Data processing: database and file management or data structures – Database design – Data structure types
Reexamination Certificate
2001-10-31
2004-07-13
Coby, Frantz (Department: 2171)
Data processing: database and file management or data structures
Database design
Data structure types
C707S793000, C707S793000, C707S793000, C705S001100, C705S007380, C709S241000, C718S101000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06763353
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND
The invention relates generally to business processes and more specifically to a method and apparatus for querying the status of business process objects in a time-based manner.
It is well known to automate various business systems, such as Customer Relations Management (CRM), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), accounting, inventory control, order processing and other systems. Historically, such systems were each handled by dedicated software applications that did not integrate well with each other. Early software applications for automating business systems were designed to run independently, with no interaction between various systems. Such applications were custom built for a specific need being addressed and often utilized proprietary protocols. Dedicated “point to point” connections were developed to permit each such system to communicate with another such system. For example, an inventory control system may exchange data with an accounting system through a customized software interface. However, as the number of systems increases, the quantity and complexity of point to point connections also increase. Further, point to point connections are rather inflexible and do not facilitate reconfigurations of systems to accommodate changing business models.
The concept of “Enterprise Application Integration” (EAI) refers to the sharing of data throughout applications and data sources in an organization. As enterprises grow and require increased flexibility of data sharing throughout various systems, EAI is used to streamline processes and keep all the elements of the enterprise interconnected. EAI can include database linking, application linking, and data warehousing.
Various systems for accomplishing EAI are well known. For example, Service Oriented Architectures (SOA), in which a common set of services are exposed by different layers, are known. Also, Event Oriented Architectures (EOA) in which a publish/subscribe messaging system is used to change the states of activities based on events, is known. Further, standard connectivity protocols and message formats such as Remote Method Invocation (RMI) and extensible Markup Language (XML) have been established to facilitate EAI.
The concept of “value chains,” i.e., a series of business activities that create value, has become a useful paradigm for analyzing and improving the efficiency of businesses. Such activities include business processes, such as order entry, shipping, invoicing, and the like. Value chains are dependent on the internal business processes of a company, the business processes of trading partners, such as suppliers, and the relationship between the company and trading partners. It has become popular to experiment with and change value chains to optimize efficiency and profitability. Such change requires reconfiguration of business systems and the integration therebetween. EAI has facilitated such reconfiguration of business systems.
It is also known to provide an object oriented environment for modeling and configuring the above-described integration of various applications in a graphical manner to further facilitate configuration and reconfiguration of business systems. For example, the BusinessWare™ modeling environment sold by Vitria™ Technology, Inc. permits modeling of the integration of applications in a graphical manner by using “business process models,” a technique becoming known as “business process management” (BPM). Business process models are state machines that model business processes at a semantic level and define an executable specification for the underlying business logic. Each business process model defines plural states and transitions required to move between states. An executing instance of a business process model is known as a “business process object.” Business process models can be represented graphically and configured and manipulated in a graphical environment, such as BusinessWare™.
Of course, it is desirable to make business process information available for analysis. Typically information relating to business processes should be available to persons with many different needs. For example, a wholesale business may order goods from many different manufacturers, warehouse the goods at different places (often in different environments), receive orders arriving at many different times from plural customers, receive payments in plural forms, ship products to customers using plural shipping channels, and track accounts relating to suppliers and customers. The information relating to these business processes that is useful to a shipping clerk may be entirely different from information relating to the same business processes that is useful to a warehouse supervisor, a purchasing agent, or an accountant.
These various personnel typically obtain the information that they require by searching for that information in a relational database. A relational database stores historical data in multiple tables in the long term memory of a computer. Personnel typically enter the data from summations into computer displayed forms provided by the database program. The database program stores the data entered in the appropriate tables. Each table includes rows of records with many different fields each holding information defining the record. The different tables in a relational database often have one or more fields which are identical to fields in other tables and provide a link by which data in one table may be related to data in another table.
When an automated process, employee or other authorized person desires information to carry out a particular job, the person or process directs a query to the database. A query causes the software to select information from one or a number of different tables, often to manipulate that information in some manner, and to return the results of the query. A query allows an employee to provide very complicated criteria to the database accessing software. The response to a query can thus include results from very sophisticated manipulations of historical data relating to business processes.
Queries to a typical database may be devised to provide the particular information that each individual person or group of persons needs. Because queries customized, hundreds and often thousands of different individual queries are likely to be submitted continuously to a database in a large business. Each time a person or automated process needs information from a database on which to base a decision, a new query must be submitted even though the query may be identical to a query previously submitted. Each individual query is run to completion by the computer executing the database software. As a business grows larger, queries tend to occupy more and more of the time available to the computer running the database. In fact, a large relational database may often become unable to respond effectively to the business queries it receives.
Although many business operations are satisfied by the historical data provided by a typical relational database and are able to cope with slow access speeds, there are any number of business processes which only function optimally if those making decisions about the processes are provided immediately with information related to the operation and status of business processes. Manufacturing processes are typical of operations which require real-time monitoring. Manufacturing processes are often handled by computer systems dedicated to the individual processes to avoid the above-noted problems associated with the use of an enterprise wide relational database system. Many other business processes benefit greatly if business decisions can be made in real time in response to real-time events. For example, if a business furnishes trucks to pick up the goods it purchases, a last minute change in the quantity or character of items which have been purchased may require a larger truck and the additional expense of an extra trip if not discovered before a first truck has been dispatched. The availability of real-time information can significantly affec
Li Hui
Qian Shelly Xiaolei
Coby Frantz
Kaufman Marc S.
Nixon & Peabody LLP
Vitria Technology, Inc.
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