Using alerts to bring attention to in-store information

• US 8,600,817 B2
• Filed: 01/10/2011
• Issued: 12/03/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Target Brands Inc. (Target Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Target Brands Inc. (Target Corporation)
• Inventors: Whitsitt, Michael S., Lund, Stephanie W., Busch, Eric P., Eberhardt, Carlos R., Neuenschwander, Robb S., Sawyer, Donald L., Tetter, Ryan R., Van Epern, Lucas W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Gart, Matthew
• Assistant Examiner(s): CRAWLEY, TALIA F
• Application Number:
  US12/987,705
• Publication Number:
  US 20110125541A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,058 Days
• Field of Search: 705/16, 340/506, 340/520, 718/100
• US Class Current: 705/16
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems

Abstract

A method and system is provided that uses alerts to bring in-store information that is of interest to the attention of team members working in a retail store. To send an alert to a team member logged in to a device data, data from a source is evaluated against business rules. An event is generated when a piece of data satisfies the business rules. The event indicates that the piece of data is of interest. A task is activated for the event and assigned to the team member acting in a role associated with the source of the event. An alert is sent to the device that the team member is logged in to indicating that the team member has been assigned the task.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

event rules identifying pieces of point-of-sale data that are of interest, wherein the point-of-sale data is generated from a plurality of point-of-sale applications running on a plurality of different point-of-sale registers;

at least one event generator configured to compare the point-of-sale data to the event rules and to generate an event when a piece of the point-of-sale data satisfies one of the event rules, wherein source information is associated with the generated event including;

a store identifier identifying a store from which the point-of-sale data that generated the event originated,

a point-of-sale register identifier identifying a point-of-sale register from which the point-of-sale data that generated the event originated,

a transaction identifier identifying a transaction from which the point-of-sale data that generated the event originated, and

an item identifier identifying an item from the transaction from which the point-of-sale data that generated the event originated;

a processor that compares the source information of the generated event against source information in open events to determine whether the generated event is a duplicate event, wherein open events include previously generated events that have not yet been closed;

wherein the generated event is a duplicate event when at least two pieces of source information of the generated event match at least two pieces of source information in an open event;

an electronic task handler configured to;

activate a task for a position in a business section of a store in response to the generated event, the task being indicative of an activity to be performed to address the event, being marked as open, being attached to the generated event and being saved together with the generated event in a database of open events;

assign the task to a user acting in the position of the business section of the store associated with the source information such that the user is assigned to perform the task; and

send an alert to at least one handheld client device that the user in the position of the business section of the store is logged in to, the alert indicating that the user has been assigned the task.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the saved event and task includes an indication that the task was assigned to the user.

3. The system of claim 2, further comprising a task retriever configured to:

retrieve open tasks for the at least one handheld client device from the database based on the user position and the business section of the store for the user logged in to the handheld client device;

score the open tasks using scoring rules; and

send the open tasks to the at least one handheld client device in a prioritized order based on the score for each of the open tasks.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the task retriever is further configured to update the prioritized order of the open tasks for the at least one handheld client device upon at least one of the open tasks being closed.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the task retriever is further configured to access the database for detailed information regarding one of the open tasks assigned to the user position of the business section of the store and configured to send the detailed information to the at least one handheld client device.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising closing task rules for use in determining if the event is instructive of closing the task marked as open.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the alert is sent to the at least one handheld client device via an instant message communicator such that the alert is pushed to the at least one handheld client device.

8. A method comprising:

receiving an event generated from point-of-sale data that satisfies one of a plurality of event rules, wherein the event includes a plurality of different source identifying attributes including;

a store identifier identifying a store from which the point-of-sale data that generated the event originated,

a point-of-sale register identifier identifying a point-of-sale register from which the point-of-sale data that generated the event originated,

a transaction identifier identifying a transaction from which the point-of-sale data that generated the event originated, and

an item identifier identifying an item from the transaction from which the point-of-sale data that generated the event originated;

comparing, by a processor, the source identifying attributes of the received event against source identifying attributes in open events to determine whether the received event is a duplicate event, wherein open events are previously received events generated from point-of-sale data that satisfied one of the plurality of event rules and have not yet been closed and wherein the received event is a duplicate event if at least two of the different source identifying attributes of the received event match at least two source identifying attributes in other open events;

activating, by the processor, a task in response to the event when the comparison indicates the received event is not a duplicate of the other open events, wherein the task is indicative of an activity to be performed to address the received event; and

sending, by the processor, an alert to at least one handheld client device for a business area of the store indicating that a user of the at least one handheld client device has been assigned to perform the task.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

comparing, by the processor, the received event against open tasks by matching at least two of the different source identifying attributes of the received event with at least two different source identifying attributes in one of the open tasks to determine if the received event is instructive of closing any of the open tasks;

flagging at least one open task as closed based on the comparison; and

changing an attribute value of the at least one flagged open task to closed.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

retrieving open tasks for the user of the at least one handheld client device from a database based on the user role and the business area that have been assigned to the user; and

scoring the open tasks using scoring rules; and

sending the open tasks to the at least one client device in a prioritized order based on the score for each of the open tasks.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

activating a new task in response to the received event when the user fails to perform the task assigned to the user before an expiration of time;

assigning the new task to a supervisor of the user; and

sending a new alert to at least one client device that the supervisor has logged in to, the new alert indicating that the supervisor has been assigned the new task.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein receiving an event when business data satisfies one of a plurality of event rules comprises receiving an event when point-of-sale data satisfies one of a plurality of event rules.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the point-of-sale data is generated by a plurality of different point-of-sale applications running on a plurality of different point-of-sale registers.

14. A method comprising:

providing a database of open events and corresponding open tasks, wherein each open event is generated from point-of-sale data that satisfied an event rule and wherein each open task is indicative of an action that a user needs to perform in response to the corresponding open event, wherein each open task includes a plurality of different source identifying attributes, the plurality of different source identifying attributes of each open task including;

a store identifier identifying a store from which the point-of-sale data that generated the event and opened the task originated,

a point-of-sale register identifier identifying a point-of-sale register from which the point-of-sale data that generated the event and opened the task originated,

a transaction identifier identifying a transaction from which the point-of-sale data that generated the event and opened the task originated, and

an item identifier identifying an item from the transaction from which the point-of-sale data that generated the event and opened the task originated;

receiving a new event generated from point-of-sale data that satisfied an event rule and having a plurality of different source identifying attributes, the plurality of different source identifying attributes of the new event including;

a store identifier identifying a store from which the point-of-sale data that generated the new event originated,

a point-of-sale register identifier identifying a point-of-sale register from which the point-of-sale data that generated the new event originated,

a transaction identifier identifying a transaction from which the point-of-sale data that generated the new event originated, and

an item identifier identifying an item from the transaction from which the point-of-sale data that generated the new event originated;

comparing, by a processor, the new event against open tasks in the database by matching at least two of the different source identifying attributes of the new event with at least two of the different source identifying attributes in one of the open tasks to determine if the new event is instructive of closing any of the open tasks; and

setting, by the processor, an open task as closed based on the comparison between the new event and open tasks using the closing task rules.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

comparing, by the processor, the new event against other open events by matching at least two of the different source identifying attributes of the new event with at least two of the different source identifying attributes in one of other open events to determine whether the new event should be considered a duplicate of an open event if the new event is not instructive of closing any of the open tasks of the source;

activating a task in response to the new event if the comparison indicates the new event is not a duplicate of other open events; and

sending an alert to at least one handheld client device for a store area of the source indicating that the user of the at least one handheld client device has been assigned the task.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

receiving a request from the at least one handheld client device for a task list of all open tasks assigned to the user of the handheld client device;

retrieving open tasks for the user from the database based on the user role and the store area covered by the user;

scoring the open tasks using scoring rules; and

sending the open tasks to the at least one client device in a prioritized order based on the score for each of the open tasks.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

accessing the database for the detailed information regarding the open task; and

sending the detailed information to the at least one handheld client device.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

receiving notification from the at least one handheld client device to close one of the open tasks; and

updating the open task in the database to closed.