Event resolution

• US 8,744,903 B2
• Filed: 04/29/2008
• Issued: 06/03/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/29/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Waguet, Cyrille, Holz, Sabine, Jann, Annette
• Primary Examiner(s): Pats, Justin M
• Assistant Examiner(s): Goldberg, Ivan R
• Application Number:
  US12/111,588
• Publication Number:
  US 20090271232A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,226 Days
• Field of Search: 705/7.36, 706/45, 706/47
• US Class Current: 705/7.36
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/04 Inference or reasoning models
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/045 Explanation of inference; Explainable artificial intelligence [XAI]; Interpretable artificial intelligence
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0637 Strategic management or analysis, e.g. setting a goal or target of an organisation; Planning actions based on goals; Analysis or evaluation of effectiveness of goals

Abstract

Apparatus, systems, and methods that operate to assist in resolving both expected and unexpected events that occur in the course of business operations are disclosed. Activities may include detecting the occurrence of an alert event, determining whether the alert event is an expected event or an unexpected event, presenting a resolution sequence for the expected event, and soliciting a new event resolution path for the unexpected event. Further activities may include determining an alert event is an unexpected event, displaying an alert message associated with the unexpected event, and soliciting recommendations to form a new event resolution path to be presented upon determining a new event has occurred that is similar to the alert event. Additional apparatus, systems, and methods are disclosed.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method, comprising:

using one or more processors to perform at least a portion of one or more of the following;

detecting by an alert system executed by the one or more processors occurrence of an alert event;

determining by a dispatcher executed by the one or more processors whether the alert event is an expected event or an unexpected event, wherein the expected event corresponds to an event previously associated with a resolution sequence and the unexpected event is not associated with any pre-existing resolution sequence;

presenting by a guided procedure module executed by the one or more processors the resolution sequence for the expected event;

soliciting by a graphical user interface executed by the one or more processors a new event resolution path for the unexpected event;

determining search results for a user in response to a search query for information for resolving the unexpected event;

dynamically determining a context of the unexpected event, based at least in part on a user request to save one or more of the search results to the context of the unexpected event;

determining a list of recommended actions associated with at least one prior event determined to be similar to the context of the unexpected event;

ranking the list based on a matching degree between the context of the unexpected event and a previously stored context of the at least one prior event;

receiving user ratings of at least one of the recommended actions, wherein the user ratings are stored within the context of the unexpected event; and

weighting the ranking of the list of recommended actions, based on the user ratings of at least one of the recommended actions.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein detecting the occurrence comprises:

detecting a value of a received event; and

at least one of comparing the value to a pre-selected alert threshold value or comparing the received event to one of a correlated series of events.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein presenting the resolution sequence further comprises:

initiating the resolution sequence as a previously-stored guided procedure.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein soliciting the new event resolution path comprises:

receiving, from a user notified of the alert event, a new recommendation to resolve the alert event.

5. The method of claim 1, comprising:

adding a new recommendation received from a user notified of the alert event to form a portion of the new event resolution path.

6. The method of claim 1, comprising:

storing the new event resolution path; and

recalling the new event resolution path upon determining a new event is similar to the alert event.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the alert event is associated with an alert type, comprising:

sending an alert message to alerted users assigned to the alert type.

8. The method of claim 1, comprising:

defining a rule to handle the expected event, wherein the rule includes a valid time period and a process to initiate as part of presenting the resolution sequence.

9. A computer implemented method, comprising:

using one or more processors to perform at least a portion of one or more of the following;

determining by a dispatcher executed by the one or more processors an alert event is an unexpected event, wherein the unexpected event is not associated with any pre-existing resolution sequence;

displaying by a display an alert message associated with the unexpected event;

soliciting by a graphical user interface executed by the one or more processors recommendations to form a new event resolution path to be presented upon determining a new event has occurred that is similar to the alert event;

determining search results for a user in response to a search query for information for resolving the unexpected event;

dynamically determining the context of the unexpected event, based at least in part on a user request to save one or more of the search results to the context of the unexpected event;

determining a list of recommended actions associated with at least one prior event determined to be similar to the context of the unexpected event;

ranking the list based on a matching degree between the context of the alert event and a previously stored context of the at least one prior event;

receiving user ratings of at least one of the recommended actions, wherein the user ratings are stored within the context of the unexpected event; and

weighting the ranking of the list of recommended actions, based on the user ratings of at least one of the recommended actions.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein displaying the alert message comprises:

at least one of displaying a web page window or a sidebar window as part of a graphical user interface.

11. The method of claim 9, comprising:

receiving a designation indicating the new event resolution path is a resolution sequence for an expected event.

12. The method of claim 9, comprising:

selecting a system to provide the alert event.

13. The method of claim 9, comprising:

receiving the recommendations selected from the search results;

adding the recommendations to the list of recommended actions to form a combined list; and

saving the combined list as a group of future recommendations.

14. A non-transitory computer readable medium having instructions stored therein for causing a computer to implement a method, comprising:

detecting occurrence of an alert event;

determining whether the alert event is an expected event or an unexpected event, wherein the expected event corresponds to an event previously associated with a resolution sequence and the unexpected event is not associated with any pre-existing resolution sequence;

presenting the resolution sequence for the expected event;

soliciting a new event resolution path for the unexpected event;

determining search results for a user in response to a search query for information for resolving the unexpected event;

dynamically determining a context of the unexpected event, based at least in part on a user request to save one or more of the search results to the context of the unexpected event;

determining a list of recommended actions associated with at least one prior event determined to be similar to the context of the unexpected event;

ranking the list based on a matching degree between the context of the unexpected event and a previously stored context of the at least one prior event;

receiving user ratings of at least one of the recommended actions, wherein the user ratings are stored within the context of the unexpected event; and

weighting the ranking of the list of recommended actions, based on the user ratings of at least one of the recommended actions.

15. The medium of claim 14, wherein the method comprises:

detecting the occurrence of the alert event by at least one of determining that a received event has crossed a threshold value for an event type matching the event type of the alert event, or by determining that the received event supports a correlated series of events.

16. The medium of claim 14, wherein the method comprises:

presenting the resolution sequence or soliciting the new event resolution path as part of a graphical user interface.

17. A system, comprising:

one or more processors coupled to a memory;

an alert system executed by the one or more processors to detect occurrence of an alert event;

a dispatcher executed by the one or more processors to determine whether the alert event is an expected event or an unexpected event, wherein the expected event corresponds to an event previously associated with a resolution sequence and the unexpected event is not associated with any pre-existing resolution sequence;

a guided procedure module executed by the one or more processors to present the resolution sequence for the expected event;

a broker module executed by the one or more processors to maintain a relationship between the alert event and a new event resolution path as a context for resolving the unexpected event, the broker module being configured to;

determine search results for a user in response to a search query for information for resolving the unexpected event;

dynamically determine the context of the unexpected event, based at least in part on a user request to save one or more of the search results to the context of the unexpected event;

determine a list of recommended actions associated with at least one prior event determined to be similar to the context of the unexpected event;

rank the list based on a matching degree between the context of the unexpected event and a previously stored context of the at least one prior event;

receive user ratings of at least one of the recommended actions, wherein the user ratings are stored within the context of the unexpected event; and

weight the ranking of the list of recommended actions, based on the user ratings of at least one of the recommended actions.

18. The system of claim 17, comprising:

a display to display a pre-existing series of actions to resolve the expected event as part of the guided procedure, or to dynamically display the new event resolution path as recommendations are selected from the search results and added to the new event resolution path.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the broker module comprises:

an assistant module to search business intelligence to provide potential recommendations to propose as part of the new event resolution path.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the broker module comprises:

a recommender module to record user interactions related to recommendations selected to form part of the new event resolution path.

21. The system of claim 17, comprising:

a resource integration layer to access stored information, including a model of the guided procedure.