Application management database with personnel assignment and automated configuration

• US 8,601,010 B1
• Filed: 08/02/2005
• Issued: 12/03/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/02/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: T-Mobile Innovations LLC (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: Sprint Communications Company LP (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Felton, John D., Perrea, Scott D., Taylor, Michael J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Btit, Jacob F
• Assistant Examiner(s): TRAN, BAO G
• Application Number:
  US11/195,543
• Time in Patent Office: 3,045 Days
• Field of Search: 707/104.1, 707/10, 707/100, 707/758, 707/804, 715700-866
• US Class Current: 707/758
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders

Abstract

A computer implemented asset management system is disclosed. The computer implemented asset management system comprises an asset data store containing information about assets that is updated at intervals. The computer implemented asset management system also comprises a personnel data store containing information about individuals and an analysis component operable to identify an association of individuals with each of the assets.

Claims

1. A computer implemented asset management system, comprising:

a processor;

a memory;

an asset data store containing information about each of a plurality of assets, the information updated periodically;

a personnel data store containing information about a plurality of individuals; and

an analysis component stored on the memory, the analysis component executable by the processor to determine a validity of an association of one or more individuals with one of the plurality assets; and

the analysis component executable by the processor to generate an exception report when the association of one or more individuals with one of the plurality of assets is invalid, wherein the exception report includes an exception record that describes the determination of the validity of the association and a reason the determination of the validity of the association failed.

2. The computer implemented asset management system of claim 1, wherein the assets are selected from the group consisting of applications, commercial-off-the-shelf-software packages, operating systems, server computers, desktop computers, laptop computers, main frame computers, modems, hubs, routers, wireless access points, gateways, switches, firewalls, circuit boards, printers, database management systems, disk drives, tape drives, facsimile machines, scanners, and point-of-sale devices.

3. The computer implemented asset management system of claim 1, wherein the information about the individuals includes a group associated with the individual and wherein the validity of the association of the one or more of the individuals with the one of the assets is at least partially based on the group the individual belongs to.

4. The computer implemented asset management system of claim 1, wherein the analysis component generates the exception report when the asset is associated with an individual whose information is denoted as terminated in the personnel data store.

5. The computer implemented asset management system of claim 1, further including a roster associating one or more of the individuals with some of the assets, wherein the analysis component associates individuals with some of the assets based on the roster.

6. The computer implemented asset management system of claim 1, further including an agent that executes on some of the assets, the agent operable to associate one of the individuals with the asset based on trend analysis of a plurality of login sessions on the asset, the agent further configured to communicate the association of the individual with the asset to the analysis component, and wherein the analysis component is further configured to associate the individual with the asset based on the communication from the agent.

7. A computer implemented method of managing an inventory of assets, comprising:

periodically identifying a plurality of assets;

associating one or more individuals with one of the plurality of assets;

validating by an analysis component stored on computer readable storage medium and executing on a processor whether the one or more individuals are properly associated with one of the plurality of assets; and

generating by the analysis component an exception report for improper association of the one or more individuals with one of the plurality of assets, wherein the exception report includes an exception record that describes the validating of whether the one or more individuals are properly associated with one of the plurality of assets and a reason for the improper association.

8. The computer implemented method of claim 7, wherein the assets are identified daily.

9. The computer implemented method of claim 7, further including:

comparing assets identified in a first period to assets identified in a second period; and

generating the exception report when the assets identified in the first period and in the second period do not match.

10. The computer implemented method of claim 7, wherein validating whether the one or more individuals are properly associated with one of the plurality of assets includes confirming that the one or more individuals are one of an employee and an approved contractor and further includes confirming that the individual is a member of a group authorized to exercise an assigned role associated with the asset.

11. The computer implemented method of claim 7, wherein the exception report is automatically communicated to each of the individuals who are properly associated with the asset.

12. The computer implemented method of claim 7, further including defining a roster of individuals and their association to at least some of the assets, wherein the associating one or more individuals with one of the plurality of assets is based at least partly on the roster.

13. The computer implemented method of claim 12, wherein the roster identifies system administrators that are associated with some of the assets and further identifies supervisors of the system administrators and wherein the exception report is communicated to the system administrators associated with the asset and to the supervisors of the system administrators associated with the asset.