METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR MAPPING TRANSACTION DATA TO COMMON ONTOLOGY FOR COMPLIANCE MONITORING

• US 20080082374A1
• Filed: 01/31/2006
• Published: 04/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/19/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Andrew T. Otwell, Charles A. Coombs, Daniel R. Kuokka, Jeffrey Z. Johnson, Michael E. Lortz, Patrick J.D. Taylor, Peter H. Kennis, Stayton D. Addison
• Original Assignee: Andrew T. Otwell, Charles A. Coombs, Daniel R. Kuokka, Jeffrey Z. Johnson, Michael E. Lortz, Patrick J.D. Taylor, Peter H. Kennis, Stayton D. Addison
• Inventors: OTWELL, Andrew T., TAYLOR, Patrick J.D., LORTZ, Michael E., KENNIS, Peter H., COOMBS, Charles A., KUOKKA, Daniel R., JOHNSON, Jeffrey Z., ADDISON, Stayton D.
• Application Number:
  US11/307,302
• Publication Number:
  US 20080082374A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/258 Data format conversion from or to a database
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 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 10/063114 Status monitoring or status determination for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0635 Risk analysis of enterprise or organisation activities
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0637 Strategic management or analysis, e.g. setting a goal or target of an organisation; Planning actions based on goals; Analysis or evaluation of effectiveness of goals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06393 Score-carding, benchmarking or key performance indicator [KPI] analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes

Abstract

An automated transaction integrity monitoring system operative to monitor electronic transactions of an enterprise and detect exceptions indicating noncompliance with enterprise policies. The system allows establishment, codification, and maintenance of enterprise policies, monitors electronic transactions of the enterprise from various and possibly heterogeneous data sources, detects exceptions to established policies, reports such exceptions to authorized users such as managers and auditors, and/or provides a case management system for tracking such exceptions and their underlying transactions. The invention specifically relates to systems and methods for transforming or mapping information from a data source relating to a transactional entity associated with an enterprise into a form for processing by a transaction analysis engine operative upon data expressed in a predetermined ontology. The ontology expresses data items in a manner common across plural heterogeneous databases. The enterprise policies are expressed in terms of the ontology.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented system for transforming information from a data source relating to a transactional entity into a form for processing by a transaction analysis engine operative upon data expressed in a predetermined ontology, comprising:

an input for receiving source data from a data source corresponding to the transactional entity;

a mapping file specifying details of a target schema that maps a set of data fields from the data source into target data fields of a data record for a target entity corresponding to the transactional entity in a monitoring database;

a metadata generator for generating predetermined metadata associated with the transactional entity for storage in corresponding metadata fields of the target entity data record in the monitoring database;

a program module for transforming the source data in accordance with the mapping file to obtain corresponding data fields of the target entity data record; and

a storage module operative for storing the transformed source data and predetermined metadata as a target entity in the monitoring database in accordance with the mapping file.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the system comprises computer program code.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising a staging database, and wherein the source data is temporarily cached in the staging database prior to the transforming operation.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the staging database stores the source data in a schema corresponding to the schema of the data source.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising an ontology file providing information about entities that are related to the transactional entity.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the related entities are identified as a function of predetermined data fields common to a data field of the transactional entity.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the mapping file is stored in a knowledge base.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the target entity has at least one data field that is a function of a plurality of data fields from one or more data sources, and wherein the mapping file stores information for use in transforming the plurality of data fields from the one or more data sources into an appropriate format for the target entity data field.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the metadata comprises version data associated with the transactional entity, whereby the monitoring database maintains a plurality of versions of the transactional entity over time, whereby the occurrence of changes over time to data in the data source are detected and preserved, so that multiple sequential versions of particular entities are preserved.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the metadata includes a timestamp and actor identification information.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the data source comprises one or more enterprise systems.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the enterprise systems comprise a plurality of heterogeneous databases that store information relating to business transactions of an enterprise, in which one or more predetermined data fields in a first one of the heterogeneous databases contains information relating to one or more predetermined data fields in a second one of the heterogeneous databases.

13. The system of claim 1, further comprising program code for precomputing predetermined information utilized by the transaction analysis engine, so as to improve performance of the transactional analysis engine.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the precomputed predetermined information comprises calculations based on a plurality of stored transactional entities.

15. The system of claim 1, further comprising one or more additional data sources that provide information supplemental to the transactional entity.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the additional data sources include an information technology (IT) system infrastructure equipment that provides data corresponding to IT system utilization.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the IT system infrastructure equipment is selected from the group:

file server, application server, firewall, router, intrusion detection equipment, authentication server.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the additional data sources include an external data source that provides data ancillary to a particular monitored transaction.

19. A method for transforming information from a data source relating to a transactional entity into a form for processing by a transaction analysis engine operative upon data expressed in a predetermined ontology, comprising the steps of:

retrieving source data from a data source corresponding to the transactional entity;

retrieving a mapping file, the mapping file specifying details of a target schema that maps a set of data fields from the data source into target data fields of a data record for a target entity corresponding to the transactional entity in a monitoring database;

generating predetermined metadata associated with the transactional entity for storage in corresponding metadata fields of the target entity data record in the monitoring database;

transforming the source data in accordance with the mapping file to obtain corresponding data fields of the target entity data record;

storing the transformed source data and predetermined metadata as a target entity in the monitoring database in accordance with the mapping file.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the source data is temporarily cached in a staging database prior to the steps of the method.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the staging database stores the source data in a schema corresponding to the schema of the data source.

22. The method of claim 19, further comprising the step of retrieving an ontology file prior to the final storing step, the ontology file providing information about entities that are related to the transactional entity.

23. The method of claim 19, wherein the related entities are identified as a function of having predetermined data fields common to a data field of the transactional entity.

24. The method of claim 19, wherein the mapping file is retrieved from a knowledge base.

25. The method of claim 19, wherein the target entity has at least one data field that is a function of a plurality of data fields from one or more data sources, and wherein the mapping file stores information for use in transforming the plurality of data fields from the one or more data sources into an appropriate format for the target entity data field.

26. The method of claim 19, wherein the metadata comprises version data associated with the transactional entity, whereby the monitoring database maintains a plurality of versions of the transactional entity over time,

whereby the occurrence of changes over time to data in the data source are detected and preserved, so that multiple sequential versions of particular entities are preserved.

27. The method of claim 19, wherein the metadata includes a timestamp and actor identification information.

28. The method of claim 19, wherein the data source comprises one or more enterprise systems.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the enterprise systems comprise a plurality of heterogeneous databases that store information relating to business transactions of an enterprise, in which one or more predetermined data fields in a first one of the heterogeneous databases contains information relating to one or more predetermined data fields in a second one of the heterogeneous databases.

30. The method of claim 19, further comprising the step of precomputing predetermined information utilized by the transaction analysis engine, so as to improve performance of the transactional analysis engine.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein the precomputed predetermined information comprises calculations based on a plurality of stored transactional entities.

32. The method of claim 19, further comprising the step of retrieving information supplemental to the transactional entity from one or more additional data sources.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein the additional data sources include an information technology (IT) system infrastructure equipment that provides data corresponding to IT system utilization.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein the IT system infrastructure equipment is selected from the group:

file server, application server, firewall, router, intrusion detection equipment, authentication server.

35. The method of claim 32, wherein the additional data sources include an external data source that provides data ancillary to a particular monitored transaction.

36. A system operative for codifying compliance policies utilizing a unifying ontology for data items corresponding to transactions stored in one or more heterogeneous data sources, comprising:

a policy statement data store for storing a set of computer-executable policy statements expressing informational relationships between data items associated with the transactions, the policy statements expressed in an enterprise ontology, the policy statements executable on a monitoring database;

an ontology data store for storing an ontology file expressing the enterprise ontology for expressing the transforming the transaction data items to a schema for the monitoring database, the schema for unifying data items from the heterogeneous databases; and

a mapping data store for storing a mapping file for mapping the data items to the monitoring database schema in accordance with the enterprise ontology.

37. The system of claim 36, further comprising means responsive to the ontology file and mapping file for transforming data items from the data source into monitoring entities for storing in a monitoring database.

38. The system of claim 36, further comprising a transaction analysis engine for retrieving the computer-executable policy statements from the policy statement data store, executing them against the monitoring entities in the monitoring database, and providing an output indicating a possible lack of compliance of a transaction with one or more of the polices expressed by the policy statements.

39. The system of claim 38, further comprising an exceptions store for storing a plurality of exceptions from the transaction analysis engine.

40. The system of claim 38, further comprising a user display for displaying a list of a plurality of exceptions that occurred as result of policy statement execution;

and in response to user selection of one of the plurality of exceptions, displaying detailed information about the selected exception.

41. The system of claim 40, wherein the ontology stores information relating a transaction to other entities, and further comprising the step of displaying information corresponding to one or more entities associated with the exception.

42. The system of claim 36, further comprising a staging database for caching information received from a data source prior to storage in the monitoring database.

43. The system of claim 36, further comprising a component for adding metadata to transaction data to form the monitoring entity that is stored in the monitoring database.

44. The system of claim 43, wherein the metadata comprises revision information that allows comparison of different versions of an entity over a period of time, whereby changes over time to data in the data source are detected and preserved, so that multiple sequential versions of particular monitored entities are preserved.

45. The system of claim 43, wherein the metadata comprises a timestamp and actor identification information.

46. The system of claim 36, wherein the data sources include one or more additional data sources that provide information supplemental to the monitored transaction data items.

47. The system of claim 46, wherein the additional data sources include an information technology (IT) system infrastructure equipment that provides data corresponding to IT system utilization.

48. The system of claim 47, wherein the IT system infrastructure equipment is selected from the group:

file server, application server, firewall, router, intrusion detection equipment, authentication server.

49. The system of claim 46, wherein the additional data sources include an external data source that provides data ancillary to a particular monitored transaction.

50. The system of claim 46, wherein a policy statement is operative on information from the additional data sources as well as information corresponding to transaction data items.

58. The method of claim 36 further comprising the step of adding metadata to transaction data to form the monitoring entity that is stored in the monitoring database.

59. The method of claim 58, wherein the metadata comprises revision information that allows comparison of different versions of an entity over a period of time, whereby changes over time to data in the data source are detected and preserved, so that multiple sequential versions of particular monitored entities are preserved.

60. The method of claim 58, wherein the metadata comprises a timestamp and actor identification information.

51. A method for codifying compliance policies utilizing a unifying ontology for data items corresponding to transactions stored in one or more heterogeneous data sources, comprising the steps of:

providing a set of computer-executable policy statements expressing informational relationships between data items associated with the transactions, the policy statements expressed in an enterprise ontology, the policy statements executable on a monitoring database;

providing an enterprise ontology for expressing the transformation of the transaction data items to a schema for the monitoring database, the schema for unifying data items from the heterogeneous databases; and

providing mapping file for mapping the data items to the monitoring database schema in accordance with the enterprise ontology.

52. The method of claim 51, further comprising the step of transforming data items from the data source into monitoring entities for storing in the monitoring database in accordance with the ontology and mapping file.

53. The method of claim 51, further comprising the step of retrieving the computer-executable policy statements from the policy statement data store, executing them against the monitoring entities in the monitoring database, and providing an output indicating a possible lack of compliance of a transaction with one or more of the polices expressed by the policy statements.

54. The method of claim 53, further comprising the step of storing a plurality of exceptions in an exceptions store.

55. The method of claim 53, further comprising the steps of:

displaying a list of a plurality of exceptions that occurred as result of policy statement execution;

in response to user selection of one of the plurality of exceptions, displaying detailed information about the selected exception.

56. The method of claim 55, wherein the ontology stores information relating a transaction to other entities, and further comprising the step of displaying information corresponding to one or more entities associated with the exception.

57. The method of claim 51, further comprising the step of caching information received from a data source prior in a staging database prior to storage in the monitoring database.

61. The method of claim 51, wherein the data sources include one or more additional data sources that provide information supplemental to the monitored transaction data items.

62. The system of claim 61, wherein the additional data sources include an information technology (IT) system infrastructure equipment that provides data corresponding to IT system utilization.

63. The system of claim 62, wherein the IT system infrastructure equipment is selected from the group:

file server, application server, firewall, router, intrusion detection equipment, authentication server.

64. The system of claim 61, wherein the additional data sources include an external data source that provides data ancillary to a particular monitored transaction.

65. The system of claim 61, wherein a policy statement is operative on information from the additional data sources as well as information corresponding to transaction data items.

66. A system for determining possible lack of compliance with a compliance policy based on information stored in one or more heterogeneous enterprise systems, comprising:

an ontology expressing the predetermined data items in an ontology common across plural heterogeneous databases;

at least one computer-executable policy statement expressing a compliance policy based on informational relationships involving predetermined data items of electronic transactions stored in one or more heterogeneous enterprise systems in accordance with corresponding enterprise system schemas, the policy statement expressed in terms of the ontology;

a data extractor for extracting data from the enterprise systems identified by their corresponding enterprise system schemas;

a mapper for mapping the extracted data according to the ontology to transform the data into monitoring entities;

a monitoring database for storing the monitoring entities; and

a transaction analysis engine for executing the at least one policy statement against the monitoring entities in the monitoring database.

67. The system of claim 66, wherein the mapper is operative for adding metadata to form the monitoring entities.

68. The system of claim 67, wherein the metadata comprises revision information that allows comparison of different versions of an entity over a period of time, whereby the occurrence of changes over time to data in a data source are detected and preserved, so that multiple sequential versions of particular monitored entities are preserved.

69. The system of claim 68, wherein the metadata comprises a timestamp and actor identification information.

70. The system of claim 66, wherein the transaction analysis engine is operative for generating an exception in response to satisfaction of a condition expressed in a policy statement.

71. The system of claim 70, further comprising a display for displaying information relating to an exception, entities associated with the exception, and support entities associated with an exception or with an entity that triggered an exception.

72. The system of claim 70, further comprising a case management system for collecting information relating to one or more related exceptions as a case.

73. The system of claim 70, further comprising an exception handling module for displaying information relating to one or more support entities that are related to an entity that caused an exception.

74. The system of claim 66, wherein the extractor is initially operative for extracting an initial selected subset of information about monitored transactions from the enterprise system;

and thereafter responsive to changed data in the enterprise system, extracting a second selected subset of information about the changed data.

75. The system of claim 66, wherein the enterprise systems include one or more additional data sources that provide information supplemental to the electronic transactions.

76. The system of claim 75, wherein the additional data sources include an information technology (IT) system infrastructure equipment that provides data corresponding to IT system utilization.

77. The system of claim 76, wherein the IT system infrastructure equipment is selected from the group:

file server, application server, firewall, router, intrusion detection equipment, authentication server.

78. The system of claim 75, wherein the additional data sources include an external data source that provides data ancillary to a particular monitored transaction.

79. The system of claim 75, wherein the policy statement is operative on information from the additional data sources as well as the monitoring entities.

80. A method for determining possible lack of compliance with a compliance policy based on information stored in one or more heterogeneous enterprise systems, comprising the steps of:

determining a compliance policy based on informational relationships involving predetermined data items of electronic transactions stored in one or more heterogeneous enterprise systems in accordance with corresponding enterprise system schemas;

preparing an ontology to express the predetermined data items in an ontology common across plural heterogeneous databases;

preparing computer-executable policy statements to express the compliance policies in terms of the ontology;

extracting data from the enterprise systems identified by their corresponding enterprise system schemas;

mapping the extracted data according to the ontology to transform the data into monitoring entities;

storing the monitoring entities in a monitoring database; and

executing the policy statements against the monitoring entities in the monitoring database.

81. The method of claim 80, further comprising the step of adding metadata to form a monitoring entity that is stored in the monitoring database.

82. The method of claim 81, wherein the metadata comprises revision information that allows comparison of different versions of an entity over a period of time, whereby the occurrence of changes over time to data in a data source are detected and preserved, so that multiple sequential versions of particular monitored entities are preserved.

83. The method of claim 82, wherein the metadata comprises a timestamp and actor identification information.

84. The method of claim 80, further comprising the step of generating an exception in response to satisfaction of a condition expressed in a policy statement.

85. The method of claim 84, further comprising the step of displaying information relating to an exception, entities associated with the exception, and support entities associated with an exception or with an entity that triggered an exception.

86. The method of claim 84, further comprising the step of collecting information relating to one or more related exceptions as a case.

87. The method of claim 84, further comprising the step of collecting information relating to one or more support entities that are related to an entity that caused an exception.

88. The method of claim 80, wherein the step of extracting comprises the steps of:

extracting an initial selected subset of information about monitored transactions from the enterprise system; and

responsive to changed data in the enterprise system, extracting a second selected subset of information about the changed data.

89. The method of claim 80, wherein the enterprise systems include one or more additional data sources that provide information supplemental to the electronic transactions.

90. The method of claim 89, wherein the additional data sources include an information technology (IT) system infrastructure equipment that provides data corresponding to IT system utilization.

91. The method of claim 90, wherein the IT system infrastructure equipment is selected from the group:

file server, application server, firewall, router, intrusion detection equipment, authentication server.

92. The method of claim 89 wherein the additional data sources include an external data source that provides data ancillary to a particular monitored transaction.

93. The method of claim 89, wherein the policy statement is operative on information from the additional data sources as well as the monitoring entities.