Managing Consistent Interfaces for Retail Business Objects Across Heterogeneous Systems

• US 20090248547A1
• Filed: 03/31/2008
• Published: 10/01/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Grendel, Alexander, Scheerer, Dieter, Doenig, Susanne, Lankau, Sabine, Rajamohan, Devasena, Zuerl, Ruediger, Weiler, Thomas, Gabelmann, Thomas, Corbeil, Jean, Mohammadian, Maryam, Bommer, Harald
• Granted Patent: US 8,589,263 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/28
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/067 Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders

Abstract

A business object model, which reflects data that is used during a given business transaction, is utilized to generate interfaces. This business object model facilitates commercial transactions by providing consistent interfaces that are suitable for use across industries, across businesses, and across different departments within a business during a business transaction. In some operations, software creates, updates, or otherwise processes information related to a retail allocation and/or a retail event business object.

Claims

1. A computer readable medium including program code for providing a message-based interface for performing a retail allocation service, the service exposing at least one service as defined in a service registry, wherein upon execution the program code executes in an environment of computer systems providing message-based services and comprises:

program code for receiving, from a service consumer, a first message for planning and controlling distribution of merchandise as a part of the procurement process between external suppliers, distribution centers and stores in the retail industry;

program code for invoking a retail allocation business object, wherein the business object is a logically centralized, semantically disjointed object for planning and defining products, quantities and participating stores, including contracting, procurement, purchasing, and shipping of retail products, and comprises data logically organized as;

a retail allocation root node; and

an item subordinate node and wherein the item node contains;

an item store group subordinate node and wherein the item store group node contains;

an item store group store subordinate node wherein the item store group store node contains;

an item store group store delivery phase subordinate node; and

an item ship from location subordinate node and wherein the item ship from location node contains;

an item ship from location delivery phase subordinate node; and

program code for initiating transmission of a message to a heterogeneous second application, executing in the environment of computer systems providing message-based services, based on the data in the retail allocation business object, the message comprising a retail allocation create request message entity, a message header package, and a retail allocation package.

2. A computer readable medium including program code for providing a message-based interface for performing a retail allocation service, the service exposing at least one service as defined in a service registry, wherein upon execution the program code executes in an environment of computer systems providing message-based services and comprises:

program code for initiating transmission of a message to a heterogeneous second application, executing in the environment of computer systems providing message-based services, based on data in a retail allocation business object invoked by the second application, wherein the business object is a logically centralized, semantically disjointed object for planning and defining products, quantities and participating stores, including contracting, procurement, purchasing, and shipping of retail products, and comprises data logically organized as;

a retail allocation root node; and

an item subordinate node and wherein the item node contains;

an item store group subordinate node and wherein the item store group node contains;

an item store group store subordinate node wherein the item store group store node contains;

an item store group store delivery phase subordinate node; and

an item ship from location subordinate node and wherein the item ship from location node contains;

an item ship from location delivery phase subordinate node;

and the message comprising a retail allocation create request message entity, a message header package and a retail allocation package; and

program code for receiving a second message from the second application, the second message associated with the invoked retail allocation business object and in response to the first message.

3. A distributed system operating in a landscape of computer systems providing message-based services, the system processing business objects involving planning and controlling distribution of merchandise as a part of the procurement process between external suppliers, distribution centers and stores in the retail industry and comprising:

memory storing a business object repository storing a plurality of business objects, wherein each business object is a logically centralized, semantically disjointed object of a particular business object type and at least one of the business objects is for planning and defining products, quantities and participating stores, including contracting, procurement, purchasing and shipping of retail products and comprises data logically organized as;

a retail allocation root node; and

an item subordinate node and wherein the item node contains;

an item store group subordinate node and wherein the item store group node contains;

an item store group store subordinate node wherein the item store group store node contains;

an item store group store delivery phase subordinate node; and

an item ship from location subordinate node and wherein the item ship from location node contains;

an item ship from location delivery phase subordinate node; and

a graphical user interface remote from the memory for presenting data associated with an invoked instance of the retail allocation business object, the interface comprising computer readable instructions embodied on tangible media.

4. A computer readable medium including program code for providing a message-based interface for performing a retail event service, the service exposing at least one service as defined in a service registry, wherein upon execution the program code executes in an environment of computer systems providing message-based services and comprises:

program code for receiving, from a service consumer, a first message for processing information for business activities used to increase sales;

program code for invoking a retail event business object, wherein the business object is a logically centralized, semantically disjointed object for a retail-specific business activity used to increase sales and comprises data logically organized as;

a retail event root node;

a description subordinate node;

an event unit subordinate node; and

an offer subordinate node and wherein the offer node contains;

an offer description subordinate node; and

an offer product group subordinate node and wherein the offer product group node contains;

an offer product group product subordinate node; and

program code for initiating transmission of a message to a heterogeneous second application, executing in the environment of computer systems providing message-based services, based on the data in the retail event business object, the message comprising a retail event create request message entity, a message header package, and a retail event package.

7. The program code of claim 4, wherein processing includes creating, updating and/or retrieving.

5. A computer readable medium including program code for providing a message-based interface for performing a retail event service, the service exposing at least one service as defined in a service registry, wherein upon execution the program code executes in an environment of computer systems providing message-based services and comprises:

program code for initiating transmission of a message to a heterogeneous second application, executing in the environment of computer systems providing message-based services, based on data in a retail event business object invoked by the second application, wherein the business object is a logically centralized, semantically disjointed object for a retail-specific business activity used to increase sales and comprises data logically organized as;

a retail event root node;

a description subordinate node;

an event unit subordinate node; and

an offer subordinate node and wherein the offer node contains;

an offer description subordinate node; and

an offer product group subordinate node and wherein the offer product group node contains;

an offer product group product subordinate node;

and the message comprising a retail event create request message entity, a message header package, and a retail event package; and

program code for receiving a second message from the second application, the second message associated with the invoked retail event business object and in response to the first message.

6. A distributed system operating in a landscape of computer systems providing message-based services, the system processing business objects involving creating, updating, and retrieving information for business activities used to increase sales and comprising:

memory storing a business object repository storing a plurality of business objects, wherein each business object is a logically centralized, semantically disjointed object of a particular business object type and at least one of the business objects is for a retail-specific business activity used to increase sales, and comprises data logically organized as;

a retail event root node;

a description subordinate node;

an event unit subordinate node; and

an offer subordinate node and wherein the offer node contains;

an offer description subordinate node; and

an offer product group subordinate node and wherein the offer product group node contains;

an offer product group product subordinate node; and

a graphical user interface remote from the memory for presenting data associated with an invoked instance of the retail event business object, the interface comprising computer readable instructions embodied on tangible media.