Smart trigger for use in processing business transactions

• US 7,571,171 B1
• Filed: 10/27/2000
• Issued: 08/04/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/29/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Computer Sciences Corporation (DXC Technology Company)
• Original Assignee: Computer Sciences Corporation (DXC Technology Company)
• Inventors: Shaw, Robert Jay
• Primary Examiner(s): Colbert; Ella
• Application Number:
  US09/699,038
• Time in Patent Office: 3,203 Days
• Field of Search: 705/35, 705/36, 705/38, 705/42, 705/1, 705/45, 705/36.R, 707/102, 707/201, 707/101, 707/104.1, 707/3
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/108 Remote banking, e.g. home banking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/03 Credit; Loans; Processing thereof

Abstract

A method and system for the selective identification and execution of a specific processing task for one or more records contained in the one or more Financial Service Organization (FSO) data sets. An FSO computer user may configure a smart trigger table by defining a scheduled date, an identifier for a data set and an associated processing task. The FSO user may schedule a task to be executed at a periodic interval to process entries in the smart trigger table. If conditions have been met to process the smart trigger table then each row in the smart trigger table, which have been specifically identified to need processing, may be processed by only executing the associated processing task specified in the smart trigger table record. After processing the smart trigger table record the scheduled date entry may be reset to indicate its completion.

Claims

1. A method of selectively processing tasks in a Financial Service Organization (FSO) computer system, wherein the FSO computer system comprises a plurality of FSO related data sets and a plurality of computer executable FSO related processing tasks, the method comprising:

providing a first set of data set identifiers, each of the data identifiers corresponding to a physical storage location of one or more data set records;

building a list of associated data set identifiers corresponding to the physical storage location of the one or more data set records for each of the plurality of FSO related processing tasks, wherein each of the lists is a subset of the first set of data identifiers;

creating a plurality of smart triggers, each of the smart triggers comprising;

a task identifier that identifies one of the FSO related processing tasks; and

at least one data set identifier selected from the list of data set identifiers associated with the FSO related processing task identified by the task identifier;

scheduling a date for processing each of the smart triggers;

configuring a smart trigger table having the plurality of the created smart triggers, the smart trigger table comprising, for each of the created smart triggers;

the task identifier associated with the smart trigger;

the at least one data identifier associated with the smart trigger; and

the scheduled date for processing the smart trigger;

storing the configured smart trigger table in a first memory of the computer system;

reading sequentially at least two of the smart triggers from the first memory; and

,

for each, of the smart triggers read from the first memory;

comparing the scheduled date for processing the smart trigger to the current date; and

executing the FSO related processing task associated with the smart trigger to process the data contained in the data set records associated with one or more of the data set identifiers associated with the smart trigger in response to reading the smart trigger from the first memory if the scheduled date of the smart trigger is equal to or before the current date, but not executing the FSO related processing task in response to reading the smart trigger from the first memory if the scheduled date of the smart trigger is after the current date,

wherein executing each of at least two of the executed FSO related processing tasks comprises;

using the task identifier associated with the smart trigger to identify the FSO related processing task to be executed in response to reading the smart trigger; and

using the at least one data identifier associated with the smart trigger to identify FSO related data set records to be processed in response to reading the smart trigger;

wherein executing each of at least two of the FSO related processing tasks comprises executing the FSO related processing task on FSO related data set records that correspond to the at least one data set identifier from the list of associated data set identifiers for the FSO related processing task, but not executing the FSO related processing task on FSO related data set records that do not correspond to the data set identifiers from the list of associated data set identifiers for the FSO related processing task.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein storing the smart trigger table in the first memory is performed by an application program executing in the FSO computer system.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein storing the smart trigger table in the first memory is performed by a user of the FSO computer system.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising processing at least one of the smart triggers to generate a first processed smart trigger.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein processing at least one of the smart triggers comprises deleting the task identifier from the smart trigger.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the smart trigger table comprises N rows each one of which comprises one smart trigger, the method further comprising:

a) setting a counter X to one;

b) incrementing X by one;

c) reading an Xth smart trigger from the smart trigger table;

d) comparing an Xth scheduled date of the Xth smart trigger to the current date;

e) executing an Xth processing task and processing Xth data contained in an Xth data set in response to the Xth scheduled date of the Xth smart trigger being on or before the current date;

f) not executing the Xth processing task in response to the Xth scheduled date of the Xth smart trigger being after the current date; and

g) repeating b) through f) until X equals N.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the method further comprises deleting at least one of the processing task identifiers in response to executing the processing task.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the smart triggers comprises one or more data fields, wherein data in the one or more data fields is passed to the FSO related processing task of the smart trigger in response to reading the smart trigger.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the FSO related data sets comprises a customer account record containing data relating to a customer of the FSO, wherein the data identifier assigned to the FSO related data set comprises a customer account number corresponding to the customer account record.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the FSO computer system further comprises a smart trigger processing task for processing the smart trigger table, wherein the smart trigger processing task is configurable to be executed periodically, wherein the scheduling of the period of execution is configurable by a user of the FSO computer system.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the smart trigger table comprises a list of pointers to an account data set, wherein the smart trigger table includes:

an activity number associated with each of the pointers, wherein the activity numbers identify further processing of the account data set; and

activity data associated with each of the activities numbers, wherein the activity data is processed on a user specified scheduled date.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the activity number is used as a key to access an associated processing task number.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the associated processing task number is used to access an executable processing task name.

14. A computer readable medium comprising program instructions, wherein the program instructions are executable by a computer system to implement:

providing a first set of data identifiers, each of the data identifiers corresponding to a physical storage location of one or more data set records;

building a list of associated data set identifiers corresponding to the physical storage location of the one or more data set records for each of a plurality of Financial Service Organization (FSO) related processing tasks, wherein each of the lists is a subset of the first set of data identifiers;

creating a plurality of smart triggers, each of the smart triggers comprising;

a task identifier that identifies one of the FSO related processing tasks; and

at least one data set identifier selected from the list of data set identifiers associated with the FSO related processing task identified by the task identifier;

scheduling a date for processing each of the smart triggers;

configuring a smart trigger table having the plurality of the created smart triggers, the smart trigger table comprising, for each of the created smart triggers;

the task identifier associated with the smart trigger;

the at least one data identifier associated with the smart trigger; and

the scheduled date for processing the smart trigger;

storing the configured smart trigger table in a first memory of the computer system;

reading sequentially at least two of the smart triggers from the first memory; and

executing the FSO related processing task associated with the smart trigger to process the data contained in the data set records associated with one or more of the data set identifiers associated with the smart trigger in response to reading the smart trigger from the first memory if the scheduled date of the smart trigger is equal to or before the current date, but not executing the FSO related processing task in response to reading the smart trigger from the first memory if the scheduled date of the smart trigger is after the current date,

wherein executing each of at least two of the executed FSO related processing tasks comprises;

using the task identifier associated with the smart trigger to identify the FSO related processing task to be executed in response to reading the smart trigger; and

using the at least one data identifier associated with the smart trigger to identify FSO related data set records to be processed in response to reading the smart trigger;

wherein executing each of at least two of the FSO related processing task comprises executing the FSO related processing task on FSO related data set records that correspond to the at least one data set identifier from the list of associated data set identifiers for the FSO related processing task, but not executing the FSO related processing task on FSO related data set records that do not correspond to the data set identifiers from the list of associated data set identifiers for the FSO related processing task.

15. The computer readable medium of claim 14, wherein storing the smart trigger table in the first memory is performed by an application program executing in the FSO computer system.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 14, wherein storing the smart trigger table in the first memory is performed by a user of the FSO computer system.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 14, wherein the program instructions are further executable by the computer system to implement:

processing at least one of the smart triggers to generate a first processed smart trigger.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 17, wherein the processing at least one of the smart triggers comprises deleting the task identifier from the smart trigger.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 18, wherein the smart trigger table comprises N rows each one of which comprises one smart trigger, and wherein the program instructions are further executable by the computer system to implement:

a) setting a counter X to one;

b) incrementing X by one;

c) reading an Xth smart trigger from the smart trigger table;

d) comparing an Xth scheduled date of the Xth smart trigger to the current date;

e) executing an Xth processing task and processing Xth data contained in an Xth data set in response to the Xth scheduled date of the Xth smart trigger being on or before the current date;

f) not executing the Xth processing task in response to the Xth scheduled date of the Xth smart trigger being after the current date; and

g) repeating b) through f) until X equals N.

20. The computer readable medium of claim 17, wherein the program instructions are farther executable by the computer system to implement:

deleting at least one of the processing task identifiers in response to executing the processing task.

21. The computer readable medium of claim 14, wherein at least one of the smart triggers comprises one or more data fields, wherein data in the one or more data fields is passed to the FSO related processing task of the smart trigger in response to reading the smart trigger.

22. The computer readable medium of claim 14, wherein at least one of the FSO related data sets comprises a customer account record containing data relating to a customer of the FSO, wherein the data identifier assigned to the FSO related data set comprises a customer account number corresponding to the customer account record.

23. The computer readable medium of claim 14, wherein the FSO computer system further comprises a smart trigger processing task for processing the smart trigger table, wherein the smart trigger processing task is configurable to be executed periodically, wherein the scheduling of the period of execution is configurable by a user of the FSO computer system.

24. A system comprising:

a computer program;

a Financial Service Organization (FSO) computer system comprising a plurality of FSO related data sets, and comprising a plurality of computer executable FSO related processing tasks;

wherein the computer program is executable on the computer system to execute;

providing a first set of data identifiers, each of the data identifiers corresponding to a physical storage location of one or more data set records;

building a list of associated data set identifiers corresponding to the physical storage location of the one or more data set records for each of the plurality of the FSO related processing tasks, wherein each of the lists is a subset of the first set of data identifiers;

creating a plurality of smart triggers, each of the smart triggers comprising;

a task identifier that identifies one of the FSO related processing tasks; and

at least one data set identifier selected from the list of data set identifiers associated with the FSO related processing task identified by the task identifier;

scheduling a date for processing each of the smart triggers;

configuring a smart trigger table having the plurality of the created smart triggers, the smart trigger table comprising, for each of the created smart triggers;

the task identifier associated with the smart trigger;

the at least one data identifier associated with the smart trigger; and

the scheduled date for processing the smart trigger;

storing the configured smart trigger table in a first memory of the computer system;

reading sequentially at least two of the smart triggers from the first memory; and

executing the FSO related processing task associated with the smart trigger to process the data contained in the data set records associated with one or more of the data set identifiers associated with the smart trigger in response to reading the smart trigger from the first memory if the scheduled date of the smart trigger is equal to or before the current date, but not executing the FSO related processing task in response to reading the smart trigger from the first memory if the scheduled date of the smart trigger is after the current date,

wherein executing each of at least two of the executed FSO related processing tasks comprises;

using the task identifier associated with the smart trigger to identify the FSO related processing task to be executed in response to reading the smart trigger; and

using the at least one data identifier associated with the smart trigger to identify FSO related data set records to be processed in response to reading the smart trigger;

wherein executing each of at least two of the FSO related processing task comprises executing the FSO related processing task on FSO related data set records that correspond to the at least one data set identifier from the list of associated data set identifiers for the FSO related processing task, but not executing the FSO related processing task on FSO related data set records that do not correspond to the data set identifiers from the list of associated data set identifiers for the FSO related processing task.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein storing the smart trigger table in the first memory is performed by an application program executing in the FSO computer system.

26. The system of claim 24, wherein storing the smart trigger table in the first memory is performed by a user of the FSO computer system.

27. The system of claim 24, wherein the computer program is further executable on the FSO computer system to execute:

processing at least one of the smart triggers to generate a first processed smart trigger.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein processing at least one of the smart triggers comprises deleting the task identifier from the smart trigger.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein the smart trigger table comprises N rows each one of which comprises one smart trigger, and wherein the computer program is further executable on the FSO computer system to execute:

a) setting a counter X to one;

b) incrementing X by one;

c) reading an Xth smart trigger from the smart trigger table;

d) comparing an Xth scheduled date of the Xth smart trigger to the current date;

e) executing an Xth processing task and processing Xth data contained in an Xth data set in response to the Xth scheduled date of the Xth smart trigger being on or before the current date;

f) not executing the Xth processing task in response to the Xth scheduled date of the Xth smart trigger being after the current date; and

g) repeating b) through f) until X equals N.

30. The method of claim 28, wherein the computer program is further executable on the computer system to execute:

deleting at least one of the processing task identifiers in response to executing the processing task.

31. The system of claim 24, wherein at least one of the smart trigger comprises one or more data fields, wherein data in the one or more data fields is passed to the FSO related processing task of the smart trigger in response to reading the smart trigger.

32. The system of claim 24, wherein at least one of the FSO related data sets comprises a customer account record containing data relating to a customer of the FSO, wherein the data identifier assigned to the FSO related data set comprises a customer account number corresponding to the customer account record.

33. The system of claim 24, wherein the FSO computer system further comprises a smart trigger processing task for processing the smart trigger table, wherein the smart trigger processing task is configurable to be executed periodically, wherein the scheduling of the period of execution is configurable by a user of the FSO computer system.