Methods and systems for monitoring transaction entity versions for policy compliance

• US 8,688,507 B2
• Filed: 01/31/2006
• Issued: 04/01/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/21/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oversight Systems, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Oversight Technologies, Inc. (Oversight Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kennis, Peter H, Kuokka, Daniel R., Coombs, Charles A, Addison, Stayton D, Otwell, Andrew T, Johnson, Jeffrey Z, Taylor, Patrick J. D., Lortz, Michael E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Dean T
• Application Number:
  US11/307,309
• Publication Number:
  US 20060212487A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,982 Days
• Field of Search: 705/1.1, 705/7.28, 705/7.37, 705/38
• US Class Current: 705/7.37
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/258 Data format conversion from or to a database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/55 Detecting local intrusion or implementing counter-measures
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/018 Certifying business or products
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/03 Credit; Loans; Processing thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange

Abstract

A system for determining lack of compliance of a transactional entity with an enterprise policy by maintaining an historical record of the entity as changes are made over time. The system allows establishment, codification, and maintenance of enterprise policies, monitors electronic transactions of the enterprise from various data sources, detects exceptions to established policies, reports exceptions to authorized users such as managers and auditors, and/or provides a case management system for tracking exceptions and their underlying transactions. A master data extractor establishes an initial instance of a transactional entity in a monitoring database. A changed data extractor is responsive to changed data for establishing a subsequent instance of the transactional entity in the monitoring database. A transaction analysis engine applies predetermined policy rules to data in the monitoring database to determine lack of compliance of the initial and subsequent instances of the transactional entity with enterprise policies.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for monitoring transactions stored in a host data source comprising a plurality of source records and a plurality of source fields in each of the plurality of source records to determine lack of compliance of a transactional entity with one or more predetermined policies by maintaining an historical record of the transactional entity as changes are made to the entity, comprising the steps of:

in a computer, identifying a subset of source fields of the plurality of source fields;

in the computer, establishing an initial instance of a transactional entity in a monitoring database by extracting, from the subset of source fields in a first source record, a first selected subset of information relating to the transactional entity from the host data source storing data associated with the transactional entity;

in the computer, storing the subset of information and version information in the monitoring database as a monitoring entity;

in the computer, in response to a determination of a change to data associated with the transactional entity, establishing a subsequent instance of the transactional entity in the monitoring database by extracting, from the subset of source fields in the first source record, a second selected subset of information relating to the transactional entity from the host data source;

in the computer, storing the second subset of information and version information in the monitoring database as a second monitoring entity;

in the computer, applying predetermined policy rules to the monitoring entities in the monitoring database to determine lack of compliance of the initial and subsequent instances of the transactional entity with one or more predetermined policies that make reference to different versions of a particular transactional entity.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

adding metadata to the subsets of information prior to storage in the monitoring database as monitoring entities.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the metadata includes the version information.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the metadata comprises a transactional entity identifier, actor identification information, and a timestamp.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of normalizing the selected subset of information into an enterprise ontology by mapping the selected subset of information into predetermined corresponding normalized data fields of the monitoring database.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the data sources comprise an enterprise system.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the predetermined policy rules are expressed in computer-executable policy statements.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the transactional entity comprises data items corresponding to an electronic transaction expressed in a predetermined ontology;

wherein the policy statement comprises at least one indicator comprising at least one computer-executable logical statement expressed in terms of the ontology that resolves to an exception in response to a predetermined condition; and

further comprising the step of providing information corresponding to the exception as an output.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second selected subsets of data are obtained from the host data source by a data extractor.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the first selected subset of data is obtained by a master extractor.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the second selected subset of data is obtained by one or more of the group:

programmatic extractor, log extractor, resync extractor.

12. A system for monitoring transactions stored in a host data source comprising a plurality of source records and a plurality of source fields in each of the plurality of source records to determine lack of compliance of a transactional entity with one or more predetermined policies by maintaining an historical record of the transactional entity as changes are made to the entity, comprising:

a non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon a monitoring database and a plurality of program instruction modules executable by a computer, wherein the program instruction modules comprise a master data extractor, a changed data extractor, and a transaction analysis engine; and

the computer configured to, when executing the master data extractor, identifies a subset of source fields of the plurality of source fields and establishes an initial instance of a transactional entity in the monitoring database by extracting, from the subset of source fields in a first source record, a first selected subset of information relating to the transactional entity from the host data source storing data associated with the transactional entity;

the monitoring database for storing the first subset of information and version information in a monitoring database as a monitoring entity;

the computer further configured to, when executing the changed data extractor responsive to changed data associated with the transactional entity, establishes a subsequent instance of the transactional entity in the monitoring database by extracting, from the subset of source fields in the first source record, a second selected subset of information relating to the transactional entity from the host data source and storing the second subset of information and version information in the monitoring database as a second monitoring entity; and

the computer further configured to, when executing the transaction analysis engine, applies predetermined policy rules to the monitoring entities in the monitoring database to determine lack of compliance of the initial and subsequent instances of the transactional entity with one or more predetermined policies that make reference to different versions of a particular transactional entity.

13. The system of claim 12, further comprising a component for adding metadata to the subsets of information prior to storage in the monitoring database as monitoring entities.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the metadata includes the version information.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the metadata comprises a transactional entity identifier, actor identification information, and a timestamp.

16. The system of claim 12, further comprising a mapper for normalizing the selected subset of information into an enterprise ontology by mapping the selected subset of information into predetermined corresponding normalized data fields of the monitoring database.

17. The system of claim 12, wherein the data sources comprise an enterprise system.

18. The system of claim 12, wherein the predetermined policy rules are expressed in computer-executable policy statements.

19. The system of claim 12, wherein the transactional entity comprises data items corresponding to an electronic transaction expressed in a predetermined ontology;

wherein the policy statement comprises at least one indicator comprising at least one computer-executable logical statement expressed in terms of the ontology that resolves to an exception in response to a predetermined condition; and

further comprising means for outputting information corresponding to the exception.

20. The system of claim 12, wherein the first and second selected subsets of data are obtained from the host data source by a data extractor.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the first selected subset of data is obtained by a master extractor or a programmatic extractor.

22. The system of claim 20, wherein the second selected subset of data is obtained by one or more of the group:

programmatic extractor, log extractor, resync extractor.