Methods for dynamically accessing, processing, and presenting data acquired from disparate data sources

• US 6,643,635 B2
• Filed: 03/15/2001
• Issued: 11/04/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sagemetrics Corporation
• Inventors: Nwabueze, E. Kenneth
• Primary Examiner(s): Alam, Shahid Al
• Application Number:
  US09/810,676
• Publication Number:
  US 20020144174A1
• Time in Patent Office: 964 Days
• Field of Search: 707/2, 707/10, 707/100, 707/101, 707/201, 707/200, 707/204, 714/1, 714/763, 710/65, 711/4, 711/6, 711/100, 711/146, 706/13
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/75 Indicating network or usage conditions on the user display
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/08 Protocols for interworking; Protocol conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99932 Access augmentation or optimizing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation
• 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

Methods for acquiring and transforming data for business analysis, and computer readable media having program instructions for enabling the same are provided. One exemplary method identifies a set of data sources to be accessed for a user, loads the raw data from each of the data sources to raw data type specific locations and then verifies the integrity of the acquired raw data. Next the acquired raw data is transformed to a uniform data type and then stored as processed data into processed data type specific locations. Some notable advantages of the discussed methods of acquiring and presenting data for business analysis purposes is the ability to efficiently extract, organize and present the data as requested by a customer over a world wide computer network. Examples of such efficiency include the ability to convert data acquired from disparate sources to a uniform format, thus allowing centralization of the data and eliminating the need to continually access various data sources to provide requested reports. The customer can thus be provided with dynamic reports in real-time, thereby allowing for time sensitive and mission critical business decisions to be made with current data.

Claims

1. A method for acquiring and presenting data for business analysis, comprising:

identifying a set of data sources to be accessed;

accessing each of the set of data sources;

acquiring raw data from each of the accessed set of data sources;

storing the acquired raw data into raw data type specific compartments, such that each raw data type specific compartment is associated with each of the set of data sources;

pre-processing the acquired raw data to ensure data integrity;

transferring the acquired raw data from each of the raw data type specific compartments to processed data type specific compartments to define processed data, the transferring being configured to detect a data type of each raw data type specific compartment and load data components of each raw data type specific compartment into the respective processed data type specific compartment based on the detected data type, the transferring further including,

converting the data types of each raw data type specific compartment into a single data type, so that each processed data type specific compartment has the same single data type;

transferring the processed data from each processed data type specific compartment to a temporary database;

applying display rules, the display rules being configured to define a format and content of a requested report;

outputting the requested report, the outputting includes,

referencing the temporary database; and

acquiring data elements from the temporary database using the display rules.

2. A method for acquiring and presenting data for business analysis as recited in claim 1, wherein pre-processing the acquired raw data to ensure data integrity further comprises:

determining if a file is compressed; and

uncompressing the file if the file is compressed.

3. A method for acquiring and presenting data for business analysis as recited in claim 2, wherein pre-processing the acquired raw data to ensure data integrity further comprises:

opening the file; and

ensuring expected data is inside each open file.

4. A method for acquiring and presenting data for business analysis as recited in claim 2, wherein pre-processing the acquired raw data to ensure data integrity further comprises:

counting and logging records.

5. A method for acquiring and presenting data for business analysis as recited in claim 1, wherein transferring the acquired raw data from each of the raw data type specific compartments to processed data type specific compartments further comprises:

performing a memory map transfer.

6. A method for acquiring and presenting data for business analysis as recited in claim 1, wherein transferring the acquired raw data from each of the raw data type specific compartments to processed data type specific compartments further comprises:

transferring the raw data type specific compartments to an initial temporary database.

7. A method for acquiring and presenting data for business analysis as recited in claim 1, wherein the single data type has a uniform format.

8. A method for acquiring and presenting data for business analysis as recited in claim 1, wherein applying display rules further comprises:

applying one of business rules and data mining rules.

9. A method for acquiring and presenting data for business analysis as recited in claim 1, wherein the raw data type specific compartments and the processed data type specific compartments are stored in a network attached storage unit.

10. A method for acquiring and presenting data for business analysis as recited in claim 1, wherein outputting the requested report further comprises:

generating the requested report in one of a spreadsheet format, a world wide web interactive format, an Internet browser compatible format and an electronic mail file format.

11. A method for acquiring and presenting data for business analysis as recited in claim 1, wherein outputting the requested report further comprises:

communicating the requested report to a remote user over a land or wireless network.

12. A method for acquiring and presenting data for business analysis as recited in claim 1, wherein the acquired raw data is associated to a unique identification defining a customer and source path for the acquired raw data.

13. A method for acquiring and presenting data for business analysis as recited in claim 1, wherein the identifying set of data sources to be accessed further comprises:

setting a time and frequency to access each of the set of data sources.

14. A method for retrieving, organizing and presenting data for business intelligence purposes, comprising:

locating a set of data sources containing raw data files;

setting a time and frequency to access each of the set of data sources;

retrieving the raw data files from the set of data sources, the raw data files containing raw data;

storing each of the retrieved raw data files in a storage file;

processing each of the retrieved raw data files, the processing including;

loading each of the retrieved raw data files in a loader, where the loader contains a set of processing rules, and

applying the set of processing rules to each of the retrieved raw data files to convert each of the retrieved raw data files to a processed data file having a uniform format, and

storing each of the processed data files in the storage file;

transferring each of the processed data files to a database;

accessing the database in response to a customer report request;

presenting a report in a desired format to the customer.

15. The method of retrieving, organizing and presenting data for business analysis as recited in claim 14, wherein the loader contains a format detector and a temporary database.

16. The method of retrieving, organizing and presenting data for business analysis as recited in claim 15, wherein the temporary database can be one or more databases.

17. The method of retrieving, organizing and presenting data for business analysis as recited in claim 15, further including transferring the retrieved raw data files in the loader to the temporary database by performing a parallel memory map.

18. The method of retrieving, organizing and presenting data for business analysis as recited in claim 15, further including applying a set of display rules to the stored processed data files to obtain processed display data.