On-Demand Service Business Hours Tracking System
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional database systems cannot effectively report and track cases in terms of business hours for offices with multiple locations, limiting users' insight into agent time allocation.
Innovation Solution
A method and system for managing multiple business hours in an on-demand service, allowing users to store and track business hours for various offices, including exceptions like holidays, and perform mathematical calculations based on these hours, providing access to a shared database for user-level tracking.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If conventional database systems use calendar time for tracking cases, then the system structure remains simple, but users cannot effectively report and track cases in terms of business hours for multiple office locations
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the monolithic calendar time tracking into multiple business hour definitions, each representing different office locations or departments. Each business hour set can be independently configured with its own start/end times and holiday calendars, allowing parallel tracking of cases across multiple time frameworks simultaneously.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent adds a temporal dimension layer by introducing business hour offsets and multi-timezone support. Instead of single linear calendar time, the system now operates in multiple time dimensions where cases can be tracked against different business hour calendars concurrently, enabling regionalized time tracking without abandoning the base calendar system.
2Loss of information
If the system stores multiple business hour sets for different offices, then users gain better insight into agent time allocation, but the database complexity and storage requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates simplified copies of business hour configurations through templates. Once a business hour set is defined for a particular office pattern, it can be copied and reused across multiple offices with the same operational hours, significantly reducing the total data storage required while maintaining the ability to track cases across all replicated locations.
Solution Approach 2:
The business hour data structure is designed to serve multiple functions simultaneously: it defines operational hours for tracking, establishes holiday calendars for exclusion, provides timezone conversions, and enables reporting aggregations. This multi-functionality reduces the need for separate data structures for each purpose, optimizing storage efficiency.
3Measurement precision
If the system performs mathematical calculations based on multiple business hours, then time management accuracy improves, but the computational complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent pre-calculates and stores key temporal relationships such as business hour offsets, holiday dates, and timezone conversions in lookup tables and cached structures. When performing time calculations, the system retrieves these pre-computed values rather than performing complex real-time computations, significantly reducing computational overhead while maintaining precision.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces intermediary conversion layers that translate between calendar time and business hour time through standardized offset calculations. Rather than directly comparing disparate business hour schedules, the system uses intermediate representations (such as normalized time offsets and standardized holiday references) to mediate calculations, simplifying the computational logic.
Data Source
AI summary
In accordance with embodiments, there are provided mechanisms and methods for managing multiple business hours in an on-demand service. These mechanisms and methods for managing multiple business hours in an on-demand service can enable embodiments to provide access to a stored set of business hours for a user to track, at a user level. The ability of embodiments to provide this access may allow users of such on-demand services better insight as to how much time their agents are spending on cases.