Using Alerts to Bring Attention to In-Store Information

• US 20110125541A1
• Filed: 01/10/2011
• Published: 05/26/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Target Brands Inc. (Target Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Target Brands Inc. (Target Corporation)
• Inventors: Lund, Stephanie W., Busch, Eric P., Eberhardt, Carlos R., Neuenschwander, Robb S., Sawyer, Donald L., Whitsitt, Michael S., Tetter, Ryan R., Van Epern, Lucas W.
• Granted Patent: US 8,600,817 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7.13
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems

Abstract

A method and system is provided that uses alerts to bring in-store information that is of interest to the attention of team members working in a retail store. To send an alert to a team member logged in to a device data, data from a source is evaluated against business rules. An event is generated when a piece of data satisfies the business rules. The event indicates that the piece of data is of interest. A task is activated for the event and assigned to the team member acting in a role associated with the source of the event. An alert is sent to the device that the team member is logged in to indicating that the team member has been assigned the task.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

event rules identifying point-of-sale data that triggers events;

at least one event generator configured to apply the point-of-sale data to the event rules and to generate an event when one of the event rules triggers the event from a piece of point-of-sale data, wherein source information is associated with the event;

an electronic task handler configured to;

activate a task for a position in a business section of a store based on the event, the task indicating an activity to be performed in response to the generated event and being marked as open;

assign the task to a user acting in the position of the business section of the store associated with the source information such that the user is assigned to perform the activity; and

send an alert to at least one client device that the user in the position of the business section of the store is logged in to, the alert indicating that the user has been assigned the task.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a database configured to save the event and the corresponding task, the saved event and task including an indication that the task was assigned to the user.

3. The system of claim 2, further comprising a task retriever configured to:

retrieve open tasks for the at least one client device from the database based on the user position and the business section of the store for the user logged in to the client device;

score the open tasks using scoring rules; and

send the open tasks to the at least one client device in a prioritized order based on the score for each of the open tasks.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the task retriever is further configured to update the prioritized order of the open tasks for the at least one client device upon at least one of the open tasks being closed.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the task retriever is further configured to access the database for detailed information regarding one of the open tasks assigned to the user position of the business section of the store and configured to send the detailed information to the at least one client device.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising a plurality of different point-of-sale applications running on a plurality of different point-of-sale registers that together generate the point-of-sale data.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising closing task rules for use in determining if the event is instructive of closing the task marked as open.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the alert is sent to the at least one client device via an instant message communicator such that the alert is pushed to the at least one client device.

9. A method comprising:

receiving an event when business data satisfies one of a plurality of event rules, the event associated with a source;

comparing the event against other open events using a duplicate rule to determine whether the event already exists, wherein the duplicate rule defines a matching level from a set of hierarchical matching levels that was previously assigned to the event to perform the comparison;

activating a task for the event if the duplicate rule indicates the event is not a duplicate of other open events, the task indicating an activity to be performed in response to the event; and

sending an alert to at least one client device for a business area indicating that a user of the at least one client device has been assigned to perform the task.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

comparing the event against open tasks associated with the source using closing task rules to determine if the event is instructive of closing any of the open tasks;

flagging at least one open task as closed based on the comparison; and

changing an attribute value of the at least one flagged open task to closed.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

retrieving open tasks for the user of the at least one client device from the database based on the user role and the business area that have been assigned to the user; and

scoring the open tasks using scoring rules; and

sending the open tasks to the at least one client device in a prioritized order based on the score for each of the open tasks.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

activating a new task for the event when the user fails to perform the task assigned to the user before an expiration of time;

assigning the new task to a supervisor of the user; and

sending a new alert to at least one client device that the supervisor has logged in to, the new alert indicating that the supervisor has been assigned the new task.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein receiving an event when business data satisfies one of a plurality of event rules comprises receiving an event when point-of-sale data satisfies one of a plurality of event rules.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the point-of-sale data is generated by a plurality of different point-of-sale applications running on a plurality of different point-of-sale registers.

15. A method comprising:

providing a database of events and tasks where each task is activated for a respective event, each event indicating a source that generates business data that triggered the event and each task indicating an action that a user needs to perform in response to the corresponding event;

receiving a new event associated with the source;

comparing the new event against open tasks in the database that are associated with the source using closing task rules to determine if the new event is instructive of closing any of the open tasks of the source; and

setting an open task as closed based on the comparison between the new event and open tasks using the closing task rules.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

comparing the new event against other open events using a duplicate rule to determine whether the new event should be considered a duplicate of an open event if the new event is not instructive of closing any of the open tasks of the source, wherein the duplicate rule defines a matching level from a set of hierarchical matching levels that was previously assigned to the new event to perform the comparison;

activating a task for the new event if the duplicate rule indicates the new event is not a duplicate of other open events; and

sending an alert to at least one client device for a store area of the source indicating that the user of the at least one client device has been assigned the task.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

receiving a request from the at least one client device for a task list of all open tasks assigned to the user of the client device;

retrieving open tasks for the user from the database based on the user role and the store area covered by the user;

scoring the open tasks using scoring rules; and

sending the open tasks to the at least one client device in a prioritized order based on the score for each of the open tasks.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

accessing the database for the detailed information regarding the open task; and

sending the detailed information to the at least one client device.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

receiving notification from the at least one client device to close one of the open tasks; and

updating the open task in the database to closed.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein each event indicates a source that generates business data comprises each event indicating a source that generates point-of-sale data.