Screening electronic service requests

• US 7,529,680 B2
• Filed: 03/29/2002
• Issued: 05/05/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/29/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle America, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Siebel Systems Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Wells, Ken, Kreaden, Mitchell, Brindley, Dougal, Sunday, Mark, Deighton, Anthony
• Primary Examiner(s): Weiss; John G.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Brooks; Matthew L
• Application Number:
  US10/112,467
• Publication Number:
  US 20070203712A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,594 Days
• Field of Search: 705/1
• US Class Current: 705/309
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063112 Skill-based matching of a person or a group to a task
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063114 Status monitoring or status determination for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/182 Alternative dispute resolution
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5191 interacting with the Internet

Abstract

A facility for screening service requests for requesting assistance is described. The facility receives from a user a service request that requests assistance with solving a problem associated with a system accessible to the user and includes information related to the system. The facility searches a collection of system status information for at least one entry that corresponds with the received information related to the system. Where a corresponding entry is found, the facility provides to the user an indication of the correspondence and an opportunity to cancel the service request.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method comprising:

submitting a request for assistance, wherein the request relates to solving a user problem, the submitting comprising

receiving service request information, the service request information identifying the user problem, the service request information including area identifier corresponding to a system and sub-area identifier corresponding to a subsystem;

retrieving the area identifier from the received service request information;

retrieving the sub-area identifier from the service request information;

searching a collection of system status and subsystem status information for a correspondence with the retrieved information, the correspondence indicating that the service request is potentially redundant;

when a correspondence indicating that the service request is potentially redundant is identified, immediately providing an alert message indicating the correspondence and providing to the user an opportunity to cancel the service request; and

when no correspondence is found or when the request is not cancelled, sending the request to at least one member of a support staff responsible for addressing the request.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the collection of system status and subsystem status information comprises information from at least one submitted service request.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the collection of system status and subsystem status information comprises a set of pending service requests.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the collection of system status and subsystem status information is a database of periodically updated system and subsystem status information.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the alert message indicates that a related service request is currently pending.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the alert message indicates that a system related to the service request is functioning improperly.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the collection of system status information consists of pending service requests submitted by other users.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the collection of system status information comprises information from at least one submitted user service request.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein the collection of system status information consists of pending service requests submitted by other users.

10. The method of claim 7 wherein the indication of the correspondence is an alert message that a system related to the service request is functioning improperly.