Consulting assessment environment

• US 7,739,141 B2
• Filed: 07/10/2003
• Issued: 06/15/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/10/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Twitter Inc (X Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Young, Howard, Chan, Yim Y., Dolder, Christopher James, Gauthier, Marie-Paule Christyne, Brown, Nigel Howard Julian
• Primary Examiner(s): Boswell; Beth V.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kardos; Neil R
• Application Number:
  US10/617,528
• Publication Number:
  US 20050010469A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,532 Days
• Field of Search: 705/7, 705/10
• US Class Current: 705/7.28
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0635 Risk analysis of enterprise or organisation activities
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06375 Prediction of business process outcome or impact based on a proposed change
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06393 Score-carding, benchmarking or key performance indicator [KPI] analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0203 Market surveys; Market polls

Abstract

A method, apparatus, and computer program product for providing a consulting assessment environment. Consultants may use the environment to define templates that encode questionnaires and domain knowledge regarding business practices, as well as reporting criteria to specify the content and format of the assessment results. Consultants or their clients may use the environment to automate the process of performing assessments and generating reports from those assessments. These assessments may analyze the current state of the business, compare the business'"'"'s current state with desired states or with best practices, and perform risk/benefit and/or cost/benefit analyses, according to the specifications made in the templates on a real-time basis for producing immediate assessment results and actions. An information hiding feature is provided to allow sensitive domain knowledge encoded within the templates, such as trade secrets, to be made inaccessible to clients.

Claims

1. A method in a data processing system for providing a consulting assessment environment, the method comprising:

a processor adapted to perform the steps of;

determining an intended use for the consulting assessment environment, wherein the intended use is one of defining assessment business logic and conducting a self-assessment, wherein defining assessment business logic is performed by a consultant, wherein conducting a self-assessment is performed by the consultant or a client, and wherein self-assessment data is stored separately from the assessment business logic;

responsive to determining that the intended use is defining assessment business logic, defining a data template, an assessment framework template, a suggested actions template, and a report template to create the assessment business logic for multiple types of assessments for assessing businesses, further comprising;

encoding the data template, the assessment framework template, the suggested actions template, and the report template with formulas and logic rule definitions to define how self-assessment data is used to generate assessment results and recommendations;

translating a plurality of hypotheses into interview questions for assessing a current state of a business; and

encoding proprietary information and trade secrets into the data template, the assessment framework template, the suggested actions template, and the report template, wherein the proprietary information and the trade secrets of the consulting assessment environment are accessible to the consultant and are made inaccessible to clients using a hiding feature;

responsive to determining that the intended use is conducting a self-assessment, receiving the self-assessment data about the business through a questionnaire, wherein the questionnaire is defined using the data template encoded with the interview questions and business-related domain knowledge of business practices;

responsive to receiving the self-assessment data about the business, computing at least one assessment score based on the formulas and the logic rule definitions encoded in the assessment framework template;

responsive to computing the at least one assessment score, determining an appropriate action based on the at least one assessment score and the suggested actions template encoded with business-related domain knowledge that defines actions to achieve desired states of businesses; and

reporting results of the self-assessment data based on the at least one assessment score and the appropriate action in accordance with the report template, wherein the data template, the assessment framework template, and the suggested actions template encode business-related domain knowledge including at least one of best practices, business consultant expertise, and business goals, and wherein the proprietary information and the trade secrets of the consulting assessment environment are hidden from the client.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

determining the current state of the business based on the self-assessment data;

identifying a desired state for the business using the assessment framework template and the suggested actions template to analyze the self-assessment data and to determine new business insights and recommendations for the business; and

performing a gap analysis between the current state of the business and the desired state of the business to determine the appropriate action to achieve the desired state for the business using the suggested actions template.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

identifying benefits and risks for the current state of the business and for moving to a desired state of the business based on the at least one assessment score and the appropriate action.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

consolidating portions of the results together for further analysis, wherein the appropriate action is determined for a particular division or unit of the business.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

providing an interface for the client to conduct the self-assessment to gather the self-assessment data about the business, wherein the self-assessment data is used to determine the current state of the business, and wherein automated data synthesis is performed to relate the current state of the business to a desired state of the business in real time.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the data template includes at least one of the interview questions, weighing factors, desired states, benefit descriptions, risk descriptions, suggested actions, cost areas, and terminology.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the assessment framework template includes at least one of scoring information, calculations, suggested actions logic, benefit and risk logic, user feedback, and user input.

8. A computer program product in a computer readable storage medium for providing a consulting assessment environment, the computer program product comprising:

computer usable program code stored in the computer readable storage medium, wherein the computer usable program code is adapted to cause a processor in a computer to perform steps comprising;

determining an intended use for the consulting assessment environment, wherein the intended use is one of defining assessment business logic and conducting a self-assessment, wherein defining assessment business logic is performed by a consultant, wherein conducting a self-assessment is performed by the consultant or a client, and wherein self-assessment data is stored separately from the assessment business logic;

responsive to determining that the intended use is defining assessment business logic, defining a data template, an assessment framework template, a suggested actions template, and a report template to create the assessment business logic for multiple types of assessments for assessing businesses, further comprising;

encoding the data template, the assessment framework template, the suggested actions template, and the report template with formulas and logic rule definitions to define how self-assessment data is used to generate assessment results and recommendations;

translating a plurality of hypotheses into interview questions for assessing a current state of a business; and

encoding proprietary information and trade secrets into the data template, the assessment framework template, the suggested actions template, and the report template, wherein the proprietary information and the trade secrets of the consulting assessment environment are accessible to the consultant and are made inaccessible to clients using a hiding feature;

responsive to determining that the intended use is conducting a self-assessment, receiving the self-assessment data about the business through a questionnaire, wherein the questionnaire is defined using the data template encoded with the interview questions and business-related domain knowledge of business practices;

responsive to receiving the self-assessment data about the business, computing at least one assessment score based on the formulas and the logic rule definitions encoded in the assessment framework template;

responsive to computing the at least one assessment score, determining an appropriate action based on the at least one assessment score and the suggested actions template encoded with business-related domain knowledge that defines actions to achieve desired states of businesses; and

reporting results of the self-assessment data based on the at least one assessment score and the appropriate action in accordance with the report template, wherein the data template, the assessment framework template, and the suggested actions template encode business-related domain knowledge including at least one of best practices, business consultant expertise, and business goals, and wherein the proprietary information and the trade secrets of the consulting assessment environment are hidden from the client.

9. The computer program product of claim 8 further comprising:

determining the current state of the business based on the self-assessment data;

identifying a desired state for the business using the assessment framework template and the suggested actions template to analyze the self-assessment data and to determine new business insights and recommendations for the business; and

performing a gap analysis between the current state of the business and the desired state of the business to determine the appropriate action to achieve the desired state for the business using the suggested actions template.

10. The computer program product of claim 8 further comprising:

identifying benefits and risks for the current state of the business and for moving to a desired state of the business based on the at least one assessment score and the appropriate action.

11. The computer program product of claim 8 further comprising:

consolidating portions of the results together for further analysis, wherein the appropriate action is determined for a particular division or unit of the business.

12. The computer program product of claim 8 further comprising:

providing an interface for the client to conduct the self-assessment to gather the self-assessment data about the business, wherein the self-assessment data is used to determine the current state of the business, and wherein automated data synthesis is performed to relate the current state of the business to a desired state of the business in real time.

13. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the data template includes at least one of the interview questions, weighing factors, desired states, benefit descriptions, risk descriptions, suggested actions, cost areas, and terminology.

14. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the assessment framework template includes at least one of scoring information, calculations, suggested actions logic, benefit and risk logic, user feedback, and user input.

15. An apparatus for providing a consulting assessment environment, the apparatus comprising:

a processor, and instructions stored in a memory, wherein the instructions are adapted to cause the processor to perform a plurality of steps comprising;

determining an intended use for the consulting assessment environment, wherein the intended use is one of defining assessment business logic and conducting a self-assessment, wherein defining assessment business logic is performed by a consultant, wherein conducting a self-assessment is performed by the consultant or a client, and wherein self-assessment data is stored separately from the assessment business logic;

responsive to determining that the intended use is defining assessment business logic, defining a data template, an assessment framework template, a suggested actions template, and a report template to create the assessment business logic for multiple types of assessments for assessing businesses, further comprising;

encoding the data template, the assessment framework template, the suggested actions template, and the report template with formulas and logic rule definitions to define how self-assessment data is used to generate assessment results and recommendations;

translating a plurality of hypotheses into interview questions for assessing a current state of a business; and

encoding proprietary information and trade secrets into the data template, the assessment framework template, the suggested actions template, and the report template, wherein the proprietary information and the trade secrets of the consulting assessment environment are accessible to the consultant and are made inaccessible to clients using a hiding feature;

responsive to determining that the intended use is conducting a self-assessment, receiving the self-assessment data about the business through a questionnaire, wherein the questionnaire is defined using the data template encoded with the interview questions and business-related domain knowledge of business practices;

responsive to receiving the self-assessment data about the business, computing at least one assessment score based on the formulas and the logic rule definitions encoded in the assessment framework template;

responsive to computing the at least one assessment score, determining an appropriate action based on the at least one assessment score and the suggested actions template encoded with business-related domain knowledge that defines actions to achieve desired states of businesses; and

reporting results of the self-assessment data based on the at least one assessment score and the appropriate action in accordance with the report template, wherein the data template, the assessment framework template, and the suggested actions template encode business-related domain knowledge including at least one of best practices, business consultant expertise, and business goals, and wherein the proprietary information and the trade secrets of the consulting assessment environment are hidden from the client.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 further comprising:

determining the current state of the business based on the self-assessment data;

identifying a desired state for the business using the assessment framework template and the suggested actions template to analyze the self-assessment data and to determine new business insights and recommendations for the business; and

performing a gap analysis between the current state of the business and the desired state of the business to determine the appropriate action to achieve the desired state for the business using the suggested actions template.

17. The apparatus of claim 15 further comprising:

identifying benefits and risks for the current state of the business and for moving to a desired state of the business based on the at least one assessment score and the appropriate action.

18. The apparatus of claim 15 further comprising:

consolidating portions of the results together for further analysis, wherein the appropriate action is determined for a particular division or unit of the business.

19. The apparatus of claim 15 further comprising:

providing an interface for the client to conduct the self-assessment to gather the self-assessment data about the business, wherein the self-assessment data is used to determine the current state of the business, and wherein automated data synthesis is performed to relate the current state of the business to a desired state of the business in real time.

20. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the data template includes at least one of the interview questions, weighing factors, desired states, benefit descriptions, risk descriptions, suggested actions, cost areas, and terminology.

21. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the assessment framework template includes at least one of scoring information, calculations, suggested actions logic, benefit and risk logic, user feedback, and user input.