Multi-Factor Context Search for IT Service Resources
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
IT service professionals face inefficiencies in locating relevant resources to resolve customer service issues due to their dispersed nature across multiple locations, leading to a cumbersome process.
Innovation Solution
A system with a user interface and context generation engine that determines a multi-factor context for IT customer service issues, using a relevance-based search engine to rank resources based on their relevancy scores, allowing for efficient identification and access to relevant tools, tickets, and expert personnel.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If resources are distributed across multiple locations, then resource availability increases, but the time to locate relevant resources increases
Solution Approach 1:
A centralized search system acts as an intermediary between IT service professionals and dispersed resources. The system aggregates resource locations and metadata in a central index, allowing professionals to query for resources without physically navigating multiple locations. The search engine mediates between the user's information need and the distributed resource repository, returning ranked results that guide users to relevant resources efficiently.
Solution Approach 2:
The search system incorporates feedback mechanisms including relevancy scoring based on multiple factors (resource type, location, recency, usage patterns) and iterative refinement of search results. The system learns from user interactions and feedback to improve resource ranking and recommendation accuracy over time, reducing the time required to locate relevant resources with each search iteration.
2Adaptability or versatility
If resources are dispersed across multiple locations, then resource variety increases, but the complexity of managing and accessing resources increases
Solution Approach 1:
The search system serves multiple functions within a single unified interface: it catalogs resources from diverse locations, performs relevance ranking, filters by multiple criteria, provides contextual information, and guides users to resources. This universal platform handles various resource types (documents, tools, contacts, configurations) through a common search mechanism, reducing the complexity that would arise from managing separate access points for each resource category.
Solution Approach 2:
The system manages complexity by dynamically adjusting search parameters and filtering criteria based on the specific query and user context. Rather than requiring users to navigate complex hierarchical structures or understand resource distribution, the system changes parameters such as search depth, result ranking weights, and filtering thresholds to optimize results for different types of resource requests, simplifying access despite resource dispersion.
3Measurement precision
If manual searching through multiple locations is used, then thoroughness of resource search increases, but productivity decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-indexing and cataloging resources from multiple locations before users need to search. Metadata such as resource type, location, relevance criteria, and contextual information are prepared in advance and stored in a searchable database. When a user initiates a search, the system leverages this pre-processed information to quickly retrieve and rank relevant resources, achieving both thoroughness and speed without requiring manual exploration of each resource location.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the mechanical process of manually navigating through multiple physical or digital locations with an automated electronic search system. Instead of physically moving through file directories, contacting colleagues, or checking multiple systems manually, the search engine automatically queries the distributed resource database, ranks results using algorithms, and presents relevant findings instantly, dramatically improving productivity while maintaining search thoroughness.
Data Source
AI summary
In a general aspect, a system can include a user interface with at least one input field for receiving input associated with an information technology (IT) customer service issue and a response area for displaying results in response to the input. The system can further include a context generation engine that receives the input associated with the IT customer service issue from the user interface and determines, based on the input, a multi-factor context. The system can also include a relevance-based search engine configured to search, based on the multi-factor context, a plurality of resources; assign, based on the multi-factor context, a respective relevancy score to each of the plurality of resources; and provide, to the user interface for display in the results area, a ranked list of a subset of the plurality of resources that is ordered based on the respective relevancy scores of the subset of the resources.