Providing excess resources as a service

• US 8,595,323 B2
• Filed: 04/11/2006
• Issued: 11/26/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/14/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Original Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Inventors: Deane, Stephen, Thomas, Julian Paul
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, MINH CHAU
• Application Number:
  US11/401,985
• Publication Number:
  US 20070005387A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,786 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709217-219, 709225-226
• US Class Current: 709/218
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46

Abstract

An integrated content production environment includes a connected services framework providing connectivity to a set of applications that produce content for the media industry. Users in their roles use the integrated environment to perform setting up, ingesting, logging, selecting, editing, reviewing, playout, distributing, and archiving activities. Notifications are dynamically triggered to users when their action is requested. The notifications may be instant messages, e-mails, voice mails, etc. Throughout the production of content, actions by both users the applications are tracked and stored in a log file for processing. The action data in the log file may include payload data from messages. When one or more applications or when one or more users of the environment have excess capacity, that capacity can be leveraged. External users can purchase or bid on the excess capacity and can then access the environment through available web services.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for making a content production environment accessible, comprising:

interconnecting a plurality of applications of the content production environment using an enterprise service bus;

identifying, by at least one processor, excess capacity associated with one application from the plurality of applications, wherein functionality of the one application is accessible via a web service;

automatically providing, by the at least one processor, a notification to a first recipient when the first recipient is needed to perform a content production activity, the notification providing a reference to the content production activity;

providing, by the at least one processor, the functionality of the one application to a system external to the content production environment through the web service;

tracking, by the at least one processor, action data associated with the one application provided through the web service; and

storing, in a log file, the tracked action data.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

tracking action data associated with the use of the web service.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

accepting payment according to the tracked action data associated with the use of the web service.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying excess capacity comprises:

identifying excess capacity for a set of applications from the plurality of applications, wherein functionality of the set of applications is accessible via a web service.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying excess capacity comprises:

identifying excess capacity for a series of activities in the content production environment, wherein functionality of the series of activities is accessible via a web service.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving payment for use of the web service.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

auctioning off the excess capacity associated with the one application from the plurality of applications.

8. A content production computer system for supplying functionality from a content production environment, comprising:

a processor; and

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

interconnecting a plurality of applications of the content production environment;

executing the plurality of applications;

identifying excess capacity associated with one application from the plurality of applications, wherein functionality of the one application is accessible via a web service;

automatically providing a notification to a first recipient when the first recipient is needed to perform a content production activity, the notification providing a reference to the content production activity;

providing the functionality of the one application to a system external to the content production computer system through the web service;

tracking action data associated with the one application provided through the web service; and

storing the tracked action data in a log file.

9. The system of claim 8, the method further comprising:

tracking action data associated with the use of the web service.

10. The system of claim 9, the method further comprising:

accepting payment according to the tracked action data associated with the use of the web service.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein identifying excess capacity comprises:

identifying excess capacity for a set of applications from the plurality of applications, wherein functionality for the set of applications is accessible via the web service.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein identifying excess capacity comprises:

identifying excess capacity for a series of activities in the content production environment, wherein functionality for the series of activities is accessible via the web service.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the memory contains instructions which, when executed by the processor, perform the method further comprising:

accepting payment for use of the web service.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein the memory contains instructions which, when executed by the processor, perform the method further comprising:

auctioning off the excess capacity associated with the one application from the plurality of applications.

15. The system of claim 8, wherein tracking action data comprises tracking actions between (1) the user and the plurality of applications, (2) the one application and a second application of the plurality of applications, (3) between the one application and content data, and (4) between the system external to the content production computer and the web service.

16. The system of claim 8, the method further comprising:

automatically providing a monitoring notification to a second recipient when the first recipient is needed to perform a content production activity,

wherein the monitoring notification is at least one of an instant message, an e-mail message, a voicemail message, a task item, a calendar item, or other type of message, and

wherein the second recipient can select the method of providing the monitoring notification.

17. The system of claim 8, wherein the notification is automatically provided when the excess capacity associated with the one application is identified.

18. The system of claim 8, wherein the notification is automatically provided when a second content production activity is completed.

19. The system of claim 8, wherein the action data includes messages exchanged between one or more of the plurality of applications and the user.