Method and system for managing a plurality of enterprise business systems

• US 20050114201A1
• Filed: 08/20/2004
• Published: 05/26/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 03/25/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: 41 Winding Corporation
• Original Assignee: Technologies, Inc. (APi Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Walsh, John G., Walsh, Jeremy
• Granted Patent: US 7,246,144 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/10
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0633 Workflow analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

An enterprise business process management system and method for definition and execution of business processes formed from portions of one or more business applications present in an enterprise. The enterprise business process management system includes a server, a router, and an interface for defining and executing such business processes. A data quality business process detects, corrects, analyzes, and reports quantitative and qualitative characteristics of application data and transactional data present in the enterprise. An interface module is provided by which a user may select and define function definition information for a business process.

Claims

1. A global enterprise business process management system, comprising:

a first enterprise business process server capable of receiving data from at least one client;

at least one second enterprise business process server in communication with the first enterprise business process server, the second enterprise business process server being capable of receiving data from at least one other client;

at least one first router accessible by the first enterprise business process server;

at least one first business process accessible by the at least one first router,

wherein the first enterprise business process server is configured to access the at least one first business process via the first router, to execute the at least one first business process on at least a portion of the client data, and to generate business process output data as a function of the at least one first business process;

a first interface accessible by the first enterprise business process server,

wherein the first interface operates with the enterprise business process server to output a process designer interactive page,

wherein the process designer interactive page is configured to accept instructions concerning the at least one first business process, to generate process information data, and to provide the process information data to the first enterprise business process server,

wherein the first enterprise business process server builds an instruction set for the first business process based upon the process information data, and

wherein the first enterprise business process server has access to at least some of business processes available on the second enterprise business process server.

2. The global enterprise business process management system of claim 1, wherein the first and second enterprise business process servers are in disparate geographic locations.

3. The global enterprise business process management system of claim 1, wherein the first and second enterprise business process servers operate via different operating systems.

4. The global enterprise business process management system of claim 3, wherein the first enterprise business process server operates via a Linux-based operating system.

5. The global enterprise management system of claim 4, wherein the second enterprise business process server operates via a Windows-based operating system.

6. The global enterprise business process management system of claim 1, further comprising:

at least one second router accessible by the second enterprise business process server;

at least one second business process accessible by the at least one second router,

wherein the second enterprise business process server is configured to access the at least one second business process via the second router, to execute the at least one second business process on at least a portion of the client data, and to generate business process output data as a function of the at least one second business process;

a second interface accessible by the second enterprise business process server,

wherein the second interface operates with the enterprise business process server to output a process designer interactive page,

wherein the process designer interactive page is configured to accept instructions concerning the at least one second business process, to generate process information data, and to provide the process information data to the second enterprise business process server, and

wherein the second enterprise business process server builds an instruction set for the second business process based upon the process information data.

7. The global enterprise business process management system of claim 1, wherein the at least one first business process is executable on at least one of the first and second enterprise business process servers.

8. The global enterprise business process management system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first and second enterprise business process servers dynamically establishes the execution sequence of the at least one business process on at least one of the first and second enterprise business process servers.

9. The global enterprise business process management system of claim 8, wherein the decision of how the at least one business process is executed changes based upon priority of at least one of network traffic, operating system capacity, and the availability of at least one of the first and second enterprise business process servers to execute the at least one first business process.

10. The global enterprise business process management system of claim 1, wherein the at least one first business process may be distributed to the second enterprise business process server from the first enterprise business process server.

11. The global enterprise business process management system of claim 1, wherein the execution of the at least one first business process may be monitored.

12. A global enterprise business process management system, comprising:

a plurality of enterprise business process servers capable of receiving data from at least one client;

a router accessible by at least one of the enterprise business process servers; and

a business process accessible by the router,

wherein one of the enterprise business process servers is configured to access the business process via the router, to execute the business process on at least a portion of the client data, and to generate business process output data as a function of the business process.

13. The global enterprise business process management system of claim 12, further comprising:

an interface accessible by one of the plurality of enterprise business process servers,

wherein the interface operates with the enterprise business process server to output a process designer interactive page,

wherein the process designer interactive page is configured to accept instructions concerning the business process, to generate process information data, and to provide the process information data to the enterprise business process server,

wherein the enterprise business process server builds an instruction set for the business process based upon the process information data, and

wherein the enterprise business process server has access to at least some of business processes available on others of the plurality of enterprise business process servers.

14. The global enterprise business process management system of claim 12, wherein the enterprise business process is loaded dynamically from one of the plurality of enterprise business process servers into at least one other of the enterprise business process servers.

15. The global enterprise business process management system of claim 14, wherein, after providing the process information data, the business process is unloaded from the at least one of the plurality of enterprise business process servers.

16. The global enterprise business process management system of claim 12, wherein at least one function is loaded dynamically from one of the plurality of enterprise business process servers into at least one other of the enterprise business process servers.

17. The global enterprise business process management system of claim 16, wherein, after providing the process information data, the at least one function is unloaded from the at least one of the plurality of enterprise business process servers.

18. The global enterprise business process management system of claim 12, wherein data may be converted from one format to another depending upon the format required by the enterprise business process server processing the data.

19. The global enterprise business process management system of claim 18, wherein the business process converts the data from format to another.

20. The global enterprise business process management system of claim 18, wherein a function converts the data from format to another.