Reuse of on-demand enterprise system customization knowledge utilizing collective experience

• US 8,935,191 B2
• Filed: 05/02/2012
• Issued: 01/13/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/02/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Allgaier, Matthias
• Primary Examiner(s): Gaffin, Jeffrey A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Misir, Dave
• Application Number:
  US13/462,693
• Publication Number:
  US 20130297544A1
• Time in Patent Office: 986 Days
• Field of Search: 706/46, 707/769
• US Class Current: 706/46
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 20/00 Machine learning
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/04 Inference or reasoning models

Abstract

Systems and methods allow sharing and reuse of acquired customization knowledge of enterprise systems, utilizing collective customization experience. Particular embodiments employ Case-Based Reasoning (CBR) principles to manage customization experience in the context of both Software as a Service (SaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS) environments. Collective customization knowledge may be explicitly retrieved, adapted, shared, reused, and/or traded between tenants, partners, and optionally provider(s), of on-demand enterprise systems. A previous customization case stored within an experience base, may include one or more of the following: information allowing annotation of price information for trading the previous customization case (e.g. to another tenant); information restricting visibility of the previous customization case within the experience base; information defining a rating for the previous customization case within a community; information capturing a reuse frequency of the previous customization case; and/or information rendering anonymous at least a portion of the previous customization case.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

providing an experience base comprising a stored customization case previously used by a first entity to customize an enterprise system for a first tenant, wherein the stored customization case is in a case representation model that includes a customization problem and a customization solution comprising an adaptation pattern category, the stored customization case further including,

information configured to restrict inter-tenant visibility of the stored customization case within the experience base, and

information configured to render anonymous, tenant specific information within the stored customization case;

receiving from a second entity, a query comprising an unsolved enterprise customization case for a second tenant, the unsolved enterprise customization case having a new customization problem and not having a customization solution;

causing a case-based reasoning engine to reference the experience base by executing a case retrieval algorithm upon the case representation model and generate a similarity measure between the new customization problem and the stored customization case; and

displaying the similarity measure to the second entity prior to adapting the customization solution for the unsolved customization case.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the case-based reasoning engine comprises an add-on to a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) component of the enterprise system.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the first entity and/or the second entity are system integrators.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the first entity and/or the second entity are tenants of the enterprise system.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the stored customization case includes information allowing annotation of price information for trading.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising storing the new customization problem and an adapted customization solution, as a new customization case.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the stored customization case further includes information configured to:

define a rating for the stored customization case within a community; and

capture a reuse frequency of the stored customization case.

8. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium embodying a computer program for performing a method, said method comprising:

providing an experience base comprising a stored customization case previously used by a first entity to customize an enterprise system for a first tenant, wherein the stored customization case is in a case representation model that includes a customization problem and a customization solution comprising an adaptation pattern category, the stored customization case further including;

information configured to restrict inter-tenant visibility of the stored customization case within the experience base, and

information configured to render anonymous, tenant specific information within the stored customization case;

receiving from a second entity, a query comprising an unsolved enterprise customization case for a second tenant, the unsolved enterprise customization case having a new customization problem and not having a customization solution;

causing a case-based reasoning engine to reference the experience base by executing a case retrieval algorithm upon the case representation model and generate a similarity measure between the new customization problem and the stored customization case; and

displaying the similarity measure to the second entity prior to adapting the customization solution for the unsolved customization case.

9. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 8 wherein the case-based reasoning engine comprises an add-on to a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) component of the enterprise system.

10. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 8 wherein the first entity and/or the second entity are system integrators.

11. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 8 wherein the first entity and/or the second entity are tenants of the enterprise system.

12. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 8 wherein the stored customization case includes information allowing annotation of price information for trading.

13. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 8 further comprising storing the new customization problem and an adapted customization solution, as a new customization case.

14. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 8 wherein the stored customization case includes information configured to:

define a rating for the stored customization case within a community; and

capture a reuse frequency of the stored customization case.

15. A computer system comprising:

one or more computer processors; and

a non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising instructions for controlling the one or more computer processors to be operable to;

access an experience base comprising a stored customization case previously used by a first entity to customize an enterprise system for a first tenant, wherein the stored customization case is in a case representation model that includes a customization problem and a customization solution comprising an adaptation pattern category, the stored customization case further including,

information configured to restrict inter-tenant visibility of the stored customization case within the experience base, and

information configured to render anonymous, tenant specific information within the stored customization case;

receive from a second entity, a query comprising an unsolved enterprise customization case for a second tenant, the unsolved enterprise customization case having a new customization problem and not having a customization solution;

cause a case-based reasoning engine to reference the experience base by executing a case retrieval algorithm upon the case representation model and generate a similarity measure between the new customization problem and the stored customization case; and

display the similarity measure to the second entity prior to adapting the customization solution for the unsolved customization case.

16. The computer system of claim 15 wherein the case-based reasoning engine comprises an add-on to a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) component of the enterprise system.

17. The computer system of claim 15 wherein the first entity and/or the second entity are system integrators.

18. The computer system of claim 15 wherein the first entity and/or the second entity are tenants of the enterprise system.

19. The computer system of claim 15 wherein the stored customization case includes information allowing annotation of price information for trading.

20. The computer system of claim 15 wherein the stored customization case includes information configured to:

define a rating for the stored customization case within a community; and

capture a reuse frequency of the stored customization case.