SYSTEM AND METHOD TO TRACK THE STATUS, PHYSICAL LOCATION, AND LOGICAL LOCATION OF WORKFLOW OBJECTS IN A WORKFLOW CYCLE

• US 20070130197A1
• Filed: 12/02/2005
• Published: 06/07/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/02/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: WestGUARD Insurance Co. (Berkshire Hathaway Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Guard Insurance Group
• Inventors: RICHARDSON, JOHN, WITKOWSKI, CARL
• Granted Patent: US 8,838,466 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0817 using directory methods
• 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

A system and method for tracking the status, physical location, and logical location of a workflow object in a logical insurance lifecycle. As an object product of a particular insurance process is created, and progresses logically through the phases of associated with the lifecycle of an insurance policy and its claims, the object remains, at all times, physically stored in an object repository. Each workflow object has at least one embedded new technology file system (NTFS) tag, wherein the NTFS tag is extended as the workflow object progresses through the phases of a workflow cycle. The embedded and extended NTFS tags define a state of the object progressing through said phases of said workflow cycle. Such embedded and extended NTFS tags can be extracted to obtain properties, methods, and events associated with a requested object, and a GUI displays the extracted information indicating status, physical location, and logical location of one or more workflow objects in a workflow cycle.

Claims

1. A method of tracking the status, physical location, and logical location of one or more workflow objects in a workflow cycle, said workflow cycle comprising a plurality of phases, said workflow objects stored in an object repository, said method comprising:

a. embedding at least one new technology file system (NTFS) tag in each of said stored workflow objects;

b. extending said NTFS tag associated with an object progressing through said phases of said workflow cycle, said embedded and extended NTFS tags defining a state of said object progressing through said phases of said workflow cycle;

c. receiving a request for a state of an object;

d. obtaining said embedded and extended NTFS tags associated with said requested object;

e. extracting properties, methods, and events associated with said requested object from said obtained embedded and extended NTFS tags; and

f. tracking said requested object via extracted properties, methods, and events in (e).

2. A method of tracking the status, physical location, and logical location of one or more workflow objects in a workflow cycle, said workflow cycle comprising a plurality of phases, said workflow objects stored in an object repository, as per claim 1, wherein said method further comprises the step of displaying said extracted information in (e) via a GUI.

3. A method of tracking the status, physical location, and logical location of one or more workflow objects in a workflow cycle, said workflow cycle comprising a plurality of phases, said workflow objects stored in an object repository, as per claim 1, wherein said workflow cycle is a insurance lifecycle.

4. A method of tracking the status, physical location, and logical location of one or more workflow objects in a workflow cycle, said workflow cycle comprising a plurality of phases, said workflow objects stored in an object repository, as per claim 1, wherein said objects are any of, or a combination of, the following:

proposals, policies, endorsements, employer'"'"'s reports, state forms, direct bill statements, documents, video, audio, a digital data object, or a record of who engaged a transaction.

5. A method of tracking the status, physical location, and logical location of one or more workflow objects in a workflow cycle, said workflow cycle comprising a plurality of phases, said workflow objects stored in an object repository, as per claim 1, wherein said properties comprises any of, or a combination of, the following:

destination process to which an object is logically is progressing to, rendering aspects for viewing an object, or generation aspects for viewing an object.

6. A method of tracking the status, physical location, and logical location of one or more workflow objects in a workflow cycle, said workflow cycle comprising a plurality of phases, said workflow objects stored in an object repository, as per claim 1, wherein said methods in (e) comprises any of, or a combination of, the following:

queuing or batching.

7. A method of tracking the status, physical location, and logical location of one or more workflow objects in a workflow cycle, said workflow cycle comprising a plurality of phases, said workflow objects stored in an object repository, as per claim 1, wherein said event (e) comprises errors.

8. A method of tracking the status, physical location, and logical location of one or more workflow objects in a workflow cycle, said workflow cycle comprising a plurality of phases, said workflow objects stored in an object repository, as per claim 1, wherein said embedded tags monitors any of the following:

signal strength, position in printer queue, or position in email server.

9. A method of tracking the status, physical location, and logical location of one or more workflow objects in a workflow cycle, said workflow cycle comprising a plurality of phases, said workflow objects stored in an object repository, as per claim 8, wherein said signal strength is associated with a facsimile document.

10. An article of manufacture comprising a computer user medium having computer readable program code embodied therein which tracks the status, physical location, and logical location of one or more workflow objects in a workflow cycle, said workflow cycle comprising a plurality of phases, said workflow objects stored in an object repository, said medium comprising:

a. computer readable program code embedding at least one new technology file system (NTFS) tag in each of said stored workflow objects;

b. computer readable program code extending said NTFS tag associated with an object progressing through said phases of said workflow cycle, said embedded and extended NTFS tags defining a state of said object progressing through said phases of said workflow cycle;

c. computer readable program code aiding in receiving a request for a state of an object;

d. computer readable program code obtaining said embedded and extended NTFS tags associated with said requested object;

e. computer readable program code extracting properties, methods, and events associated with said requested object from said obtained embedded and extended NTFS tags; and

f. computer readable program code tracking said requested object via extracted properties, methods, and events.

11. An article of manufacture comprising a computer user medium having computer readable program code embodied therein which tracks the status, physical location, and logical location of one or more workflow objects in a workflow cycle, said workflow cycle comprising a plurality of phases, said workflow objects stored in an object repository, as per claim 10, wherein said medium further comprises computer readable program code aiding in displaying said extracted information via a GUI.

12. An article of manufacture comprising a computer user medium having computer readable program code embodied therein which tracks the status, physical location, and logical location of one or more workflow objects in a workflow cycle, said workflow cycle comprising a plurality of phases, said workflow objects stored in an object repository, as per claim 10, wherein said workflow cycle is a insurance lifecycle.

13. An article of manufacture comprising a computer user medium having computer readable program code embodied therein which tracks the status, physical location, and logical location of one or more workflow objects in a workflow cycle, said workflow cycle comprising a plurality of phases, said workflow objects stored in an object repository, as per claim 10, wherein said objects are any of, or a combination of, the following:

proposals, policies, endorsements, employer'"'"'s reports, state forms, direct bill statements, documents, video, audio, or a digital data object.

14. An article of manufacture comprising a computer user medium having computer readable program code embodied therein which tracks the status, physical location, and logical location of one or more workflow objects in a workflow cycle, said workflow cycle comprising a plurality of phases, said workflow objects stored in an object repository, as per claim 10, wherein said properties comprises any of, or a combination of, the following:

destination process to which an object is logically is progressing to, rendering aspects for viewing an object, or generation aspects for viewing an object.

15. An article of manufacture comprising a computer user medium having computer readable program code embodied therein which tracks the status, physical location, and logical location of one or more workflow objects in a workflow cycle, said workflow cycle comprising a plurality of phases, said workflow objects stored in an object repository, as per claim 10, wherein said computer readable program code implementing (e) comprises any of, or a combination of, the following:

queuing or batching.

16. An article of manufacture comprising a computer user medium having computer readable program code embodied therein which tracks the status, physical location, and logical location of one or more workflow objects in a workflow cycle, said workflow cycle comprising a plurality of phases, said workflow objects stored in an object repository, as per claim 10, wherein said event in (e) comprises errors.

17. An article of manufacture comprising a computer user medium having computer readable program code embodied therein which tracks the status, physical location, and logical location of one or more workflow objects in a workflow cycle, said workflow cycle comprising a plurality of phases, said workflow objects stored in an object repository, as per claim 10, wherein said embedded tags monitors any of the following:

signal strength, position in printer queue, or position in email server.

18. An article of manufacture comprising a computer user medium having computer readable program code embodied therein which tracks the status, physical location, and logical location of one or more workflow objects in a workflow cycle, said workflow cycle comprising a plurality of phases, said workflow objects stored in an object repository, as per claim 17, wherein said signal strength is associated with a facsimile document.

19. A system to track the status, physical location, and logical location of one or more workflow objects in a workflow cycle, said workflow cycle comprising a plurality of phases, said system comprising:

a. an object repository storing one or more workflow objects, each workflow object having at least one embedded new technology file system (NTFS) tag, wherein said NTFS tag is extended as said workflow object progressing through said phases of said workflow cycle, said embedded and extended NTFS tags defining a state of said object progressing through said phases of said workflow cycle;

b. an interface to receive a request for a state of an object;

c. a tag extractor obtaining said embedded and extended NTFS tags associated with said requested object and extracting properties, methods, and events associated with said requested object from said obtained embedded and extended NTFS tags; and

said extracted information being further processed to indicate status, physical location, and logical location of one or more workflow objects in a workflow cycle.

20. A system to track the status, physical location, and logical location of one or more workflow objects in a workflow cycle, said workflow cycle comprising a plurality of phases, as per claim 19, wherein said objects are any of, or a combination of, the following:

proposals, policies, endorsements, employer'"'"'s reports, state forms, direct bill statements, documents, video, audio, or a digital data object.

21. A system to track the status, physical location, and logical location of one or more workflow objects in a workflow cycle, said workflow cycle comprising a plurality of phases, as per claim 19, wherein said properties comprises any of, or a combination of, the following:

destination process to which an object is logically is progressing to, rendering aspects for viewing an object, or generation aspects for viewing an object.

22. A system to track the status, physical location, and logical location of one or more workflow objects in a workflow cycle, said workflow cycle comprising a plurality of phases, as per claim 19, wherein said embedded tags monitors any of the following:

signal strength, position in printer queue, or position in email server.