ANALYSIS OF USAGE PATTERNS AND UPGRADE RECOMMENDATIONS

• US 20140195297A1
• Filed: 01/04/2013
• Published: 07/10/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/04/2013
• Status: Active Application

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Abuelsaad, Tamer E., Boss, Gregory J., Pickover, Clifford A., Rendahl, Randy A.
• Application Number:
  US13/734,142
• Publication Number:
  US 20140195297A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7.28
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0635 Risk analysis of enterprise or organisation activities

Abstract

An approach is provided for analyzing usage patterns of computing devices and providing upgrade recommendations. The approach is implemented in a computer infrastructure having computer executable code on a computer readable storage medium having programming instructions operable to: monitor usage on one or more electronic devices; and recommend upgraded functionality on the one or more devices based on the monitored usage based on a risk assessment allocation on selected functionality associated with an upgrade for the one or more electronic devices.

Claims

1. A method implemented in a computer infrastructure having computer executable code tangibly embodied on a computer readable storage medium having programming instructions operable to:

monitor usage on one or more electronic devices; and

recommend upgraded functionality on the one or more devices based on the monitored usage and based on a risk assessment allocation on selected functionality associated with an upgrade for the one or more electronic devices.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the risk assessment allocation provides a risk of not recommending hardware components, software components and/or related functionality during an upgrade recommendation process.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the upgraded functionality is at least one of a device, hardware components, software components and related functionality and the recommended upgraded functionality is further based on a cost analysis of upgrading to the upgraded functionality.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising prioritizing a list of recommended upgraded devices based on a statistical analysis of the usage on the one or more electronic devices and a comparison to available devices.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising calculating a confidence level of the recommend upgraded functionality, which can be refined by information received from crowd sourcing when the confidence level is below a predefined threshold.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the monitoring of the usage comprises at least one of monitoring usage of hardware components, software components, and any related functionality on the one or more electronic devices, over a period of time;

the monitoring of the usage comprises monitoring requests for functionality from a remote device; and

the recommending of the upgraded functionality comprises analyzing usage data collected, taking into account whether the functionality is provided by a local device or accessed on the remote device.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the monitoring of the usage comprises monitoring any shared application, hardware component and software component amongst different devices.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the monitoring of the usage comprises at least one of;

feature usage;

user impatience;

software usage; and

application usage associated with different applications, functionality, software components and/or hardware components; and

the upgrade is recommended based on at least one of;

the functionality as already installed on the one or more electronic devices;

the usage history of the one or more electronic devices;

functionality requested by a user;

expiration date of any service contract of the one or more devices and/or software components installed on the one or more devices;

cost of a new device; and

financial gains achieved by upgrading to a new device.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the monitoring of the usage comprises determining device quality and performance of services.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising taking an inventory of all hardware and software components and any related functionality on the one or more electronic devices, which includes at least one of expiration information and version type of the hardware component and software component.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing recommendations to a device user through email, pop-up windows, messages, instant messages or specific requests by the device user.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein a service provider at least one of creates, maintains, deploys and supports the computer infrastructure.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein steps of claim 1 are provided by a service provider on a subscription, advertising, and/or fee basis.

14. A system implemented in hardware, comprising:

a central service server, comprising

a primary administration interface which registers devices or requests and analyzes device recommendations;

a usage and device database which stores information about registered devices and/or account information, along with usage history pushed across a network from one or more devices; and

a central recommendation component which utilizes consumer usage on the one or more devices and matches the usage information to built-in or web based definitions of available devices, hardware components, software components and/or any related functions for recommended use and/or purchase by the user.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the central service server further comprises a central risk management component which assesses a risk to a user of not providing certain functionality.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the central risk management component requests information from crowd sourcing when a confidence level of a calculated risk is below a threshold, such that the crowd sourcing can provide additional risk assessment for refinement of the calculated risk.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the central recommendation component receives information from the one or more devices and uses the information to search the internet or registered service providers for recommendations of devices, hardware components, software components and/or related functionality.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein the central service server comprises a SaaS (Software as a Service).

19. The system of claim 14, wherein the central service server receives information from many different devices, and collates the received information for analytical use for each of the separate devices.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the central server service polls information from other sources, including retrieving information from crowd sourcing to provide a reliable recommendation to the user.

21. A computer program product comprising a computer usable storage medium having readable program code embodied in the storage medium, the computer program product includes at least one component operable to:

register a user device which includes device identification;

confirm the registration;

collect data from the user device through a configuration agent resident on the user device when a feature or function of the user device is activated, wherein the collecting of the data includes periodically connecting and uploading a captured action with basic metrics including duration, time, location, and user; and

provide a risk assessed recommendation of an upgrade based on the collected data.

22. The computer program product of claim 21, wherein the at least one component is provided on a user device.

23. A method of deploying a system for recommending upgrades, comprising:

providing a computer infrastructure, being operable to;

store information about registered devices and/or account information, along with usage history pushed across a network from one or more devices; and

utilize consumer usage on the one or more devices and match the usage information to built-in or web based definitions of available devices, hardware components, software components and/or any related functions for recommended use and/or purchase by a user of at least one of the registered devices.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the computer infrastructure is further operable to provide a risk assessment of not recommending certain functionality for upgrade.

25. A computer system for recommending upgrades, the system comprising:

a CPU, a computer readable memory and a computer readable storage media;

first program instructions to compile device inventory;

second program instructions to compile inventory usage data;

third program instructions to analyze the inventory usage data and make a risk assessed recommendation for upgrading to at least one of another device, hardware component and software component using a filtering and prioritized listing process,

wherein the first, second and third program instructions are stored on the computer readable storage media for execution by the CPU via the computer readable memory.