System and method for relational scheduling of people and/or resources

• US 8,065,175 B1
• Filed: 01/30/2007
• Issued: 11/22/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/30/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intuit, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Intuit, Inc.
• Inventors: Lewis, Sean P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Jasmin; Lynda
• Assistant Examiner(s): Miller; Alan S
• Application Number:
  US11/668,644
• Time in Patent Office: 1,757 Days
• Field of Search: 715/751, 707/706, 709/204
• US Class Current: 705/7.19
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063116 Schedule adjustment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063118 Staff planning in a project environment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1093 Calendar-based scheduling for persons or groups
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1095 Meeting or appointment

Abstract

A system and method for relational scheduling of people and/or resources includes a process for relational scheduling of people and/or resources whereby a user desiring to schedule a meeting is provided the ability to designate participants and/or meeting resources desired for a meeting, and to give each desired participant and/or meeting resource an importance rating/score, including the ability to designate a given participant and/or meeting resource as mandatory. The user also defines meeting scheduling criteria including a meeting length and a meeting date window. This meeting request data is then used to search participant and/or meeting resource availability data to determine one or more meeting times within the user defined meeting scheduling criteria provide not only the mandatory meeting requirements, but also maximize the non-mandatory participant and/or resource rating/score for the meeting.

Claims

1. A system for relational scheduling of people and resources comprising:

one or more processors and

one or more memories coupled to the one or more processors, the one or more memories having instructions stored therein which when executed by the one or more processors performs a process comprising;

obtaining meeting participant calendar data comprising the availability of the one or more potential meeting participants;

obtaining meeting resource data comprising the availability of the one or more meeting resources;

receiving meeting request data, the meeting request data comprising;

meeting scheduling criteria;

any mandatory meeting participants;

any non-mandatory meeting participants, an importance rating for at least one of any non-mandatory meeting participants, any mandatory meeting resources, any non-mandatory meeting resources, and an importance rating for at least one of any non-mandatory meeting resources;

analyzing the meeting participant calendar data and the meeting resource data to determine one or more potential meeting times within the meeting scheduling criteria when all mandatory meeting participants and mandatory meeting resources are available by at least analyzing the meeting resource data to determine at least one meeting time within the meeting scheduling criteria when the combined importance ratings of available meeting resources of the one or more desired meeting resources is maximized;

for each of the one or more potential meeting times, analyzing the meeting participant calendar data and the meeting resource data to determine which meeting participants of the non-mandatory meeting participants and which meeting resources of the non-mandatory meeting resources are also available at the potential meeting time;

for each of the one or more potential meeting times, calculating the combined importance ratings of the non-mandatory meeting participants and non-mandatory meeting resources that are also available at the potential meeting time; and

indicating at least one potential meeting time and the combined importance ratings of the non-mandatory meeting participants and non-mandatory meeting resources that are also available at the at least one potential meeting time by at least indicating at least one meeting time within the meeting scheduling criteria when the combined importance ratings of the available meeting resources of the one or more desired meeting resources is maximized.

2. The system for relational scheduling of people and resources of claim 1, wherein;

obtaining meeting participant calendar data comprising the availability of the one or more potential meeting participants comprises;

obtaining the meeting participant calendar data from a calendar and/or appointment management system.

3. The system for relational scheduling of people and resources of claim 1, wherein;

obtaining meeting resource data comprising the availability of the one or more meeting resources comprises;

obtaining data representing at least one conference room and meeting resources fixed in the at least one conference room and the availability of the at least one conference room.

4. The system for relational scheduling of people and resources of claim 1, wherein;

obtaining meeting resource data comprising the availability of the one or more meeting resources comprises;

obtaining data representing at least one portable meeting resource and the availability of the at least one portable meeting resource.

5. The system for relational scheduling of people and resources of claim 1, wherein;

the meeting scheduling criteria comprises a length of the requested meeting, a date window for the requested meeting, and a time of day window for the requested meeting.

6. The system for relational scheduling of people and resources of claim 1, wherein;

the importance ratings for at least one of the non-mandatory meeting participants and at least one the non-mandatory meeting resources is an importance score;

further wherein,

for each of the one or more potential meeting times, calculating the combined importance ratings of the non-mandatory meeting participants and non-mandatory meeting resources that are also available at the potential meeting time comprises summing the individual importance scores of each of the non-mandatory meeting participants and each of the non-mandatory meeting resources that are also available at the potential meeting time; and

indicating at least one potential meeting time and the combined importance ratings of the non-mandatory meeting participants and non-mandatory meeting resources that are also available at the potential meeting time comprises indicating at least one potential meeting time and the sum of the individual importance scores of each of the non-mandatory meeting participants and each of the non-mandatory meeting resources that are also available at the potential meeting time.

7. The stem for relational scheduling of people and resources of claim 1, wherein;

indicating at least one potential meeting time and the combined importance ratings of the non-mandatory meeting participants and non-mandatory meeting resources that are also available at the at least one potential meeting time comprises indicating at least one potential meeting time with a combined importance rating of the non-mandatory meeting participants and non-mandatory meeting resources that are also available at the at least one potential meeting time equal to, or greater than a defined threshold value.