Generating Report of Identifiers and Time Values

• US 20130018926A1
• Filed: 07/13/2011
• Published: 01/17/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 07/13/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Schmidt, Olaf, Fischer, Martin P.
• Granted Patent: US 8,484,206 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/805
• 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: H04L 51/00 User-to-user messaging in packet-switching networks, transmitted according to store-and-forward or real-time protocols, e.g. e-mail
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/234 for tracking messages

Abstract

Among other disclosure, a computer-implemented method for business process reporting includes receiving, at a server device, a first identifier of a business document, the business document being an instance of a business document type and having a first timestamp. The method includes polling multiple systems with the first identifier using the server device, the polling requesting (i) second identifiers for related objects of the business document according to a relationship model that is local to the system being polled, and (ii) metadata associated with the second identifiers, including second timestamps associated with the related objects; performing polling of at least some of the multiple systems with the second identifiers and any subsequently received identifiers using the server device, until the polling has been performed for all received identifiers. The method includes generating a report regarding the business document, the report including at least the received identifiers and all received timestamps.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for business process reporting, the method comprising:

receiving, at a server device, a first identifier of a business document, the business document being an instance of a business document type and having a first timestamp;

polling multiple systems with the first identifier using the server device, the polling requesting (i) second identifiers for related objects of the business document according to a relationship model that is local to the system being polled, and (ii) metadata associated with the second identifiers, including second timestamps associated with the related objects;

performing polling of at least some of the multiple systems with the second identifiers and any subsequently received identifiers using the server device, until the polling has been performed for all received identifiers; and

generating a report regarding the business document, the report including at least the received identifiers and all received timestamps.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

processing the received timestamps to calculate aggregate times for at least the business document and the related objects.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

grouping the first and second timestamps on a system basis;

identifying clusters of correlated objects based at least on the groupings, where the correlated objects are determined the related objects of the business document; and

generating a three-dimensional graph that shows the identified clusters, where a first dimension of the graph represents the respective system, a second dimension of the graph represents a nominal value, and a third dimension of the graph represents mean processing times for the correlated objects of the business document.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving, at the server device, at least one benchmark value for a user-defined threshold for a maximum processing time;

identifying, using the received timestamps, that the benchmark value is exceeded; and

highlighting at least one relationship in the report based on the identification.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

identifying business process bottlenecks among the related objects.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 where polling the multiple systems is done using application-specific callback functions.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

using a graph data structure to represent the business document, where the nodes of the graph data structure include a node representing the business document and nodes representing the objects and sub-objects that are related to the business document, and where the edges of the graph data structure include time values associated with adjacent nodes.

8. A computer program product tangibly embodied in a computer-readable storage medium and comprising instructions that when executed by a processor perform a method for business process reporting, the method comprising:

receiving, at a server device, a first identifier of a business document, the business document being an instance of a business document type and having a first timestamp;

polling multiple systems with the first identifier using the server device, the polling requesting (i) second identifiers for related objects of the business document according to a relationship model that is local to the system being polled, and (ii) metadata associated with the second identifiers, including second timestamps associated with the related objects;

performing polling of at least some of the multiple systems with the second identifiers and any subsequently received identifiers using the server device, until the polling has been performed for all received identifiers; and

generating a report regarding the business document, the report including at least the received identifiers and all received timestamps.

9. The computer program product of claim 8, the method further comprising:

processing the received timestamps to calculate aggregate times for at least the business document and the related objects.

10. The computer program product of claim 8, the method further comprising:

grouping the first and second timestamps on a system basis;

identifying clusters of correlated objects based at least on the groupings, where the correlated objects are determined the related objects of the business document; and

generating a three-dimensional graph that shows the identified clusters, where a first dimension of the graph represents the respective system, a second dimension of the graph represents a nominal value, and a third dimension of the graph represents mean processing times for the correlated objects of the business document.

11. The computer program product of claim 8, the method further comprising:

receiving, at the server device, at least one benchmark value for a user-defined threshold for a maximum processing time;

identifying, using the received timestamps, that the benchmark value is exceeded; and

highlighting at least one relationship in the report based on the identification.

12. The computer program product of claim 8, the method further comprising:

identifying business process bottlenecks among the related objects.

13. The computer program product of claim 8, where polling the multiple systems is done using application-specific callback functions.

14. The computer program product of claim 8, the method further comprising:

using a graph data structure to represent the business document, where the nodes of the graph data structure include a node representing the business document and nodes representing the objects and sub-objects that are related to the business document, and where the edges of the graph data structure include time values associated with adjacent nodes.

15. A computer system comprising:

one or more processors; and

a computer program product tangibly embodied in a computer-readable storage medium and comprising instructions that when executed by the processor perform a method for business process reporting, the method comprising;

receiving, at a server device, a first identifier of a business document, the business document being an instance of a business document type and having a first timestamp;

polling multiple systems with the first identifier using the server device, the polling requesting (i) second identifiers for related objects of the business document according to a relationship model that is local to the system being polled, and (ii) metadata associated with the second identifiers, including second timestamps associated with the related objects;

performing polling of at least some of the multiple systems with the second identifiers and any subsequently received identifiers using the server device, until the polling has been performed for all received identifiers; and

generating a report regarding the business document, the report including at least the received identifiers and all received timestamps.

16. The computer system of claim 15, the method further comprising:

processing the received timestamps to calculate aggregate times for at least the business document and the related objects.

17. The computer system of claim 15, the method further comprising:

grouping the first and second timestamps on a system basis;

identifying clusters of correlated objects based at least on the groupings, where the correlated objects are determined the related objects of the business document; and

generating a three-dimensional graph that shows the identified clusters, where a first dimension of the graph represents the respective system, a second dimension of the graph represents a nominal value, and a third dimension of the graph represents mean processing times for the correlated objects of the business document.

18. The computer system of claim 15, the method further comprising:

receiving, at the server device, at least one benchmark value for a user-defined threshold for a maximum processing time;

identifying, using the received timestamps, that the benchmark value is exceeded; and

highlighting at least one relationship in the report based on the identification.

19. The computer system of claim 15, where polling the multiple systems is done using application-specific callback functions.

20. The computer system of claim 15, the method further comprising:

using a graph data structure to represent the business document, where the nodes of the graph data structure include a node representing the business document and nodes representing the objects and sub-objects that are related to the business document, and where the edges of the graph data structure include time values associated with adjacent nodes.