System and method for supporting software

• US 7,757,126 B2
• Filed: 04/20/2007
• Issued: 07/13/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/20/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Vidiyala, Vijay
• Primary Examiner(s): Beausoliel; Robert
• Assistant Examiner(s): Lottich; Joshua P
• Application Number:
  US11/738,224
• Publication Number:
  US 20080263404A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,180 Days
• Field of Search: 714/26, 714/38, 714/57
• US Class Current: 714/38.14
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0709 in a distributed system consisting of a plurality of standalone computer nodes, e.g. clusters, client-server systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0748 in a remote unit communicating with a single-box computer node experiencing an error/fault remote testing G06F11/2294
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0793 Remedial or corrective actions recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2294 by remote test

Abstract

This disclosure provides various embodiments of software for supporting a business application. In one aspect, the software determines that a technical error associated with the business application has occurred, automatically communicates the technical error and dynamic context information to a remote support site, the dynamic context information at least partially identifying the particular execution point of the business application, receives one or more potential solutions for the technical error, the one or more potential solutions determined using at least the communicated technical error, dynamic context information, and static information collected at the support site; and presents the one or more potential solutions to a user of the business application via an interface. In some implementations, the software is further operable to prioritize the one or more presented potential solutions at least according to metrics associated with the one or more potential solutions.

Claims

1. An article comprising software for supporting a business application, the software comprising instructions stored on a tangible computer readable medium and operable when executed by a processor to:

determine that a technical error associated with the business application has occurred;

automatically communicate the technical error and dynamic context information to a remote support site, the dynamic context information at least partially identifying the particular execution point of the business application;

receive at least two potential solutions for the technical error, the at least two potential solutions determined using at least the communicated technical error, the dynamic context information, and static information collected at the support site, wherein each of the at least two potential solutions is associated with a plurality of metrics, the plurality of metrics comprising a customer type, a solution success/failure rate for the particular solution, an implementation ease of use rating for the particular solution, and customer ratings for the particular solution;

compare at least one of the plurality of metrics associated with each of the at least two received potential solutions to a predetermined metric threshold characteristic; and

present each of the at least two potential solutions where the at least one of the plurality of metrics for the particular solution exceeds the predetermined metric threshold characteristic to a user of the business application via an interface.

2. The article of claim 1, the instructions further operable when executed to prioritize the at least two presented potential solutions at least according to a particular one of the at least one metrics associated with the at least two potential solutions.

3. The article of claim 1, the instructions further operable when executed to receive ratings associated with at least one of the at least two potential solutions from the user for inclusion in the metrics associated with the at least one of the at least two potential solutions.

4. The article of claim 3, the instructions further operable when executed to:

present a feedback screen with the interface;

automatically communicate received ratings associated with at least one of the at least two potential solutions to the remote support site for recalculation of at least one of the plurality of metrics; and

recalculate at least one of the plurality of metrics for at least one of the at least two presented potential solutions.

5. The article of claim 1, the instructions further operable when executed to:

receive manual search criteria from the user after presenting each of the at least two potential solutions;

automatically communicate the received manual search criteria from the user to the support site; and

receive at least one additional potential solution for the technical error, the additional potential solution determined using at least the received manual search criteria, the communicated technical error, the dynamic context information, and the static information collected at the support site, and wherein the at least one of the plurality of metrics for the at least one additional potential solution exceeds the predetermined metric threshold characteristic.

6. The article of claim 1, the instructions further operable when executed to:

connect the user to a remote support provider through the interface; and

provide the remote support provider with the technical error and the dynamic context information.

7. The article of claim 1, the instructions further operable when executed to:

receive a user-recommended solution associated with the technical error; and

automatically communicate the user-recommended solution to the remote support site for subsequent storage and presentation.

8. The article of claim 1, wherein the instructions operable when executed to present the at least two potential solutions to the user of the business application comprise instructions operable when executed to distinguish the at least two solutions presented to the user that are user-provided solutions.

9. An article comprising software for supporting a business application, the software comprising instructions stored on a tangible computer readable medium and operable when executed by a processor to:

receive a technical error and dynamic context information associated with a business application from a first client, the dynamic context information at least partially identifying the particular execution point of the business application;

access static context information associated with the business application;

query a solution repository for a first set of at least two potential solutions, the query determined using at least the received technical error, the dynamic context information, and the accessed static context information, where each of the potential solutions in the solution repository is associated with a plurality of metrics, the plurality of metrics comprising a customer type, a solution success/failure rate for the particular solution, an implementation ease of use rating for the particular solution, and customer ratings for the particular solution;

compare at least one of the plurality of metrics associated with each of the first set of at least two potential solutions to a predetermined metric threshold characteristic; and

automatically communicate each of the first set of at least two potential solutions returned by the query where the at least one of the plurality of metrics for the particular potential solution exceeds the predetermined metric threshold characteristic to the business application.

10. The article of claim 9, the instructions further operable when executed to:

receive specific manual search criteria from the business application after automatically communicating each of the first set of at least two potential solutions returned by the query, the specific manual search criteria provided by the first client;

query the solution repository for an additional set of at least two potential solutions, the query determined using at least the received specific manual search criteria, the received technical error, the dynamic context information, and the accessed static information associated with the business application; and

automatically communicate the additional set of at least two potential solutions returned by the query to the business application for the first client.

11. The article of claim 9, the instructions further operable when executed to receive feedback from the first client associated with at least one potential solution included in the communicated first set of at least two potential solutions.

12. The article of claim 9, the instructions further operable when executed to:

receive a second technical error and a second set of dynamic context information associated with a business application from a second client unassociated with the first client, the second set of dynamic context information at least partially identifying a particular execution point of the business application associated with the second client;

access a second set of static context information associated with the second client, the second set of static context information associated with the business application;

query the solution repository for a second set of at least two potential solutions, the solutions determined using at least the second received technical error, the second dynamic context information, and the accessed second set of static context information;

compare at least one of the plurality of metrics associated with each of the second set of at least two potential solutions to a second predetermined metric threshold characteristic; and

automatically communicate each of the second set of at least two potential solutions returned by the query to the business application for the second client, where the at least one of the plurality of metrics for each of the communicated second set of at least two potential solutions exceeds the predetermined metric threshold characteristic.

13. The article of claim 12, wherein the second set of at least two potential solutions communicated to the second client is sorted according to at least one of the plurality of metrics associated with each of the one or more potential solutions.

14. The article of claim 13, the instructions further operable when executed to:

receive feedback from the first client associated with the first set of at least two potential solutions after communicating the first set of at least two potential solutions to the first client and prior to querying the solution repository for the second set of at least two potential solutions; and

recalculate the metrics associated with each of the at least two potential solutions in the solution repository, prior to sorting the second set of at least two potential solutions for the second client, at least partially based on the feedback received from the first client.

15. The article of claim 14, wherein the second set of potential solutions comprises a differently sorted instance of the same potential solutions as the first set of potential solutions.