Integrating Action Requests from a Plurality of Spoke Systems at a Hub System

• US 20120185290A1
• Filed: 01/13/2011
• Published: 07/19/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/13/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: BMC Software Incorporated (KKR & Co., Inc.)
• Original Assignee: BMC Software Incorporated (KKR & Co., Inc.)
• Inventors: Mueller, Douglas
• Granted Patent: US 10,592,829 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7.15
• 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

Abstract

Disclosed are methods and systems to automatically integrate work requests from multiple Spoke systems at a centralized Hub system. In one embodiment, a Hub system receives a portion of a work request from a problem tracking system executing in the region (e.g., geographic area or network subnet) of an associated Spoke system. The request comprises enough information for the Hub system to prioritize this work request against other work requests already received from this same Spoke system, other Spoke systems in the same region, or even other Spoke systems from other regions. A Hub user can then be presented with an integrated work queue of requests to service after they have been properly prioritized. The Hub user may be supporting multiple clients in an outsourcing style Information Technology (IT) support model or a call center model. Supported clients can execute on different data center platforms, at the same time.

Claims

1. A method of operating a central computer system to provide support for one or more enterprise infrastructure technology (IT) environments, the method comprising:

receiving, at a central computer system, a first sub-ticket from a first remote system, the first sub-ticket comprising a portion, less than all, of attributes associated with a first trouble ticket at the first remote system;

receiving, at the central computer system, a second sub-ticket from a second remote system, the second sub-ticket comprising a portion, less than all, of attributes associated with a second trouble ticket at the second remote system;

integrating, by the central computer system, information from the first sub-ticket and the second sub-ticket to form a consolidated information set;

prioritizing between the first sub-ticket and the second sub-ticket;

providing an indication of prioritized consolidated information regarding sub-tickets to a user of the central computer system;

receiving an indication from the user selecting either the first sub-ticket or the second sub-ticket for attention from the user; and

providing an indication to initiate a session to the first or second remote system based upon which system originated the selected sub-ticket.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

assigning a work item representing received trouble ticket information to a selected user of the central computer system.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of providing an indication to initiate a session comprises:

providing an indication to open a window on a screen accessible to the user, the window comprising information from a remote end of the session.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the window originates from the remote end of the session and is hosted at a near end of the session.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the window represents a terminal connection to the remote end of the session.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the central computer system is in a different region from the first remote system or the second remote system.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the central computer system is in a different region from both the first remote system and the second remote system.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein different regions are associated with different geographical locations.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein different regions are associated with different portions of an organization.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein transmission of complete information associated with the first trouble ticket to the central computer system is prohibited.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein storage of information required to address the first trouble ticket at the central computer system is prohibited.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein transmission of complete information associated with the first trouble ticket to the central computer system is prohibited.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein storage of information required to address the first trouble ticket at the central computer system is prohibited.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the central computer system comprises a plurality of computers communicatively coupled to each other.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the first remote system comprises a single system.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the first remote system comprises a plurality of computers communicatively coupled to each other.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the first remote system utilizes a first trouble ticket maintenance software application and the second remote system utilizes a second trouble ticket maintenance software application.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the first and second trouble ticket maintenance software applications are different versions of a common software application.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the first and second trouble ticket maintenance software applications are different software applications.

20. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

updating a status corresponding to a trouble ticket associated with the selected sub-ticket via the session; and

propagating at least a portion of the updated status information to the central computer system.

21. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

updating a status corresponding to a trouble ticket associated the selected sub-ticket at the central computer system; and

propagating at least a portion of the updated status information back to the trouble ticket'"'"'s originating region.

22. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising computer readable instructions stored thereon to cause a processing device of a central computer system to:

receive a first sub-ticket from a first remote system, the first sub-ticket comprising a portion, less than all, of attributes associated with a first trouble ticket at the first remote system;

receive a second sub-ticket from a second remote system, the second sub-ticket comprising a portion, less than all, of attributes associated with a second trouble ticket at the second remote system;

integrate information from the first sub-ticket and the second sub-ticket to form a consolidated information set;

prioritize between the first sub-ticket and the second sub-ticket;

provide an indication of prioritized consolidated information regarding sub-tickets to a user of the central computer system;

receive an indication from the user selecting either the first sub-ticket or the second sub-ticket for attention from the user; and

provide an indication to initiate a session to the first or second remote system based upon which system originated the selected sub-ticket.

23. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 22 further comprising computer readable instructions stored thereon to cause the processing device of the central computer system to:

provide an indication to open a window on a screen accessible to the user, the window comprising information from a remote end of the session.

24. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 22,

wherein the central computer system is in a different region from the first remote system or the second remote system.

25. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 22,

wherein the first remote system utilizes a first trouble ticket maintenance software application and the second remote system utilizes a second trouble ticket maintenance software application.

26. A computer network comprising:

a plurality of processing units communicatively coupled to the computer network and collectively configured to;

receive a first sub-ticket from a first remote system, the first sub-ticket comprising a portion, less than all, of attributes associated with a first trouble ticket at the first remote system;

receive a second sub-ticket from a second remote system, the second sub-ticket comprising a portion, less than all, of attributes associated with a second trouble ticket at the second remote system;

integrate information from the first sub-ticket and the second sub-ticket to form a consolidated information set;

prioritize between the first sub-ticket and the second sub-ticket;

provide an indication of prioritized consolidated information regarding sub-tickets to a user of the central computer system;

receive an indication from the user selecting either the first sub-ticket or the second sub-ticket for attention from the user; and

provide an indication to initiate a session to the first or second remote system based upon which system originated the selected sub-ticket.

27. A computer system comprising one or more programmable control devices communicatively coupled to each other and to a computer network, wherein the one or more programmable control devices are programmed to:

receive a first sub-ticket from a first remote system, the first sub-ticket comprising a portion, less than all, of attributes associated with a first trouble ticket at the first remote system;

receive a second sub-ticket from a second remote system, the second sub-ticket comprising a portion, less than all, of attributes associated with a second trouble ticket at the second remote system;

integrate information from the first sub-ticket and the second sub-ticket to form a consolidated information set;

prioritize between the first sub-ticket and the second sub-ticket;

provide an indication of prioritized consolidated information regarding sub-tickets to a user of the central computer system;

receive an indication from the user selecting either the first sub-ticket or the second sub-ticket for attention from the user; and

provide an indication to initiate a session to the first or second remote system based upon which system originated the selected sub-ticket.