Managing facilities

• US 9,582,581 B2
• Filed: 01/26/2015
• Issued: 02/28/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 07/30/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: One Door, Inc.
• Original Assignee: RBM Technology Pvt., Ltd.
• Inventors: Ferrara, Raymond, Underwood, Brian
• Primary Examiner(s): Hwa, Shyue Jiunn
• Application Number:
  US14/605,689
• Publication Number:
  US 20150234923A1
• Time in Patent Office: 764 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/13 File access structures, e.g. distributed indices arrangements of input from, or output to, record carriers G06F3/06
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/27 Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/163 Real estate management

Abstract

One or more servers perform functions that include: maintaining a database including information relating to facilities that are subject to a first entity, the facilities being dispersed geographically, the information including geographic locations for at least some of the facilities; receiving a first message from a facility for which information is in the database, the first message identifying a fixture of the facility that requires attention, where information in the database for the facility identifies the fixture by at least one of a designation of the fixture and a characteristic of the fixture; sending a second message to a second entity that has contracted with the first entity to provide service within a geographic location of the facility; and enabling the second entity to access the database to identify the fixture.

Claims

1. A method performed by one or more server computer systems, the method comprising:

generating by one or more server computers from information in a database a graphical user interface that when rendered on a display device depicts a floorplan of an arrangement and locations of the fixtures at a facility, and a control to select one or more of the fixtures represented in the floorplan to report an issue with the selected one or more fixtures;

receiving by one of the one or more server computers a first message, the first message identifying a fixture of a facility, which requires attention;

retrieving by the one or more server computers from the database, information relating to the facility, which information includes entities associated with the facility, a geographic location for the facility, and a listing of identifiers associated with fixtures in the facility including the fixture requiring attention;

determining by the one or more server computers from information retrieved from the database, a second entity that under contract with the facility provides service of the fixture;

generating a second message to send to the second entity, with the second message having a first embedded hyperlink that allows the second entity through a computing device to access one or more pages in the database describing the fixture and having a second embedded hyperlink that allows the second entity through the computing device to access one or more pages in the database describing the location; and

receiving by the one or more server computers, an access request via selection of the first hyperlink by the second entity to retrieve information from the database for the fixture corresponding to the first hyperlink;

sending by the one or more server computers a third message to the second entity, the third message for confirming that the second entity serviced the fixture.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the facility is a first facility and the fixture is a first fixture and the database stores information relating to plural facilities and plural fixtures including the first entity and the first fixture, which information includes for each of the plural facilities at least some of the plural fixtures in the plural facilities.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

hosting by a second one of the one or more server computers a portal configured to receive the first message with the portal including a security feature to restrict access to the database.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprises:

generating by the one or more server computers from information in the database a graphical user interface that when rendered on a display device depicts in a portion of the graphical user interface a floorplan of an arrangement and locations of the fixtures, with the portion partitioned into a first part that includes a magnified version of the floorplan, and a second part that includes a window and a scroll bar in which icons corresponding to fixtures in the floorplan are displayed;

receiving a selection of an icon to cause a display of an image of the fixture represented by the selected icon, along with a summary of information relating to the fixture.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the information in the database for the facility identifies the fixture by both a designation of the fixture and a characteristic of the fixture.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the designation comprises a part number and the characteristic comprises a functionality associated with the fixture.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the database stores information relating to entities including the second entity, which have contracted with the first entity to provide services for the facilities, the method further comprising:

generating by the one or more server computers a report based on the information relating to the entities, with the information including at least one of responsiveness of the entities, costs of the entities, and capabilities of the entities; and

providing by the one or more server computers the report to the first entity.

8. A computer program product tangibly stored on a computer readable hardware storage device, the computer program product comprising instructions to cause a processor to:

generate from information in a database a graphical user interface that when rendered on a display device depicts a floorplan of an arrangement and locations of the fixtures at a facility, and a control to select one or more of the fixtures represented in the floorplan to report an issue with the selected one or more fixtures;

receive a first message, the first message identifying a fixture of a facility, which requires attention;

retrieve from the database information relating to the facility, which information includes entities associated with the facility, a geographic location for the facility, and a listing of identifiers associated with fixtures in the facility including the fixture requiring attention;

determine from information retrieved from the database, a second entity that under contract with the facility provides service of the fixture;

generate a second message to send to the second entity, with the second message having a first embedded hyperlink that allows the second entity through a computing device to access one or more pages in the database describing the fixture and having a second embedded hyperlink that allows the second entity through the computing device to access one or more pages in the database describing the location; and

receive an access request via selection of the first hyperlink by the second entity to retrieve information from the database for the fixture corresponding to the first hyperlink;

send a third message to the second entity, the third message for confirming that the second entity serviced the fixture.

9. The computer program product of claim 8, further comprising instructions to:

host a portal configured to enable messaging from external systems to the one or more servers, with the first message being received through the portal with the portal including a security feature to restrict access to the database.

10. The computer program product of claim 8, further comprises:

generate from information in the database a graphical user interface that depicts in a portion of the graphical user interface a floorplan of an arrangement and locations of the fixtures, with the portion partitioned into a first part that includes a magnified version of the floorplan, and a second part that includes a window and a scroll bar in which icons corresponding to fixtures in the floorplan are displayed;

receive a selection of an icon to cause a display of an image of the fixture represented by the selected icon, along with a summary of information relating to the fixture.

11. The computer program product of claim 8, further comprising instructions to:

access the information in the database for the facility by a designation of the fixture and a characteristic of the fixture.

12. The computer program product of claim 8 wherein the designation comprises a part number and the characteristic comprises a functionality associated with the fixture.

13. The computer program product of claim 8 wherein the database stores information relating to entities including the second entity, which have contracted with the first entity to provide services for the facilities, the computer program product further comprising instructions to:

generate a report based on the information relating to the entities, with the information including at least one of responsiveness of the entities, costs of the entities, and capabilities of the entities; and

send the report to the first entity.

14. A system comprising:

one or more server computer systems, each comprising;

memory; and

one or more processing devices configured to execute instructions to;

generate from information in a database a graphical user interface that when rendered on a display device depicts a floorplan of an arrangement and locations of the fixtures at a facility, and a control to select one or more of the fixtures represented in the floorplan to report an issue with the selected one or more fixtures;

receive a first message, the first message identifying a fixture of a facility, which requires attention;

retrieve from the database information relating to the facility, which information includes entities associated with the facility, a geographic location for the facility, and a listing of identifiers associated with fixtures in the facility including the fixture requiring attention;

determine from information retrieved from the database, a second entity that under contract with the facility provides service of the fixture;

generate a second message to send to the second entity, with the second message having a first embedded hyperlink that allows the second entity through a computing device to access one or more pages in the database describing the fixture and having a second embedded hyperlink that allows the second entity through the computing device to access one or more pages in the database describing the location; and

receive an access request via selection of the first hyperlink by the second entity to retrieve information from the database for the fixture corresponding to the first hyperlink;

send a third message to the second entity, the third message for confirming that the second entity serviced the fixture.

15. The system of claim 14, further configured to:

host a portal configured to enable messaging to the one or more servers, the first message being received through the portal with the portal including a security feature to restrict access to the database.

16. The system of claim 14, further comprises:

generate from information in the database a graphical user interface that depicts in a portion of the graphical user interface a floorplan of an arrangement and locations of the fixtures, with the portion partitioned into a first part that includes a magnified version of the floorplan, and a second part that includes a window and a scroll bar in which icons corresponding to fixtures in the floorplan are displayed;

receive a selection of an icon to cause a display of an image of the fixture represented by the selected icon, along with a summary of information relating to the fixture.

17. The system of claim 14, further configured to:

send a third message to the second entity, the third message for confirming that the second entity serviced the fixture.

18. The system of claim 14, further configured to:

generate a report based on the information relating to the entity, with the information including at least one of responsiveness of the entities, costs of the entities, and capabilities of the entities; and

provide the report to the first entity.