Real Time Work Queue Notification

• US 20070067324A1
• Filed: 09/19/2005
• Published: 03/22/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/19/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Burkhardt, Peter
• Granted Patent: US 7,512,619 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06316 Sequencing of tasks or work
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation

Abstract

A method of monitoring queues in real time can include building a master list specifying available queues, wherein each queue within the master list is associated with a user, and registering each queue specified by the master list with an instant messaging system. The method further can include sending, to a client, a secondary list of queues associated with a particular user and selected from the master list. The secondary list can be formatted as an instant messaging contact list. A presence on the instant messaging system can be established for each queue specified by the secondary list. The method also can include obtaining queue information for queues specified by the master list and making the queue information, for queues specified by the secondary list, available to the client via the instant messaging system.

Claims

1. A method of monitoring queues in real time comprising:

building a master list specifying available queues, wherein each queue within the master list is associated with a user;

registering each queue specified by the master list with an instant messaging system;

sending, to a client, a secondary list of queues associated with a selected user and selected from the master list, wherein the secondary list is formatted as an instant messaging contact list, and wherein a presence on the instant messaging system is established for each queue specified by the secondary list; and

obtaining queue information for queues specified by the master list and making queue information, for queues specified by the secondary list, available to the client via the instant messaging system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein queue information comprises a number of items within a queue.

3. The method of claim 2, said step of making queue information available to the client further comprising sending queue information for each queue specified by the master list to the instant messaging system, whereby the instant messaging system sends queue information for each queue specified by the secondary list to the client.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the client updates an instant messaging contact list specifying queues of the secondary list according to the queue information.

5. The method of claim 1, said client displaying an instant messaging contact list specifying queues of the secondary list and updating the instant messaging contact list according to received queue information.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising, prior to said sending step, receiving a request from the client for a list of queues associated with the selected user.

7. The method of claim 1, said building step further comprising:

querying the workflow management system for available queues; and

identifying a user associated with each available queue.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the master list is built dynamically according to said querying and identifying steps.

9. A system for monitoring queues in real time comprising:

an instant messaging system configured to maintain presence information for a plurality of queues; and

an application server configured to build a master list of available queues and associated users, wherein said application server registers each queue specified by the master list with said instant messaging system, and wherein said application server sends a secondary list of queues selected from the master list which are associated with a selected user to a client application, whereby the client application establishes a presence for each queue specified by the secondary list with said instant messaging system;

wherein the secondary list of queues is provided from said application server to the client application as an instant messaging contact list and said application server provides queue information for queues specified by the secondary list to the client application via said instant messaging system.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein queue information comprises a number of items within a queue.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein said application server further is configured to identify available queues and determine a user associated with each available queue.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein said client application is configured to display the secondary list of queues as an instant messaging contact list.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein said application server further is configured to query a workflow management system for the available queues and dynamically build the master list according to at least one result from the query.

14. A machine readable storage, having stored thereon a computer program having a plurality of code sections executable by a machine for causing the machine to perform the steps of:

building a master list specifying available queues, wherein each queue within the master list is associated with a user;

registering each queue specified by the master list with an instant messaging system;

sending, to a client, a secondary list of queues associated with a selected user and selected from the master list, wherein the secondary list is formatted as an instant messaging contact list, and wherein a presence on the instant messaging system is established for each queue specified by the secondary list; and

obtaining queue information for queues specified by the master list and making queue information, for queues specified by the secondary list, available to the client via the instant messaging system.

15. The machine readable storage of claim 14, wherein queue information comprises a number of items within a queue.

16. The readable storage of claim 15, said step of making queue information available to the client further comprising sending queue information for each queue specified by the master list to the instant messaging system, whereby the instant messaging system sends queue information for each queue specified by the secondary list to the client.

17. The machine readable storage of claim 16, wherein the client updates an instant messaging contact list specifying queues of the secondary list according to the queue information.

18. The machine readable storage of claim 14, said client displaying an instant messaging contact list specifying queues of the secondary list and updating the instant messaging contact list according to received queue information.

19. The machine readable storage of claim 14, said building step further comprising:

querying the workflow management system for available queues; and

identifying a user associated with each available queue.

20. The machine readable storage of claim 19, wherein the master list is built dynamically according to said querying and identifying steps.