Decision management system which is cross-function, cross-industry and cross-platform

• US 6,601,034 B1
• Filed: 12/23/1998
• Issued: 07/29/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 03/05/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: CGI Technologies and Solutions Incorporated (CGI Group)
• Original Assignee: American Management Systems, Incorporated (CGI, Inc.)
• Inventors: Honarvar, Laurence, Burt, Len
• Primary Examiner(s): Hafiz, Tariq R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Jeanty, Romain
• Application Number:
  US09/219,338
• Time in Patent Office: 1,679 Days
• Field of Search: 705/7, 705/10, 705/38, 707/104.1, 709/203, 709/100, 709/223
• US Class Current: 705/7.36
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0637 Strategic management or analysis, e.g. setting a goal or target of an organisation; Planning actions based on goals; Analysis or evaluation of effectiveness of goals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0639 Performance analysis of employees; Performance analysis of enterprise or organisation operations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/03 Credit; Loans; Processing thereof
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image

Abstract

A computer-implemented rules based decision management system which is cross-platform, cross-industry and cross-function. The decision management system has a software architecture which includes a common code layer, a processing platform layer and a data architecture layer. The common code layer includes a common code kernel simultaneously operable on first and second hardware platforms which are different from each other, and provides software processing to interpret and apply the strategies. The processing platform layer includes a first software module supporting a processing mode for the first hardware platform, and a second software module supporting a processing mode for the second hardware platform. The data architecture layer includes a first data module supporting data storage and access by the first software module, and a second data module supporting data storage and access by the second software module.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a computer implemented cross-industry, cross-function decision management system applying strategies to determine actions to be taken with respect to clients of an organization, monitoring performance of the applied strategies based on the taken actions, and refining the strategies in accordance with the monitored performance to increase client value over time to the organization, the decision management system having a decision engine to apply the strategies and refine the strategies, the decision management system having a software architecture including

a common code layer including a common code kernel simultaneously operable on first and second hardware platforms based on different technical standards, respectively, the common code kernel being the same code across the first and second hardware platforms and providing software processing to interpret and apply the strategies, the common code layer including the decision engine;

a processing platform layer including a first software module supporting a processing mode for the first hardware platform, and a second software module supporting a processing mode for the second hardware platform; and

a data architecture layer including a first data module supporting data storage and access by the first software module, and a second data module supporting data storage and access by the second software module, wherein the processing platform layer is above the data architecture layer and the common code layer is above the processing platform layer in the software architecture,

the common code layer, the processing platform layer and the data architecture layer thereby operating together to allow the decision management system to operate cross-platform.

2. An apparatus as in claim 1, wherein each of the first and second hardware platforms is one of the group consisting of an IBM mainframe platform, a Windows NT platform, a Windows 95 platform, a Windows 98 platform and a Unix platform.

3. An apparatus as in claim 2, wherein the first and second hardware platforms are operable in first and second processing modes, respectively, the first and second processing modes being different processing modes from each other.

4. An apparatus as in claim 1, wherein the first and second hardware platforms are operable in first and second processing modes, respectively, the first and second processing modes being different processing modes from each other.

5. An apparatus as in claim 4, wherein each of the first and second processing modes is one of the group consisting of a simulation processing mode, a mainframe batch processing mode, a mainframe online processing mode, and a client-server processing mode.

6. An apparatus as in claim 1, wherein the decision management system produces data which is output to an external system, the decision management system further comprising:

a user interface allowing a user to set the format of the output data without technical intervention.

7. An apparatus as in claim 1, wherein the decision management system further comprises:

a user interface running on a single terminal and allowing a user to enter strategies which are applied across each of the first and second hardware platforms.

8. An apparatus as in 1, herein the processing mode for the first hardware platform is a different processing mode than the processing mode for the second hardware platform.

9. An apparatus comprising:

cross-industry, cross-function computer implemented decision management system applying strategies to determine actions to be taken with respect to clients of an organization, monitoring performance of the applied strategies based on the taken actions, and refining the strategies in accordance with the monitored performance to increase client value over time to the organization, the decision management system comprising a decision engine to apply the strategies and refine the strategies, the decision management system including

a software architecture including

a common code layer including common code simultaneously operable on first and second hardware platforms based on different technical standards, respectively, the common code being the same code across the first and second hardware platforms and providing software processing to interpret and apply the strategies, the common code layer including the decision engine,

a processing platform layer including a first software module supporting a processing mode for the first hardware platform, and a second software module supporting a processing mode for the second hardware platform, and

a data architecture layer including a first data module supporting data storage and access by the first software module, and a second data module supporting data storage and access by the second software module, wherein the processing platform layer is above the data architecture layer and the common code layer is above the processing platform layer in the software architecture,

the common code layer, the processing platform layer and the data architecture layer thereby operating together to allow the decision management system to operate cross-platform when applying the strategies, monitoring the performance and refining the strategies, and

a graphical user interface allowing a user to enter and change strategies without technical intervention.

10. An apparatus as in claim 9, wherein the processing mode for the first hardware platform is a different processing mode than the processing mode for the second hardware platform.

11. An apparatus comprising:

a computer implemented cross-industry, cross-function decision management system applying strategies to determine actions to be taken with respect to clients of an organization, monitoring performance of the applied strategies based on the taken actions, and refining the strategies in accordance with the monitored performance to increase client value over time to the organization, the decision management system comprising a decision engine to apply the strategies and refine the strategies, the decision management system having a software architecture including

common code layer including a common code kernel simultaneously operable on first and second hardware platforms based on different technical standards, respectively, the common code kernel being the same code across the first and second hardware platforms and providing software processing to interpret and apply the strategies, the common code layer including the decision engine;

a processing platform layer including a first software module supporting a processing mode for the first hardware platform, and a second software module supporting a processing mode for the second hardware platform, the processing mode for the first hardware platform being a different processing mode than the processing mode for the second hardware platform, each of the processing modes being one of the group consisting of a simulation processing mode, a mainframe batch processing mode, a mainframe online processing mode, and a client-server processing mode; and

a data architecture layer including a first data module supporting data storage and access by the first software module, and a second data module supporting data storage and access by the second software module, wherein the processing platform layer is above the data architecture layer and the common code layer is above the processing platform layer in the software architecture,

the common code layer, the processing platform layer and the data architecture layer thereby operating together to allow the decision management system to operate cross-platform.