Method and system for scheduling activities

• US 20070208604A1
• Filed: 03/28/2002
• Published: 09/06/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 04/02/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Siebel Systems Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Siebel Systems Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Purohit, Atul, Bansal, Harish, Nash, Christopher, Wang, Jun, Krishnan, Praveen
• Granted Patent: US 8,781,873 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/9
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06375 Prediction of business process outcome or impact based on a proposed change
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1095 Meeting or appointment

Abstract

Techniques to schedule activities. In one method, a request to book an appointment for an activity in a particular schedule is initially received. In response, time slots available in the schedule for booking the activity are determined, and a set (all or a subset) of the time slots is provided as possible appointment choices. The time slots in the set are temporarily locked. A next set of time slots or more time slots may be requested (if the time slots provided are not acceptable or desirable), in which case additional time slots may be provided. Thereafter, a selection for one of the time slots is received. In response, the activity is booked in the selected time slot and previously locked time slots are released. The locked time slots may also be released if no selection is received after a particular amount of time.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for scheduling activities, comprising:

receiving a request to book an appointment for an activity in a particular schedule;

determining time slots available in the schedule for booking the activity;

providing a set of the available time slots as possible appointment choices;

locking the time slots in the set of the available time slots;

receiving a selection for one of the time slots in the set of the available time slots;

unlocking unselected time slots in the set of the available time slots; and

booking the activity in the selected time slot.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

defining a duration for the time slots based on an expected duration for the activity.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

locking the schedule in response to receiving the request.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

unlocking the schedule after providing the set of the available time slots.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the number of time slots included in the set of the available time slots is selectable.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a request for a next set of the time slots; and

providing the next set of the time slots as possible appointment choices, wherein the time slots in the next set of the time slots are not included in previous sets provided for the activity.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a request for a particular number of additional time slots; and

providing the requested number of additional time slots, if available, as possible appointment choices.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the locked time slots are released after a particular amount of time.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the available time slots are determined based on a set of parameters associated with the activity and parameters associated with resources in the schedule.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the available time slots are determined base in part on an earliest time and a latest time between which the activity may be booked.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

optimizing the schedule for a particular time segment to provide a more optimum schedule having a lower cost.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the schedule is partitioned into a plurality of time segments.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein new appointments are booked in a first time segment of the schedule.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

optimizing a first time segment of the schedule to provide a schedule having a lower cost.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein a first time segment of the schedule is fixed, and no changes due to non-emergency events are made to the third time segment of the schedule.

16-26. -26. (canceled)

27. A scheduling system comprising:

an appointment booking system configured to

receive a request to book an appointment for an activity in a schedule,

determine time slots available in the schedule for booking the activity,

provide a set of the available time slots as possible appointment choices,

lock the time slots in the set of the available time slots,

receive a selection for one of the time slots in the set of the available time slots,

unlock unselected time slots in the set of the available time slots, and

book the activity in the selected time slot; and

a first local storage coupled to the appointment booking system and configured to store the schedule.

28. The scheduling system of claim 27, further comprising:

an optimizer configured to

receive a set of rules and constraints associated with the schedule,

compute a cost for the schedule based on a cost function,

rearrange activities in the schedule based on the set of rules and constraints,

compute a new cost for the rearranged schedule, and

select a more optimum schedule based on an improvement algorithm.

29. A computer program product for scheduling activities, comprising:

code for receiving a request to book an appointment for an activity in a particular schedule;

code for determining time slots available in the schedule for booking the activity;

code for providing a set of the available time slots as possible appointment choices;

code for locking the time slots in the set of the available time slots;

code for receiving a selection for one of the time slots in the set of the available time slots;

code for unlocking unselected time slots in the set of the available time slots;

code for booking the activity in the selected time slot; and

a data storage medium configured to store the codes.

30. (canceled)