Data collection framework

• US 8,965,837 B2
• Filed: 11/22/2011
• Issued: 02/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/23/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Original Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Inventors: Karthikeyan, Sailatha
• Primary Examiner(s): BROWN, SHEREE N
• Application Number:
  US13/302,307
• Publication Number:
  US 20120130941A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,190 Days
• Field of Search: 707/600
• US Class Current: 707/600
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce

Abstract

A common data collection framework accesses data collected by an electronic commerce system in a format specific to the electronic commerce system. The common data collection framework determines a type of the data and identifies, from among multiple types of common data objects, a common data object that is independent of the electronic commerce system and that is defined to store data corresponding to the determined type. The common data collection framework stores the data collected by the electronic commerce system in an instance of the common data object and provides, to an analytics system, the instance of the common data object to enable the analytics system to perform analytics on the data collected by the electronic commerce system using the common format that is different than the format specific to the electronic commerce system and that accommodates multiple, different types of electronic commerce systems.

Claims

1. A computer system comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory coupled to the at least one processor having stored thereon instructions which, when executed by the at least one processor, causes the at least one processor to perform operations comprising;

accessing, for a first electronic commerce system, first data collected by the first electronic commerce system, the first data being arranged in a first format specific to the first electronic commerce system;

in response to accessing the first data collected by the first electronic commerce system, determining, from among multiple types of data collected by electronic commerce systems, a type of the first data collected by the first electronic commerce system;

based on the determination of the type of the first data collected by the first electronic commerce system, identifying, from among multiple types of common data objects that are defined to store data corresponding to the multiple types of data collected by electronic commerce systems, a first common data object that is independent of the first electronic commerce system and that is defined to store data corresponding to the determined type of the first data collected by the first electronic commerce system, the first common data object having a common format that is (i) different than the first format specific to the first electronic commerce system and that accommodates multiple, different types of electronic commerce systems and (ii) independent of a plurality of analytics systems;

based on the identification of the first common data object, storing the first data collected by the first electronic commerce system in a first instance of the first common data object;

after storing the first data collected by the first electronic commerce system in the first instance of the first common data object, providing, to a first analytics system from among the plurality of analytics systems, the first instance of the first common data object to enable the first analytics system to perform analytics on the first data collected by the first electronic commerce system using the common format that is (i) different than the first format specific to the first electronic commerce system and that accommodates multiple, different types of electronic commerce systems and (ii) independent of the plurality of analytics systems;

accessing, for a second electronic commerce system that is different than the first electronic commerce system, second data collected by the second electronic commerce system, the second data being arranged in a second format specific to the second electronic commerce system;

in response to accessing the second data collected by the second electronic commerce system, determining, from among the multiple types of data collected by electronic commerce systems, a type of the second data collected by the second electronic commerce system;

based on the determination of the type of the second data collected by the second electronic commerce system, identifying, from among the multiple types of common data objects that are defined to store data corresponding to the multiple types of data collected by electronic commerce systems, the first common data object as being appropriate to store the type of the second data collected by the second electronic commerce system, the first common data object having a common format that is different than the second format specific to the second electronic commerce system;

based on the identification of the first common data object as being appropriate to store the type of the second data collected by the second electronic commerce system, storing the second data collected by the second electronic commerce system in a second instance of the first common data object; and

after storing the second data collected by the second electronic commerce system in the second instance of the first common data object, providing, to a second analytics system from among the plurality of analytics systems, the second instance of the first common data object to enable the second analytics system to perform analytics on the second data collected by the second electronic commerce system using the common format that is (i) different than the second format specific to the second electronic commerce system and that accommodates multiple, different types of electronic commerce systems and (ii) independent of the plurality of analytics systems, the second analytics system being different than the first analytics system.

2. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the common format of the first common data object accommodates multiple, different analytics systems.

3. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise controlling the first electronic commerce system to collect the first data.

4. The computer system of claim 3, wherein controlling the first electronic commerce system to collect the first data comprises controlling the first electronic commerce system to implement business logic needed to collect data stored by the first common data object.

5. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise controlling the first analytics system to generate a report based on data provided using common data objects.

6. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise defining the first common data object to include attributes that relate to building blocks of the first electronic commerce system and the second electronic commerce system.

7. The computer system of claim 6, wherein defining the first common data object to include attributes that relate to building blocks of the first electronic commerce system and the second electronic commerce system comprises defining the first common data object to include attributes that relate to building blocks that are common to each of the multiple, different types of electronic commerce systems.

8. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise defining the multiple types of common data objects to represent building blocks of the first electronic commerce system and the second electronic commerce system.

9. The computer system of claim 8, wherein defining the multiple types of common data objects to represent building blocks of the first electronic commerce system and the second electronic commerce system comprises defining the multiple types of common data objects to represent building blocks that are common to each of the multiple, different types of electronic commerce systems.

10. The computer system of claim 8, wherein defining the multiple types of common data objects to represent building blocks of the first electronic commerce system and the second electronic commerce system comprises defining a common order data object that stores data associated with orders, a common catalog data object that stores data associated with catalog entries, a common member data object that stores data associated with members, a common marketing data object that stores data associated with marketing items, a common trading data object that stores data associated with trades, and a common pricing data object that stores data associated with pricing.

11. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise providing, to a new analytics system that is different than one of the plurality of analytics systems, instances of some of the multiple types of common data objects to enable the new analytics system to perform analytics on the instances of the some of the multiple types of common data objects without requiring change of code used by any of the plurality of electronic commerce systems to collect data.

12. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise providing, to the first analytics system, values for additional instances of the multiple types of common data objects to enable the first analytics system to perform analytics on the instances of the multiple types of common data objects without requiring change of data collection logic used by the first electronic commerce system or the second electronic commerce system.

13. The computer system of claim 1, wherein storing the first data collected by the first electronic commerce system in the instance of the first common data object comprises mapping attributes of the first format specific to the first electronic commerce system to attributes of the first common data object.

14. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise using an analytics object factory class to create the multiple types of common data objects for the first electronic commerce system.

15. The computer system of claim 14, wherein using the analytics object factory class to create the multiple types of common data objects for the first electronic commerce system comprises receiving user input of a type of the first electronic commerce system and using the analytics object factory class to return an instance of a system specific object creator class for the type of the first electronic commerce system.

16. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise using an analytics object creator to provide a generic interface which has methods to create generic analytics objects for each analytics event.

17. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise creating a class specific to a platform used by the first electronic commerce system to create generic analytics objects.

18. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise defining the multiple types of common data objects to represent a set of analytics object classes that include at least an analytics page view class, an analytics product view class, an analytics order class, and an analytics registration class.

19. A computer-implemented method comprising:

accessing, for a first electronic commerce system, first data collected by the first electronic commerce system, the first data being arranged in a first format specific to the first electronic commerce system;

in response to accessing the first data collected by the first electronic commerce system, determining, from among multiple types of data collected by electronic commerce systems, a type of the first data collected by the first electronic commerce system;

based on the determination of the type of the first data collected by the first electronic commerce system, identifying, from among multiple types of common data objects that are defined to store data corresponding to the multiple types of data collected by electronic commerce systems, a first common data object that is independent of the first electronic commerce system and that is defined to store data corresponding to the determined type of the first data collected by the first electronic commerce system, the first common data object having a common format that is (i) different than the first format specific to the first electronic commerce system and that accommodates multiple, different types of electronic commerce systems and (ii) independent of a plurality of analytics systems;

based on the identification of the first common data object, storing the first data collected by the first electronic commerce system in a first instance of the first common data object;

after storing the corresponding data collected by the corresponding electronic commerce system after storing the first data collected by the first electronic commerce system in the first instance of the first common data object, providing, to a first analytics system from among the plurality of analytics systems, the first instance of the first common data object to enable the first analytics system to perform analytics on the first data collected by the first electronic commerce system using the common format that is (i) different than the first format specific to the first electronic commerce system and that accommodates multiple, different types of electronic commerce systems and (ii) independent of the plurality of analytics systems;

accessing, for a second electronic commerce system that is different than the first electronic commerce system, second data collected by the second electronic commerce system, the second data being arranged in a second format specific to the second electronic commerce system;

in response to accessing the second data collected by the second electronic commerce system, determining, from among the multiple types of data collected by electronic commerce systems, a type of the second data collected by the second electronic commerce system;

based on the determination of the type of the second data collected by the second electronic commerce system, identifying, from among the multiple types of common data objects that are defined to store data corresponding to the multiple types of data collected by electronic commerce systems, the first common data object as being appropriate to store the type of the second data collected by the second electronic commerce system, the first common data object having a common format that is different than the second format specific to the second electronic commerce system;

based on the identification of the first common data object as being appropriate to store the type of the second data collected by the second electronic commerce system, storing the second data collected by the second electronic commerce system in a second instance of the first common data object; and

after storing the second data collected by the second electronic commerce system in the second instance of the first common data object, providing, to a second analytics system from among the plurality of analytics systems, the second instance of the first common data object to enable the second analytics system to perform analytics on the second data collected by the second electronic commerce system using the common format that is (i) different than the second format specific to the second electronic commerce system and that accommodates multiple, different types of electronic commerce systems and (ii) independent of the plurality of analytics systems, the second analytics system being different than the first analytics system.

20. At least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium encoded with executable instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform operations comprising:

accessing, for a first electronic commerce system, first data collected by the first electronic commerce system, the first data being arranged in a first format specific to the first electronic commerce system;

in response to accessing the first data collected by the first electronic commerce system, determining, from among multiple types of data collected by electronic commerce systems, a type of the first data collected by the first electronic commerce system;

based on the determination of the type of the first data collected by the first electronic commerce system, identifying, from among multiple types of common data objects that are defined to store data corresponding to the multiple types of data collected by electronic commerce systems, a first common data object that is independent of the first electronic commerce system and that is defined to store data corresponding to the determined type of the first data collected by the first electronic commerce system, the first common data object having a common format that is (i) different than the first format specific to the first electronic commerce system and that accommodates multiple, different types of electronic commerce systems and (ii) independent of a plurality of analytics systems;

based on the identification of the first common data object, storing the first data collected by the first electronic commerce system in a first instance of the first common data object;

after storing the first data collected by the first electronic commerce system in the first instance of the first common data object, providing, to a first analytics system from among the plurality of analytics systems, the first instance of the first common data object to enable the first analytics system to perform analytics on the first data collected by the first electronic commerce system using the common format that is (i) different than the first format specific to the first electronic commerce system and that accommodates multiple, different types of electronic commerce systems and (ii) independent of the plurality of analytics systems;

accessing, for a second electronic commerce system that is different than the first electronic commerce system, second data collected by the second electronic commerce system, the second data being arranged in a second format specific to the second electronic commerce system;

in response to accessing the second data collected by the second electronic commerce system, determining, from among the multiple types of data collected by electronic commerce systems, a type of the second data collected by the second electronic commerce system;

based on the determination of the type of the second data collected by the second electronic commerce system, identifying, from among the multiple types of common data objects that are defined to store data corresponding to the multiple types of data collected by electronic commerce systems, the first common data object as being appropriate to store the type of the second data collected by the second electronic commerce system, the first common data object having a common format that is different than the second format specific to the second electronic commerce system;

based on the identification of the first common data object as being appropriate to store the type of the second data collected by the second electronic commerce system, storing the second data collected by the second electronic commerce system in a second instance of the first common data object; and

after storing the second data collected by the second electronic commerce system in the second instance of the first common data object, providing, to a second analytics system from among the plurality of analytics systems, the second instance of the first common data object to enable the second analytics system to perform analytics on the second data collected by the second electronic commerce system using the common format that is (i) different than the second format specific to the second electronic commerce system and that accommodates multiple, different types of electronic commerce systems and (ii) independent of the plurality of analytics systems, the second analytics system being different than the first analytics system.