FORMING A BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP NETWORK
First Claim
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1. A method of automatically determining and evaluating a business relationship network for forming 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, each navigable path of the plurality of navigable paths comprising nodes and links between at least some of the nodes;
analyzing feedback including stored historical information of successes and failures in generating business relationships of prior navigable paths from previously-generated business relationship networks;
determining evaluation criteria from the feedback and the mapping, wherein the determining of evaluation criteria includes;
determining that a value of “
n”
for n-degrees of separation between the source and the target for each of the plurality of navigable paths is less than or equal to a predetermined threshold;
assigning, based on attributes of each node, a tier value for each link in each of the plurality of navigable paths, resulting in a plurality of tier values; and
assigning each of the plurality of navigable paths to one of the plurality of tier values based on an order of the links from the source to the target and their tier values, wherein links represent relationships and the link closest to the source represents the most significant relationship to lead to a business relationship between the source and the target; and
identifying, by a processor of a computer system, based on the determined evaluation criteria, a subset of the plurality of navigable paths as candidate paths mapped from the collective knowledge set to generate a business relationship between the source and the target based on the evaluation criteria.
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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.
21 Citations
3 Claims
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1. A method of automatically determining and evaluating a business relationship network for forming business relationships, the method comprising:
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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, each navigable path of the plurality of navigable paths comprising nodes and links between at least some of the nodes; analyzing feedback including stored historical information of successes and failures in generating business relationships of prior navigable paths from previously-generated business relationship networks; determining evaluation criteria from the feedback and the mapping, wherein the determining of evaluation criteria includes; determining that a value of “
n”
for n-degrees of separation between the source and the target for each of the plurality of navigable paths is less than or equal to a predetermined threshold;assigning, based on attributes of each node, a tier value for each link in each of the plurality of navigable paths, resulting in a plurality of tier values; and assigning each of the plurality of navigable paths to one of the plurality of tier values based on an order of the links from the source to the target and their tier values, wherein links represent relationships and the link closest to the source represents the most significant relationship to lead to a business relationship between the source and the target; and identifying, by a processor of a computer system, based on the determined evaluation criteria, a subset of the plurality of navigable paths as candidate paths mapped from the collective knowledge set to generate a business relationship between the source and the target based on the evaluation criteria.
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2. A computer system to determine and evaluate a business relationship network for forming business relationships, the computer system comprising:
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data storage to store a collective knowledge set of business relationship information gathered from a plurality of sources, including historical information on successes and failures of using previously-generated business relationship networks to develop a business relationship; a processor; and a business relationship prospector comprising; a visualization module to map the collective knowledge set as a plurality of navigable paths forming the business relationship network between a source and a target, wherein at least one of the navigable paths includes a third party node and each of the plurality of navigable paths comprising nodes and links between at least some of the nodes; and a relationship finder module to; determine evaluation criteria from the stored historical information and the plurality of navigable paths, wherein the relationship finder module is to; determine that a value of “
n”
for n-degrees of separation between the source and the target for each of the plurality of navigable paths is less than or equal to a predetermined threshold;assign, based on attributes of each node, a tier value for each link in each of the plurality of navigable paths, resulting in a plurality of tier values; and assign each of the plurality of navigable paths to one of the plurality of tier values based on an order of the links from the source to the target and their tier values, wherein links represent relationships and the link closest to the source represents the most significant relationship to lead to a business relationship between the source and the target; and identify, based on the determined evaluation criteria, a subset of the plurality of navigable paths as candidate paths mapped from the collective knowledge set, to generate a business relationship between the source and the target.
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3. A computer system to determine and evaluate a business relationship network for forming business relationships, the computer system comprising:
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data storage to store a collective knowledge set of business relationship information gathered from a plurality of sources, including historical information on successes and failures of using previously-generated business relationship networks to develop a business relationship; a processor; and a business relationship prospector comprising; a visualization module to map the collective knowledge set as a plurality of navigable paths forming the business relationship network between a source and a target, wherein at least one of the navigable paths includes a third party node and each of the plurality of navigable paths comprising nodes and links between at least some of the nodes; and a relationship finder module to; determine evaluation criteria from the stored historical information and the plurality of navigable paths, wherein the relationship finder module is to; determine that a value of “
n”
for n-degrees of separation between the source and the target for each of the plurality of navigable paths is less than or equal to a predetermined threshold;assign, based on attributes of each node, a tier value for each link in each of the plurality of navigable paths, resulting in a plurality of tier values; and assign each of the plurality of navigable paths to one of the plurality of tier values representing a lowest tier valued link in the respective navigable path, wherein the lowest tier valued link is least likely of all links in the respective navigable path to lead to a business relationship between the source and the target; and identify, based on the determined evaluation criteria, a subset of the plurality of navigable paths as candidate paths mapped from the collective knowledge set, to generate a business relationship between the source and the target.
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Specification