Electronic Process-Driven Collaboration System

• US 20120084215A1
• Filed: 03/02/2011
• Published: 04/05/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/05/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Original Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Inventors: Holzman, Michael A., Nebolsky, Louis Charles, Trier, David E., Inestroza, Fausto A.
• Application Number:
  US13/039,291
• Publication Number:
  US 20120084215A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/301
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/103 Workflow collaboration or project management

Abstract

A business process-driven collaboration system embeds collaboration resources and tools directly into existing business processes and applications. The system interfaces with an existing business process management (BPM) service to extract dynamic metadata and an activity identifier associated with a current business process. The system obtains static metadata based on the activity identifier from a collaboration template. The system also merges the static and dynamic metadata, and provides the merged metadata to a process-driven collaboration service to be used in embedding collaboration utilities into the existing business applications.

Claims

1. A process-driven collaboration system for integration into a business process management system, comprising:

a processor;

a memory coupled to the processor, the memory comprising;

at least one collaboration template comprising;

multiple activity identifiers, wherein each activity identifier corresponds with a business activity of a business process associated with the business process management system; and

static metadata associated with each activity identifier;

instructions that, when executed, cause the processor to;

obtain an activity identifier corresponding to a current business process activity of the business process;

extract dynamic metadata from the business process management system corresponding to the current business process activity;

obtain static metadata from the at least one collaboration template based on the obtained activity identifier corresponding to the current business process activity;

merge the dynamic and static metadata; and

transmit the merged metadata to a process-driven collaboration service.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein obtaining an identification of a current business process activity comprises:

determining whether a business software application associated with the business process provides the activity identifier corresponding to the current business process activity; and

based on a determination that the business software application does not provide the activity identifier corresponding to the current business process activity, extracting the activity identifier corresponding to the current business process activity from the business process management system.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one collaboration template further comprises an identification of at least one recommended business activity associated with each of the activity identifiers.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the processor to:

obtain at least one recommended business activity from the at least one collaboration template based on the obtained activity identifier corresponding to the current business process activity; and

transmit the obtained at least one recommended business activity along with the merged metadata to the process-driven collaboration service.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the static metadata comprises a list of at least one searchable keyword associated with the corresponding activity identifier.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the processor to determine whether the current activity of the business process has changed.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein based on a determination that the current activity of the business process has changed to a new current activity, the instructions further cause the processor to:

obtain a new activity identifier corresponding to the new current activity;

obtain new static metadata corresponding to the new activity identifier;

extract new dynamic metadata corresponding to the new current activity;

merge the static and new dynamic metadata into new merged metadata;

transmit the new merged metadata to a process-driven collaboration service.

8. A process-driven collaboration system for integration into a business process management system, comprising:

a processor;

a memory coupled to the processor, the memory comprising instructions that, when executed, cause the processor to;

obtain an activity identifier corresponding to a current business process activity of the business process;

extract dynamic metadata from the business process management system corresponding to the current business process activity;

obtain static metadata from at least one collaboration template based on the obtained activity identifier;

merge the dynamic and static metadata; and

transmit the merged metadata to a process-driven collaboration service.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein obtaining an identification of a current business process activity comprises:

determining whether a business software application associated with the business process provides the activity identifier corresponding to the current business process activity; and

based on a determination that the business software application does not provide the activity identifier corresponding to the current business process activity, extracting the activity identifier corresponding to the current business process activity from the business process management system.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the at least one collaboration template comprises:

multiple activity identifiers, wherein each activity identifier corresponds with a business activity of a business process associated with the business process management system; and

static metadata associated with each activity identifier.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the at least one collaboration template further comprises an identification of at least one recommended business activity associated with each of the activity identifiers.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the processor to:

obtain at least one recommended business activity from the at least one collaboration template based on the obtained activity identifier corresponding to the current business process activity; and

transmit the obtained at least one recommended business activity along with the merged metadata to the process-driven collaboration service.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the static metadata comprises a list of at least one searchable keyword associated with the corresponding activity identifier.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the processor to determine whether the current activity of the business process has changed.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein based on a determination that the current activity of the business process has changed to a new current activity, the instructions further cause the processor to:

obtain a new activity identifier corresponding to the new current activity;

obtain new static metadata corresponding to the new activity identifier;

extract new dynamic metadata corresponding to the new current activity;

merge the new static and new dynamic metadata into new merged metadata;

transmit the new merged metadata to a process-driven collaboration service.

16. A method for integration process-driven collaboration into a business process management system, comprising:

obtaining, using a process-driven collaboration computer processor, an activity identifier corresponding to a current business process activity of the business process;

extracting, using the processor, dynamic metadata from the business process management system corresponding to the current business process activity;

obtaining, using the processor, static metadata from at least one collaboration template based on the obtained activity identifier;

merging, using the processor, the dynamic and static metadata; and

transmitting the merged metadata to a process-driven collaboration service.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein obtaining an identification of a current business process activity comprises:

determining whether a business software application associated with the business process provides the activity identifier corresponding to the current business process activity; and

based on a determination that the business software application does not provide the activity identifier corresponding to the current business process activity, extracting the activity identifier corresponding to the current business process activity from the business process management system.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the at least one collaboration template comprises:

multiple activity identifiers, wherein each activity identifier corresponds with a business activity of a business process associated with the business process management system; and

static metadata associated with each activity identifier.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the at least one collaboration template further comprises an identification of at least one recommended business activity associated with each of the activity identifiers.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

obtaining at least one recommended business activity from the at least one collaboration template based on the obtained activity identifier corresponding to the current business process activity; and

transmitting the obtained at least one recommended business activity along with the merged metadata to the process-driven collaboration service.

21. The method of claim 16, further comprising determining whether the current activity of the business process has changed.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising, responsive to a determination that the current activity of the business process has changed to a new current activity:

obtaining a new activity identifier corresponding to the new current activity;

obtaining new static metadata corresponding to the new activity identifier;

extracting new dynamic metadata corresponding to the new current activity;

merging the static and new dynamic metadata into new merged metadata;

transmitting the new merged metadata to a process-driven collaboration service.