Consulting assessment environment

• US 20050010469A1
• Filed: 07/10/2003
• Published: 01/13/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 07/10/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: X Corp. (f/k/a Twitter, Inc.) (X Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Brown, Nigel Howard Julian, Young, Howard, Chan, Yim Y., Dolder, Christopher James, Gauthier, Marie-Paule Christyne
• Granted Patent: US 7,739,141 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/10
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0635 Risk analysis of enterprise or organisation activities
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06375 Prediction of business process outcome or impact based on a proposed change
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06393 Score-carding, benchmarking or key performance indicator [KPI] analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0203 Market surveys; Market polls

Abstract

A method, apparatus, and computer program product for providing a consulting assessment environment. Consultants may use the environment to define templates that encode questionnaires and domain knowledge regarding business practices, as well as reporting criteria to specify the content and format of the assessment results. Consultants or their clients may use the environment to automate the process of performing assessments and generating reports from those assessments. These assessments may analyze the current state of the business, compare the business'"'"'s current state with desired states or with best practices, and perform risk/benefit and/or cost/benefit analyses, according to the specifications made in the templates on a real-time basis for producing immediate assessment results and actions. An information hiding feature is provided to allow sensitive domain knowledge encoded within the templates, such as trade secrets, to be made inaccessible to clients.

Claims

1. A method in a data processing system for providing a consulting assessment environment, the method comprising:

receiving data about a business through a questionnaire, wherein the questionnaire is defined by a data template;

computing at least one assessment score based on formulas in an assessment framework template;

determining an appropriate action based on the at least one assessment score and a suggested actions template; and

reporting results based on the at least one assessment score and the appropriate action in accordance with a report template, wherein the assessment framework template and the suggested actions template encode business-related domain knowledge including at least one of best practices, business consultant expertise, and business goals.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

determining a current state of the business based on the data;

identifying a desired state for the business using the assessment framework template and the suggested actions template; and

performing a gap analysis between the current state of the business and the desired state of the business to determine the appropriate action to achieve the desired state for the business.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

identifying benefits and risks based on the at least one assessment score and the appropriate action.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

consolidating portions of the results together for further analysis.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

providing an interface for a client to conduct a self-assessment.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the data template includes at least one of interview questions, weighing factors, desired states, benefit descriptions, risk descriptions, suggested actions, cost areas, and terminology.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the assessment framework template includes at least one of scoring information, calculations, suggested actions logic, benefit and risk logic, user feedback, and user input.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the data template, the assessment framework template, the suggested actions template, and the report template are made inaccessible to at least one user.

9. A data processing system comprising:

a bus system;

a communications unit connected to the bus system;

a memory connected to the bus system, wherein the memory includes as set of instructions; and

a processing unit connected to the bus system, wherein the processing unit executes the set of instructions to receive data about a business through a questionnaire, wherein the questionnaire is defined by a data template;

compute at least one assessment score based on formulas in an assessment framework template;

determine an appropriate action based on the at least one assessment score and a suggested actions template; and

report results based on the at least one assessment score and the appropriate action in accordance with a report template, wherein the assessment framework template and the suggested actions template encode business-related domain knowledge including at least one of best practices, business consultant expertise, and business goals.

10. A data processing system for providing a consulting assessment environment, the data processing system comprising:

receiving means for receiving data about a business through a questionnaire, wherein the questionnaire is defined by a data template;

computing means for computing at least one assessment score based on formulas in an assessment framework template;

determining means for determining an appropriate action based on the at least one assessment score and a suggested actions template; and

reporting means for reporting results based on the at least one assessment score and the appropriate action in accordance with a report template, wherein the assessment framework template and the suggested actions template encode business-related domain knowledge including at least one of best practices, business consultant expertise, and business goals.

11. The data processing system of claim 10 further comprising:

determining means for determining a current state of the business based on the data;

identifying means for identifying a desired state for the business using the assessment framework template and the suggested actions template; and

performing means for performing a gap analysis between the current state of the business and the desired state of the business to determine the appropriate action to achieve the desired state for the business.

12. The data processing system of claim 10 further comprising:

identifying means for identifying benefits and risks based on the at least one assessment score and the appropriate action.

13. The data processing system of claim 10 further comprising:

consolidating means for consolidating portions of the results together for further analysis.

14. The data processing system of claim 10 further comprising:

providing means for providing an interface for a client to conduct a self-assessment.

15. A computer program product in a computer readable medium for providing a consulting assessment environment, the computer program product comprising:

first instructions for receiving data about a business through a questionnaire, wherein the questionnaire is defined by a data template;

second instructions for computing at least one assessment score based on formulas in an assessment framework template;

third instructions for determining an appropriate action based on the at least one assessment score and a suggested actions template; and

fourth instructions for reporting results based on the at least one assessment score and the appropriate action in accordance with a report template, wherein the assessment framework template and the suggested actions template encode business-related domain knowledge including at least one of best practices, business consultant expertise, and business goals.

16. The computer program product of claim 15 further comprising:

instructions for determining a current state of the business based on the data;

instructions for identifying a desired state for the business using the assessment framework template and the suggested actions template; and

instructions for performing a gap analysis between the current state of the business and the desired state of the business to determine the appropriate action to achieve the desired state for the business.

17. The computer program product of claim 15 further comprising:

instructions for identifying benefits and risks based on the at least one assessment score and the appropriate action.

18. The computer program product of claim 15 further comprising:

instructions for consolidating portions of the results together for further analysis.

19. The computer program product of claim 15 further comprising:

instructions for providing an interface for a client to conduct a self-assessment.

20. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein at least one of the data template, the assessment framework template, the suggested actions template, and the report template are made inaccessible to at least one user.