Configuration utility

Details Configuration utility Configuration utility

2000-12-29

2004-04-20

Alam, Hosain T. (Department: 2175)

Data processing: database and file management or data structures

Database design

Data structure types

C707S793000, C707S793000, C715S252000, C379S114030

Reexamination Certificate

active

06725229

ABSTRACT:

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
(Not Applicable)
STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT
(Not Applicable)
BACKGROUND
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention broadly relates to data management systems, and more particularly, to a system and method for electronically changing configuration data for a software application.
2. Description of the Related Art
Millions of telephone calls are routinely placed in a telephone service provider's network. Telephone communication has seen a phenomenal growth since its inception because of its extreme usefulness in today's world. Traditional wireline telephone networks (e.g., the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) or POTS (Plain Old Telephone System)) as well as the more recent wireless telephone networks (e.g., cellular wireless networks) have played a significant role in increasing the telephone traffic carried by a telephone service provider. It is hard, and almost impossible, to conceive a world without telephones. Telephones seem to have become an integral part of a civilized society.
In addition to oral communication, telephone connections are also made for data transfer activities, e.g., to transmit a fax or to send an electronic data file to another computer. The daily, widespread use of telephones requires a telephone service provider to maintain a log of its telephone line usage and devise appropriate telephone usage billing mechanisms. Billing or accounting errors may occur when telephone calls are improperly billed, for example, when charges appear on a subscriber's telephone bill for telephone calls that were abruptly terminated without any fault of the subscriber or for telephone calls that were charged at a rate different from the one the subscriber initially signed up for. A telephone service provider (TSP), thus, has to devise schemes to monitor and redress customer grievances for faulty billing.
As part of a streamlined billing and accounting procedure, the TSP may set up a central location or facility that houses service personnel authorized to access customer account data (e.g., for account maintenance or status inquiry) for all the customers in the service provider's network. Such a central processing facility collects the subscriber data from various regional offices and processes them according to the TSP's policy and guidelines. For example, a TSP may provide telephone services in Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee and Atlanta, Ga. The TSP may have regional offices or regional service centers at these locations. In addition to these regional service centers, the TSP may set up a central processing facility at Atlanta, Ga. Therefore, the subscriber data (including, for example, the call records, the account information, the billing data, etc.) from all other regional service centers may have to be sent to the central processing facility for coordination of billing as well as account management.
Furthermore, the central processing facility may be at a location that is physically different from the location of the TSP's regional service center in Atlanta. In other words, the central facility may be in a building different from that for the TSP's regional service center. It is therefore desirable to achieve efficient data transfer between these two locations as well as between the central processing facility and other remote regional centers in view of the enormous data (including call records and billing data) generated within the TSP's network.
As used hereinbelow, a “message” or “call record” is generated and recorded as part of a telephone service provider's billing system each time a communication takes place between two parties through a call that was placed using the telephone service provider's network. Such messages typically appear on a telephone bill sent to the telephone subscriber. The term “error message”, as used hereinbelow, refers to a message that falls out of the regular billing stream due to a variety of reasons, for example, when a telephone subscriber complains about an erroneous entry or message on the subscriber's telephone bill and the telephone service provider's customer service person takes the message off the subscriber's bill and/or places the message under further investigation by appropriate service personnel. An error message may be generated when conflicting provisions in customer billing guidelines prevent the billing computer system from meaningfully keeping the message in the regular billing stream.
The term “case” is used hereinbelow to refer to a group of error messages that may be grouped together because of a common characteristic or a commonly identifiable error pattern. For example, when a new residential customer subscribes for a phone connection, the telephone service provider may inform the new customer that the customer's telephone line will start “working” (i.e., the customer will be able to receive a dial tone over the telephone line) from a specific date and/or time. This customer account activation information may then reside in a telephone service order (TSO) system in the service provider's mainframe computer for the regional office serving the customer. However, the telephone line in the new customer's residence may have been erroneously left activated by the service provider when the prior resident vacated that place. Thus, even though the telephone line is physically active, the billing system may not “recognize” it as being active until the activation date and/or time arrives. In other words, all telephone calls placed during this period of discrepancy may generate corresponding error messages with a common error pattern. These error messages may then be grouped as a case to facilitate quicker investigation thereof.
FIG. 1
illustrates a prior art scheme to transfer data from a mainframe computer system
25
in a TSP's regional service center to a central database
27
in a central processing facility.
FIG. 1
further shows how error messages are handled by service personnel of the TSP. Billing data (including error messages) as well as customer account information and other data may reside in a regional mainframe computer system
25
in the TSP's network. The mainframe computer
25
may be physically located at a location remote from the central location (e.g., the central processing facility) where an authorized service person (ASP) or operator
29
of the TSP performs data processing, including processing of error messages. The ASP
29
may be located in a facility that houses other operators handling accounting/billing for the TSP.
Initially, the authorized service person
29
obtains printouts of data reports
30
generated by the mainframe system
25
. These printouts
30
may contain text in ASCII (American Standards Code for Information Interchange) format. The printouts of data
30
may be sent to the ASP
29
via a third party hired by the TSP to maintain its customer accounts and coordinate the billing procedure. The ASP
29
thereafter begins manual data entry to transfer the data from the printouts
30
to the database
27
established in a local SQL server
32
(e.g., a Microsoft® SQL server) using a keyboard (not shown) or other data entry device for the workstation
34
operated by the ASP
29
. The workstation
34
and the SQL server
32
form a client/server relationship for data transfer and database management operations. The steps involved in manual entry of data into the database
30
are discussed hereinbelow with reference to FIG.
2
.
FIG. 2
outlines the steps involved when the operator
29
manually enters data from data printouts
30
into the database
27
using the workstation
34
. The data entry process starts at step
36
. At step
38
, the operator
29
instructs the operating system (using the keyboard or another data entry device) running on the workstation
34
to execute an enterprise manager program residing in the workstation's
34
memory. Upon execution, the enterprise manager program esta

Affiliated with

Also associated with

Rating

Configuration utility does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.

If you have personal experience with Configuration utility, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Configuration utility will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3191393