SIMPLIFIED ENTITY ENGAGEMENT AUTOMATION

• US 20170085445A1
• Filed: 11/03/2015
• Published: 03/23/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/17/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Inventors: Layman, Andrew, Hauser, Eric, Fleckenstein, Matthew John, Mamut, Tatyana, Che, Arthur Ping-Tak, Chin, Tiffany Joy, Poon, Amy Kar Sin
• Granted Patent: US 10,756,991 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/00 Arrangements for software engineering testing or debugging G06F11/36; administrative, planning or organisation aspects of software project management G06Q10/06
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/34 Graphical or visual programming
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/38 for implementing user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/50 Allocation of resources, e.g. of the central processing unit [CPU]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06316 Sequencing of tasks or work
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/30 Administration of product recycling or disposal
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/206 Drawing of charts or graphs
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/045 for graphical visualisation of monitoring data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0811 by checking connectivity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning
• CPC Class Codes: Y02W 90/00 Enabling technologies or technologies with a potential or indirect contribution to greenhouse gas [GHG] emissions mitigation

Abstract

The technology disclosed offers a declarative and visualization framework that implements a state machine for multi-step progression of interaction with an entity. The declarative framework is usable over and over for a broad range of applications because it provides a simple rule-based authoring tool that can be used for specifying different elements and components of a complex state machine, including state definitions, state transition triggers, state transition conditions and state transition actions. Once defined, the state machine is automatically generated and visually implemented based on the declarative input provided by a non-technical user.

Claims

1. A method of simplifying, for a non-programming user, analysis of an entity engagement workflow for an experience operator, the method including:

receiving a plurality of event streams for different entity experience operations launched by an experience operator;

for multiple time windows, determining entity activity levels from the event streams of the entity experience operations;

for individual entity experience operations, categorizing a plurality of entities into multiple state types based on respective entity activity levels; and

generating for display, visual representation data for respective entity operators that graphically depict;

the plurality of event streams for respective entity experience operations and statuses of the entity experience operations;

the entity activity levels along a timeline and variations in the levels;

the multiple state types, trails of entity transitions from one state to another and sizes of the state types based on a number of entities belonging to a particular state type; and

a data entry columnar that accepts declarative input for selectable transition-responsive actions which specify an output messaging channel, a messaging action and an asset to retrieve and include in a message produced by the messaging action.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the visual representation data includes a replay control that allows for replay over time to visualize transition of entities among the state types.

3. The method of claim 1, further including:

constructing a state transition graph with entities in similar state types indicated, grouped within state clouds and entity state transitions as transition trails from an initial state cloud to a final state cloud; and

visually coding the state clouds and the transition trails to indicate state transitions.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the visual coding of the transition trails matches the visual coding of corresponding final state clouds.

5. The method of claim 1, further including:

constructing a state transition graph with entities in similar state types indicated grouped within state bubbles and entity state transitions as transition arches from an initial state bubble to a final state bubble; and

visually coding the state bubbles and the transition arches to indicate state transitions.

6. The method of claim 1, further including generating for display hover panel data upon navigation of state clouds and state bubbles, wherein the hover panel data identify a criteria for categorizing entities in the state types, a number of entities in the state types, a change in the number over a time period and conditions that control selectable actions to implement responsive to state transitions.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the event streams are received from a near real-time (NRT) event management framework that includes a message bus and a stream processing system.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the event streams include at least one of user click data, user purchasing behavior, device data and social media streams.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the message bus is at least one of Kafka, Flume, ActiveMQ and RabbitMQ.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the stream processing system is at least one of Storm and Spark.

11. A system including one or more processors coupled to memory, the memory loaded with computer instructions to simply for a non-programming user analysis of an entity engagement workflow for an experience operator, the instructions, when executed on the processors, implement actions comprising:

receiving a plurality of event streams for different entity experience operations launched by an experience operator;

for multiple time windows, determining entity activity levels from the event streams of the entity experience operations;

for individual entity experience operations, categorizing a plurality of entities into multiple state types based on respective entity activity levels; and

generating for display visual representation data for respective entity operators that graphically depict;

the plurality of event streams for respective entity experience operations and statuses of the entity experience operations;

the entity activity levels along a timeline and variations in the levels;

the multiple state types, trails of entity transitions from one state to another and sizes of the state types based on a number of entities belonging to a particular state type; and

a data entry columnar that accepts declarative input for selectable transition-responsive actions which specify an output messaging channel, a messaging action and an asset to retrieve and include in a message produced by the messaging action.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the visual representation data include a replay control that allows for replay over time to visualize transition of entities among the state types.

13. The system of claim 11, further implementing actions comprising:

constructing a state transition graph with entities in similar state types indicated grouped within state clouds and entity state transitions as transition trails from an initial state cloud to a final state cloud; and

visually coding the state clouds and the transition trails to indicate state transitions.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the visual coding of the transition trails matches the visual coding of corresponding final state clouds.

15. The system of claim 11, further implementing actions comprising:

constructing a state transition graph with entities in similar state types indicated grouped within state bubbles and entity state transitions as transition arches from an initial state bubble to a final state bubble; and

visually coding the state bubbles and the transition arches to indicate state transitions.

16. The system of claim 11, further implementing actions comprising generating for display hover panel data upon navigation of state clouds and state bubbles, wherein the hover panel data identify a criteria for categorizing entities in the state types, a number of entities in the state types, a change in the number over a time period and conditions that control selectable actions to implement responsive to state transitions.

17. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium impressed with computer program instructions to simply for a non-programming user analysis of an entity engagement workflow for an experience operator, the instructions, when executed on a processor, implement actions comprising:

receiving a plurality of event streams for different entity experience operations launched by an experience operator;

for multiple time windows, determining entity activity levels from the event streams of the entity experience operations;

for individual entity experience operations, categorizing a plurality of entities into multiple state types based on respective entity activity levels; and

generating for display visual representation data for respective entity operators that graphically depict;

the plurality of event streams for respective entity experience operations and statuses of the entity experience operations;

the entity activity levels along a timeline and variations in the levels;

the multiple state types, trails of entity transitions from one state to another and sizes of the state types based on a number of entities belonging to a particular state type; and

a data entry columnar that accepts declarative input for selectable transition-responsive actions which specify an output messaging channel, a messaging action and an asset to retrieve and include in a message produced by the messaging action.

18. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the visual representation data includes a replay control that allows for replay over time to visualize transition of entities among the state types.

19. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 17, implementing the actions further comprising:

constructing a state transition graph with entities in similar state types indicated, grouped within state clouds and entity state transitions as transition trails from an initial state cloud to a final state cloud; and

visually coding the state clouds and the transition trails to indicate state transitions.

20. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the visual coding of the transition trails matches the visual coding of corresponding final state clouds.

21. A method of simplifying, for a non-programming user, analysis of an entity engagement workflow for an experience operator, the method including:

receiving a plurality of event streams for different entity experience operations launched by an experience operator;

for multiple time windows, determining entity activity levels from the event streams of the entity experience operations;

for individual entity experience operations, categorizing a plurality of entities into multiple state types based on respective entity activity levels; and

generating for display, visual representation data for respective entity operators that graphically depict;

the plurality of event streams for respective entity experience operations and statuses of the entity experience operations;

the entity activity levels along a timeline and variations in the levels;

the multiple state types, trails of entity transitions from one state to another and sizes of the state types based on a number of entities belonging to a particular state type; and

a data entry articulation that accepts declarative input for selectable transition-responsive actions which specify an output messaging channel, a messaging action and an asset to retrieve and include in a message produced by the messaging action.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the visual representation data includes a replay control that allows for replay over time to visualize transition of entities among the state types.

23. The method of claim 21, further including:

constructing a state transition graph with entities in similar state types indicated, grouped within state clouds and entity state transitions as transition trails from an initial state cloud to a final state cloud; and

visually coding the state clouds and the transition trails to indicate state transitions.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the visual coding of the transition trails matches the visual coding of corresponding final state clouds.

25. The method of claim 21, wherein the event streams are received from a near real-time (NRT) event management framework that includes a message bus and a stream processing system.