Service scheduling

• US 8,458,002 B2
• Filed: 08/05/2008
• Issued: 06/04/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/05/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Chafle, Girish B., Garg, Dinesh, Jain, Prashant, Mehta, Sameep, Parija, Gyana R., Tandon, Anju, Kedia, Vikas
• Primary Examiner(s): Hayes, John
• Assistant Examiner(s): EPSTEIN, BRIAN M
• Application Number:
  US12/185,897
• Publication Number:
  US 20100036690A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,764 Days
• Field of Search: 705/7, 705/8, 705/9
• US Class Current: 705/7.13
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/04 Forecasting or optimisation specially adapted for administrative or management purposes, e.g. linear programming or "cutting stock problem" market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities G06Q30/0202
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063118 Staff planning in a project environment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06395 Quality analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other groups of this subclass

Abstract

Techniques for scheduling one or more services are provided. The techniques include obtaining customer information, obtaining one or more service characteristics for each of the one or more services, and using the customer information and the one or more service characteristics to schedule the one or more services.

Claims

1. A method for scheduling one or more services, comprising the steps of:

obtaining dynamically changing customer information for two or more customers, wherein the dynamically changing customer information comprises dynamic customer arrival and customer priority, and wherein obtaining customer information is carried out by a token generator module executing on a hardware processor;

obtaining one or more dynamically changing service characteristics for each of the one or more services, wherein the one or more dynamically changing service characteristics comprise dynamic availability of resources and priority of each service, and wherein obtaining one or more service characteristics for each of the one or more services is carried out by a token generator module executing on a hardware processor; and

using the customer information and the one or more service characteristics to schedule the one or more services to optimize one or more metrics, wherein using the customer information and the one or more service characteristics to schedule the one or more services to optimize one or more metrics comprises generating a ranked list specifying an order in which the one or more services with respect to the two or more customers should be processed, wherein the ranked list is based on simultaneous comparison of a per customer dynamic value for each of the two or more customers calculated as equal to

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the customer information comprises a customer profile, wherein the customer profile comprises at least one of relative importance of the customer and relationship of the customer with a service provider.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more service characteristics comprise at least one of profitability, criticality, and one or more resource requirements of the one or more services.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the customer information comprises amount of time spent in waiting by the two or more customers.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising analyzing historical data to recommend one or more operational changes to one or more scheduled services.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating a report based on the one or more scheduled services.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more metrics comprises overall average wait time for the two or more customers.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein using the customer information and the one or more service characteristics to schedule the one or more services comprises scheduling the one or more services based on a priority to provide a differentiated service to two or more customers, wherein the priority is determined using the customer information and the one or more service characteristics.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the customer information comprises number of additional incoming customers requesting a service.

10. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory tangible computer readable recordable storage medium having computer readable program code for scheduling one or more services, said computer program product including:

computer readable program code for obtaining dynamically changing customer information for two or more customers, wherein the dynamically changing customer information comprises dynamic customer arrival and customer priority;

computer readable program code for obtaining one or more dynamically changing service characteristics for each of the one or more services, wherein the one or more dynamically changing service characteristics comprise dynamic availability of resources and priority of each service; and

computer readable program code for using the customer information and the one or more service characteristics to schedule the one or more services to optimize one or more metrics, wherein using the customer information and the one or more service characteristics to schedule the one or more services to optimize one or more metrics comprises generating a ranked list specifying an order in which the one or more services with respect to the two or more customers should be processed, wherein the ranked list is based on simultaneous comparison of a per customer dynamic value for each of the two or more customers calculated as equal to

11. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the customer information comprises at least one of amount of time spent in waiting by the two or more customers, number of additional incoming customers requesting a service, and a customer profile, wherein the customer profile comprises at least one of relative importance of the customer and relationship of the customer with a service provider.

12. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the one or more service characteristics comprise at least one of profitability, criticality, and one or more resource requirements of the one or more services.

13. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the computer readable code for using the customer information and the one or more service characteristics to schedule the one or more services comprises computer readable program code for scheduling the one or more services based on a priority to provide a differentiated service to two or more customers, wherein the priority is determined using the customer information and the one or more service characteristics.

14. The computer program product of claim 10, further comprising computer readable program code for analyzing historical data to recommend one or more operational changes to one or more scheduled services.

15. A system for scheduling one or more services, comprising:

a memory; and

at least one processor coupled to said memory and operative to;

obtain dynamically changing customer information for two or more customers, wherein the dynamically changing customer information comprises dynamic customer arrival and customer priority;

obtain one or more dynamically changing service characteristics for each of the one or more services, wherein the one or more dynamically changing service characteristics comprise dynamic availability of resources and priority of each service; and

use the customer information and the one or more service characteristics to schedule the one or more services to optimize one or more metrics, wherein using the customer information and the one or more service characteristics to schedule the one or more services to optimize one or more metrics comprises generating a ranked list specifying an order in which the one or more services with respect to the two or more customers should be processed, wherein the ranked list is based on simultaneous comparison of a per customer dynamic value for each of the two or more customers calculated as equal to

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the customer information comprises a customer profile, wherein the customer profile comprises at least one of relative importance of the customer and relationship of the customer with a service provider.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the one or more service characteristics comprise at least one of profitability, criticality, and one or more resource requirements of the one or more services.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the customer information comprises at least one of amount of time spent in waiting by the two or more customers, and number of additional incoming customers requesting a service.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein in using the customer information and the one or more service characteristics to schedule the one or more services, the at least one processor coupled to said memory is further operative to schedule the one or more services based on a priority to provide a differentiated service to two or more customers, wherein the priority is determined using the customer information and the one or more service characteristics.

20. A method for real-time transaction scheduling, comprising the steps of:

obtaining dynamically changing customer information for two or more customers, wherein the dynamically changing customer information comprises dynamic customer arrival and customer priority, and wherein obtaining customer information is carried out by a token generator module executing on a hardware processor;

obtaining one or more dynamically changing service characteristics for each of one or more services, wherein the one or more dynamically changing service characteristics comprise dynamic availability of resources and priority of each service, and wherein obtaining one or more service characteristics for each of the one or more services is carried out by a token generator module executing on a hardware processor;

scheduling one or more transactions in real-time based on the customer information and the one or more service characteristics according to a pre-specified criteria, wherein scheduling an iteration of transactions is carried out by a job scheduling algorithm module executing on a hardware processor; and

repeating one or more iterations of scheduling transactions in real-time at a pre-defined interval or until all customers are served, whichever is earlier, wherein repeating one or more iterations of scheduling transactions in real-time further comprises continuously updating customer priority via calculating