Service and application management in information technology systems

• US 20070168874A1
• Filed: 12/30/2005
• Published: 07/19/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Erdtmann, Uwe, Krimmel, Stefan, Downham, Lee, Kloeffer, Michael, Subat, Juergen, Mueller, Matthias
• Granted Patent: US 7,930,681 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/764
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

Systems and techniques for managing services and applications of a client system, such as an enterprise computer system, reduce the operational workload and optimize daily support process by deliverying embedded services in client system with direct connection of services into a back-end system so that back-end system processes can analyze client system information and provide detailed reports and analyses and with continuous (or regular) data exchange between client system and backend system to ensure efficient client system software processes. The embedded services can include support, operation, change and deploy, and plan and optimize services. The output of at least one of these services can be pushed to and displayed in a graphical user interface. A fact sheet provided with he graphical user interface contains on one page all the information that is needed to clearly show who is responsible for handling information technology problems, incidents, tasks, and service requests.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method of managing software installed on a client system comprising:

initiating two or more embedded services integrated with the software installed on the client system, wherein the embedded services comprise a health check monitoring service to automatically trigger one of a system incident message and an administrative task message in response to a generated event, a support service to handle at least one of a system incident message and a user incident message, a software maintenance service to automatically deploy of one or more software updates to the software installed on the client system, and a continuous improvement service to implement one or more recommended actions to improve an efficiency of the client system;

aggregating information outputted from the initiated embedded services; and

displaying the aggregated information in a graphical user interface;

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the health check monitoring service to automatically trigger one of a system incident message and an administrative task message in response to a generated event comprises:

selectively receiving one or more generated events, each generated event indicating a change in an operational parameter of one of a plurality of components of the client system, each generated event being received if the event triggers one or more predetermined logical rules;

determining, for each received event, whether the received event has an associated predefined task;

initiating a generation of a system incident message for each received event not having an associated predefined task; and

initiating a generation of an administrative task for each received event having an associated predefined task.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 wherein determining whether the received event has an associated predefined task comprises:

retrieving a plurality of predefined events, each predefined event associated with one or more predefined tasks needed to resolve the associated predefined event;

determining, for each received event, whether the received event is a predefined event; and

associating, for each received event, the one or more predefined tasks with the received event that is a predefined event.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 2, wherein initiating a generation of a system incident message for each received event not having an associated predefined task comprises:

automatically collecting context data associated with each received event;

generating, for each received event, an incident report based on the collected context data; and

generating, for each incident report, an incident service request based on the generated incident report.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the support service to handle at least one of a system incident message and a user incident message comprises:

receiving an incident message generated by at least one of the client system and an end user, the incident message including collected context data characterizing a state of the client system;

assigning the incident message to an appropriate processor based on the context data;

routing the incident message to the appropriate processor; and

initiating an implementation of a solution to the incident message by the appropriate processor.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the support service to handle at least one of a system incident message and a user incident message further comprises:

routing a solution message notifying the end user of a solution to the incident message generated by the end user.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the software maintenance service to automatically deploy one or more software updates to the software installed on the client system comprises:

transmitting information describing a change to the software installed on the client system to a back-end system;

receiving one or more update recommendations from the back-end system based on the transmitted information;

automatically downloading one or more software updates associated with the update recommendations in response to a trigger event; and

automatically deploying the software updates.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the software maintenance service to automatically deploy one or more software updates to the software installed on the client system further comprises automatically preparing the client system for deploying the downloaded software updates.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein automatically preparing the client system for deploying the downloaded software updates comprises:

automatically checking for prerequisite tasks;

providing notification of the prerequisite tasks; and

providing instructions for manually performing the prerequisite tasks.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the continuous improvement service to implement one or more recommended actions to improve an efficiency of the client system comprises:

transmitting information describing the client system to a back-end system;

receiving one or more recommended actions to improve an efficiency of the client system from the back-end system based on an analysis of the transmitted information; and

implementing one or more of the received recommended actions.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein displaying the aggregated information in a graphical user interface comprises:

displaying the aggregated information in a work list associated with a user based on a service level agreement.

12. A system for managing software, the system comprising:

a plurality of client computer systems, each client computer system comprising a processor, a display device, a network interface, an input device, and a computer readable medium;

a computer program product stored on the computer readable medium of at least one of the client computer systems, the stored computer program product including executable instructions causing the at least one client computer system to;

initiate two or more embedded services integrated with an enterprise software product stored on the computer readable medium based on a service level agreement, wherein the embedded services comprise a health check monitoring service to automatically trigger one of a system incident message and an administrative task message in response to a generated event, a support service to handle at least one of a system incident message and a user incident message, a software maintenance service to automatically deploy of one or more software updates to the software installed on the client system, and a continuous improvement service to implement one or more recommended actions to improve an efficiency of the client system;

aggregate information outputted from the initiated embedded services; and

display the aggregated information in a graphical user interface.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the executable instructions causing the at least one client computer system to initiate two or more embedded services integrated with an enterprise software product stored on the computer readable medium based on a service level agreement comprises executable instructions that cause the at least one client computer system to:

selectively receive one or more generated events, each generated event indicating a change in an operational parameter of one of a plurality of components of one of the plurality of client computer systems, each generated event being received if the event triggers one or more predetermined logical rules;

determine, for each received event, whether the received event has an associated predefined task;

initiate a generation of a system incident message for each received event not having an associated predefined task; and

initiate a generation of an administrative task for each received event having an associated predefined task.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the executable instructions causing the at least one client computer system to determine, for each received event, whether the received event has an associated predefined task comprises executable instructions that cause the at least one client computer system to:

retrieve a plurality of predefined events, each predefined event associated with one or more predefined tasks needed to resolve the associated predefined event;

determine, for each received event, whether the received event is a predefined event; and

associate, for each received event, the one or more predefined tasks with the received event that is a predefined event.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the executable instructions causing the at least one client computer system to initiate a generation of a system incident message for each received event not having an associated predefined task comprises executable instructions that cause the at least one client computer system to:

automatically collect context data associated with each received event;

generate, for each received event, an incident report based on the collected context data; and

generate, for each incident report, an incident service request based on the generated incident report.

16. The system of claim 12, wherein the executable instructions causing the at least one client computer system to initiate two or more embedded services integrated with an enterprise software product stored on the computer readable medium based on a service level agreement comprises executable instructions that cause the at least one client computer system to:

receive an incident message, the incident message including collected context data characterizing a state of one of the plurality of client computer systems;

assign the incident message to an appropriate processor based on the collected context data;

route the incident message to the appropriate processor; and

initiate an implementation of a solution to the incident message by the appropriate processor.

17. The system of claim 12, wherein the executable instructions causing the at least one client computer system to initiate two or more embedded services integrated with an enterprise software product stored on the computer readable medium based on a service level agreement comprises executable instructions that cause the at least one client computer system to:

transmit information describing a change to the enterprise software product to a back-end system;

receive one or more update recommendations from the back-end system based on the transmitted information;

automatically download one or more software updates associated with the update recommendations in response to a trigger event; and

automatically deploy the software updates.

18. The system of claim 12, wherein the executable instructions causing the at least one client computer system to initiate two or more embedded services integrated with an enterprise software product stored on the computer readable medium based on a service level agreement comprises executable instructions that cause the at least one client computer system to:

transmit information describing one or more of the plurality of client computer systems to a back-end system;

receive one or more recommended actions to improve an efficiency of the one or more client computer systems from the back-end system based on an analysis of the transmitted information; and

implement one or more of the received recommended actions.

19. The system of claim 12, wherein the executable instructions causing the at least one client computer system to display the aggregated information in a graphical user interface comprises executable instructions that cause the at least one client computer system to:

associate the aggregated information with one or more views of a graphical user interface associated with a user; and

display the aggregated information in a selected one of the one or more views of the graphical user interface.

20. The system of claim 12, wherein the executable instructions causing the at least one client computer system to display the aggregated information in a graphical user interface comprises executable instructions that cause the at least one client computer system to:

display the aggregated information in a work list associated with a user based on the service level agreement.