions based on goals; Analysis or evaluation of effectiveness of goals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06375 Prediction of business process outcome or impact based on a proposed change
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06395 Quality analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0605 Supply or demand aggregation

Abstract

A method of managing contracts is provided. The method includes storing a plurality of electronic contracts including unstructured textual data. The method further includes determining one or more linguistic patterns associated with a business parameter and generating linguistic rules based on the one or more linguistic patterns. The method further includes using text mining tools to extract information regarding the business parameter from the unstructured textual data using one or more of the linguistic rules. The method further includes generating a visual output based on at least a portion of the extracted information.

Claims

1. A method of managing contracts, comprising:

storing a plurality of electronic contracts including unstructured textual data;

determining one or more linguistic patterns associated with a business parameter;

generating linguistic rules based on the one or more linguistic patterns;

using text mining tools to extract information regarding the business parameter from the unstructured textual data using one or more of the linguistic rules; and

generating a visual output based on at least a portion of the extracted information.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

scanning a plurality of paper contracts; and

using optical character recognition to generate the plurality of electronic contracts.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein determining linguistic patterns and generating linguistic rules collectively comprise:

manually analyzing one or more sample contracts to identify baseline information;

identifying one or more linguistic patterns from the one or more sample contracts;

generating linguistic rules based on the one or more linguistic patterns identified from the one or more sample contracts;

automatically extracting sample information from the one or more sample contracts using the linguistic rules;

comparing the automatically extracted sample information with the manually identified baseline information; and

determining whether to modify the one or more of the linguistic rules based on the comparison.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving historical procurement information from a procurement information database; and

comparing the historical procurement information with the extracted information to identify a business opportunity.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein generating a visual output based on at least a portion of the extracted information comprises generating a visual output of the results of the analysis.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

organizing the extracted information based at least in part on the one or more linguistic rules;

storing the organized information;

accessing at least a portion of the stored information; and

analyzing the accessed information; and

wherein generating a visual output based on at least a portion of the extracted information comprises generating a visual output based on the analysis of the accessed information.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving periodic historical procurement information regarding a business entity from a procurement information database;

comparing the periodic historical procurement information with the extracted information to automatically track performance regarding a particular business opportunity;

generating a notification regarding the results of each analysis; and

communicating each notification to the business entity.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving historical procurement information regarding a business entity from a procurement information database;

comparing the historical procurement information with the extracted information to determine whether a business opportunity is available;

generating an opportunity notification if it is determined that the business opportunity is available; and

communicating the opportunity notification to the business entity.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a pointer linking a particular portion of the extracted information extracted from a particular electronic contract with at least a portion of the particular electronic contract; and

using the pointer to access the at least a portion of the particular electronic contract; and

wherein the visual output includes the at least a portion of the particular electronic contract.

10. Software for managing contracts, the software being embodied in computer-readable media and when executed operable to:

store a plurality of electronic contracts include unstructured textual data;

access linguistic rules generated based on one or more linguistic patterns associated with a business parameter;

use text mining tools to extract information regarding the business parameter from the unstructured textual data using one or more of the linguistic rules; and

generate a visual output based on at least a portion of the extracted information.

11. The software of claim 10, further operable to generate the linguistic rules based on the one or more linguistic patterns.

12. The software of claim 10, further operable to:

receive historical procurement information from a procurement information database; and

comparing the historical procurement information with the extracted information to identify a business opportunity.

13. The software of claim 12, wherein generating a visual output based on at least a portion of the extracted information comprises generating a visual output of the results of the analysis.

14. The software of claim 10, further operable to:

organize the extracted information based at least in part on the one or more linguistic rules;

cause storage of the organized information;

access at least a portion of the stored information; and

analyze the accessed information; and

wherein generating a visual output based on at least a portion of the extracted information comprises generating a visual output based on the analysis of the accessed information.

15. The software of claim 10, further operable to:

receive periodic historical procurement information regarding a business entity from a procurement information database;

compare the periodic historical procurement information with the extracted information to automatically track performance regarding a particular business opportunity;

generate a notification regarding the results of each analysis; and

communicate each notification to the business entity.

16. The software of claim 10, further operable to:

receive historical procurement information regarding a business entity from a procurement information database;

compare the historical procurement information with the extracted information to determine whether a business opportunity regarding the business parameter is available;

generate an opportunity notification if it is determined that the business opportunity is available; and

communicate the opportunity notification to the business entity.

17. The software of claim 10, further operable to:

generate a pointer linking a particular portion of the extracted information extracted from a particular electronic contract with at least a portion of the particular electronic contract; and

use the pointer to access the at least a portion of the particular electronic contract; and

wherein the visual output includes the at least a portion of the particular electronic contract.

18. A system for managing contracts, comprising:

a contracts database operable to store a plurality of electronic contracts include unstructured textual data;

a linguistic rule database operable to store linguistic rules generated based on one or more linguistic patterns associated with a business parameter;

a text mining module operable to use text mining tools to extract particular information regarding the business parameter from the unstructured textual data using one or more of the linguistic rules; and

an application operable to generate a visual output based on at least a portion of the extracted information.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the application is further operable to:

receive historical procurement information from a procurement information database; and

compare analyze the historical procurement information with the extracted information to identify a business opportunity associated with the business parameter.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the application is operable to generate a visual output of the results of the analysis.

21. The system of claim 18, wherein:

the text mining module is further operable to organize the extracted information based at least in part on the one or more linguistic rules;

the system further comprises an extracted information database operable to store the organized information; and

the application is operable to;

access at least a portion of the extracted information from the extracted information database;

analyze the accessed information; and

generate the visual output based on the analysis of the accessed information.

22. The system of claim 18, further comprising a procurement information database operable to store historical procurement information regarding a business entity;

and

wherein the application is further operable to periodically;

receive historical procurement information from the procurement information database;

compare the historical procurement information with the extracted information to automatically track performance regarding a business opportunity;

generate a notification regarding the results of the analysis; and

communicate the notification to the business entity.

23. The system of claim 18, further comprising a procurement information database operable to store historical procurement information regarding a business entity;

and

wherein the application is further operable to;

receive historical procurement information regarding a business entity from a procurement information database;

compare the historical procurement information with the extracted information to determine whether a business opportunity is available;

generate an opportunity notification if it is determined that the business opportunity is available; and

communicate the opportunity notification to the business entity.

24. The system of claim 18, wherein the text mining module is further operable to generate a pointer linking a particular portion of the extracted information extracted from a particular electronic contract with at least a portion of the particular electronic contract;

wherein the application is further operable to use the pointer to access the at least a portion of the particular electronic contract; and

wherein the visual output includes the at least a portion of the particular electronic contract.

25. A method of determining linguistic rules for use in managing contracts, comprising:

identifying a business issue associated with at least a portion of a collection of data including unstructured textual data;

identifying one or more linguistic patterns associated with the business issue;

generating, based on the one or more linguistic patterns, linguistic rules operable to extract information regarding the issue from the collection of data;

manually analyzing a set of sample data to identify baseline information;

automatically extracting first sample information from the set of sample data using the linguistic rules;

comparing the first sample information with the baseline information; and

determining whether to modify the linguistic rules based on the comparison.

26. The method of claim 25, further comprising:

making a first modification to the linguistic rules based on the comparison of the first sample information with the baseline information;

automatically extracting second sample information from the set of sample data using the modified linguistic rules;

comparing the second sample information with the first sample information;

determining, based on the results of the comparison, whether the first modification to the linguistic rules caused an adverse effect;

making a second modification to the linguistic rules if it is determined that the first modification caused an adverse effect.

27. The method of claim 25, wherein:

manually analyzing a set of sample data to establish to identify baseline information comprises determining a plurality of baseline items;

automatically extracting first sample information from the set of sample data using the linguistic rules comprises determining a plurality of sample items;

comparing the fist sample information with the baseline information comprises determining the extent to which the plurality of sample items includes the plurality of baseline items.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein comparing the first sample information with the baseline information further comprises determining the extent to which the plurality of sample items includes sample items not within the plurality of baseline items.