Data processing: software development – installation – and managem – Software program development tool
Reexamination Certificate
2000-04-14
2004-09-07
Ingberg, Todd (Department: 2124)
Data processing: software development, installation, and managem
Software program development tool
C717S103000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06789252
ABSTRACT:
COPYRIGHT NOTIFICATION
Portions of this patent application include materials that are subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document itself, or of the patent application as it appears in the files of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever in such included copyrighted materials.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates generally to computer systems that capture, manage and share business enterprise information. More specifically, it relates to a method and apparatus for creating and applying dynamically defined business objects used in such computer systems, for using such business objects to configure business software applications, and for facilitating the automated sharing of business information across a business enterprise or with other business enterprises or customers.
BACKGROUND
Due to the convergence of technology advances and socioeconomic forces, global electronic commerce is becoming a reality. The Internet, based on high-bandwidth communications technologies, is the vital network platform that enables all consumers and businesses on a global basis to transact business with one another. High-performance systems hardware and software provide the computing power to enable new automated commerce processes. Object-oriented software technologies enable the construction and operation of new types of rules-based business objects, applications and processes.
Notwithstanding these advances, however, a significant barrier to the automation of global commerce has remained. The proliferation of applications and information systems built on differing data, information, logic, functional, process and computing models has continued. Consequently, significant resources are wasted because of the lack of automated interaction between individuals, enterprises and computer systems.
The Need to Share Business Information
Every business transaction involves a complex communication between the buyer and the seller. There is assumed to be a mutual understanding of both what is being acquired and what is being exchange for it. As businesses have sought to automate business transactions, efforts have been made to provide that communication and record keeping via computer systems.
One result of prior efforts to automate exchanges of fixed format definitions was the development of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), which involves the transfer of data directly conforming to agreed message standards from computer to computer by electronic means. EDI, however, suffers from significant shortcomings. Although EDI provides a mutually agreed upon format for stating the item requested, the quantity, the date required, and so forth, it does not allow the syntax to be understood by two independent computer systems. EDI does not provide a definition of the specifications of the item requested by the buyer or of the specifications of the item being offered by the seller to satisfy the buyer's request. Nor does it address dynamic object definition extension or creation and exchange of processable definitions across functional and company boundaries. Rather, EDI defines a limited number of message records as fixed arrangements of data fields. In contrast, in accordance with the invention, traditional records are replaced with dynamically created and applied definitions consisting of the defined object's relationship to other ingrediential objects.
When the communication breaks down or the standard EDI record definition fails to keep pace, and there is a mismatch between the specifications of the buyer and the seller, an expensive process of “product returns” begins. Most of this can be attributed to manual transposition and inadequate product requirements definition and to cultural differences in terms. This problem can be completely avoided if the specifications are shared and compared as part of the business transaction. To accomplish this there must be a machine processable mechanism to store and compare specifications that relies on the ability to process to a shared ontology. The problem of semantic communication between parties is exacerbated by the requirement to forward the communication to all the supply chain participants since that implies that the seller's item's component specifications must then be shared with the seller's supplier.
In any business enterprise, information that is critical to the business needs to be exchanged or shared across the enterprise. Manufacturing companies, in particular depend upon an integrated source of product, process and facility information to run and or automate their operational and order management systems. This information must be consistent in form and accurate in content to facilitate the ordering and delivery of quality products. Unfortunately, there is a history of business enterprise information systems optimized around functional responsibilities that give secondary importance to managing product and specification data. The result is that each enterprise has a number of different systems that deal with varying aspects of the same product and specification information differently from each other. For example, the marketing system stores the marketing information one way. The manufacturing system stores some of the information. The MRP system stores some of the information. The MES system stores some of the information. The purchasing system holds some of the information. This disparity leads to information not readily exchangeable or processible by computer systems. This results in a requirement for human interfaces that introduce translation errors and time delays.
For a business enterprise to conduct business interactively on the Internet with its consumers and suppliers, there is a need for capturing and storing information in a consistent and organized fashion so that it can be processed by computer systems across separate business enterprises or by computer systems within a given enterprise. There are many benefits from having such processible specifications. For example, customers need to compare the specifications of competitors' products in making decisions based on those specifications, such as which product to purchase. Because the present invention makes specifications processible, one can automatically verify whether a requested specification is manufacturable. In addition, information known by an enterprise's knowledge workers can be captured and applied within the enterprise or shared with others in object specification form. For example, quality information can now be captured and managed automatically so that quality can be evaluated on the basis of what changes occurred in both specifications and processes. Consequently, quality and consistency across different work teams and time can be realized.
The ability for an object definition system invention to define anything makes it possible to create objects that can form the foundation for the ultimate order entry system, the ultimate Product Composition System, the ultimate data warehousing system, and the ultimate business collaboration framework, among others.
Specifications and the Collaboration Problem
Until now, there has been no effective way to automate the process of comparing specifications across an industry. Computers have been largely used up to the present time in an environment of departmental acquiescence in a program-by-program, task isolated environment. Nowhere is this truer than in product definitions and specifications. Different departments within a business enterprise have used and continue to use diverse formats and representations of specification information depending on their functional responsibility within the enterprise. It follows that when there is no effective way to manage the sharing of specifications across responsibilities, each department will tend to sub-optimize the specification around its particular needs and culture. This often presents difficulties in underst
Burke Miles D.
Solar, Jr. Richard J.
Fennemore Craig PC
Ingberg Todd
Oney Richard E.
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