Problem resolution validation

• US 9,659,465 B2
• Filed: 12/20/2013
• Issued: 05/23/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NCR Corporation
• Original Assignee: NCR Corporation
• Inventors: Neilan, Michael James, Forrest, Simon J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tang, Karen
• Application Number:
  US14/136,971
• Publication Number:
  US 20150180728A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,250 Days
• Field of Search: 709217
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 19/209 Monitoring, auditing or diagnose of functioning of ATMs
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/046 comprising network management agents or mobile agents therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0883 Semiautomatic configuration, e.g. proposals from system
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5074 Handling of user complaints or trouble tickets

Abstract

A method of validating resolution of a problem at a media terminal is described. The method comprises accessing a file including a task; identifying a plurality of specific actions to be taken to perform the task; and ascertaining each event that would be triggered by the media terminal when each identified specific action is performed correctly. The method further comprises: displaying the identified specific actions to a service engineer; and transmitting a validation message to a remote management system when all ascertained events have been triggered in response to the service engineer performing the identified specific actions correctly.

Claims

1. A method of validating resolution of a problem at a media dispensing terminal requiring dispatch of an on-site service engineer, the method comprising:

accessing, by the media dispensing terminal, a file including a task having event descriptions for events associated with the task;

identifying, by the media dispensing terminal, a plurality of specific actions to be taken by the on-site service engineer to perform the task;

ascertaining, by the media dispensing terminal, each event that would be triggered by the media dispensing terminal when each identified specific action is performed correctly;

displaying, by the media dispensing terminal, the identified specific actions to the service engineer one identified specific action at a time;

determining, by the media dispensing terminal, following performance of each of the one identified specific actions that a corresponding ascertained event was triggered indicative of each of the one identified specific actions being performed correctly;

communicating, by the media dispensing terminal, with a remote management system for one of;

obtaining i) updates to the specific actions, or

     2) an instruction to ignore when an unexpected event is detected for a particular action that was performed on the media dispensing terminal and performing updated specific actions on the media dispensing terminal when the updates are obtained from the remote management system and ignoring the unexpected event on the media dispensing terminal when the instruction to ignore is obtained from the remote management system indicating that that action was performed incorrectly;

informing, by the media dispensing terminal, the on-site service engineer that all the identified specific actions have been performed correctly; and

transmitting, by the media dispensing terminal, a validation message to the remote management system informing the remote management system that the media dispensing terminal has been properly serviced based on all the identified actions being performed correctly.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the step of accessing a file including a task includes receiving a file from a remote management application.

3. A method according to claim 2 wherein the step of receiving the file includes receiving a file populated with a plurality of specific actions and events that would be triggered when the plurality of specific actions are performed correctly.

4. A method according to claim 3 wherein the step of identifying a plurality of specific actions to be taken to perform the task comprises reading the plurality of specific actions from the file;

and wherein the step of ascertaining each event that would be triggered by the media dispensing terminal when each identified specific action is performed correctly comprises reading the events from the file.

5. A method according to claim 1, wherein the method comprises the further steps of:

using an inference engine to ascertain from a task provided in the file a plurality of specific actions and events that would be triggered when the plurality of specific actions are performed correctly.

6. A method according to claim 1, wherein the file includes a plurality of tasks, each task relating to a device in the media dispensing terminal.

7. A method according to claim 1, wherein the method comprises the further step, prior to the transmitting step, of detecting an event corresponding to an ascertained event associated with a last identified specific action.

8. A method according to claim 1, wherein the method comprises the further steps of:

detecting absence of an ascertained event or presence of an event that should not be triggered in response to the specific action being performed; and

transmitting a request for an updated task in response to the detecting absence or presence step.

9. A method according to claim 1, wherein the method comprises the further step of providing feedback to the on-site service engineer each time a correct event has been detected in response to the service engineer performing a specific action.

10. A method according to claim 1, wherein the method comprises the further step of receiving a request from the remote management server for additional information to be collected at the media dispensing terminal.

11. A method according to claim 1, wherein the method comprises the further step of registering with an agent core in the media dispensing terminal to receive events triggered by devices within the media dispensing terminal.

12. A media dispensing terminal comprising:

a processor configured with a management agent being operable to;

(i) receive a task list from a remote management system, the task list including event descriptions for events associated with each task in the task list, (ii) derive from the task list a plurality of specific actions to be performed by an on-site service engineer in sequence one specific action at a time, (iii) identify, for each one specific action, an event that would be triggered by the media dispensing terminal when that one specific action is performed correctly, and (iv) determine following performance of each of the one specific actions that a corresponding ascertained event was triggered indicative of each of the one specific actions being performed correctly; and

a display operable to;

(i) display each one specific action to the on-site service engineer in sequence, with a next one specific action only being displayed in response to an event associated with that specific action being detected, (ii) inform the on-site service engineer that all the plurality of specific actions have been performed correctly;

(iii) contact the remote management system when an unexpected event is received following the processing of an action and obtaining an updated task list in response to the unexpected event and processing an updated action from the updated task list, and (iv) transmit a validation message to the remote management system when all ascertained events have been triggered in response to the service engineer performing the specific actions informing the remote management system that the media dispensing terminal has been properly serviced based on all the identified actions being performed correctly.