Automatic work progress tracking and optimizing engine for a telecommunications customer care and billing system

• US 6,415,259 B1
• Filed: 07/15/1999
• Issued: 07/02/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 07/15/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: CGI Technologies and Solutions Incorporated (CGI Group)
• Original Assignee: American Management Systems, Incorporated (CGI, Inc.)
• Inventors: Sotola, Rene, Wolfinger, Chase
• Primary Examiner(s): Millin, Vincent
• Assistant Examiner(s): PATEL, JAGDISH
• Application Number:
  US09/354,084
• Time in Patent Office: 1,083 Days
• Field of Search: 705/7, 705/9, 705/11, 705/8
• US Class Current: 705/7.13
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06316 Sequencing of tasks or work
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing

Abstract

A system of work progress tracking and management in which customer orders may be received and entered into the system. Upon the entry of customer orders the system automatically schedules the orders for completion and optimizes the schedule based on several factors. These factors include work force utilization, customer priority, due date and task dependencies. Further, the system takes into consideration geographical constraints and automatically reschedules and re-optimizes the schedule when changes occur due to unforeseen events.

Claims

1. A work progress tracking system, comprising:

an online distributed system to receive and produce a schedule comprising a plurality of customer order entries with multiple order constraints;

a workflow engine monitoring operations completing the order entries, dynamically determining operations needed and changes in operations needed for the order entries and determining operation constraints; and

an offline distributed schedule optimization system optimizing the schedule responsive to operations completed, the operations needed and the operation constraints.

2. A work progress tracking system according to claim 1, wherein the constraints comprise work force utilization, customer priority, due date, task dependencies, and geographic worker assignments and the schedule is created and optimized based on the constraints.

3. A work progress tracking system according to claim 1, wherein the customer order entries are divided into one or more tasks based on a templates representing products and services stored in a database and the tasks are incorporated into the schedule with a plurality of interdependencies.

4. A work progress tracking system according to claim 3, wherein the plurality of interdependencies indicates which one or more of the tasks must be completed before another task can start.

5. A work progress tracking system according to claim 1, wherein the online distributed system further comprises:

a schedule engine to schedule the customer order entries based on the optimized schedule created by the distributed offline system.

6. A work progress tracking system according to claim 1, wherein the online distributed system further comprises:

a database containing templates that divide customer order entries into one or more tasks and a plurality of scheduling rules.

7. A work progress tracking system according to claim 1, wherein the offline distributed system further comprises:

a database containing templates that divide customer order entries into one or more tasks and a plurality of scheduling rules.

8. A work progress tracking system according to claim 1, wherein the customer order entries are assigned an order priority based on a perceived importance of the client.

9. A work progress tracking system according to claim 8, wherein the order priority is set to either a high, medium, or low value.

10. A work progress tracking system according to claim 8, wherein the online distributed system accepts changes to customer order entries, cancellation of customer order entries, and a required project completion time.

11. A work progress tracking system according to claim 10, wherein the offline distributed system optimizes the schedule based on the order priority, the required project completion time.

12. A work progress tracking system according to claim 1, wherein the online distributed system accepts a workforce utilization value representing the percentage of workforce capacity to be dedicated to processing customer order entries.

13. A work progress tracking system according to claim 12, wherein the offline distributed system optimizes the schedule based on the workforce utilization value.

14. A work progress tracking system according to claim 13, wherein the offline distributed system automatically re-optimizes the schedule based on a change in workforce utilization value entered by the online distributed system.

15. A work progress tracking system according to claim 1, wherein a calendar is divided into a plurality of time zones in which each time zone of the plurality of time zones represents a time period in the calendar containing scheduled customer order entries.

16. A work progress tracking system according to claim 15, wherein one or more of the plurality of time zones are designated as frozen.

17. A work progress tracking system according to claim 16, wherein the customer order entries in the time zones designated as frozen are not optimized by the offline distributed system.

18. A work progress tracking system according to claim 1, wherein the workflow engine monitors completion of tasks associated with customer order entries and automatically takes an action when discrepancies occur.

19. A work progress tracking system according to claim 18, wherein the action taken comprises issuing an alarm when a discrepancy is detected.

20. A work progress tracking system, comprising:

an online distributed system to receive and produce a schedule comprising a plurality of customer order entries with constraints;

a workflow engine to monitor progress in the plurality of customer order entries and automatically take an action when discrepancies occur; and

an offline distributed system to optimize the schedule,

wherein the online distributed system comprises;

a database containing templates that divide customer order entries into one or more tasks and a plurality of scheduling rules, and

an inference engine to retrieve the templates and scheduling rules from the database and to check the schedule to determine if it meets the scheduling rules.

21. A work progress tracking system, comprising:

an online distributed system to receive and produce a schedule comprising a plurality of customer order entries with constraints;

a workflow engine to monitor progress in the plurality of customer order entries and automatically take an action when discrepancies occur; and

an offline distributed system to optimize the schedule,

wherein the offline distributed system comprises;

a database containing templates that divide customer order entries into one or more tasks and a plurality of scheduling rules, and

an inference engine to retrieve the templates and scheduling rules from the database and to check the schedule to determine if it meets the scheduling rules.

22. A work progress tracking system, comprising:

an online distributed system to receive and produce a schedule comprising a plurality of customer order entries with constraints;

a workflow engine to monitor progress in the plurality of customer order entries and automatically take an action when discrepancies occur;

an offline distributed system to optimize the schedule, and

wherein the customer order entries are assigned an order priority based on a perceived importance of the client, the online distributed system accepts changes to customer order entries, cancellation of customer order entries, and a required project completion time, the offline distributed system optimizes the schedule based on the order priority, the required project completion time, and the offline distributed system optimizes the schedule to minimize cost, minimize time periods in the schedule where no activity is scheduled, and based on an analysis of the jeopardy to the schedule.

23. A work progress tracking system according to claim 22, wherein the jeopardy to the schedule is determined by a probability that the required completion date will not be met.

24. A work progress tracking system, comprising:

an online distributed system to receive and produce a schedule comprising a plurality of customer order entries with constraints;

a workflow engine to monitor progress in the plurality of customer order entries and automatically take an action when discrepancies occur;

an offline distributed system to optimize the schedule, and

wherein the online distributed system accepts a plurality of worker identifiers, and assigns a plurality of workers as identified by the worker identifiers to at least one work pool based on skills possessed by each of the plurality of workers and a geographic area each of the plurality of workers is assigned to.

25. A work progress tracking system according to claim 24, wherein the online distributed system accepts both permanent and temporary changes of workers assigned to the work pool.

26. A work progress tracking system according to claim 25, wherein the online distributed system schedules customer order entries taking into consideration the changes of workers assigned to the work pool.

27. A work progress tracking system according to claim 26, wherein the offline distributed system automatically optimizes the schedule when changes in the work pool occur.

28. A work progress tracking system, comprising:

an online distributed system to receive and produce a schedule comprising a plurality of customer order entries with constraints;

a workflow engine to monitor progress in the plurality of customer order entries and automatically take an action when discrepancies occur;

an offline distributed system to optimize the schedule, and

wherein the workflow engine monitors completion of tasks associated with customer order entries and automatically takes an action when discrepancies occur, the action taken comprising issuing an alarm when a discrepancy is detected, and finding a free time slot such that a current day schedule would be optimized taking the discrepancy into account.

29. A work progress tracking system according to claim 28, wherein the discrepancy is a delta between a planned and an actual completion of a task.

30. A work progress tracking system, comprising:

a database containing scheduling rules and templates representing products and services stored in a database comprising a plurality of tasks for every possible work order and a plurality of dependencies indicating which tasks of the plurality of task must be completed before other dependent tasks can start;

an online distributed system to receive and produce a schedule comprising a plurality of customer order entries with constraints, wherein the constraints comprise work force utilization, customer priority, due date, task dependencies, and geographic worker assignments;

a workflow engine to monitor progress in the plurality of customer order entries and automatically issue an alarm and find a free time slot when available to schedule a task associated with a customer order entry of the plurality of customer order entries when a delta occurs between a planned and actual completion of the task; and

an offline distributed system to optimize the schedule based on the scheduling rules, templates and dependencies stored in the database;

the online distributed system further comprising;

a schedule engine to schedule the customer order entries based on the optimized schedule created by the distributed offline system; and

an inference engine to retrieve the templates and scheduling rules from the database check the schedule to determine if it meets the scheduling rules.

31. A method of work progress tracking, comprising:

receiving a plurality of customer order entries with multiple constraints;

incorporating the customer order entries into a schedule;

monitoring the progress of operations on the plurality of customer order entries, dynamically determining operations needed and changes in operations needed for the order entries and determining operation constraints; and

optimizing the schedule responsive to operations completed, operations needed and operation constraints.

32. A method of work progress tracking, according to claim 31, wherein the plurality of customer order entries comprise constraints comprising work force utilization, customer priority, due date, task dependencies, and geographic worker assignments.

33. A method of work progress tracking system according to claim 32, wherein the customer order entries are divided into one or more tasks based on a templates representing products and services stored in a database;

and

incorporating the tasks are incorporated into the schedule with a plurality of interdependencies.

34. A method of work progress tracking according to claim 33, wherein the plurality of interdependencies indicates which one or more of the tasks must be completed before another task can start.

35. A method of work progress tracking system according to claim 34, further comprising:

dividing customer order entries into one or more tasks based on templates contained in a database.

36. A method of work progress tracking according to claim 35, further comprising:

scheduling the tasks based on scheduling rules contained in a database.

37. A method of work progress tracking according to claim 31, wherein the customer order entries are assigned an order priority based on a perceived importance of the client.

38. A method of work progress tracking according to claim 37, wherein the order priority is set to either a high, medium, or low value.

39. A method of work progress tracking according to claim 38, further comprising:

entering changes to customer order entries;

entering cancellations of customer order entries; and

entering a required project completion time.

40. A method of work progress tracking according to claim 39, further comprising:

optimizing the schedule based on the order priority and the required project completion time.

41. A method of work progress tracking according to claim 31, further comprising:

entering a workforce utilization value representing the percentage of workforce capacity to be dedicated to processing customer order entries.

42. A method of work progress tracking according to claim 41, further comprising:

optimizing the schedule based on the workforce utilization value.

43. A method of work progress tracking according to claim 31, wherein the monitoring of the progress of the plurality of customer order entries further comprises monitoring completion of tasks associated with the plurality of customer order entries and automatically taking an action when discrepancies occur.

44. A method of work progress tracking according to claim 43, wherein the action taken comprises issuing an alarm when a discrepancy is detected.

45. A method of work progress tracking, comprising:

receiving a plurality of customer order entries;

incorporating the customer order entries into a schedule;

monitoring the progress of the plurality of customer order entries and automatically taking an action when a discrepancy is detected;

optimizing the schedule;

assigning the customer order entries an order priority based on a perceived importance of the client;

setting the order priority to either a high, medium, or low value;

entering changes to customer order entries;

entering cancellations of customer order entries;

entering a required project completion time;

optimizing the schedule based on the order priority and the required project completion time; and

optimizing the schedule to minimize cost, minimize time periods in the schedule where no activity is scheduled, and based on an analysis of the jeopardy to the schedule.

46. A method of work progress tracking according to claim 45, wherein the jeopardy to the schedule is determined by a probability that the required completion date will not be met.

47. A method of work progress tracking involving a plurality of workers processing a plurality of customer order entries, comprising:

receiving the plurality of customer order entries;

incorporating the customer order entries into a schedule;

monitoring the progress of the plurality of customer order entries being processed by the plurality of workers and automatically taking an action when a discrepancy is detected;

optimizing the schedule; and

assigning the plurality of workers processing the plurality of customer order entries to at least one work pool based on skills possessed by each of the plurality of workers and a geographic area each of the plurality of workers is assigned to.

48. A method of work progress tracking according to claim 47,

changing both permanent and temporary basis workers assigned to the work pool.

49. A method of work progress tracking according to claim 48, further comprising:

scheduling customer order entries taking into consideration the changes of workers assigned to the work pool.

50. A method of work progress tracking according to claim 49, further comprising:

optimizing the schedule when changes in the work pool occur.

51. A method of work progress tracking, comprising:

receiving a plurality of customer order entries;

incorporating the customer order entries into a schedule;

monitoring the progress of the plurality of customer order entries and automatically taking an action when a discrepancy is detected;

optimizing the schedule; and

dividing a calendar into a plurality of time zones and entering scheduled customer order entries into the calendar where each time zone of the plurality of time zones represents a time period in the calendar containing scheduled customer order entries.

52. A method of work progress tracking according to claim 51, wherein one or more of the plurality of time zones are designated as frozen.

53. A method of work progress tracking according to claim 52, further comprising:

optimizing only the customer order entries in the time zones not designated as locked.

54. A method of work progress tracking, comprising:

receiving a plurality of customer order entries;

monitoring the progress of the plurality of customer order entries and automatically taking an action when a discrepancy is detected; and

incorporating the customer order entries into a schedule;

optimizing the schedule,

wherein the monitoring of the progress of the plurality of customer order entries comprises monitoring completion of tasks associated with the plurality of customer order entries and automatically taking an action when discrepancies occur, and

wherein the action taken comprises issuing an alarm when a discrepancy is detected and finding a free time slot such that a current day schedule would be optimized taking the discrepancy into account.

55. A method of work progress tracking according to claim 54, wherein the discrepancy is a delta between a planned and an actual completion of a task.

56. A method of work progress tracking system, comprising:

receiving a plurality of customer order entries;

retrieving a template of tasks from a database for each customer order entry having constraints comprising work force utilization, customer priority, due date, task dependencies, and geographic worker assignments;

dividing the customer order entries into tasks based on the template having a plurality of dependencies;

incorporating the plurality of tasks for each customer order entry into a schedule;

dividing the schedule into a plurality of time zones comprising a frozen time, a stability time zone, and an optimization time zone;

monitoring the progress of the tasks and automatically issuing an alarm and finding a free time slot to schedule the task when a free time slot exists when a delta is discovered between a planned task completion and an actual task completion; and

optimizing the schedule in the optimization zone.