66 results about "Business policies" patented technology

A computer-implemented decision-support tool serves as a solver to generate a projected supply planning (PSP) or estimated supply planning (ESP) match between existing assets and demands across multiple manufacturing facilities within the boundaries established by the manufacturing specifications and process flows and business policies to determine what supply can be provided over what time-frame by manufacturing and establishes a set of actions or guidelines for manufacturing to incorporate into their manufacturing execution system to ensure that the delivery commitments are met in a timely fashion. The PSP or ESP tool resides within a data provider tool that pulls the required production and distribution information. PSP matching is driven directly by user-supplied guidelines on how to flow or flush assets "forward" to some inventory or holding point. After the supply plan is created, the analyst compares this plan against an expected demand profile.

Methods and systems are provided for analyzing the business rules, business metrics, and decision parameters for a firm or organization, processing a subset of such data to form output, and offering access to selective views of such output including evaluation and comparative data regarding execution of such business rules, information on corresponding business metrics or sets of business metrics, information on corresponding decision parameters or sets of decision parameters or scenarios, and other useful analytic information which can help a firm or organization evaluate and modify business policies based on said rules, metrics, and parameters. In addition to said rules, metrics and / or parameters, the data for the business rule analysis can include conventional historical data or hypothetical data based on simulations which the current system and method provide based on prescribed random and non-random algorithms. The simulated or hypothetical data enables users to conduct rule analysis based on historical data, simulated data, or hybrid models. In this manner, the methods and systems described in this invention provide for both an evaluation of a firm's current policies as well as an evaluation of policy modifications not actually executed but for which hypothetical data can be provided and analyzed.

In a business where business units market products or services to customers, a method and system implement customer preferences for customer privacy, customer contact, and other marketing preferences. The method entails creating a centralized customer privacy and preferences storage and processing system, wherein are stored both legal requirements and business policies regarding customer privacy and preferences, and also specific preferences of individual customers. A customer can contact the business through a single point of contact, and using a standardized privacy and preferences interface, can specify all aspects of customer preferences regarding privacy and marketing preferences. Business units initiating a marketing process compare a database of potential marketing targets against the centralized customer privacy and preferences storage and processing system, ensuring that the preferences of all potential targets are respected during the implementation and execution of the marketing process.

A computer implemented Availability Checking Tool enabling tool users to execute within a common work environment, from common enterprise data, and considering assets and demands across multiple order management systems and manufacturing facilities within boundaries established by manufacturing specifications and process flows and business policies. The tool receives orders from multiple demand sources or ordering systems. Tool users can easily maintain a synergistic relationship between multiple ordering systems. A demand configurator coordinates product requests based on information from the demand source according to certain rules and priorities assigned to the product requests. A material resource engine manipulates data from the demand configurator and the rules to provide material supply information. A solver manipulates the material supply information from the resource engine and the rules to provide optimized product availability information. Thus, customer business rule level definitions are supported to provide the tool users with the power to micro-manage, optimally, enterprise assets and demands.

An apparatus, system, and method are provided for automatically discovering and grouping files and other resources used by a business process. The present invention includes a monitoring module that collects trace data representative of operational behavior of software applications. An analysis module analyzes the trace data to discover resources affiliated with the business process. A determination module defines a logical application corresponding to the business process and includes the resources discovered by the analysis module. The logical application is automatically defined such that business policies may be readily implemented on the logical application as a whole. Manual identification of resources for a business process is eliminated or substantially reduced.

A computer implemented decision support tool serves as a vehicle to enable a user to execute within a common work environment, from common production information files, and at the discretion of the user one of three types of matching between existing assets and demands across multiple manufacturing facilities within boundaries established by manufacturing specifications and process flows and business policies. The tool provides an environment which permits the user to easily gain the advantages of a synergistic relationship between the three types of matching. The tool directly supports three types of matching: (1) material requirements planning (MRP) type of matching, (2) best can do (BCD) type of matching, and (3) projected supply planning (PSP) type of matching.

Methods and systems for integrating process perspectives and abstraction levels into business process modeling are described. In one example embodiment, modeling business processes for an enterprise can include selecting a segmented view of an enterprise meta-model. The segmented view is associated with a business process to be modeled. The enterprise meta-model is a machine-readable representation of business rules and policies for the enterprise. A business process model is created using a set of visual modeling tools, which are limited by the segmented view. A business policy having some relevance to the process being modeled can be selected for annotation to the business process. Once completed, the business process model is transformed into a machine-readable representation and stored in a repository.

Methods and apparatus for facilitating consumption of services via a services network are described. Access is provided to a services directory which identifies a plurality of services and at least one connector for facilitating consumption of each of the services via the network. Each connector is operable to mediate communication protocol and business policy differences between a first network end point associated with the corresponding service and a second network end point associated with a consumer of the service. For each of selected ones of the connectors, information accessible via the services directory is provided regarding how to use the connector to consume the corresponding service. For each of selected ones of the services, access to a connector design process is provided via the services directory. The connector design process is operable to facilitate creation of a new connector for the corresponding service, and to specify at least one business process for mediating the business policy differences.

A method and structure for a set of rules processed by combining a procedural rule engine and a pattern matching inference engine to compute and apply discounts to customer orders in an electronic commerce system. The rule processing occurs in multiple phases. First all applicable discounts are computed. Then all allowable subsets of discounts are computed. Finally, a set of discounts is selected, based on business policies, and the discounts are applied to the order line items.

Meta-Rules are a special set of business rules whose purpose is to enable business rules selection and subsequent rule invocation by a business rules manager. Contained within a Meta-Rule are business policy and other information that enables the selection of a business rule used by a business application. Meta-rules allow the system to dynamically select and identify specific business rules to be executed within a given business application. By enabling a higher level of abstraction, and relying on rules to resolve specific business rule selection and invocations, Meta-rules further separate the binding of business knowledge and practice from application programming logic. The application programmer is freed from having specific knowledge of the business rule; all that is required is an assertion that a rule is to be used.

Techniques for implementing policies. In an embodiment, first data is stored in a first data store according to a first schema. A second schema is defined based at least in part on a policy and an ontology. Second data, which includes at least a portion of the first data, is stored in a second data store according to the second schema. Storing the second data is based at least in part on a mapping of the first schema to the second schema. At least a portion of the second data is analyzed and results of the analysis are provided to a user.

An autonomous control apparatus includes a service-structure analyzing unit for generating service policy information indicating a configuration requirement, in response to business policy information indicating a business requirement; a policy compiler for generating a control policy, which serves an actual IT-resource control requirement, from the service policy information generated by the service-structure analyzing unit, based on previous-case information stored in an operation database; and a flow controller for controlling IT resources in accordance with the control policy generated by the policy compiler.

Techniques for reasoning data are disclosed. The techniques may include storing data in a data store which may be a semantic data store. A plurality of reasoning modules are used to reason the data in order to detect violations of one or more business policies. The reasoning modules may include semantic reasoning modules and / or pattern-based reasoning modules. Results of reasoning the data may be displayed to one or more users.

A method is provided for implementing a computer network system for managing a supply chain, wherein the computer network system comprising a plurality of application server computers. The method includes: identifying a business context for the supply chain; identifying a set of business policy rules for the business context, the set of business policy rules governing the relationship between two or more entities involved in the supply chain; creating at least one use-case description from the set of business policy rules; creating a plurality of executable code modules corresponding to the use-case description; specifying a plurality of name / value pair for modeling the set of business policy rules; provisioning the plurality of application server computers of the computer network system with the executable code modules; and provisioning a central directory database with the plurality of name / value pairs; whereby the computer network system, in response to one or more events in business transactions between at least two entities involved in the supply chain, is operable to dynamically deliver at least one name / value pair from the central directory database and to execute at least one code module.

A pluggable architecture allows security and business logic plugins to be inserted into a security service hosted by a server, and to control access to one or more secured resources on that server, on another server within the security domain, or between security domains. The security service may act as a focal point for security enforcement, and access rights determination, and information used or determined within one login process can flow transparently and automatically to other login processes. Entitlements denote what a particular user may or may not do with a particular resource, in a particular context. Entitlements reflect not only the technical aspects of the secure environment (the permit or deny concept), but can be used to represent the business logic or functionality required by the server provider. In this way entitlements bridge the gap between a simple security platform, and a complex business policy platform.

A computer implemented Availability Checking Tool wherein tool users work within a common work environment, from common enterprise data, and considering assets and demands across multiple order management systems and manufacturing facilities within boundaries established by manufacturing specifications, process flows and business policies. Tool users can easily maintain a synergistic relationship between orders from multiple demand sources or ordering systems. A demand configurator receives demand information from each demand source and coordinates product requests in accordance with customer request rules and priorities. A supply configurator receives manufacturing and planning data from a planning source and manipulates the received manufacturing and planning data to create new supply data. A material resource engine provides material supply information from the new supply data, the received demand information following product supply rules and priorities. A solver for optimizes product availability information in response to the material supply information, product supply rules and priorities. Thus, customer business rule level

The invention provides a rule engine establishment method / system, a business management method / system and a device. The rule engine establishment method comprises the steps of providing a first rule configuration interface used for editing logic rules; compiling at least one rule component used for configuring the logic rule on the first rule configuration interface; and combining the rule components to arrange various kinds of business logic, storing the arranged business logic and the combined rule components in a predetermined format, and forming a second rule configuration interface used for separating businesses from applications, wherein the business logic has specified engineering names, and the engineering names are used for representing business purposes of a user. According to the rule engine establishment method / system, the business management method / system and the device, a rule process can be flexibly configured; rule visualization is realized, thereby facilitating management; and the release speed of a business policy is increased.

The invention discloses a hierarchical teaching course arrangement method and apparatus, and a hierarchical teaching course selection method and system. The hierarchical teaching course selection method comprises the steps of receiving student groups, selectable courses and course selection rules set by a teacher user; displaying to-be-selected course information to student users; receiving courseselection information input by the student users; processing the course selection information to obtain a target course table; and presenting the target course table to the student users and the teacher user. According to business characteristics of hierarchical teaching and among-class teaching, course selection and course arrangement resources and rule relationships are comprehensively considered; and a feasible efficient business policy is provided for school course arrangement and planning through effective methods such as course selection, course grouping and course arrangement rules andthe like. According to the scheme, teachers, students, classrooms and course resources of a school are reasonably considered; effectively in combination with work and rest time, teacher allocation, class planning and student class division of the school are guided; and processes and rules of the business policy are flexible and changeable.

An apparatus, system, and method are provided for automatically discovering and grouping files and other resources used by a business process. The present invention includes a monitoring module that collects trace data representative of operational behavior of software applications. An analysis module analyzes the trace data to discover resources affiliated with the business process. A determination module defines a logical application corresponding to the business process and includes the resources discovered by the analysis module. The logical application is automatically defined such that business policies may be readily implemented on the logical application as a whole. Manual identification of resources for a business process is eliminated or substantially reduced.

A method for managing a supply chain includes: identifying a business context for the supply chain; identifying a set of business policy rules for the business context governing the relationship between entities involved in the supply chain; creating use-case description from the set of business policy rules; creating a plurality of executable code modules corresponding to the use-case description; specifying a plurality of name / value pair for modeling the set of business policy rules; provisioning the plurality of application server computers of the computer network system with the executable code modules; and provisioning a central directory database with the plurality of name / value pairs; whereby the computer network system, in response to events in business transactions between at least two entities involved in the supply chain, is operable to dynamically deliver at least one name / value pair from the central directory database and to execute at least one code module.

Methods and apparatus for generating and distributing customized channel map information used by set top boxes to access program channels and provide access to content delivery services are described. One or more regional headends broadcast base channel maps. Set top boxes request base channel map enhancement information from a server which may service multiple regions, e.g., regions corresponding to different head ends. The channel map server dynamically generates base channel map enhancement information, or identifies previously generated base channel map enhancement information, based on one or more business policy rules applicable to the individual set top box requesting the update channel map enhancement information. The channel map server may be implemented nationally or covering multiple regions, and customization of channel maps for set top boxes can be implemented on customer, business or even an individual set top box basis based on business policy rules.

Systems and methods are presented that enable the dynamic selection or modification of data management patterns (such as for caching or updating data). A deployment document describes how to manage data used by the application, including which caching patterns (and parameters) and which updating patterns should be used. In this way, a data management pattern can be specified for a particular application (and for a particular data type or data structure within an application), rather than a system-wide configuration option. The deployment document can be modified at any time up until the application starts being executed. A set of business policies and / or technical rules determines whether and how an application's deployment document should be modified. The policies and rules can take into account the application's run-time context, such as the type of transaction, the user involved, and the size and the longevity of the data needed and generated.

Methods and an apparatus are provided for directing and managing cross-channel interactions with a customer. A customer makes multiple contacts with a business over first and second channels. These contacts are electronically represented as first and second interactions which are recorded in a single dialogue. The dialogue is evaluated so as to modify at least one of the interactions or channels. Further, a business service provider is connected to an interaction based upon the subject matter of the interaction and the channel over which the interaction is occurring. A service provider's actions with a customer are validated based upon such things as business policy, customer profile, customer privacy, channels, the skill set of the service provider, and the subject matter of the interactions. A service provider may also extract from a customer profile database a customer with whom an interaction is established.

Methods and systems for integrating process perspectives and abstraction levels into business process modeling are described. In one example embodiment, modeling business processes for an enterprise can include selecting a segmented view of an enterprise meta-model. The segmented view is associated with a business process to be modeled. The enterprise meta-model is a machine-readable representation of business rules and policies for the enterprise. A business process model is created using a set of visual modeling tools, which are limited by the segmented view. A business policy having some relevance to the process being modeled can be selected for annotation to the business process. Once completed, the business process model is transformed into a machine-readable representation and stored in a repository.

The invention discloses a cache method based on policy control. The method comprises that a packet switch device is used for adding a user marker of transferred data to a packet data packet and sending the user marker of the transferred data to a network cache device which extracts the user marker and reports the user marker of the transferred data and / or business information to a policy control device (PCRF), the PCRF enables the user marker and / or the business information to be related to a corresponding cache business policy and sends the cache business policy to the network cache device, and the network cache device executes a cache operation according to the cache business policy. The invention further discloses a corresponding cache system, the network cache device is enabled not to work independently and to be combined with a packet network, and a customized cache service is provided for a user according to defined different policies in the PCRF. An interactive customized cache service can be provided for users of different levels and / or businesses of different levels.