System And Method To Measure, Aggregate And Analyze Exact Effort And Time Productivity
First Claim
1. A computer implemented system for measuring, aggregating and analyze the exact effort and time productivity of at least one user, said system comprising:
- at least one Computing System (CS) Agent associated with at least one user accessing at least one Server, said CS Agent adapted to automatically measure and generate consolidated and exact online and offline effort data throughout the day (24 hours) and week (7 days), said CS Agent having access to;
a master list for each user containing his or her Purposes and Activities, role and business attributes, said master list automatically preconfigured at the organization level Server based on the user'"'"'s role and other work related attributes; and
a rule and pattern mapping engine containing the organization settings and current user specific mapping rules for mapping applications and offline and offline slots;
a user identifier adapted to identify a user by his or her unique login ID available with the Computing System, said user identifier further configured to prompt the user for the ID in case a neutral login ID is being used by more than one user;
a time tracker having access to said CS agent and adapted to track the user'"'"'s online time on a currently active user application and associated artifact (file, folder, website) from a multiplicity of open applications on the Computing System, and record the name of the active application and artifact names and duration of usage, said time tracker further adapted to mark the user'"'"'s offline time slots by determining each period of inactivity time during which no movement of physical input devices such as keyboard, keypad, touchpad, and mouse of the Computing System is detected for more than a predetermined period of time;
a comparator adapted to compare scheduled engagements, meetings, calls, lab work, travel time and remote visits of said user as obtained from the user'"'"'s calendar on the Computing System and from local Presence Devices (PDs) such as smartphone with GPS that are connectable to or part of the Computing System, with the duration of said offline time slots for determining the user'"'"'s offline time utilization;
a logger adapted to maintain a consolidated and sequential log of user'"'"'s online and offline time slots,a time analyzer adapted to map said logs of said slots to an appropriate Activity (such as design, programming, testing, documentation, communication, meetings, calls, lab work, travel, and visits) and Purpose (assigned projects, functions and tasks) based on the mapping rules and further adapted to generate and upload an effort map of the user on said Server;
a merger, resident in the Server, said merger adapted to obtain, from all the user'"'"'s CS Agents and from the Server side PD, the user'"'"'s online effort map and offline effort map, said merger further adapted to merge said offline and online effort maps and generate a final user effort map and further adapted to download the final effort map back onto each of the CS Agents of the user;
an inference engine adapted to periodically receive final user effort maps and further adapted to determine Work Patterns of the user such as leaves taken, work done on holidays, desk or supervisory or travel oriented job, shift timings, variable work week, work focus, distractions, and completed work units;
a local user interface adapted to receive inputs from said inference engine and display privately to the user the Work Pattern trends for a predetermined period, and further adapted to review and edit Activity-Purpose mappings; and
a user private time selector adapted to disable a user'"'"'s time tracker for specified time slots, which is marked as an Unaccounted and Private time slot.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method for automatically measuring, analyzing and improving exact work effort of white collar employees, without requiring manual intervention or configuration, is described. The system captures all the work effort put on by the users. Systems and methods have been described to track the daily time spent by employees, irrespective of whether the time is spent on one or more computing devices, or away from any computing system while in meetings, discussions, calls, lab work, outside travel, and remote visits. This is mapped to activities and objectives that are automatically inferred based on the applications and artifacts being used, the source of offline time usage, and the employee'"'"'s position in the organization and role therein. The captured individual work effort is mapped to the organization'"'"'s hierarchy and business attributes. As a result, work patterns and trends within each sub-unit/operational dimension of the business are identified.
181 Citations
19 Claims
-
1. A computer implemented system for measuring, aggregating and analyze the exact effort and time productivity of at least one user, said system comprising:
-
at least one Computing System (CS) Agent associated with at least one user accessing at least one Server, said CS Agent adapted to automatically measure and generate consolidated and exact online and offline effort data throughout the day (24 hours) and week (7 days), said CS Agent having access to; a master list for each user containing his or her Purposes and Activities, role and business attributes, said master list automatically preconfigured at the organization level Server based on the user'"'"'s role and other work related attributes; and a rule and pattern mapping engine containing the organization settings and current user specific mapping rules for mapping applications and offline and offline slots; a user identifier adapted to identify a user by his or her unique login ID available with the Computing System, said user identifier further configured to prompt the user for the ID in case a neutral login ID is being used by more than one user; a time tracker having access to said CS agent and adapted to track the user'"'"'s online time on a currently active user application and associated artifact (file, folder, website) from a multiplicity of open applications on the Computing System, and record the name of the active application and artifact names and duration of usage, said time tracker further adapted to mark the user'"'"'s offline time slots by determining each period of inactivity time during which no movement of physical input devices such as keyboard, keypad, touchpad, and mouse of the Computing System is detected for more than a predetermined period of time; a comparator adapted to compare scheduled engagements, meetings, calls, lab work, travel time and remote visits of said user as obtained from the user'"'"'s calendar on the Computing System and from local Presence Devices (PDs) such as smartphone with GPS that are connectable to or part of the Computing System, with the duration of said offline time slots for determining the user'"'"'s offline time utilization; a logger adapted to maintain a consolidated and sequential log of user'"'"'s online and offline time slots, a time analyzer adapted to map said logs of said slots to an appropriate Activity (such as design, programming, testing, documentation, communication, meetings, calls, lab work, travel, and visits) and Purpose (assigned projects, functions and tasks) based on the mapping rules and further adapted to generate and upload an effort map of the user on said Server; a merger, resident in the Server, said merger adapted to obtain, from all the user'"'"'s CS Agents and from the Server side PD, the user'"'"'s online effort map and offline effort map, said merger further adapted to merge said offline and online effort maps and generate a final user effort map and further adapted to download the final effort map back onto each of the CS Agents of the user; an inference engine adapted to periodically receive final user effort maps and further adapted to determine Work Patterns of the user such as leaves taken, work done on holidays, desk or supervisory or travel oriented job, shift timings, variable work week, work focus, distractions, and completed work units; a local user interface adapted to receive inputs from said inference engine and display privately to the user the Work Pattern trends for a predetermined period, and further adapted to review and edit Activity-Purpose mappings; and a user private time selector adapted to disable a user'"'"'s time tracker for specified time slots, which is marked as an Unaccounted and Private time slot. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
-
-
13. A computer-implemented method for measuring, aggregating and analyzing the exact effort and time productivity of at least one user having access to a Computing System, said method comprising the following steps:
-
creating a master list comprising for every user, wherein said master list includes the user'"'"'s purposes and activities and configuring said master list to reflect the user'"'"'s role and other work related attributes; storing the organization settings and mapping rules, said mapping rules being configured as per the position of the user in the organization hierarchy and role; mapping online applications and offline slots in accordance with said stored organization settings and rules; identifying a user by his unique login ID; tracking said user'"'"'s online time on a currently active user application and associated artifact (file, folder, and website) from a multiplicity of applications opened by said user, and recording the name of the active application and artifact names and duration of usage; marking the user'"'"'s offline time slots by determining each period of inactivity time during which no movement of physical input devices such as keyboard, keypad, touchpad and mouse of the Computing System is detected for more than a predetermined period of time; comparing scheduled engagements, meetings, calls, lab work, travel time and remote visits of said user as obtained from the user'"'"'s calendar on the Computing System and from local presence devices (PDs) such as smartphone with GPS, that are connectable to or a part of the Computing System, with the duration of said offline time slots for determining the user'"'"'s offline time utilization; maintaining, using a logger, a consolidated and sequential log of user'"'"'s online and offline time slots; mapping said logs of said slots to an appropriate activity (such as design, programming, testing, documentation, communication, meetings, calls, lab work, travel and visits) and purpose (assigned projects, functions and tasks) based on the mapping rules; applying the mapping rules to the online application and offline slots and deducing best fit rules, and generating a list of user'"'"'s online and offline time utilization log mapped to the activities and purposes constituting the offline and online effort maps for the user; merging said user'"'"'s offline and online effort maps and generate a final user effort map; periodically receiving final user effort maps at an inference engine and determining the work patterns of the user, such as leaves taken, work done on holidays, desk or supervisory or travel oriented job, shift timings, variable work week, work focus, distractions, and completed work units; receiving, at a local user interface, the determined work patterns and displaying privately to the user the work pattern trends for a predetermined period; and disabling a user'"'"'s time tracker for specified time slots, wherein said time slots are marked as unaccounted and private slots. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 17, 18, 19)
-
-
16. The method as claimed in 14, wherein the step of consolidating and rolling up individual online and offline effort data further includes the following steps:
-
deducing the best working pattern, top performers at individual and organization sub-unit level; determining unusual work patterns and the recent positive and negative deviations in work patterns for an organization sub-unit; and generating a report including specific actions that can be undertaken to improve the efforts of the users.
-
Specification