Identifying solutions to computer problems in main system by service system

• US 7,403,933 B2
• Filed: 10/31/2003
• Issued: 07/22/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Arend, Thomas
• Primary Examiner(s): Vincent; David
• Assistant Examiner(s): COUGHLAN, PETER D
• Application Number:
  US10/697,433
• Publication Number:
  US 20040143777A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,726 Days
• Field of Search: 706/1, 706/15, 706/45, 706/21, 706/20, 706/47, 706/46, 706/60, 706/11, 706/62, 700/1, 700/90, 704/257, 707/3, 707/2, 709/226, 705/26, 395/575, 714/26, 703/20
• US Class Current: 706/47
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2257 using expert systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/022 Knowledge engineering; Knowledge acquisition

Abstract

A computer system landscape has a main system to execute an application and a remote service system to evaluate problems in the main system. The main system has database, application server and a front-end server. The service system has a service module to collect problem related data from the main system, an acquisition module to acquire knowledge representations, a knowledge module to store the knowledge representations, an inference module for processing problem related data with the knowledge representations to identify solutions, the inference module forwards the solutions through the service module to the main system. Main system and service system communicate through a network. Main and service systems have client/server configuration.

Claims

1. A computer system comprising:

a main computer system comprising a database, an application server and a front-end server, wherein the main system executes an application in cooperation with a human user; and

a remote service computer system for evaluating problems in the main system, comprising;

a service module to collect problem related data from the main system, said problem related data representing a problem identified about data in the main system;

an acquisition module to acquire knowledge representations;

a knowledge module to receive the knowledge representations, generate solution identification rules comprising computer instructions to automatically solve the problem, group sets of the solution identification rules semantically, and store the knowledge representations with the sets of semantically grouped solution identification rules; and

an inference module to process problem related data with knowledge representations to identify the solution identification rules and forward the solution identification rules through the service module to the main computer system, wherein the inference module identifies the solution identification rules by applying knowledge representations to the problem related data in at least one of a sequential order, a hierarchical order, and a dynamically adaptive order and wherein the identified solution identification rules are applied to solve the problem identified in the main system.

2. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the main system and the service system communicate through remote function call connections provided by the service module.

3. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the service module monitors the application server and the database according to instructions from the inference module.

4. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the main system and the service system are systems in client/server configuration.

5. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the service system returns solution identification rules that solve the problem directly in the main system.

6. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the main system executes an enterprise resource planning application.

7. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the main system is implemented as an R/3 system.

8. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the knowledge representations are regularly updated.

9. A method to evaluate problems in a main computer system that has a database, an application server, and a front-end server and that executes an application in cooperation with a human user, the method comprising:

collecting problem related data from the main system by a service module of a remote service system, said problem related data representing a problem identified about data in the main system;

acquiring knowledge representations by an acquisition module of the service system;

receiving the knowledge representations by a knowledge module;

generating solution identification rules comprising computer instructions to automatically solve the problem;

grouping sets of the solution identification rules semantically;

storing the knowledge representations with the sets of semantically grouped solution identification rules by the knowledge module of the service system;

processing problem related data with the knowledge representations by a inference module to identify the solution identification rules wherein the inference module identifies the solution identification rules by applying knowledge representations to the problem related data in at least one of a sequential order, a hierarchical order, and a dynamically adaptive order;

forwarding the solution identification rules through the service module to the main system; and

applying the identified solution identification rules to solve the problem identified in the main system by changing the state of memory in the main system.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein in the step of processing, the inference module performs an action selected from the group of:

identify the solutions from a set of predefined advices of the application,

communicate questions to the user by composing the questions from predefined passages provided by the application, and

analyze responses that the user enters in natural language.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the service system forwards problem data and solutions for further analysis by a human technician.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the service system forwards problem data and solutions to the further computer in a format that allows analysis by an expert system in the further computer.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the knowledge representations are regularly updated.

14. A computer program product comprising program code means for performing all the steps of anyone of the claims 9-12 when the computer program product is run on a computer.

15. An inference module stored on a computer readable medium, that when executed on a processor, causes the processor to perform a method, the method comprising:

evaluating problems in a main computer system that executes an application, wherein;

the inference module processes problem related data with knowledge representations to identify solution identification rules, said knowledge representations being stored with sets of solution identification rules semantically grouped, and

the inference module characterized in that the inference module is part of a service system receiving problem related data from the main computer system over a network, said problem related data representing a problem identified about data in the main system; and

returning the solution identification rules to the main system, wherein the service system returns solution identification rules that solve the problem directly,

further wherein during the processing of problem related data, the inference module identifies the solution identification rules by applying knowledge representations in at least one of a sequential order, a hierarchical order, and a dynamically adaptive order, and

further wherein the solution identification rules comprise computer instructions to automatically solve the problem.

16. The inference module of claim 15, wherein the knowledge representations are regularly updated.