Method for evaluating activity-based costs of a company

• US 7,376,647 B1
• Filed: 07/18/2000
• Issued: 05/20/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/18/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Original Assignee: Accenture LLP (Accenture PLC)
• Inventors: Costonis, Michael A., Lucarini, Michael A., Gallo, Vanessa Gabriela, Guyan, G. Victor
• Primary Examiner(s): Rudy; Andrew Joseph
• Application Number:
  US09/618,286
• Time in Patent Office: 2,863 Days
• Field of Search: 705/11, 705/8, 705/9, 705/7, 705/10, 705/30, 705/32, 707/4, 715503-510
• US Class Current: 707/748
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/922 Communications
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/959 Network
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 Query formulation, input preparation, or translation

Abstract

Methods and systems consistent with the present invention provide a survey tool for allocating costs of a company. A survey is presented to an employee of the company via a network, for example, the Internet. The survey includes a list of activities and asks the employee to rank the activities based on the amount of time spent working on the activities. The survey also prompts the employee to provide information including average hours worked per week, job position, etc. A server receives the employee'"'"'s responses and, using company information stored by the server, allocates costs of the company.

Claims

1. A method for allocating costs of a company, the method comprising:

providing a computer-readable medium containing instructions for controlling a server, the server communicating via a network with a plurality of client computers, each client computer running a browser;

storing a company profile, including information on a plurality of activities performed by employees of the company and information about employees of the company;

displaying a survey including a list of the plurality of activities performed by employees of the company on the browser of at least one of the plurality of client computers, the survey further including input fields for receiving data entered by a user of the at least one of the plurality of client computers;

receiving inputs entered into said input fields from the at least one of the plurality of client computers, the inputs comprising a plurality of relative rankings of the plurality of activities performed by an employee;

displaying the plurality of relative rankings on a computer monitor;

calculating an employee cost of each activity of the plurality of activities based on the received plurality of relative rankings, wherein the plurality of relative rankings are based on the plurality of activities being ranked according to a first amount of time an employee spends to perform a corresponding first activity of the plurality of activities relative to other amounts of time the employee spends to perform the other activities of the plurality of activities, and the calculating includes converting each relative ranking of the received plurality of relative rankings into a time the employee spends performing each corresponding activity; and

displaying on the computer monitor the calculated employee cost of each activity of the plurality of activities.

2. The method of claim 1, further including:

determining an overall cost of the activity using the employee cost and the company profile.

3. The method of claim 2, further including:

creating a costing model based on the overall cost of the activity; and

identifying opportunities to reduce costs of the company using the costing model.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the storing step further includes:

assigning one or more lines of business to the activities of the company.

5. The method of claim 4, further including:

assigning one or more insurance claim categories to each line of business.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the storing step further includes:

assigning one or more insurance claim categories to an activity of the company.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the storing step further includes:

assigning an insurance claim phase category to an activity of the company.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the storing step further includes:

assigning one or more job categories to the employees of the company.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the storing step further includes:

assigning a process category to an activity of the company.

10. The method of claim 8, further including:

storing job information corresponding to each job position in each job category, the job information including a midpoint salary and the number of employees of the company assigned to the job category.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the storing step further includes:

designating one or more organizational entities to describe a structure of the company; and

wherein the receiving step further includes;

receiving an identifier of one of the organizational entities to in which the employee works.

12. The method of claim 11, further including:

calculating an organizational entity cost for the activity using the employee cost of each employee working in the organizational entity.

13. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving further inputs comprising modified relative rankings, and re-calculating the employee cost based on the modified relative rankings.

14. A method for allocating costs of a company, the method comprising:

storing on a computer memory a company profile, including activity information on a plurality of activities performed by employees of the company and job information corresponding to a job position in a job category, the job information including a midpoint salary and the number of employees of the company assigned to the job position;

presenting a survey to a user interface on a computer display, the survey having a plurality of input fields for receiving data input by a user

receiving from the user interface an identification of the job position of an employee;

presenting on the survey a list of activities performed by the employee;

receiving an input including a rank assigned to an activity on the presented list of activities performed by the employee, the rank being a relative ranking based on the amount of time the employee spends on said activity relative to the amount of time spent on other activities on the presented list of activities performed by the employee;

calculating by a computer an employee cost of each activity based on the received rank and the stored job information; and

displaying on the computer display the received rank and calculated employee cost.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the storing step further includes:

assigning one or more job categories to the employees of the company, and aggregating the employee costs across the job categories.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the storing step further includes:

assigning to at least some of the activities of the plurality of activities at least one of an insurance claim category, an insurance claim phase category, an insurance claim process category, or combinations thereof; and

determining the employee costs of the activities assigned to at least one insurance claim category, insurance claim phase category or insurance claim process category.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the storing step further includes:

assigning an activity to a line of business of the company;

assigning one or more insurance claim type categories to each line of business; and

determining the employee costs of the activities assigned to at least one line of business or insurance claim type category.

18. The method of claim 14, further comprising receiving from the user interface the number of hours an employee works per week, and the calculating further includes retrieving the received number of hours and determining the costs based on the received number of hours and the midpoint salary.

19. The method of claim 14, further comprising designating one or more organizational entities to describe a structure of the company;

receiving from the user interface an identification of one of the organizational entities in which the employee works; and

determining the employee costs of each activity for at least one organizational entity of the company.

20. The method of claim 14, further comprising providing a computer-readable medium containing instructions for controlling a server, the server communicating via a network with a plurality of client computers, each client computer running a browser for providing the user interface.

21. The method of claim 14, further comprising calculating by the computer the hours and percent time corresponding to an activity based on the received rank, and displaying on the computer display the calculated hours and percent time.

22. The method of claim 14 further comprising receiving a modified rank and re-calculating the employee cost based on the modified rank.

23. The method of claim 14 further comprising calculating an amount of time an employee spends on the activity based on the received rank, and calculating the employee cost based on the calculated amount of time.