System for managing equipment, services and service provider agreements

• US 20030154123A1
• Filed: 02/12/2003
• Published: 08/14/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 02/13/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tangoe US, Inc. (Asentinel Holdings LP)
• Original Assignee: Tangoe Incorporated
• Inventors: Gamble, Charles, Schmidt, Paul, Subbloie, Al
• Granted Patent: US 7,065,496 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/11
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06375 Prediction of business process outcome or impact based on a proposed change
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0639 Performance analysis of employees; Performance analysis of enterprise or organisation operations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0206 Price or cost determination based on market factors

Abstract

A system for managing service provider agreements, the system comprising a server, an agreements database accessible by the server, the agreements database having stored thereon contracted performance data indicative of minimum service performance required by at least one service provider agreement, a user preferences database accessible by the server, the preferences database having stored thereon user preference data indicative of a user specified maximum allowable deviance from the minimum service performance, a performance measurement module in communication with the server; the performance measurement module gathering actual performance data indicative of actual service performance and a variance calculator in communication with the server, the variance calculator determining agreement conformity status by determining whether the actual system performance indicated by the actual service performance data corresponds with the minimum service performance indicated by the contracted performance data within the maximum allowable deviance indicated by the user preference data.

Claims

1. A system for managing service provider agreements, the system comprising:

a server;

an agreements database accessible by the server, the agreements database having stored thereon contracted performance data indicative of minimum service performance required by at least one service provider agreement;

a user preferences database accessible by the server, the preferences database having stored thereon user preference data indicative of a user specified maximum allowable deviance from the minimum service performance;

a performance measurement module in communication with the server;

the performance measurement module gathering actual performance data indicative of actual service performance; and

a variance calculator module in communication with the server, the variance calculator module determining agreement conformity status by determining whether the actual system performance indicated by the actual service performance data corresponds with the minimum service performance indicated by the contracted performance data within the maximum allowable deviance indicated by the user preference data.

2. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

a network connection in communication with the server;

a host interface coupled to the server, the host interface used for hosting the system; and

a user interface in communication with the server, the user interface used for updating user preferences database and checking variance calculator module determinations.

3. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

at least one threshold set in the user preferences database, the threshold defining limits for minimum service performance and maximum allowable deviation between the service provider agreement and contracted performance data; and

a notification module in communication with the server, the notification module notifies a recipient that the determined agreement conformity status has exceeded a threshold.

4. The system of claim 3 further comprising:

a network connection in communication with the server;

a host interface coupled to the server, the host interface used for hosting the system; and

a user interface in communication with the server, the user interface used for updating user preferences database and thresholds and for receiving notification form the notification module.

5. The system of claim 1 further comprising a scheduling module coupled to the server, the scheduling module used to define chronological timing of the variance calculator module'"'"'s determination of agreement conformity status.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the service provider agreement comprises a type selected from the group consisting of application, storage, management, internet, online, telecommunications, peering, collocation, T-carrier, E-carrier, and DSO multiples, fractional T-1, fractional T-3, information, outsourcing, hosting, financial, service level, data, voice, utilities, gas, water, sewer and combinations of these.

7. The system of claim 6 wherein the telecommunications service provider agreement comprises a performance metrics selected from the group consisting of market rates, contract constructs, service level agreement constructs, network design optimization and utilization and combinations of these.

8. A method of managing service provider agreements, the method comprising:

storing at least one user profile containing user thresholds and preferences data, the threshold defining limits for minimum service performance and maximum allowable deviation between the service provider agreement and contracted performance data;

retrieving periodically to a variance calculator module the user preferences and thresholds data as well as real-time operations data generated by a service provider bound by the service provider agreement; and

comparing the preferences, thresholds and operations data to reveal conformity status of the service provider agreement and to see if a threshold has been exceeded.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising the step of notifying at least one recipient if the threshold has been exceeded.

10. The method of claim 9 further comprising the step of soliciting a credit from the service provider for exceeding the threshold.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising the step of tracking a credit provided by the service provider for exceeding a threshold.

12. The method of claim 9 further comprising the step of tracing the exceeded threshold from when the threshold was exceeded until resolution.

13. The method of claim 8 further comprising the step of procuring alternative equipment if the compared user preferences and operations data points to this conclusion.

14. The method of claim 8 further comprising the step of procuring alternative services if the compared user preferences and operations data points to this conclusion.

15. A system for facilitating the procurement of networked services, the system comprising:

a server;

a user preferences database accessible by the server, the user preferences database having stored thereon user need data indicative of a user'"'"'s requirements for networked services;

a service provider database accessible by the server;

the service provider database having stored thereon available services data indicative of services offered by a plurality of networked service providers;

a provider module in communication with the server, the provider module updating in real-time the available services data; and

a variance calculator module in communication with the server, the variance calculator module determining procurement prospects by determining which of the services offered by the plurality of networked service providers indicated in the available services data satisfies the user'"'"'s requirements for networked services indicated in the user need data.

16. The system of claim 15 further comprising:

a network connection in communication with the server;

a host interface coupled to the server, the host interface used for hosting the system; and

a user interface in communication with the server, the user interface used for updating user preferences database and checking variance calculator module determinations.

17. The system of claim 15 further comprising:

at least one threshold set in the user preferences database; and

a notification module in communication with the server, the notification module notifies a recipient that a procurement prospect has been identified.

18. The system of claim 17 further comprising:

a network connection in communication with the server;

a host interface coupled to the server, the host interface used for hosting the system; and

a user interface in communication with the network connection, the user interface used for updating user preferences database and thresholds data.

19. The system of claim 15 further comprising a scheduling module coupled to the server, the scheduling module used to define chronological timing of the variance calculator module'"'"'s determination of available procurement prospects.

20. The system of claim 15 wherein the networked services comprises a type selected from the group consisting of application, storage, management, internet, online, telecommunications, peering, collocation, fractional T-1, fractional T-3, information, outsourcing, hosting, financial, service level, data, voice, utilities, gas, water, sewer and combinations of these.

21. The system of claim 20 wherein the telecommunications networked services comprises a performance metrics selected from the group consisting of market rates, contract constructs, service level agreement constructs, network design optimization and utilization and combinations of these.

22. A method of pricing networked services, the method comprising:

storing at least one user profile containing user thresholds and preferences data;

retrieving periodically to a variance calculator module the user preferences and thresholds data as well as real-time services data generated by a service provider offering a service;

manipulating the user preferences and provider data to see if a threshold has been exceeded and to reveal procurement prospects; and

generating a procurement analysis based on the user preferences data, thresholds and provider data.

23. The method of claim 22 further comprising the step of notifying at least one recipient if a procurement prospect has been located.

24. The method of claim 22 further comprising the step of notifying at least one recipient if a threshold has been exceeded.

25. A system for managing service provider agreements and networked services procurement, the system comprising:

a server;

an agreements database accessible by the server, the agreements database having stored thereon contracted performance data indicative of minimum service performance required by at least one service provider agreement;

a user preferences database accessible by the server, the preferences database having stored thereon user preference data indicative of a user specified maximum allowable deviance from the minimum service performance and user need data indicative of a user'"'"'s requirements for networked services;

a performance measurement module in communication with the server;

the performance measurement module gathering actual performance data indicative of actual service performance;

a service provider database accessible by the server;

the service provider database having stored thereon available services data indicative of services offered by a plurality of network service providers;

a provider module in communication with the server, the provider module updating in real-time the available services data; and

a variance calculator in communication with the server, the variance calculator determining agreement conformity status by determining whether the actual system performance indicated by the actual service performance data corresponds with the minimum service performance indicated by the contracted performance data within the maximum allowable deviance indicated by the user preference data and the variance module determining procurement prospects by determining which of the services offered by the plurality of networked service providers indicated in the available services data satisfies the user'"'"'s requirements for networked services indicated in the user need data.