Methods for dynamically accessing, processing, and presenting data acquired from disparate data sources

• US 20040044665A1
• Filed: 09/02/2003
• Published: 03/04/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nielsen Company (US), LLC
• Original Assignee: Sagemetrics Corporation
• Inventors: Nwabueze, E. Kenneth
• Granted Patent: US 6,959,306 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/9
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/75 Indicating network or usage conditions on the user display
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/08 Protocols for interworking; Protocol conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99932 Access augmentation or optimizing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image

Abstract

Methods for acquiring and transforming data for business analysis, and computer readable media having program instructions for enabling the same are provided. One exemplary method identifies a set of data sources to be accessed for a user, loads the raw data from each of the accessed set of data sources to raw data type specific locations then verifies the integrity of the acquired raw data. Next the acquired raw data of each of the raw data type specific locations is transformed to a uniform data type and then stored as processed data into processed data type specific locations. Some notable advantages of the discussed methods of acquiring and presenting data for business analysis purposes is the ability to efficiently extract, organize and present the data as requested by a customer over a world wide computer network. Examples of such efficiency include the ability to convert data acquired from disparate sources to a uniform format, thus allowing centralization of the data and eliminating the need to continually access various data sources to provide requested reports. The customer can thus be provided with dynamic reports in real-time, thereby allowing for time sensitive and mission critical business decisions to be made with current data.

Claims

1. A method for acquiring and transforming data for business analysis, comprising:

identifying a set of data sources to be accessed for a user;

loading raw data from each of the accessed set of data sources to raw data type specific locations;

verifying the integrity of acquired raw data;

transforming the acquired raw data of each of the raw data type specific locations to a uniform data type, the transformed acquired raw data stored as processed data into processed data type specific locations.

2. A method for acquiring and transforming data for business analysis as recited in claim 1, wherein the verifying the integrity of the acquired raw data further comprises:

determining if a file is compressed; and

uncompressing the file if the file is compressed.

3. A method for acquiring and transforming data for business analysis as recited in claim 2, wherein the verifying the integrity of the acquired raw data further comprises:

opening the file; and

ensuring that expected data is inside each open file.

4. A method for acquiring and transforming data for business analysis as recited in claim 1, wherein the transforming the acquired raw data of each of the raw data type specific locations to a uniform data type further comprises:

performing a memory map transfer using format rules.

5. A method for acquiring and transforming data for business analysis as recited in claim 4, wherein the memory map transfer is a parallel memory map transfer.

6. A method for acquiring and transforming data for business analysis as recited in claim 1, wherein the transforming the acquired raw data of each of the raw data type specific locations to a uniform data type further comprises:

transferring the raw data type specific locations to a temporary database.

7. A method for acquiring and transforming data for business analysis, comprising:

identifying a set of data sources to be accessed for a user;

loading raw data from each of the accessed set of data sources;

verifying the integrity of acquired raw data;

transforming the acquired raw data to processed data, the transforming further including,

converting each of the acquired raw data to a uniform format,

transferring the converted raw data to a temporary database,

applying processing rules to the converted raw data, the processing rules being configured to define processed data, and

storing the processed data in a processed data type specific location from the temporary database;

transferring the processed data to a temporary database; and

applying display rules, the display rules being configured to define a format and content of a requested report.

8. A method for acquiring and transforming data for business analysis as recited in claim 7, wherein the transferring the converted raw data to a temporary database further comprises:

performing a memory map transfer.

9. A method for acquiring and transforming data for business analysis as recited in claim 8, wherein the memory map transfer is a parallel memory map transfer.

10. A method for acquiring and transforming data for business analysis as recited in claim 7, wherein the acquired raw data and the processed data are stored in one or more hard drives.

11. A method for acquiring and transforming data for business analysis as recited in claim 7, wherein the acquired raw data is associated to a unique identification defining a customer and source path for the acquired raw data.

12. A method for acquiring and transforming data for business analysis as recited in claim 7, wherein the temporary database can be one or more databases.

13. A method for acquiring and transforming data for business analysis, comprising:

identifying a set of data sources to be accessed for a user;

loading raw data from each of the accessed set of data sources;

verifying the integrity of acquired raw data;

transforming the acquired raw data to processed data, the transforming further including,

converting each of the acquired raw data to a uniform format,

transferring the converted raw data to a temporary database, the transferring performed by a parallel memory map,

applying processing rules to the converted raw data, the processing rules being configured to define processed data, and

storing the processed data in a processed data type specific location from the temporary database;

transferring the processed data to a temporary database, the transferring performed by a parallel memory map; and

applying display rules, the display rules being configured to define a format and content of a requested report.

14. A method for acquiring and transforming data for business analysis as recited in claim 13, wherein the temporary database can be one or more databases.

15. A method for acquiring and transforming data for business analysis as recited in claim 13, wherein the acquired raw data is associated to a unique identification defining a customer and source path for the acquired raw data.

16. A computer readable media having program instructions for acquiring and transforming data for business analysis, the computer readable media comprising:

program instructions for identifying a set of data sources to be accessed for a user;

program instructions for loading raw data from each of the accessed set of data sources to raw data type specific locations;

program instructions for verifying the integrity of acquired raw data;

program instructions for transforming the acquired raw data of each of the raw data type specific locations to a uniform data type, the transformed acquired raw data stored as processed data into processed data type specific locations.

17. A computer readable media having program instructions for acquiring and transforming data for business analysis as recited in claim 16, wherein the acquired raw data is stored in a network attached storage location.

18. A computer readable media having program instructions for acquiring and transforming data for business analysis as recited in claim 17, wherein the acquired raw data is associated to a unique identification defining a customer and source path for the acquired raw data.