System and method for assessing a procurement and accounts payable system

• US 6,684,191 B1
• Filed: 11/22/1999
• Issued: 01/27/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 11/22/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: PayPal, Inc. (PayPal Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Cirulli, Philip J., Flannery, Kerin J., Barnard, Ray F., Lanuti, Carl J., Murphy, Jane M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hafiz, Tariq R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): MEINECKE DIAZ, SUSANNA M
• Application Number:
  US09/444,257
• Time in Patent Office: 1,527 Days
• Field of Search: 705/7-11, 707/10, 707/104.1, 707/500, 709/203
• US Class Current: 705/7.22
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063114 Status monitoring or status determination for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06312 Adjustment or analysis of established resource schedule, e.g. resource or task levelling, or dynamic rescheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06313 Resource planning in a project environment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0633 Workflow analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0639 Performance analysis of employees; Performance analysis of enterprise or organisation operations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/067 Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03

Abstract

A system for deploying to a client accounting installation a general procurement and accounts payable application specifically configured for the client by an enterprise includes a database server for (1) maintaining on a storage device a database of templates describing procedures for assessing, preparing, developing, deploying and supporting the application, and for (2) serving these templates to team members operating web-enabled terminals for coordinating, recording and tracking team activities with respect to the application while generating a description for adapting a front end server and an accounting system server to the requirements of the client.

Claims

1. In a system for effecting through presales, assessment, preparation, development, deployment and support stages a transition from a legacy process to an integrated, cross-functional general procurement and accounts payable application of a customer of an enterprise, an assessment system comprising:

a server;

a storage device connected to said server;

a plurality of team terminals;

a communication link interconnecting said server and said terminals; and

said server

maintaining a database of templates including data fields and describing procedures for assessing

said application on said storage device;

displaying to members of said teams in a playbook summary view a create a summary task selection button, a create a detailed task button, a folders and views section, a task title display and selection area;

responsive to member selection of a tasks selection button presenting in said selection area a listing of assessment stage tasks organized by categories, said categories including assessment tasks for performing customer service offering assessment, introducing recommend service offering to customer, and creating a proposal and contract for an integrated, cross-functional general procurement and accounts payable application;

accumulating into said data fields a description of said customer'"'"'s processes, tools, and organizational structures;

serving said templates to members of cross function customer and enterprise teams operating said terminals;

responsive to input to said data fields at said terminals by said customer and enterprise teams, updating said database of templates to describe said legacy process and an integrated customer solution; and

responsive to customer and enterprise teams updating said database of templates and transitioning said general procurement and accounts savable application from said assessment stage to said preparation, development, deployment and support stages.

2. The system of claim 1, said templates describing procedures and storing data entered to said templates by said customer and enterprise team for assessing said legacy process and describing said integrated customer solution through a plurality of tasks selectively including assessing an existing customer application, introducing a recommended service offering to said customer, creating a service offering proposal and contract, conducting a lost bid analysis, conducting a won bid analysis, conducting a transition to an implementation team, and conducting a transition management workshop;

said system further;

displaying at a said terminal in a playbook summary view a create a summary task selection button, a create a detailed task button, a folders and views section, a task title display and a selection area;

responsive to member selection of said summary tasks selection button presenting in said selection area a listing of assessment stare tasks organized by categories, said categories including customer service offering assessment, recommended service offering customer presentation, Proposal and contract creation, transition management introduction;

responsive to user selection of said customer service offering assessment category, presenting in said selection area a first listing of assessment stage tasks and responsive to user selection of an assessment stage task from said first listing presenting to said user a first task template;

said user, responsive to said first task template, selectively executing assessment tasks to perform customer business assessment, perform customer electronic requisition and catalog service business assessment, develop workshop management plan, develop workshop electronic requisition and catalog service management plan, review findings from marketing procurement consulting engagement, review findings from marketing procurement consulting engagement for electronic requisition and catalog service, formulate workshop approach, formulate electronic requisition and catalog service workshop approach, prepare for workshop, and prepare for electronic requisition and catalog service workshop;

responsive to user selection of said recommended service offering customer presentation category, presenting in said selection area a second listing of assessment stage tasks and responsive to user selection of an assessment stage task from said second listing presenting to said user a first task template;

said user, responsive to said first task template, selectively executing assessment tasks to present service offering workshop to customer, present electronic requisition and catalog service offering workshop to customer (perform workshop), formulate proposal approach, and formulate proposal approach for electronic requisition and catalog service;

responsive to user selection of said proposal and contract creation category, presenting in said selection area a third listing of assessment stage tasks and responsive to user selection of an assessment stare task from said third listing presenting to said user a first task template;

said user, responsive to said first task template, selectively executing assessment tasks to develop and cost proposal, and draft and price customer contracts; and

responsive to user selection of said transition management introduction category, presenting in said selection area a fourth listing of assessment stage tasks and responsive to user selection of an assessment stage task from said fourth listing presenting to said user a first task template;

said user, responsive to said first task template, selectively executing assessment tasks to develop initial assessment of client, and provide transition management workshop presentation.

3. The system of claim 2, each said template storing, either directly or by way of links to other documents, one or more instructions, flow charts, sample questionnaires, report models and checklists for guiding, coordinating and documenting the work of said customer and enterprise teams.

4. A method effecting through presales, assessment, preparation, development, deployment and support stages a transition from a legacy process to an integrated, cross-functional general procurement and accounts payable application, said assessment stage for providing an integrated, cross-functional customer solution to a client and comprising the steps of:

maintaining a database of templates including data fields and describing procedures for assessing said legacy process and said general procurement and accounts payable application;

operating a plurality of web-enabled user terminals to access via a server said database for coordinating tasks by a plurality of customer and enterprise teams implementing said procedures and entering data to said data fields describing said process and said application;

displaying to members of said teams in a playbook summary view a create a summary task selection button, a create a detailed task button, a folders and views section, a task title display and selection area;

responsive to member selection of a tasks selection button presenting in said selection area a listing of assessment stage tasks organized by categories, said categories including assessment tasks for performing customer service offering assessment, introducing recommend service offering to customer, and creating a proposal and contract for an integrated, cross-functional general procurement and accounts payable application;

accumulating into said data fields a description of said customer'"'"'s processes, tools, and organizational structures;

with reference to said description, said members defining in said database technical, educational, and human resource aspects of said integrated, cross-functional general procurement and accounts payable application for said customer; and

delivering to said customer a workshop presenting an overview of said customer solution, initiating process analysis and strategic implementation, and confirming whether said customer solution satisfies customer needs;

thereby coordinating, recording and tracking customer and enterprise teams activities with respect to said assessment stage to provide a transition from said assessment stage to said preparation, development, deployment and support stages of said general procurement and accounts payable application.

5. The method of claim 4, each said template storing, either directly or by way of links to other documents, one or more instructions, flow charts, sample questionnaires, report models and checklists for guiding, coordinating and documenting the work of said customer and enterprise teams, said method further comprising:

displaying at a said terminal in a playbook summary view a create a summary task selection button, a create a detailed task button, a folders and views section, a task title display and a selection area;

responsive to member selection of said summary tasks selection button presenting in said selection area a listing of assessment stare tasks organized by categories, said categories including customer service offering assessment, recommended service offering customer presentation, proposal and contract creation transition management introduction;

responsive to user selection of said customer service offering assessment category, presenting in said selection area a first listing of assessment stage tasks and responsive to user selection of an assessment stage task from said first listing presenting to said user a first task template;

said user responsive to said first task template, selectively executing assessment tasks to perform customer business assessment, perform customer electronic requisition and catalog service business assessment, develop workshop management plan, develop workshop electronic requisition and catalog service management plan, review findings from marketing procurement consulting engagement, review findings from marketing procurement consulting engagement for electronic requisition and catalog service, formulate workshop approach formulate electronic requisition and catalog service workshop approach, prepare for workshop, and prepare for electronic requisition and catalog service workshop;

responsive to user selection of said recommended service offering customer presentation category, presenting in said selection area a second listing of assessment stage tasks and responsive to user selection of an assessment stage task from said second listing presenting to said user a first task template;

said user, responsive to said first task template, selectively executing assessment tasks to present service offering workshop to customer, present electronic requisition and catalog service offering workshop to customer (perform workshop) formulate proposal approach, and formulate proposal approach for electronic requisition and catalog service;

responsive to user selection of said proposal and contract creation category, presenting in said selection area a third listing of assessment stage tasks and responsive to user selection of an assessment stage task from said third listing presenting to said user a first task template, said user, responsive to said first task template, selectively executing assessment tasks to develop and cost proposal, and draft and price customer contracts; and

responsive to user selection of said transition management introduction category, presenting in said selection area a fourth listing of assessment stage tasks and responsive to user selection of an assessment stage task from said fourth listing presenting to said user a first task template;

said user, responsive to said first task template, selectively executing assessment tasks to develop initial assessment of client, and provide transition management workshop presentation.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

receiving from said terminal data for entry to said database assessing an existing customer application,

responsive to data entered to said database, introducing a recommended service offering to said customer,

selectively responsive to said data entered to said database, creating a service offering proposal and contract,

selectively responsive to data entered to said database and to said customer not accepting said contract, conducting a lost bid analysis,

selectively responsive to data entered to said database and to said customer accepting said contract, conducting a won bid analysis, conducting a transition to an implementation team, and conducting a transition management workshop.

7. The method of claim 4, further, comprising the steps of:

gathering data describing requirements of said customer for procurement, and data describing currently used tools and processes for satisfying said requirements;

gathering data from said customer which describes a cost for future years of continuing with said currently used tools and processes;

entering said data to data fields of templates served to a user terminal for assessing a customer'"'"'s legacy GP and AP system; and

storing said templates for access by customer and enterprise teams in preparation, development, deployment and support stages of a new general procurement and accounts payable application.

8. A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by a machine to perform method steps effecting through presales, assessment, preparation, development, deployment and support stages a transition from a legacy process to an integrated, cross-functional general procurement and accounts payable system for a client, said method steps comprising:

maintaining a database of templates including data fields and describing procedures for assessing said legacy process and said general procurement and accounts payable system;

operating a plurality of web-enabled user terminals to access via a server said database for coordinating tasks by a plurality of customer and enterprise teams implementing said procedures and entering data to said data fields describing said process and said general procurement and accounts payable system;

displaying to members of said teams in a playbook summary view a create a summary task selection button, a create a detailed task button, a folders and views section, a task title display and selection area;

responsive to member selection of a tasks selection button presenting in said selection area a listing of assessment stage tasks organized by categories, said categories including assessment tasks for performing customer service offering assessment, introducing recommend service offering to customer, and creating a proposal and contract for an integrated, cross-functional general procurement and accounts payable application;

accumulating into said data fields a description of said customer'"'"'s processes, tools, and organizational structures;

with reference to said description, said members defining in said database technical, educational, and human resource aspects of said integrated, cross-functional general procurement and accounts payable application for said customer; and

delivering to said customer a workshop presenting an overview of said customer solution, initiating process analysis and strategic implementation, and confirming whether said customer solution satisfies customer needs;

thereby coordinating, recording and tracking said customer and enterprise teams activities with respect to said assessment stage to provide a transition from said assessment stage to said preparation, development, deployment and support stages of said general procurement and accounts payable system.

9. The program storage device of claim 8, said method steps further comprising:

displaying at a said terminal in a playbook summary view a create a summary task selection button, a create a detailed task button, a folders and views section, a task title display and a selection area;

responsive to member selection of said summary tasks selection button presenting in said selection area a listing of assessment stage tasks organized by categories, said categories including customer service offering assessment, recommended service offering customer presentation, proposal and contract creation, transition management introduction;

responsive to user selection of said customer service offering assessment category, presenting in said selection area a first listing of assessment stage tasks and responsive to user selection of an assessment stage task from said first listing presenting to said user a first task template;

said user, responsive to said first task template, selectively executing assessment tasks to perform customer business assessment, perform customer electronic requisition and catalog service business assessment, develop workshop management plan, develop workshop electronic requisition and catalog service management plan, review findings from marketing procurement consulting engagement, review findings from marketing procurement consulting engagement for electronic requisition and catalog service, formulate workshop approach, formulate electronic requisition and catalog service workshop approach, prepare for workshop, and prepare for electronic requisition and catalog service workshop;

responsive to user selection of said recommended service offering customer presentation category, presenting in said selection area a second listing of assessment stage tasks and responsive to user selection of an assessment stage task from said second listing presenting to said user a first task template;

said user, responsive to said first task template, selectively executing assessment tasks to present service offering workshop to customer, present electronic requisition and catalog service offering workshop to customer (perform workshop), formulate proposal approach, and formulate proposal approach for electronic requisition and catalog service;

responsive to user selection of said proposal and contract creation category, presenting in said selection area a third listing of assessment stage tasks and responsive to user selection of an assessment stage task from said third listing presenting to said user a first task template;

said user, responsive to said first task template, selectively executing assessment tasks to develop and cost proposal, and draft and price customer contracts; and

responsive to user selection of said transition management introduction category, presenting in said selection area a fourth listing of assessment stage tasks and responsive to user selection of an assessment stage task from said fourth listing presenting to said user a first task template;

said user, responsive to said first task template, selectively executing assessment tasks to develop initial assessment of client, and provide transition management workshop presentation.

10. An article of manufacture comprising:

a computer useable medium having computer readable program code means embodied therein for effecting through presales, assessment, preparation, development, deployment and support stages a transition from a legacy process to an integrated, cross-functional general procurement and accounts payable system for a client, the computer readable program means in said article of manufacture comprising;

computer readable program code means for causing a computer to effect maintaining a database of templates including data fields and describing procedures for assessing said legacy process and said general procurement and accounts payable system; and

computer readable program code means for causing a computer to operate a plurality of web-enabled user terminals to access via a server said database for entering data to said data fields describing said legacy process and said general procurement and accounts payable system for said client and coordinating tasks by a plurality of customer and enterprise teams implementing said procedures;

computer readable program code means for causing a computer to effect displaying to members of said teams in a playbook summary view a create a summary task selection button, a create a detailed task button, a folders and views section, a task title display and selection area;

computer readable program code means for causing a computer to effect responsive to member selection of a tasks selection button presenting in said selection area a listing of assessment stage tasks organized by categories, said categories including assessment tasks for performing customer service offering assessment, introducing recommend service offering to customer, and creating a proposal and contract for an integrated, cross-functional general procurement and accounts payable application;

computer readable program code means for causing a computer to effect accumulating into said data fields a description of said customer'"'"'s processes, tools, and organizational structures;

computer readable program code means for causing a computer to effect receiving from said members and storing to said database data defining technical, educational, and human resource aspects of said integrated, cross-functional general procurement and accounts payable application for said customer; and

computer readable program code means for causing a computer to effect preparing a workshop presentation providing an overview of said customer solution, initiating process analysis and strategic implementation, and confirming whether said customer solution satisfies customer needs.