Automated user task management

• US 9,818,075 B2
• Filed: 08/08/2016
• Issued: 11/14/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/11/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ACR Development, Inc.
• Original Assignee: ACR Development, Inc.
• Inventors: Roman, Anthony C., Hammond, Jr., Michael P., Rose, Douglas J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Huq, Farzana
• Application Number:
  US15/231,696
• Publication Number:
  US 20170193425A1
• Time in Patent Office: 463 Days
• Field of Search: 709217-219, 709223, 709226, 709242, 34053916, 34042619, 4554561, 4554562, 4554563, 455411, 4554141, 4555501
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063114 Status monitoring or status determination for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0639 Performance analysis of employees; Performance analysis of enterprise or organisation operations
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1831 Tracking arrangements for later retrieval, e.g. recording contents, participants activities or behavior, network status
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/66 Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/085 Retrieval of network configuration; Tracking network configuration history
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/224 providing notification on incoming messages, e.g. pushed notifications of received messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/62 Establishing a time schedule for servicing the requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/14 Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD]

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for receiving tracked locations from a plurality of the client devices and monitoring the tracked locations over time in order to determine a respective task progress for each of a plurality of first users based on monitoring.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving a plurality of rules, each rule specifying one or more conditions and one or more actions to be performed when the one or more conditions are satisfied;

assigning a plurality of tasks to a plurality of users, each task having a schedule indicating one or more scheduled times when a user to whom the task is assigned is scheduled to be located at a respective geographic location;

sending respective data sets to a plurality of client devices associated with the respective plurality of users, wherein each data set sent to each user specifies the geographic location indicated by the schedule for each task assigned to the user, and wherein each client device is configured to track locations of the respective client device;

receiving tracked locations from one or more of the client devices associated with one or more of the users, and monitoring the tracked locations over time;

determining, based at least in part on the received tracked locations, one or more task progress values, wherein each of the task progress values represents progress of a user on a respective task assigned to the user, wherein determining a particular task progress value comprises determining a degree of completion of a particular task based at least in part on the tracked locations received from the client device of the particular user to whom the particular task is assigned, wherein the schedule of the particular task indicates that the particular user is scheduled to be at a particular geographic location at a current time, and wherein determining the particular task progress value comprises determining, based on the tracked locations received from the client device of the particular user, whether the particular user is located in the particular geographic location indicated by the schedule of the particular task at the current time;

identifying one or more of the rules for which the conditions specified by the identified rules are satisfied, wherein the one or more identified rules are identified based, at least in part, on the determined task progress values; and

redistributing one or more of the tasks among the plurality of users based on the respective task progress values by performing the actions corresponding to the identified rules.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the schedule of the particular task indicates that the particular user is scheduled to be at a second geographic location at a particular time, and wherein determining the particular task progress value further comprises:

predicting an arrival time of the particular user at the second geographic location indicated by the schedule of the particular task based on the tracked locations received from the client device of the particular user.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the particular task further indicates one or more milestones, and wherein the method further comprises receiving information from the client device of the particular user indicating which of the milestones have been completed.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein an action corresponding to a particular identified rule comprises:

modifying the schedule of a task assigned to the particular user or assigning a new task to the particular user.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein a condition of a particular identified rule indicates a system performance threshold, and wherein an action corresponding to the particular identified rule comprises:

reassigning a task from a first user to a second user.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein performing the actions corresponding to the identified rules includes sending an electronic notification message to a client device associated with a user.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the electronic notification is an electronic mail message, a short message service message, a voice mail message, a phone call, or an application-specific message.

8. A system comprising:

a memory and data processing apparatus programmed to perform operations comprising;

receiving a plurality of rules, each rule specifying one or more conditions and one or more actions to be performed when the one or more conditions are satisfied;

assigning a plurality of tasks to a plurality of users, each task having a schedule indicating one or more scheduled times when a user to whom the task is assigned is scheduled to be located at a respective geographic location;

sending respective data sets to a plurality of client devices associated with the respective plurality of users, wherein each data set sent to each user specifies the geographic location indicated by the schedule for each task assigned to the user, and wherein each client device is configured to track locations of the respective client device;

receiving tracked locations from one or more of the client devices associated with one or more of the users, and monitoring the tracked locations over time;

determining, based at least in part on the received tracked locations, one or more task progress values, wherein each of the task progress values represents progress of a user on a respective task assigned to the user, wherein determining a particular task progress value comprises determining a degree of completion of a particular task based at least in part on the tracked locations received from the client device of the particular user to whom the particular task is assigned, wherein the schedule of the particular task indicates that the particular user is scheduled to be at a particular geographic location at a current time, and wherein determining the particular task progress value comprises determining, based on the tracked locations received from the client device of the particular user, whether the particular user is located in the particular geographic location indicated by the schedule of the particular task at the current time;

identifying one or more of the rules for which the conditions specified by the identified rules are satisfied, wherein the one or more identified rules are identified based, at least in part, on the determined task progress values; and

redistributing one or more of the tasks among the plurality of users based on the respective task progress values by performing the actions corresponding to the identified rules.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the schedule of the particular task indicates that the particular user is scheduled to be at a particular second geographic location at a particular time, and wherein determining the particular task progress value further comprises:

predicting an arrival time of the particular user at the second geographic location indicated by the schedule of the particular task based on the tracked locations received from the client device of the particular user.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the particular task further indicates one or more milestones, and wherein the operations further comprise receiving information from the client device of the particular user indicating which of the milestones have been completed.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein an action corresponding to a particular identified rule comprises:

modifying the schedule of a task assigned to the particular user or assigning a new task to the particular user.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein a condition of a particular identified rule indicates a system performance threshold, and wherein an action corresponding to the particular identified rule comprises:

reassigning a task from a first user to a second user.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein performing the actions corresponding to the identified rules includes sending an electronic notification message to a client device associated with a user.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein the electronic notification is one of:

an electronic mail message, a short message service message, a voice mail message, a phone call, or an application-specific message.

15. A non-transitory computer storage medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by data processing apparatus, cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

receiving a plurality of rules, each rule specifying one or more conditions and one or more actions to be performed when the one or more conditions are satisfied;

assigning a plurality of tasks to a plurality of users, each task having a schedule indicating one or more scheduled times when a user to whom the task is assigned is scheduled to be located at a respective geographic location;

sending respective data sets to a plurality of client devices associated with the respective plurality of users, wherein each data set sent to each user specifies the geographic location indicated by the schedule for each task assigned to the user, and wherein each client device is configured to track locations of the respective client device;

receiving tracked locations from one or more of the client devices associated with one or more of the users, and monitoring the tracked locations over time;

determining, based at least in part on the received tracked locations, one or more task progress values, wherein each of the task progress values represents progress of a user on a respective task assigned to the user, wherein determining a particular task progress value comprises determining a degree of completion of a particular task based at least in part on the tracked locations received from the client device of the particular user to whom the particular task is assigned, wherein the schedule of the particular task indicates that the particular user is scheduled to be at a particular geographic location at a current time, and wherein determining the particular task progress value comprises determining, based on the tracked locations received from the client device of the particular user, whether the particular user is located in the particular geographic location indicated by the schedule of the particular task at the current time;

identifying one or more of the rules for which the conditions specified by the identified rules are satisfied, wherein the one or more identified rules are identified based, at least in part, on the determined task progress values; and

redistributing one or more of the tasks among the plurality of users based on the respective task progress values by performing the actions corresponding to the identified rules.

16. The computer storage medium of claim 15, wherein the schedule of the particular task indicates that the particular user is scheduled to be at a second geographic location at a particular time, and wherein determining the particular task progress value further comprises:

predicting an arrival time of the particular user at the second geographic location indicated by the schedule of the particular task based on the tracked locations received from the client device of the particular user.

17. The computer storage medium of claim 15, wherein the particular task further indicates one or more milestones, and wherein the operations further comprise receiving information from the client device of the particular user indicating which of the milestones have been completed.