Tool for evaluation of business services

• US 8,615,399 B2
• Filed: 02/21/2003
• Issued: 12/24/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 02/21/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Birimisa, Miho Emil, Wegener, Heinrich
• Primary Examiner(s): LONG, FONYA M
• Application Number:
  US10/372,009
• Publication Number:
  US 20040167788A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,959 Days
• Field of Search: 705/1, 705/1.1, 705/7.36, 705/347
• US Class Current: 705/1.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06375 Prediction of business process outcome or impact based on a proposed change
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0282 Rating or review of business operators or products

Abstract

A tool for evaluating support services may correlate those services with an array of factors that define a business environment and then identify the business services that are most directly correlated to those factors. In exemplary embodiments, a tool may prompt a user for input concerning business issues and objectives; correlate those issues and objectives to a plurality of available software support services such as maintenance, optimization, architecture planning, implementation, administration and systems integration services; select the services that most directly address the particular needs and objectives identified by the user; and calculate a return on investment (ROI) associated with satisfaction of identified business objectives through implementation of the selected support services.

Claims

1. A method of evaluating business services comprising:

receiving at a first computer system, from a second computer system operated by a user, a plurality of user inputs reflecting business factors that define a business environment for a particular business enterprise, the plurality of inputs including a first set of inputs representing business issues selected from a predetermined group of business issues and a second set of inputs representing business objectives selected from a predetermined group of business objectives;

executing a computer-based process to identify services, the computer-based process including;

accessing, from computer-readable storage, one or more data structures which associate technology services with the business factors;

mapping, based on the accessed one or more data structures, the first set of inputs representing business issues to technology services to identify relevant services;

mapping, based on the accessed one or more data structures, the second set of inputs representing business objectives to technology services to identify relevant services;

determining a relevancy score for an identified service based on the number of business factors with which the identified service is associated;

determining comparative relevance of the identified services according to relevancy scores of the identified services;

selecting a subset of the identified services based on comparative relevance of the identified services, the subset representing recommended services to address at least some of the business issues represented in the first set of inputs and the business objectives represented in the second set of inputs;

sending the subset of identified services over a network to the second computer system operated by the user for display on a display device associated with the computer system operated by the user;

sending one or more of cost associated with the identified services, cost savings associated with the identified services and return-in-investment associated with the identified services over the network to the second computer system operated by the user for display on the display device associated with the second computer system operated by the user; and

storing, in computer-readable storage, a business case for implementing the identified services, the business case including the plurality of inputs, the identified subset of services and one or more of the cost associated with the identified services, the cost savings associated with the identified services and the return-in-investment associated with the identified services.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising enabling display on the display device associated with the second computer system operated by the user values reflecting the comparative relevance of each of the services in said subset of services.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising accessing cost information associated with the subset of services and determining a total cost associated with the subset of services.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising receiving, from the second computer system operated by the user, user inputs concerning savings associated with satisfaction of a business objective and calculating a total savings associated with implementation of the subset of services.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising enabling display on the display device associated with the second computer system operated by the user the subset of services, costs associated with the subset of services, savings associated with implementation of the subset of services, and a return on investment associated with the subset of services.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the relevancy score comprises determining a relevance threshold based on the average number of business factors associated with the services.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the data structures also associate additional values with the services.

8. method of claim 7, further comprising accessing the data structures, identifying the additional values associated with the subset of services, and recommending additional services based on those additional values.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the comparative relevance is determined by comparing the number of said business factors with which each service is associated to either a pre-determined value or an average number of business factors associated with the services.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

enabling display on the display device associated with the second computer system operated by the user a business factor;

enabling display on the display device associated with the second computer system operated by the user a suggested savings rate for the business factor;

receiving, from the second computer system operated by the user, user input representing an estimated savings factor; and

computing a savings according to the estimated savings factor.

11. The method of claim 3, further comprising determining a suggested savings rate and accessing data reflecting cost savings associated with a business factor.

23. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving a plurality of inputs comprises:

receiving a first set of user inputs selecting one or more displayed predetermined business issues; and

receiving a second set of user inputs selecting one or more displayed predetermined business objectives.

24. The method of claim 23 wherein:

the one or more displayed predetermined business issues are determined based on business issues considered by previous users in the same industry as the particular business enterprise; and

the one or more displayed predetermined business objectives are determined based on business objectives considered by previous users in the same industry as the particular business enterprise.

27. The method of claim 1 wherein executing the computer-based process further comprises:

accessing, from computer-readable medium, one or more data structures which store safeguarding information relating to protecting investments in technology services;

based on accessing the one or more data structures which store safeguarding information, determining whether to include a safeguarding service in the subset of the identified service; and

based on a determination that a safeguarding service is to be included, selecting a safeguarding service to be included in the subset of the identified services.

12. Computer-readable medium with program instructions stored thereon that when executed perform the following functions for evaluating business services:

receive a plurality of inputs reflecting business factors that define a business environment for a particular business enterprise, the plurality of inputs including a first set of inputs representing business issues selected from a predetermined group of business issues and a second set of inputs representing business objectives selected from a predetermined group of business objectives;

access one or more data structures which associate technology services with business factors;

mapping, based on the accessed one or more data structures, the first set of inputs representing business issues to technology services to identify relevant services;

mapping, based on the accessed one or more data structures, the second set of inputs representing business objectives to technology services to identify relevant services;

determining a relevancy score for an identified service based on the number of business factors with which the identified service is associated;

determine comparative relevance of the identified services according to relevancy scores of the identified services;

select a subset of the identified services based on comparative relevance of the identified services, the subset representing recommended services to address at least some of the business issues represented in the first set of inputs and the business objectives represented in the second set of inputs;

display the subset of identified services;

display one or more of cost associated with the identified services, cost savings associated with the identified services and return-in-investment associated with the identified services; and

store a business case for implementing the identified services, the business case including the plurality of inputs, the identified subset of services and one or more of the cost associated with the identified services, the cost savings associated with the identified services and the return-in-investment associated with the identified services.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, further comprising instructions to display values reflecting the comparative relevance of each of the services in said subset of services.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, further comprising instructions to access cost information associated with the subset of services and determine a total cost associated with the subset of services.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, further comprising instructions to receive user inputs concerning savings associated with satisfaction of a business objective and calculate a total savings associated with implementation of the subset of services.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, further comprising instructions to display the subset of services, costs associated with the subset of services, savings associated with implementation of the subset of services, and a return on investment associated with the subset of services.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, further comprising instructions to determine a relevance threshold based on the average number of business factors associated with the services.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the data structures also associate additional values with the services.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, further comprising instructions to access the data structures, identifying the additional values associated with the subset of services, and recommend additional services based on those additional values.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, further comprising instructions to determine the comparative relevance by comparing the number of said business factors with which each service is associated to either a pre-determined value or an average number of business factors associated with the services.

21. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, further comprising instructions to:

display a business factor;

display a suggested savings rate for the business factor;

receive an estimated savings factor; and

compute a savings according to the estimated savings factor.

22. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, further comprising instructions to determine a suggested savings rate and access data reflecting cost savings associated with a business factor.

25. The computer-readable medium of claim 12 wherein the instructions for receiving a plurality of inputs further comprise instructions to:

receive a first set of user inputs selecting one or more displayed predetermined business issues; and

receive a second set of user inputs selecting one or more displayed predetermined business objectives.

26. The computer-readable medium of claim 25 further comprising instructions to:

determine the one or more displayed predetermined business issues based on business issues considered by previous users in the same industry as the particular business enterprise; and

determine the one or more displayed predetermined business objectives based on business objectives considered by previous users in the same industry as the particular business enterprise.

28. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, further comprising instructions to:

access, from computer-readable medium, one or more data structures which store safeguarding information relating to protecting investments in technology services;

based on accessing the one or more data structures which store safeguarding information, determine whether to include a safeguarding service in the subset of the identified service; and

based on a determination that a safeguarding service is to be included, select a safeguarding service to be included in the subset of the identified services.