System and method for provisioning, fulfilling, and delivering full service information technology, management and other professional services and ancillary consulting support in real time via an integrated technology architecture while enabling end clients to procure, transact and receive these services and associated work products, on demand, in a just-in-time (JIT) fashion.

• US 20060247959A1
• Filed: 04/27/2006
• Published: 11/02/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 04/29/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tracy Oden
• Original Assignee: Tracy Oden
• Inventors: Oden, Tracy
• Granted Patent: US 8,849,685 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063112 Skill-based matching of a person or a group to a task
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063118 Staff planning in a project environment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06312 Adjustment or analysis of established resource schedule, e.g. resource or task levelling, or dynamic rescheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06313 Resource planning in a project environment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06315 Needs-based resource requirements planning or analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06316 Sequencing of tasks or work
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1095 Meeting or appointment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions

Abstract

A system and method for selling, provisioning, transacting, fulfilling, delivering and supporting simple and complex business and technical professional services in an on demand fashion for various service industries specifically around the development life cycle relative to the industry. On demand professional services is accomplished through a previously unused system which allow services to be administered from a plurality of specialized consultants to end clients via a ‘retail type’ framework built upon a converged Internet, call center, telecommunications and ancillary software platform. The on demand architecture enable clients to purchase professional services on a just in time basis by simply calling a call center or visiting the professional services entity on the web. Clients can: 1) receive advice 2) invite consultant(s) to participate in meetings 3) outsource paper deliverables 4) receive research and/or 5) outsource full projects. Consultants are likewise able to fulfill and deliver services in real time.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a communication from a client that initiates a communication session; and

determining to which of at least four route options to route the communication session, wherein the at least four route options include;

providing consulting advice;

providing a consultant to attend a meeting;

providing outsourcing services; and

providing professional services that provide minimally requirements gathering,

design, development, testing, training, cutover and production support.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a choice of an area of consulting competencies.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

if providing advice is not selected and if providing a consultant to attend a meeting is not selected, determining a scope of the project while providing one or more web pages for the user to participate in the determining of the scope, wherein determining of the scope includes at least automatically presenting a set of at least two questions to a client, wherein for at least one question, whether or not the at least one question is presented to the client depends upon information previously provided by the client.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising a dynamic logic tree of data in the form of questions;

a data repository for answers to the dynamic logic tree of data;

a procedure for automatically and dynamically deciphering a next set of logical questions based upon client answers;

a procedure for processing and retrieving relevant data wherein at least man hours, level of effort, size of engagement, delivery duration, human and technical resources, deliverables required, ancillary fees, assumptions, potential risks and cost of engagement are presented to the user;

a procedure for auto-generating pre-populated forms and documents containing finalized results.

7. A professional services system comprising:

a call center;

a network; and

one or more computer readable media storing thereon the method of claim 1, the one or more computer readable media also storing thereon one or more instructions for automated call distribution of calls among service providers;

customer telephony integration with computer software; and

interactive voice recognition of a received voice communication;

wherein the system is configured to be capable of performing the receiving of the communication at the call center, and capable of performing the receiving of the communication at the network.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

deciding whether to trigger a communication with a customer service representative;

deciding whether to trigger a communication with an engagement manager; and

deciding whether to trigger a communication with a consultant.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to the receiving of the communication, collaborating, creating, modifying, signing an agreed upon contract and paying for services prior to an end of the communication session.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to receiving the communication, completing a project prior to an end of the communication session.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

conducing an interview with an engagement manager including at least conducting an analysis of needs for a project.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to receiving the communication, performing at least a part of a requested project in collaboration with a customer that initiated the communication session, prior to terminating the communication session.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the professional services support comprises:

triggering a customer service representative to accept the communication session;

creating a record source;

determining resource availability;

triggering an engagement manager;

scoping a project based upon input from the engagement manager and the client; and

routing the record source to a consultant for fulfillment and delivery.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising fulfilling a project by at least accepting the project;

provisioning the project;

allowing a client to view the project during intermediate states;

receiving sign off on the project; and

accepting payment for services.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising planning deliverables including at least scoping a project;

and allowing the client to view details of the project as the details are being scoped.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

routing the communication session to a consultant;

the consultant preparing an update to the record source;

allowing a client to collaborate and submit modifications to project materials;

allowing a client to provide incremental acceptance of the project or the project'"'"'s materials; and

allowing a client to provide incremental payments within a communication session.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein a professional services project is performed via remotely controlling a computer associated with a client.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein professional services requirements and design meetings are performed via a network based meeting and collaboration mechanism.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein professional services document deliverables are created, modified and reviewed via a network based meeting and collaboration mechanism.

20. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether advice, a consultant for a meeting, or professional services is sought;

if advice is sought, forwarding the communication and record source to a consultant that provides advice;

if the consultant for the meeting is sought, determining whether the consultant is being requested to provide input related to requirements of a project, a design, training, brainstorming session or another type of meeting, wherein services can be provided by at least collaborating with a client via a network meeting collaboration or a conferencing mechanism;

if a determination of professional services outsourcing is sought, if full or partial system development life cycle is required, which may include requirements, design, programming, testing, training, post production support, upgrade services, then the full or the partial system development life cycle can be provided by at least remotely controlling a computer associated with a client, if a determination of document or research outsourcing services is requested, services can be provided by at least collaborating with a client via a network meeting collaboration mechanism, or via email, and initiating a services development life cycle.

2. The method of 1, further comprising after the determining, routing the communication until a termination, wherein the routing is at least partially automatic.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

storing professional services information associated with a record source;

wherein the routing includes at least routing the information associated with the record source.

21. A method comprising:

receiving a communication; and

determining a route to which to send the communication or record source, wherein a person to whom the communication or record source is routed is determined at least in part based on a load of the person and one or more loads of one or more other people associated with the route.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the load is determined automatically by at least one algorithm that determines the load based on at least a current work load, hours of work associated with the communication, resources available for performing the work associated with the communication, an area of expertise of a consultant, competency, a spoken language, a delivery commitment, a location, and a time at which a client desires to he contacted.

24. The method of claim 22, presenting one or more web pages via which at least statistics related to at least one project may be viewed, a chat session may be initiated, modifications may be submitted, a history of the at least one project may be viewed, one or more reports related to the at least one project may be viewed, analytical information about the at least one project are viewable, and wherein at least one web page of the one or more web pages includes one or more links that facilitate viewing further information related to the at least one or more web pages.

23. A method comprising:

presenting one or more web pages, including at least presenting a button;

receiving a selection of the button;

in response to the receiving, presenting a form including at least one or more fields for entering when a service is provided; and

enacting a communication.