System and method for deploying a procurement and accounts payable system

• US 6,687,677 B1
• Filed: 11/22/1999
• Issued: 02/03/2004
• 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, Susan B., Daniel, Maureen, Fleury, Tina J., Tchir, Sharon M., Cirulli, Philip J., Flannery, Kerin J., Barnard, Ray F., Lanuti, Carl J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hafiz, Tariq R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): MEINECKE DIAZ, SUSANNA M
• Application Number:
  US09/444,253
• Time in Patent Office: 1,534 Days
• Field of Search: 705/7-11, 707/10, 707/104.1, 707/500, 709/203
• US Class Current: 705/7.15
• 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 10/0633 Workflow analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06395 Quality analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

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, a deployment system, comprising:

a server;

a storage device connected to said server for storing a playbook database including a plurality of summary and detailed tasks organized into assessment, preparation, development, deployment and support processing stages for said integrated, cross-functional general procurement and accounts payable application;

a plurality of team terminals;

a communication link interconnecting said server and said terminals;

said server;

maintaining in said database templates and data fields describing procedures for deploying said application on said storage device;

serving said templates to customer, transition management and quality assessment team members operating said terminals to display 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 said summary tasks selection button presenting in said selection area a listing of deployment stage tasks organized by categories, said categories including production environment set up, production support validation requisition catalog production readiness, electronic data interchange infrastructure, transition management deployment, and go live processing;

responsive to user selection of said production environment set up category, presenting in said selection area a first listing of deployment stage tasks and responsive to user selection of a deployment stage task from said first listing presenting to said user a first task template;

said user responsive to said first task template, selectively executing deployment tasks to convert vendor masters into a production environment, determine electronic data interchange tasks for production environment set up, execute an accounting driver cut over checklist, set up an accounting driver production environment, establish an accounting driver batch schedule, set up trading partners in said production environment, and deploy a vendor lead client;

responsive to user selection of said production support validation category, presenting in said selection area a second listing of deployment stage tasks and responsive to user selection of a deployment stare task from said second listing presenting to said user a second task template;

said user, responsive to said second task template, selectively executing deployment tasks to validate accounting driver production support for system management, validate production support for accounts payable, validate production support for a customer service center, validate production support for general procurement, and validate requisition catalog production support for system management;

responsive to user selection of said requisition catalog production readiness category, presenting in said selection area a third listing of deployment stage tasks and responsive to user selection of a deployment stage task from said third listing presenting to said user a third task template;

said user, responsive to said third task template, selectively executing deployment tasks to confirm a requisition catalog for a production environment, set up requisition catalog tables in production, prepare a requisition catalog production copy, and execute a requisition catalog go live checklist;

responsive to user selection of said electronic data interchange infrastructure category, presenting in said selection area a fourth listing of deployment stage tasks and responsive to user selection of a deployment stage task from said fourth listing presenting to said user a fourth task template;

said user responsive to said fourth task template, selectively executing deployment tasks to validate image production support for system management;

responsive to user selection of said transition management deployment category, presenting in said selection area a fifth listing of deployment stage tasks and responsive to user selection of a deployment stage task from said fifth listing presenting to said user a fifth task template;

said user, responsive to said fifth task template, selectively executing deployment tasks to ensure a new process management system is in place, perform a client readiness assessment, perform transition management go live activities, and manage human resources activities;

responsive to user selection of said go live processing category, presenting in said selection area a sixth listing of deployment stage tasks and responsive to user selection of a deployment stage task from said sixth listing presenting to said user a sixth task template;

said user, responsive to said sixth task template, selectively executing deployment tasks to allocate buyer codes to commodities, and enter blanket orders; and

responsive to input to said data fields at said terminals by said customer, transition management and quality assessment team members prior to operation of said application, updating said database for coordinating, recording and tracking team activities with respect to said general procurement and accounts payable application;

thereby executing with reference to said playbook database deployment stage processes comprising said general procurement and accounts payable application before actual operation for identifying and resolving problems prior to operation.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

each said template storing, either directly or by way of links to other documents, materials for guiding, coordinating and documenting the work of said customer, transition management and quality assessment teams; and

said database being structure to store application systems control and auditability, transition management, and integrated project management systems and procedure tasks for access by said team members in deploying said application.

3. The system of claim 2, said materials including one or more instructions, flow charts, sample questionnaires, report models and checklists.

4. The system of claim 2, said templates describing procedures and storing data entered to said templates by said customer, transition management and quality assessment teams for managing an audit covering technical, business, financial and client issues prior to implementation of said integrated, cross-functional general procurement and accounts payable application.

5. The system of claim 2, said templates describing procedures and storing data entered to said templates by said customer, transition management and quality assessment teams for quality review, project management, and transition management of said integrated, cross-functional general procurement and accounts payable application.

6. The system of claim 2, said templates describing procedures and storing data entered to said templates by said customer, transition management and quality assessment teams for quality review wherein auditors manage a quality audit and issue an acceptance position which is required before implementation of said integrated, cross-functional general procurement and accounts payable application.

7. The system of claim 6, said templates describing procedures and storing data entered to said templates by said customer, transition management and quality assessment teams for quality review by:

creating a project plan for quality review preparation;

determining which enterprise organization will conduct the quality and business controls review;

preparing quality documentation required for said review;

preparing sub-process overviews and descriptions of process flow;

including in said review quality checks required to assess business controls, separation of duties, authorization matrices, data integrity and security;

creating, updating and completing documents of understanding and service level agreements;

providing a current separation of duties matrix;

uobtaining test approvals for process ownership, quality requirements, self-assessment and system cutover.

8. The system of claim 2, said templates describing procedures and storing data entered to said templates by said customer, transition management and quality assessment teams for project management wherein is confirmed that all deployment procedures are satisfied and the approval of said client obtained for go-live installation of said general procurement and accounts payable application.

9. The system of claim 8, said templates describing procedures and storing data entered to said templates by said customer, transition management and quality assessment teams for project management by verifying:

no critical open issues exist in any area;

all relevant aspects of readiness have been included in a status check;

network and computing performance testing is complete;

system test is complete;

user acceptance test is complete;

system management production environment Go-live checklist is complete;

any needed change requests have been generated;

production support is in place;

supplier readiness is confirmed;

service provider readiness is confirmed;

enterprise general procurement readiness is confirmed;

review of the compiled check information is completed; and

customer sign-off on the go-live decision is obtained.

10. The system of claim 2, said templates describing procedures and storing data entered to said templates by said customer, transition management and quality assessment teams for transition management wherein human factors are managed to assure a smooth transition from client legacy applications to a new application, and that organization, measurements, management, support, and labor relations functions are developed, explained, reviewed, understood, and in place or on schedule.

11. A method for deploying from a customer legacy system through presales, assessment, preparation, development, deployment and support stages an integrated, cross-functional general procurement and accounts payable application, comprising the steps of:

structuring a playbook database to include a plurality of summary and detailed tasks organized into assessment, preparation, development, deployment and support processing stages for an integrated, cross-functional general procurement and accounts payable application;

maintaining in said playbook database a database of templates for describing procedures and collecting data from customer and supplier teams for deploying 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 enterprise teams and said customer and supplier teams implementing said procedures, said tasks including quality review, project management, and transition managements

displaying at said user 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 selection area;

responsive to member selection of said summary tasks selection button presenting in said selection area a listing of deployment stage tasks organized by categories, said categories including Production environment set up, production support validation, requisition catalog production readiness, electronic data interchange infrastructure, transition management deployment, and go live processing;

responsive to user selection of said Production environment set up category, presenting in said selection area a first listing of deployment stage tasks and responsive to user selection of a deployment stage task from said first listing presenting to said user a first task template, said user, responsive to said first task template, selectively executing deployment tasks to convert vendor masters into a production environment, determine electronic data interchange tasks for production environment set up, execute an accounting driver cut over checklist, set up an accounting driver production environment, establish an accounting driver batch schedule, set up trading partners in said production environment, and deploy a vendor lead client;

responsive to user selection of said production support validation category, presenting in said selection area a second listing of deployment stage tasks and responsive to user selection of a deployment stage task from said second listing presenting to said user a second task template;

said user, responsive to said second task template, selectively executing deployment tasks to validate accounting driver production support for system management, validate production support for accounts payable, validate production support for a customer service center, validate production support for general procurement, and validate requisition catalog production support for system management;

responsive to user selection of said requisition catalog production readiness category, presenting in said selection area a third listing of deployment stage tasks and responsive to user selection of a deployment stage task from said third listing presenting to said user a third task template;

said user, responsive to said third task template, selectively executing deployment tasks to confirm a requisition catalog for a production environment, set up requisition catalog tables in production, prepare a requisition catalog production copy, and execute a requisition catalog go live checklist;

responsive to user selection of said electronic data interchange infrastructure category, presenting in said selection area a fourth listing of deployment stage tasks and responsive to user selection of a deployment stage task from said fourth listing presenting to said user a fourth task template;

said user, responsive to said fourth task template, selectively executing deployment tasks to validate image production support for system management;

responsive to user selection of said transition management deployment category, presenting in said selection area a fifth listing of deployment stage tasks and responsive to user selection of a deployment stage task from said fifth listing presenting to said user a fifth task template;

said user, responsive to said fifth task template, selectively executing deployment tasks to ensure a new process management system is in place, perform a client readiness assessment, perform transition management go live activities, and manage human resources activities; and

responsive to user selection of said go live processing category, presenting in said selection area a sixth listing of deployment stage tasks and responsive to user selection of a deployment stage task from said sixth listing presenting to said user a sixth task template;

said user, responsive to said sixth task template, selectively executing deployment tasks to allocate buyer codes to commodities, and enter blanket orders.

12. The method of claim 11, each said template storing, either directly or by way of links to other documents, materials for guiding, coordinating and documenting the work of said enterprise teams and said customer and Supplier teams.

13. The method of claim 12, said materials including one or more instructions, flow charts, sample questionnaires, report models and checklists.

14. A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by a machine to perform method steps for deploying a general procurement and accounts payable application, said method steps comprising:

structuring a playbook database to include a plurality of summary and detailed tasks organized into assessment, preparation, development, deployment and support processing stages for an integrated, cross-functional general procurement and accounts payable application;

maintaining a database of templates and data fields for describing procedures for directing enterprise, customer, transition management and quality assessment teams in deploying said general procurement and accounts payable application; and

operating a plurality of web-enabled user terminals to access via a server said database for coordinating tasks by a plurality of said enterprise, customer, transition management and quality assessment teams implementing said procedures, said tasks including quality review, project management, and transition management;

displaying at said user terminals 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 said summary tasks selection button presenting in said selection area a listing of deployment stare tasks organized by categories, said categories including production environment set up, production support validation, requisition catalog production readiness, electronic data interchange infrastructure, transition management deployment, and go live processing;

responsive to User selection of said production environment set up category, presenting in said selection area a first listing of deployment stage tasks and responsive to user selection of a deployment stage task from said first listing presenting to said user a first task template;

said user, responsive to said first task template, selectively executing deployment tasks to convert vendor masters into a production environment, determine electronic data interchange tasks for production environment set up, execute an accounting driver cut over checklist, set up an accounting driver production environment, establish an accounting driver batch schedule, set up trading partners in said production environment, and deploy a vendor lead client;

responsive to user selection of said production support validation category, presenting in said selection area a second listing of deployment stage tasks and responsive to user selection of a deployment stage task from said second listing presenting to said user a second task template;

said user, responsive to said second task template, selectively executing deployment tasks to validate accounting driver production support for system management, validate production support for accounts payable, validate production support for a customer services-center, validate production support for general procurement, and validate requisition catalog production support for system management;

responsive to user selection of said requisition catalog production readiness category, presenting in said selection area a third listing of deployment stage tasks and responsive to user selection of a deployment stage task from said third listing presenting to said user a third task template;

said user, responsive to said third task template, selectively executing deployment tasks to confirm a requisition catalog for a production environment, set up requisition catalog tables in production, prepare a requisition catalog production copy, and execute a requisition catalog go live checklist;

responsive to user selection of said electronic data interchange infrastructure category, presenting in said selection area a fourth listing of deployment stage tasks and responsive to user selection of a deployment stage task from said fourth listing presenting to said user a fourth task template;

said user, responsive to said fourth task template, selectively executing deployment tasks to validate image production support for system management;

responsive to user selection of said transition arrangement deployment category, presenting in said selection area a fifth listing of deployment stage tasks and responsive to user selection of a deployment stage task from said fifth listing presenting to said user a fifth task template;

said user, responsive to said fifth task template, selectively executing deployment tasks to ensure a new process management system is in place, perform a client readiness assessment, perform transition management go live activities, and manage human resources activities; and

responsive to user selection of said go live processing category, presenting in said selection area a sixth listing of deployment stage tasks and responsive to user selection of a deployment stage task from said sixth listing presenting to said user a sixth task template;

said user, responsive to said sixth task template, selectively executing deployment tasks to allocate buyer codes to commodities, and enter blanket orders.

15. An article of manufacture comprising:

a computer useable medium having computer readable program code means embodied therein for deploying a general procurement and accounts payable application, the computer readable program means in said article of manufacture comprising;

computer readable program code means for structuring a playbook database to include a plurality of summary and detailed tasks organized into assessment, preparation, development, deployment and support processing stages for an integrated, cross-functional general procurement and accounts payable application;

computer readable program, code means for causing a computer to effect maintaining a database of templates describing procedures for assessing, preparing, developing, and deploying by transition from a customer legacy system said general procurement and accounts payable application; and

computer readable program code means for causing a computer to effect operating a plurality of web-enabled user terminals to access via a server said database for coordinating tasks by a plurality of enterprise, customer, transition management and quality assessment teams implementing said procedures, said tasks including quality review, project management, and transition management;

computer readable program code means for causing a computer to effect displaying 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 said summary tasks selection button, presenting in said selection area a listing of deployment stage tasks organized by categories, said categories including production environment set up, production support validation, requisition catalog production readiness, electronic data intercharge infrastructure, transition management deployment, and go live processing;

computer readable program code means for causing a computer to effect, responsive to user selection of said production environment set up category, presenting in said selection area a first listing of deployment stage tasks and responsive to user selection of a deployment stage task from said first listing presenting to said user a first task template;

said user, responsive to said first task template, selectively executing deployment tasks to convert vendor masters into a production environment, determine electronic data interchange tasks for production environment set up, execute an accounting driver cut over checklist, set up an accounting driver production environment, establish a accounting driver batch schedule, set up trading partners in said production environment, and deploy a vendor lead client;

computer readable program code means for causing a computer to effect, responsive to user selection of said production support validation category, presenting in said selection area a second listing of deployment stage tasks and responsive to user selection of a deployment stage task from a second listing presenting to said user a second task template;

said user, responsive to said second task template, selectively executing deployment tasks to validate accounting driver production support for system management, validate production support for accounts payable, validate production support for a customer service center, validate production support for general procurement, and validate requisition catalog production support for system management;

computer readable program code means for causing a computer to effect, responsive to user selection of said requisition catalog production readiness category, presenting in said selection area a third listing of deployment stage tasks and responsive to user selection of a deployment stage task from said third listing presenting to said user a third task template;

said user, responsive to said third task template, selectively executing deployment tasks to confirm a requisition catalog for a production environment, set up requisition catalog tables in production, prepare a requisition catalog production copy, and execute a requisition catalog go live checklist;

computer readable program code means for causing a computer to effect, responsive to user selection of said electronic data interchange infrastructure category, presenting in said selection area a fourth listing of deployment stage tasks and responsive to user selection of a deployment stage task from said fourth listing presenting to said user a fourth task template;

said user, responsive to said fourth task template, selectively executing deployment tasks to validate image production support for system management;

computer readable program code means for causing a commuter to effect, responsive to user selection of said transition management deployment category, presenting in said selection area a fifth listing of deployment stage tasks and responsive to user selection of a deployment stage task from said fifth listing presenting to said user a fifth task template;

said user, responsive to said fifth task template, selectively executing deployment tasks to ensure a new process management system is in place, perform a client readiness assessment, perform transition management go live activities, and manage human resources activities, and

computer readable Program code means for causing a computer to effect, responsive to user selection of said go live processing category, presenting in said selection area a sixth listing of deployment stare tasks and responsive to user selection of a deployment stage task from said sixth listing presenting to said user a sixth task template;

said user, responsive to said sixth task template, selectively executing deployment tasks to allocate buyer codes to commodities, and enter blanket orders.