Enabling a zero latency enterprise

Details Enabling a zero latency enterprise Enabling a zero latency enterprise

2001-09-07

2004-06-29

Corrielus, Jean M. (Department: 2172)

Data processing: database and file management or data structures

Database design

Data structure types

C707S793000, C709S202000, C709S206000, C709S207000, C709S224000, C709S241000, C717S102000, C717S104000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06757689

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This application relates to an information technology (IT) infrastructure of an enterprise, and specifically, an IT infrastructure that enables a zero latency enterprise (ZLE). The present invention enables the enterprise to integrate its services, applications and data in real time, hence the ZLE.
2. Background Art
Information technology (IT) allows valuable information to be distributed across organizations to groups of information consumers including remote employees, business partners and customers. However, organizations have large amounts of information located on disparate systems and platforms. For maintaining the desired comprehensive view of their operations, organizations need to integrate theirs systems. Then again, independent configuration for disparate industry standards and technologies makes systems integration requirements difficult to meet. Moreover, as the various business applications have diverse features and are tailored to suit the requirements of a particular domain, their integration requirements may be also difficult to meet. For example, there are significant integration requirements to make it work when integrating a customer relationship management (CRM) application to an existing system with other applications such as SAP's enterprise resource planning (ERP) software package, as the CRM is uniquely tailored to the customer care domain.
Notwithstanding, when addressing their critical information needs, organizations often resort to new best-of-the-breed applications (or solutions). To leverage their existing applications, organizations integrate their legacy applications with the new solutions, a practice known as enterprise application integration (EAI). To this end, software vendors have responded by building tools, known as EAI products, alas different tools by different vendors, to automate the integration process.
Deficiencies in integration and data sharing are indeed a difficult problem of IT environments for any enterprise. The inability of organizations to operate as one-organ, rather than separate parts, creates a challenge in information exchange and electronic commerce and results in economic inefficiencies.
With conventional solutions, organizations have been using some form of the EAI platform to integrate their application. And, they have been using a different platform for integrating their data into data warehouses. Data warehouses integrate data across an organization for reporting and data mining using business intelligence tools like SAS Institute tools.
The problems with these schemes are that there is no real-time connection and interaction between the EAI and data warehousing. Moreover, with relatively static data warehouses the data warehousing cloud is used for analysis but could not participate in the current transaction or events that are happening in the organization in real time. The organization still will end up with two disjointed infrastructures that cannot leverage each other in real-time (See: FIG.
1
). Accordingly the present invention addresses these and related issues.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with the purpose of the invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, the invention relates to methods for enabling an enterprise to run as a zero latency enterprise (ZLE) and for running an enterprise as a ZLE. The present invention allows the enterprise to integrate its services, applications and data in real time. Namely, an enterprise equipped to run as a ZLE is capable of integrating, in real time, its enterprise-wide data, applications, business transactions, operations and values. Consequently, an enterprise conducting its business as a ZLE exhibits superior management of its resources, operations, supply chain and customer care.
Underpinning the superior characteristics of ZLE is an information technology (IT) infrastructure that is equipped with and using the hybrid functionality of a ZLE framework. This framework is not a single product or middle ware. Rather, it defines architecture with collection of products, tools, and services that enables, among others, the reduction of operational latencies in the enterprise. With such hybrid functionality, an enterprise running as a ZLE can route information across various enterprise applications using enterprise application integration technologies. Clearly, the ZLE framework is not just an enterprise integration platform as it can accomplish application and data integration across the enterprise. Using database extractors, database loaders and application adapters technologies, the ZLE can integrate data related to the real-time operations of an enterprise into a storage cache, also known as operational data store (ODS), and synchronize information across the enterprise using enterprise application integration (EAI) tools. Also, with rules and synchronization policies implemented in a ZLE hub with the ODS, any updates communicated to the ZLE hub from any application across the enterprise can, via the ZLE hub, bring about information synchronization in all other applications across the enterprise, including its legacy applications. Information and updates thereof are communicated from the applications to the ZLE hub by way of adapters. Furthermore, the ZLE can provide data to business intelligence applications for analysis, and it supports decision support systems (DSS) and data mart operations as well as transactional access to up to the minute data by multiple add-on new and legacy enterprise applications.
As noted, one embodiment of the present invention is a method for running an enterprise as a ZLE. In conducting its business, the enterprise is experiencing a plurality of events occurring in association with its business transactions. Its business is conducted at a plurality of sites across the enterprise. To reduce the unintended latency in enterprise operations to zero, all organs of the enterprise need to be made aware of business events as they occur, i.e., in real time. Thus, the method for running a ZLE includes integrating, in real time, its enterprise-wide data, applications, business transactions, operations and values. This is done by performing a combination of actions, one of which is capturing, in real time, an indicia of each of the plurality of events. Each indicia is associated with information related to its respective event. The actions also include aggregating, in real-time, the information related to the plurality of events in a central repository database (ODS) where the aggregated information can, in real-time, be accessible and available for loads, extractions, updates, queries and analysis from across the enterprise. As a consequence, a coherent view of the aggregated information is obtained, in real time, from across the enterprise, As a further consequence, the enterprise can achieve enterprise-wide coherent and zero latency business transactions. The actions further include initiating, in real time, a process responsive to each event of the plurality of events which is founded on the coherent view of the aggregated information.
The process includes one or any combination of: a rule-based analysis, in real-time, of the information related to that event; narrowcasting, in real time, a notification associated with that event if the rule-based analysis of its information creates a notable-event that prompts the notification; creating feedback to that event, in real time; creating a new event or cascade of events, and producing a value associated with that event unless, in real-time response to that event, the rule-based analysis of its information precludes production of the associated value. The process of creating the feedback includes offering, in real time based on any part of or the entire information, to provide an additional value, if not precluded by the real-time rule-based analysis. In a case where the aggregated information in the central repository includes a customer profile, the process further can include offering, in real time based on the custo

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