Alert notification engine

• US 7,739,345 B2
• Filed: 12/23/2003
• Issued: 06/15/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Gschiermeister, Claus, Heinzel, Thomas
• Primary Examiner(s): Bayard; Djenane M
• Application Number:
  US10/742,833
• Publication Number:
  US 20040225718A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,366 Days
• Field of Search: 709/207, 709/218, 709/224, 709/203, 719/318
• US Class Current: 709/207
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]

Abstract

Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, are provided for encapsulating functions to select or filter alerts relevant for messaging to specific recipients, to create appropriate alert notification messages and to actively send them through various message channels. This may be done according to rules depending on content of alert, recipient, and time. As an example, the present invention allows selecting alerts from connected applications, to process them, and to send alert notification messages to the intended recipients.

Claims

1. An alert notification method, comprising:

receiving at least a first alert from at least one business application in predetermined time periods, based on a push mechanism defined in an alert notification profile;

receiving at least a second alert from the business application in the predetermined time periods, based on a pull mechanism defined in the alert notification profile;

receiving at least a third alert from the business application in the predetermined time periods, based on an event-based notification mechanism defined in the alert notification profile;

posting the first, second, and third alerts to an alert monitor;

categorizing the posted alerts by alert type, priority, and a list of parameters that depend on the alert type;

generating at least one alert notification message from the posted alerts;

sending out the at least one notification message to at least one first recipient through at least one transmission channel, whereby alert collecting, alert notification message generating and sending out is managed according to the alert notification profile,

wherein the alert notification profile is configured to comprise information relating to;

at least one escalation process;

at least one group of recipients;

at least one time schedule for transmission;

at least one channel of transmission; and

at least one method to create text out of the alert;

confirming whether the at least one alert notification message has been received by the at least one first recipient; and

notifying, as part of the at least one escalation process, at least one second recipient if the receipt of the at least one alert notification message is not confirmed by the at least one first recipient after a predefined period.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first alert is indicative of an exceptional situation in the at least one business application.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the exceptional situation is defined as a relation of at least one variable of the business application to at least one predetermined value.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein a plurality of alerts are aggregated in a centralized engine.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first, second, and third alerts are at least one of filtered, aggregated, and bundled in statistic tables, according to configurable rules.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the notification profile is administrated in the centralized engine.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the alert notification profile is configured to further comprise information relating to a time schedule for retrieval of alerts from the business application.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the alert notification profile is configured to further comprise a transmission format for the alert notification message.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the time periods are administered in a centralized engine.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the first alert is collected for notification which is sent by the business application.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein status information is included in the first alert.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the alert notification message is re-sent depending on the status information of the first alert.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the transmission channel comprises at least one of SMS, WAP, fax, pager, telephone, cellular phone, and electronic mail.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the alert notification profile is administrated by a recipient.

15. A computer system comprising:

a processor; and

a memory, the memory containing program instructions which, when executed by the processor, perform a method comprising;

receiving at least a first alert from at least one business application in predetermined time periods, based on a push mechanism defined in an alert notification profile;

receiving at least a second alert from the business application in the predetermined time periods, based on a pull mechanism defined in the alert notification profile;

receiving at least a third alert from the business application in the predetermined time periods, based on an event-based notification mechanism defined in the alert notification profile;

posting the first, second, and third alerts to an alert monitor;

categorizing the posted alerts by alert type, priority, and a list of parameters that depend on the alert type;

generating at least one alert notification message from the posted alerts, wherein the generation includes using the processor;

sending out the at least one notification message to at least one first recipient through at least one transmission channel, whereby alert collecting, alert notification message generating and sending out is managed according to the alert notification profile, wherein the alert notification profile is configured to comprise information relating to;

at least one escalation process;

at least one group of recipients;

at least one time schedule for transmission;

at least one channel of transmission; and

at least one method to create text out of the alert;

confirming whether the at least one alert notification message has been received by the at least one first recipient; and

notifying, as part of the at least one escalation process, at least one second recipient if the receipt of the at least one alert notification message is not confirmed by the at least one first recipient after a predefined period.