Product Driven IT Provisioning Architecture
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Solution Overview
Problem
The increasing complexity and diversity of IT technologies pose challenges for enterprises in managing their technology assets and services effectively, requiring agile and efficient provisioning, operations, and billing systems that can keep pace with evolving user demands and technological advancements.
Innovation Solution
A product-driven approach to technology management is implemented, utilizing a recursive model to decompose services and products into constituent components, allowing for efficient provisioning, pricing, and impact assessment, with a multi-dimensional product catalog that enables users to specify features and functional requirements, and automatically generates fulfillment requests and updates based on changing components.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If traditional IT management approaches are used to manage diverse technology assets, then comprehensive control over all devices can be maintained, but the system complexity and burden on support personnel increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments technology assets into standardized product categories with defined hierarchies (product families, product types, models). This segmentation allows diverse devices to be organized into manageable groups, reducing the complexity of managing individual assets while maintaining comprehensive control through the structured classification system.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a universal product model that can represent multiple types of technology assets through a common structure. The standardized product categories and hierarchical organization enable a single management framework to handle diverse devices, eliminating the need for separate management systems for different asset types.
2Productivity
If traditional provisioning systems are used, then existing processes can be maintained, but the system cannot keep pace with evolving user demands and technological advancements
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a dynamic provisioning system where product catalogs and service definitions can be updated to reflect new technologies and changing demands. The system allows for flexible configuration of products and services, enabling rapid adaptation to evolving user requirements while maintaining efficient automated provisioning processes.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a product catalog as an intermediary layer between user demands and underlying technology assets. This catalog serves as a flexible interface that can be updated to represent new products and services without changing the core provisioning infrastructure, enabling the system to adapt to evolving demands while maintaining stable operational processes.
3Loss of information
If detailed tracking of all technology components is implemented, then complete visibility and control are achieved, but the operational complexity and resource requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments technology assets into hierarchical product categories (families, types, models) rather than tracking every individual component in isolation. This segmentation provides complete visibility through the structured hierarchy while reducing operational complexity by grouping assets into manageable categories that can be managed at appropriate levels of detail.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent adds a dimensional layer of product categorization and hierarchy to the asset tracking system. By organizing assets across multiple dimensions (product family, type, model, location), the system achieves comprehensive visibility without linearly increasing complexity, as assets can be viewed and managed at different hierarchical levels depending on operational needs.
4Ease of operation
If manual management processes are used for technology provisioning, then flexibility in handling unique cases is maintained, but the time and resources required for provisioning increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent pre-defines product categories, service templates, and provisioning workflows in the product catalog before actual provisioning requests are processed. This preliminary structuring of assets and processes enables automated, rapid provisioning while maintaining flexibility, as standardized templates can be quickly instantiated and customized for unique cases without requiring manual creation of each provisioning scenario.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods for a product driven approach to technology provisioning, operations, and billing are provided. Some embodiments provide an Information Technology (IT) business architecture built around the product driven methodology. This architecture can be designed to optimize the demand side provisioning of technology products to meet business intent and the execution of supply side assembly and implementation lifecycle. A technology model can be used that recursively decomposes services and products into various components. As a result, the technology model allows for effective and efficient provisioning, pricing, and impact assessment of the organization's technology to thereby drive the efficiency of scale and the automation of the provisioning, the finance, and the operation businesses. Moreover, by representing everything in technologies and products, including people, within the technology model, then determining the cost of the product and tracking usage provides an effective consumption-based Bill of IT.