Using Alerts to Bring Attention to In-Store Information

• US 20090276280A1
• Filed: 04/30/2008
• Published: 11/05/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Target Brands Inc. (Target Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Target Brands Inc. (Target Corporation)
• Inventors: Lund, Stephanie W., Busch, Eric P., Eberhardt, Carlos R., Neuenschwander, Robb S., Sawyer, Donald L., Whitsitt, Michael S., Tetter, Ryan R., Van Epern, Lucas W.
• Granted Patent: US 7,890,370 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/9
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems

Abstract

A method is provided that uses alerts to bring in-store information that is of interest to the attention of team members working in a retail store. To send an alert to a team member logged in to a device data, data from a source is evaluated against business rules. An event is generated when a piece of data satisfies the business rules. The event indicates that the piece of data is of interest. A task is activated for the event and assigned to the team member acting in a role associated with the source of the event. An alert is sent to the device that the team member is logged in to indicating that the team member has been assigned the task.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

evaluating point-of-sale data using a plurality of event rules, the event rules identifying pieces of point-of-sale data that trigger events;

generating an event when one of the pieces of point-of-sale data satisfies the event rules, wherein one of a plurality of different business areas is associated with the event is associated with a source;

determining that a task should be activated for the event;

assigning the task to a user acting in a user role of a business area of the event based on the source, wherein the user role is associated with the task; and

sending an alert to at least one client device that the user in the user role of the business area has logged in to, the alert indicating that the user has been assigned the task.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the point-of-sales data is generated by a plurality of different point-of-sale applications running on a plurality of different point-of-sale registers.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the point-of-sale data comprises real-time sales transaction data, menu driven data inputted into point-of-sales registers by a cashier via a selectable menu list, workflow stopping data and historical process transaction data.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

comparing the event against open tasks associated with the source using closing task rules to determine if the event is instructive of closing any of the open tasks;

flagging at least one open task as closed based on the comparison; and

updating the at least one flagged open task to indicate it is closed.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein determining that a task should be activated for the event comprises:

comparing the event against other open events using a duplicate rule to determine whether the event already exists, wherein the duplicate rule defines a matching level from a set of hierarchical matching levels that was previously assigned to the event to perform the comparison.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising activating the task for the event if the duplicate rule indicates the event is not a duplicate of other open events.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein sending the alert to at least one client device that a user in the user role of the business area has logged in to further comprises sending the alert to a client device that a user in the user role in another business area has logged into.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending a new alert to a supervisor if no user is logged in to the select user role in any of the business areas in a store.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

activating a new task for the event when the user fails to perform the task assigned to the user role associated with the business area before an expiration time for the task;

assigning the new task to a different user of the user role associated with a different business area; and

sending a new alert to at least one client device that the different user of the user role of the select business area has logged on to, the new alert indicating that the different user has been assigned the new task.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising storing the new task along with the event and the task assigned to the user role associated with the business area in an event/task database.

11. A system comprising:

event rules identifying point-of-sale data that triggers events;

at least one event generator configured to apply the point-of-sale data to the event rules and to generate an event when one of the event rules triggers the event from a piece of point-of-sale data, wherein source information is associated with the event;

a task handler configured to;

determine that a task should be activated for the event;

assign the task to a user acting in a position of a business section of a store associated with the source information; and

send an alert to at least one client device that the user in the position of the business section of the store is logged in to, the alert indicating that the user has been assigned the task.

12. The system of claim 11, further comprising a database configured to save the event along with the activated task, the saved event and task including an indication that the task was assigned to the user.

13. The system of claim 12, further comprising a task retriever configured to:

retrieve open tasks for the at least one client device from the database based on the user position and the business section of the store for the user logged in to the client device;

score the open tasks using scoring rules; and

send the open tasks to the at least one client device in a prioritized order based on the score for each of the open tasks.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the task retriever is further configured to update the prioritized order of the open tasks for the at least one client device upon at least one of the open tasks being closed.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the task retriever is further configured to access the database for detailed information regarding one of the open tasks assigned to the user position of the business section of the store and configured to send the detailed information to the at least one client device.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the alert is sent to the at least one client device via an instant message communicator such that the alert is pushed to the at least one client device.

17. A method comprising:

receiving an event when business data satisfies one of a plurality of event rules, the event associated with a source;

comparing the event against other open events using a duplicate rule to determine whether the event already exists, wherein the duplicate rule defines a matching level from a set of hierarchical matching levels that was previously assigned to the event to perform the comparison;

activating a task for the event if the duplicate rule indicates the event is not a duplicate of other open events; and

sending an alert to at least one client device for a business area indicating that the user of the at least one client device has been assigned the task.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

comparing the event against open tasks associated with the source using closing task rules to determine if the event is instructive of closing any of the open tasks;

flagging at least one open task as closed based on the comparison; and

changing an attribute value of the at least one flagged open task to closed.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

retrieving open tasks for the user of the at least one client device from the database based on the user role and the business area that have been assigned to the user; and

scoring the open tasks using scoring rules; and

sending the open tasks to the at least one client device in a prioritized order based on the score for each of the open tasks.

20. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

activating a new task for the event when the user fails to perform the task assigned to the user before an expiration of time;

assigning the new task to a supervisor of the user; and

sending a new alert to at least one client device that the supervisor has logged in to, the new alert indicating that the supervisor has been assigned the new task.

21. A method comprising:

providing a database of events and tasks where each event is associated with at least one task and each event indicates a source that generates business data that triggered the event and each task indicating an action that a user needs to perform based on the event;

receiving a new event associated with the source;

comparing the new event against open tasks in the database that are associated with the source using closing task rules to determine if the new event is instructive of closing any of the open tasks of the source; and

setting an open task as closed based on the comparison between the new event and open tasks using the closing task rules.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

comparing the new event against other open events using a duplicate rule to determine whether the new event should be considered a duplicate of an open event if the new event is not instructive of closing any of the open tasks of the source, wherein the duplicate rule defines a matching level from a set of hierarchical matching levels that was previously assigned to the new event to perform the comparison;

activating a task for the new event if the duplicate rule indicates the new event is not a duplicate of other open events; and

sending an alert to at least one client device for a store area of the source indicating that the user of the at least one client device has been assigned the task.

23. The method of claim 22, further comprising:

receiving a request from the at least one client device for a task list of all open tasks assigned to the user of the client device;

retrieving open tasks for the user from the database based on the user role and the store area covered by the user;

scoring the open tasks using scoring rules; and

sending the open tasks to the at least one client device in a prioritized order based on the score for each of the open tasks.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising:

accessing the database for the detailed information regarding the open task; and

sending the detailed information to the at least one client device.

25. The method of claim 23, further comprising:

receiving notification from the at least one client device to close one of the open tasks; and

updating the open task in the database to closed.