Forming a business relationship network

• US 20080086343A1
• Filed: 10/10/2006
• Published: 04/10/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/10/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Original Assignee: Accenture (Accenture PLC)
• Inventors: Pendergraft, David R., Miller, Michael P.
• Granted Patent: US 8,249,903 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7
• 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 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data

Abstract

A collective knowledge set of business relationship information from a plurality of sources is generated. The collective knowledge set is mapped as a plurality of navigable paths forming a business relationship network between a source and a target. One or more of the paths are identified as candidate paths most likely to lead to a business relationship between the source and the target based on evaluation criteria.

Claims

21. A computer system comprising:

data storage operable to store a collective knowledge set of business relationship information gathered from a plurality of sources; and

a business relationship prospector operable to map the collective knowledge set as a plurality of navigable paths forming a business relationship network between a source and a target, wherein at least one of the navigable paths includes a third party node.

1. A method of automatically determining a business relationship network for developing business relationships, the method comprising:

generating a collective knowledge set of business relationship information from a plurality of sources;

mapping the collective knowledge set as a plurality of navigable paths forming a business relationship network between a source and a target;

analyzing feedback related to one or more of successes and failures of generating business relationships using prior navigable paths from previously-generated business relationship networks;

determining evaluation criteria from the feedback; and

identifying one or more of the plurality of navigable paths mapped from the collective knowledge set as candidate paths most likely to lead to a business relationship between the source and the target based on the evaluation criteria.

2. The method of claim 1, where the plurality of navigable paths comprise paths between the source and the target and one or more of the plurality of navigable paths include multiple third party nodes.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

analyzing the feedback; and

determining business guidance points from the feedback; and

notifying a user of the business guidance points, such that the user is operable to follow the business guidance points to further a business objective.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the business guidance points comprise high target participation third party nodes or third party nodes that have been successful or unsuccessful for generating business relationships.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the business guidance points comprise instructing the user that a predetermined number of navigable paths are to be followed to achieve at least a predetermined probability of success for generating a business relationship with the target.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a business objective; and

using the feedback to develop at least some of the evaluation criteria to achieve the business objective.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

weighting the candidate paths using the evaluation criteria, wherein the weight of each candidate path is representative of an ability to satisfy a business objective using the candidate path.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the weighting is based on attributes of one or more of links and nodes in each candidate path.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

updating the evaluation criteria based on analysis of new feedback.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

using the feedback to determine types of data to be collected for the collective knowledge set, such that the collected data includes data most likely to lead to a business relationship between the source and the target.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

using the feedback to determine whether to add or remove one or more of the plurality of sources for the collective knowledge set.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein mapping the collective knowledge set as a plurality of navigable paths forming a business relationship network between a source and a target further comprises:

identifying third party nodes associated with the source and the target from the collective data set; and

determining the plurality of navigable paths between the source and the target, such that at least some of the navigable paths include one or more of the third party nodes.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

determining attributes for the source, the target, and the third party nodes; and

matching the attributes for the source, the target, and the third party nodes to determine the navigable paths.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a visualization of the business relationship network including the plurality of navigable paths.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the visualization shows n-degrees of separation for the plurality of navigable paths representing indirect business relationships.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the visualization shows profiles for at least one of the source, the third party node, and the destination in at least one of the plurality of navigable paths.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the visualization comprises a plurality of visualizations representing the business relationship network, wherein each of the plurality of visualizations represents a layer of the business relationship network.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein the visualization shows high target participant third party nodes.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of sources comprises at least one of internal structured data, internal unstructured data, external structured data, and external unstructured data.

20. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

associating the plurality of navigable paths with tiers based on the evaluation criteria, wherein the tiers are representative of a weighting of the ability to develop a business relationship using the navigable paths.

22. The computer system of claim 21, wherein the business relationship prospector is operable to identify one or more of the navigable paths as candidate paths most likely to lead to a business relationship between the source and the target based on evaluation criteria.

23. The computer system of claim 21, wherein the business relationship prospector comprises a relationship finder module operable to guide a search tool for collecting the knowledge set and perform the mapping of the collective knowledge set as the plurality of navigable paths forming the business relationship network.

24. The computer system of claim 21, wherein the business relationship prospector comprises a feedback module operable to analyze feedback related to one or more of successes and failures of generating business relationships by following navigable paths in previously-generated business relationship networks.

25. The computer system of claim 24, wherein the business relationship prospector is operable to determine business guidance points from the analysis of the feedback, and notify a user of the business guidance points, such that the user is operable to use the business guidance points to further a business objective.

26. The computer system of claim 24, wherein the business relationship prospector is operable to determine at least some of the evaluation criteria based on the analysis of the feedback.

27. The computer system of claim 26, wherein the business relationship prospector is operable to weight the candidate paths using the evaluation criteria, wherein the weight of each candidate path is representative of an ability to satisfy a business objective using the candidate path.

27-1. The computer system of claim 24, wherein the business relationship prospector comprises a visualization module operable to determine at least one visual representation of the business relationship network showing the navigable paths.

28. A computer program embedded on a computer readable storage medium, the computer program including instructions that when executed by a processor implement a method comprising:

mapping a collective knowledge set of business relationship information as a plurality of navigable paths forming a business relationship network between a source and a target, wherein the collective knowledge set is collected from a plurality of sources;

determining evaluation criteria from feedback related to one or more of successes and failures of generating business relationships using prior navigable paths from previously-generated business relationship networks; and

identifying one or more of the plurality of navigable paths as candidate paths most likely to lead to a business relationship between the source and the target based on evaluation criteria.

29. The computer program embedded on a computer readable storage medium of claim 28, wherein the plurality of navigable paths comprise paths between the source and the target and one or more of the paths include multiple third party nodes.

30. The computer program embedded on a computer readable storage medium of claim 28, wherein the method further comprises:

determining business guidance points from the feedback; and

notifying a user of the business guidance points, such that the user is operable to follow the business guidance points to further a business objective.

31. The computer program embedded on a computer readable storage medium of claim 28, wherein the method further comprises:

using the feedback to develop at least some of the evaluation criteria to achieve a business objective.

32. The computer program embedded on a computer readable storage medium of claim 31, wherein the method further comprises:

weighting the candidate paths using the evaluation criteria, wherein the weight of each candidate path is representative of an ability to satisfy a business objective using the candidate path.

33. The computer program embedded on a computer readable storage medium of claim 28, wherein mapping the collective knowledge set as a plurality of navigable further comprises:

determining attributes for the source, the target, and third party nodes from the collective knowledge set; and

matching the attributes for the source, the target, and the third party nodes to determine the plurality of navigable paths.

34. A method of automatically determining a business relationship network for developing business relationships for a client, the method comprising:

generating a collective knowledge set of business relationship information from a plurality of sources;

mapping the collective knowledge set as a plurality of navigable paths forming a business relationship network between a source and a target; and

identifying one or more of the navigable paths as candidate paths most likely to lead to a business relationship between the source and the target based on evaluation criteria; and

providing the candidate paths to the client, such that the client is operable to select one or more of the candidate paths to use for satisfying a business objective.

35. The method of claim 34, further comprising:

analyzing feedback related to one or more of successes and failures of prior navigable paths from previously-generated business relationship networks; and

using the feedback to develop at least some of the evaluation criteria to achieve the business objective.

36. The method of claim 35, further comprising:

weighting the candidate paths using the evaluation criteria, wherein the weight of each candidate path is representative of an ability to satisfy the business objective using the candidate path.