IT Support System Matching Users by Skill and Relationship
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Solution Overview
Problem
IT support seekers often face challenges in finding knowledgeable and willing responders within their enterprise, especially for platform-specific or enterprise-specific IT questions, as existing methods like internet forums may not provide effective or personalized solutions.
Innovation Solution
A system that allows users to create and modify profiles based on their IT skills and knowledge, leveraging relationships within the enterprise to tag and rank potential responders, ensuring that IT support requests are directed to users with relevant expertise and a personal connection.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If IT support requests are directed to a broad audience within the enterprise, then the likelihood of finding knowledgeable responders increases, but the requests may be perceived as spam and ignored by users
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by directing IT support requests to specific subsets of users based on their expertise profiles rather than broadcasting to all users. The system analyzes requester profiles and responder profiles to identify matching expertise areas, then targets only those responders whose local knowledge domain aligns with the request, avoiding overwhelming the entire enterprise and preventing spam perception.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the enterprise user base into specialized groups based on their IT knowledge and skills. By creating segmented responder pools according to expertise categories (e.g., networking, software, hardware), the system can direct requests to relevant segments rather than the entire population, increasing response quality while avoiding spam-like broad notifications.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If IT support requests are directed to a narrow subset of users, then the perception of spam is avoided, but the likelihood of finding responders with necessary skills decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements feedback mechanisms where responder profiles are continuously updated based on their responses to IT requests, user ratings, and demonstrated expertise. This feedback loop allows the system to refine its understanding of each user's knowledge base, improving the accuracy of matching requests to appropriate responders while maintaining targeted (non-spammy) communication patterns.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs preliminary analysis of both requester and responder profiles before directing support requests. By pre-processing and comparing expertise data, skill sets, and relationship information in advance, the system identifies the optimal narrow subset of responders to contact, ensuring that even a targeted approach reaches the right knowledgeable users.
3Adaptability or versatility
If enterprise IT support resources are expanded to handle all types of questions, then comprehensive support coverage is achieved, but the complexity and cost of the IT department increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent enables self-service by allowing users to independently search and contact responders whose expertise matches their needs, rather than requiring a centralized IT department to handle all requests. The system provides tools for users to profile their own needs and find appropriate experts, reducing the administrative overhead and complexity of the IT department while maintaining comprehensive coverage.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a universal platform that handles diverse IT support requests across multiple domains (networking, software, hardware, security) through a single system. This multi-functional platform allows the enterprise to achieve broad support coverage without proportionally increasing IT department complexity, as the same infrastructure serves multiple specialized functions.
4Quantity of substance
If internet forums are used for IT support, then access to broad knowledge bases is available, but platform-specific or enterprise-specific questions cannot be effectively answered
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the advantages of internet forums (broad knowledge accessibility) with enterprise-specific context by integrating external forum capabilities with internal responder profiles. The system allows users to search external knowledge bases while simultaneously identifying internal enterprise responders who can provide context-specific assistance, combining the quantity of available knowledge with the reliability of targeted expertise.
Data Source
AI summary
Providing information technology support can include receiving an information technology question posed by a user, associating a tag with the question based on a topic of the question, determining a plurality of people having a skill associated with the question based on the tag, determining a subset of the plurality of people having the skill that also have a relationship with the user exceeding a relationship threshold, and providing the question to each of the subset of the plurality of people.