Enterprise Application Business Unit Relationship Configuration
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Solution Overview
Problem
Enterprise software applications lack the ability to effectively configure and manage relationships between multiple business units within an organization, leading to inefficiencies in processing transactions and implementing administrative controls such as service level agreements and internal audits.
Innovation Solution
A set of tools and methods that allow users to define and configure relationships between business units and functions within an enterprise application, enabling the application to process transactions and implement controls based on these defined relationships by using a framework that includes business unit, function, and relationship definitions, and a configuration engine to modify database structures accordingly.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If enterprise applications are designed to support multiple internal clients from a single business unit, then service sharing and operational efficiency are improved, but the application's ability to express and manage business unit relationships deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the business unit structure by introducing a parent-child relationship model where business units can be divided into subordinate units. This allows the system to maintain clear hierarchical relationships while supporting service sharing, as each segment can independently define its service boundaries and relationships with parent units.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary configuration layer that mediates between the business unit structure and the service delivery mechanism. This configuration layer allows the system to manage complex relationships by defining explicit parent-child relationships and service associations, acting as a mediator that translates organizational structure into actionable service routing rules.
2Ease of operation
If enterprise applications allow independent setup for each business unit, then ease of configuration is improved, but the ability to implement administrative controls and service level agreements deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by establishing the parent-child relationship structure and service associations in advance through configuration. This pre-configuration enables the system to automatically enforce administrative controls and service level agreements based on the predefined relationships, eliminating the need for complex runtime negotiations while maintaining ease of setup.
3Speed
If enterprise applications process transactions without defined business unit relationships, then processing speed is improved, but transaction routing accuracy and compliance monitoring deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses preliminary action by pre-defining the parent-child relationships and service associations between business units. This allows the transaction processing system to quickly determine routing based on pre-computed relationship data, maintaining high processing speed while ensuring accurate routing and compliance monitoring through the established hierarchical structure.
Data Source
AI summary
Tools for configuring enterprise applications. In an aspect, an enterprise application can be configured to account for relationships between multiple business units within an enterprise, including without limitation relationships between the business functions provided by various business units. In another aspect, the disclosed tools provide a framework for identifying and/or defining relationships between business units. The tools might also provide a user interface for a user to identify one or more business units and/or business functions and defines a relationship between them. Based on this definition, an enterprise application can be configured to account for this relationship.