Requesting, obtaining, and processing operational event feedback from customer data centers

• US 7,571,150 B2
• Filed: 04/15/2005
• Issued: 08/04/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/15/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Raghavan, Arun D, Rajarajan, Vij, Sanghvi, Ashvinkumar J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee; Wilson
• Assistant Examiner(s): Lie; Angela M
• Application Number:
  US11/107,297
• Publication Number:
  US 20060235822A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,572 Days
• Field of Search: 707/2, 707/104.1, 707/102, 707/1, 705/59, 705/51, 717/120
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing

Abstract

In connection with an operations management system, a vendor feedback system reports on operational events that occur on customer data centers. The operations management system provides a standardized environment for providing feedback to a vendor of components installed at the customer data centers. Methods supported by the vendor feedback system can include directing the operations management system to report on predefined operational events involving the components installed by the vendor at the customer data centers. Event reports are then stored at the customer data centers in response to occurrences of the predefined operational events. The event reports can be generated in cooperation with the operations management system. The event reports are transmitted to the vendor as feedback relating to the components, and the vendor receives the event reports from the customer data centers. The vendor, in turn, can then analyze the event reports in detail to address any issues with the vendor'"'"'s products or services, referred to collectively as components, that may be increasing the customer'"'"'s TCO.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented vendor-feedback method to provide feedback to a vendor of components provided to customer data centers, the method comprising:

associating an anonymous and unique identifier with a given customer;

utilizing an operations management system to provide a standardized environment for reporting on operational events that affect the analysis and resolution of an issue associated with a component, on a plurality of customer data centers and to track the total cost of ownership of the components, the total cost of ownership based at least in part upon a professional service fee; and

enabling vendor personnel associated with the vendor to specify operational event data reports to obtain from the customer data centers, wherein the operational event data reports correspond to operational events of interest to the vendor personnel, and wherein the operational event data reports received from the customer data centers are stripped of any private data.

2. The computer-implemented vendor-feedback method of claim 1, further comprising accessing the customer data centers using the operations management system.

3. The computer-implemented vendor-feedback method of claim 1, further comprising defining at least one rule for capturing raw operational event data for compiling the specified operational event data reports, and for obtaining, in response to the rule, the raw operational event data upon which the operational event data reports are based.

4. The computer-implemented vendor-feedback method of claim 3, further comprising aggregating the raw operational event data.

5. The computer-implemented vendor-feedback method of claim 3, further comprising normalizing the raw operational event data.

6. The computer-implemented vendor-feedback method of claim 1, further comprising establishing a respective context for instances of the operational event data reports.

7. The computer-implemented vendor-feedback method of claim 1, further comprising enabling a customer to opt-in to allow the vendor personnel to obtain the operational event data reports.

8. The computer-implemented vendor-feedback method of claim 1, further comprising enabling a customer to approve the operational event data reports before they are transmitted to the vendor personnel.

9. The computer-implemented vendor-feedback method of claim 1, further comprising tracking data relating to the customer installation over time using, at least in part, the anonymous and unique identifier associated with the given customer.

10. The computer-implemented vendor-feedback method of claim 9, further comprising offering a customized support service to the given customer using, at least in part, the anonymous and unique identifier.

11. The computer-implemented vendor-feedback method of claim 1, further comprising automatically populating a data store on a vendor site with the operational event data reports as they are received from the customer data centers.

12. In connection with an operations management system that provides a standardized environment for reporting on operational events occurring on a plurality of customer data centers, a computer-implemented method for providing feedback to a vendor of components installed at the customer data centers, the method comprising at least the following:

traversing designated storage locations on the customer data centers to locate reports of operational events that were stored therein responsive to requests received from the vendor, wherein the requests specify operational event data reports to obtain from the customer data centers, wherein the operational event data reports correspond to operational events of interest to vendor personnel, and wherein the operational events affect the analysis and resolution of an issue associated with a component, and impact the total cost of ownership of components provided to the customer data centers by the vendor, the total cost of ownership based at least in part upon a professional service fee;

stripping the operational event data reports of any private data;

packaging the reports of the operational events for transmission to the vendor; and

transmitting the reports to the vendor as feedback relating to the components.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein traversing designated storage locations includes traversing storage locations that are assigned to specific developments groups within the vendor.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein traversing designated storage locations includes traversing storage locations that are assigned to specific application developments groups within a software vendor.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising creating a manifest document directing that the reports be transmitted to the vendor.

16. The method of claim 12, further comprising populating header data structures associated with the transportable format with data extracted from the reports.

17. The method of claim 12, further comprising enabling logging for a communications process that transmits the reports from the customer data center to the vendor.

18. The method of claim 12, further comprising rendering the reports in a transportable, human-readable format.

19. The method of claim 12, further comprising encrypting the reports for transmission.

20. In connection with an operations management system that provides a standardized environment for reporting on operational events occurring on a plurality of customer data centers, a computer-implemented method for obtaining and processing feedback provided to a vendor of components installed at the customer data centers, the method comprising at least the following:

enabling a customer to opt-in to allow vendor personnel associated with the vendor to receive data pertaining to the operational events;

associating an anonymous and unique identifier with a given customer;

directing the operations management system to report on predefined operational events that affect the analysis and resolution of an issue associated with a component, and impact the total cost of ownership of the components installed by the vendor at the customer data centers, the total cost of ownership based at least in part upon a professional service fee;

receiving reports on the operational events from the customer data centers, wherein the operational event data reports correspond to operational events of interest as specified by vendor personnel and wherein the operational events involve components provided to the customer data centers by the vendor, wherein;

at least one rule is defined for capturing raw operational event data upon which the operational event data reports are based and for compiling operational event data reports, the raw data is obtained, aggregated and normalized in response to the at least one rule, and the operational event data reports received from the customer data centers are stripped of any private data;

delivering the reports to secured servers maintained by the vendor;

enabling authorized representatives of the vendor to analyze the reports; and

addressing the operational events based at least in part on analyzing the reports.