Systems and methods for monitoring business processes of enterprise applications

• US 20060143231A1
• Filed: 10/06/2005
• Published: 06/29/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/08/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Lawson Software Incorporated (Infor Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Lawson Software Incorporated (Infor Incorporated)
• Inventors: Joshi, Ashok, Tatake, Ajeya, Boccasam, Prashanth V., Dhond, Pushparaj, Garrity, Thomas, Matteson, Silas, Garrity, Todd
• Application Number:
  US11/244,060
• Publication Number:
  US 20060143231A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24564 Applying rules; Deductive queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/552 involving long-term monitoring or reporting
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/604 Tools and structures for managing or administering access control systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

A system and method for monitoring the business processes of an enterprise application are presented. Data relating to the business process is extracted from the enterprise application. The data is stored in a first database in a format substantially similar to a format used by the enterprise application to store the data. The data is extracted from the first database and is converted to a second format. The data is stored in the second format in a second database. A business process rule relating to the business process is created. The business process rule is converted to a query. The query is executed against the second database. A report is created and displayed based on a result of the query.

Claims

1. A system for a monitoring a business process of an enterprise application, comprising:

an adapter component, wherein the adapter component extracts data relating to the business process from the enterprise application;

an adapter database, wherein the adapter component stores the data in the adapter database in a format substantially similar to a format used by the enterprise application to store the data;

a core services component, wherein the core services component communicates with the adapter component, schedules data extraction by the adapter component from the enterprise application, and receives the data in a second format from the adapter component that is extracted from the adapter database by the adapter component and converted to the second format by the core services component;

a core services database, wherein the core services component stores the data in the second format in the core services database, wherein the core services component creates a business process rule relating to the business process, wherein the core services component executes the business process rule against the core services database, and wherein the core services component creates a report based on a result of the execution; and

a user interface, wherein the user interface allows a user to control creation of the business process rule by the core services component and wherein the user interface allows a user to monitor the business process by displaying the report created by the core services component.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the enterprise application comprises one or more of an enterprise resource planning program, a supply chain management program, and a customer relationship management program.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the adapter component extracts data relating to the business process from the enterprise application, the adapter component stores the data in the adapter database, the core services component communicates with the adapter component, the core services component receives the data in a second format from the adapter component, the core services component stores the data in the second format in the core services database, and the core services component executes the business process rule against the core services database at periodic intervals in order to continuously monitor the enterprise application.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the business process is one or more of user activity, business transactions, and configuration of the enterprise application.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the core services component comprises one or more of a users service, reports service, approval service, utilities service, security service, licensing service, extraction service, logging service, configuration service, database service, authentication service, user mapping service, notification service, rules engine service, roles service, and auditing service.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising a second adaptor that accepts second data in a pre-specified format from a second enterprise application and stores the second data in the core services database.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the user interface allows the user to control creation of the business process rule by entering the business process rule in a descriptive language.

8. A method for monitoring a business process of an enterprise application, comprising:

extracting data relating to the business process from the enterprise application;

storing the data in a first database in a format substantially similar to a format used by the enterprise application to store the data;

extracting the data from the first database;

converting the data to a second format;

storing the data in the second format to a second database;

creating a business process rule relating to the business process;

executing the business process rule against the second database; and

creating and displaying a report based on a result of the execution.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the enterprise application comprises one or more of an enterprise resource planning program, a supply chain management program, and a customer relationship management program.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein extracting the data from the first database, converting the data to a second format, storing the data in the second format to a second database, and executing the business process rule against the second database occur at periodic intervals in order to continuously monitor the enterprise application.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the business process is one or more of user activity, business transactions, and configuration of the enterprise application.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising accepting second data in the second format from a second enterprise application and storing the second data in the second database.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein creating a business process rule relating to the business process comprises entering the business process rule in a descriptive language.

14. A method for monitoring user activity of enterprise applications, comprising:

extracting a first user, a first user role, and a first user permission from a first enterprise application;

storing the first user, the first user role, and the first user permission in a first database in a format substantially similar to a format used by the first enterprise application to store the data;

extracting the first user, the first user role, and the first user permission from the first database;

mapping the first user role to a first functional role and the first user permission to a first effective right;

storing the first user, a first role mapping to the first functional role, and a first effective right mapping to the first effective right to a second database;

creating a business process rule relating the first functional role and the first effective right;

executing the business process rule against the second database; and

creating and displaying a report based on a result of the execution.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising displaying in the report a role violation within the first application for the first user if the business process rule defines the first effective right as too much authority for the first functional role.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising

extracting a second user, a second user role, and a second user permission from a second enterprise application;

storing the second user, the second user role, and the second user permission in the first database in a format substantially similar to a format used by the second enterprise application to store the data;

extracting the second user, the second user role, and the second user permission from the first database;

mapping the second user role to a second functional role and the second user permission to a second effective right;

storing the second user, a second role mapping to the second functional role, and a second effective right mapping to the second effective right to the second database;

creating a second business process rule relating the second user and second functional role;

executing the second business process rule against the second database; and

creating and displaying a report based on a result of the execution of the second business process rule.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising displaying in the report a role violation between the first application and the second application if the first user and the second user are a same user and the first functional role and the second functional role are different functional roles if the business process rule defines the second user as having only the second functional role.

18. A method for monitoring business transactions of enterprise applications, comprising:

extracting business transaction data from an enterprise application;

storing the business transaction data in a first database in a format substantially similar to a format used by the enterprise application to store the data;

extracting the business transaction data from the first database;

converting the business transaction data to a second format;

storing the business transaction data in the second format to a second database;

creating a business process rule relating to the business transaction;

executing the business process rule against the second database; and

creating and displaying a report based on a result of the execution.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the business transaction comprises one of a purchase, a sale, a movement of a good, an acceptance of a good, a rejection of a good, a manufacture of a good, a creation of a business entity, a deletion of a business entity, and a modification of a business entity.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein a business entity comprises one of a user, a vendor, a customer, and a material.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein the business process rule comprises one of monitoring after execution of a sensitive transaction, monitoring for execution of sensitive transactions by individuals outside a specific location, monitoring for execution of sensitive transactions by individuals outside a specific time frame, monitoring for trends on sensitive transactions, and monitoring for an exception condition around transactions.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the sensitive transaction comprises one of a financial transaction, a procurement transaction, an order entry transaction, and a supply chain transaction.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the exception condition comprises one of a pricing discount, a purchase order, a shipment received, and a product return.

24. The method of claim 18, wherein executing the business process rule against the second database comprises converting the business process rule to a query and executing the query against the second database.

25. The method of claim 18, wherein executing the business process rule against the second database comprises converting the business process rules to parameters for rule specific algorithms and executing the algorithms.

26. A method for detecting false positives when monitoring a first business process and a second business process of an enterprise application, comprising:

extracting first business process data and second business process data from the enterprise application;

storing the first business process data and the second business process data in a first database in a format substantially similar to a format used by the enterprise application to store the data;

extracting the first business process data and the second business process data from the first database;

converting the first business process data and the second business process data to a second format;

storing the first business process data and the second business process data in the second format to a second database;

creating a business process rule relating to the first business process data;

converting the business process rule to a query;

executing the query against the second database;

if the query results in a violation of the business process rule, comparing the violation to the second business process data; and

if the comparing the violation to the second business process data shows that the violation is not a business process problem, not reporting the violation.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the first business process comprises user activity and the second business process comprises one of business transactions and configuration of the enterprise application.

28. The method of claim 26, wherein the first business process comprises business transactions and the second business process comprises one of user activity and configuration of the enterprise application.

29. The method of claim 26, wherein the first business process comprises configuration of the enterprise application and the second business process comprises one of user activity and business transactions.