Response-Enabled Messaging System for Stateless SMS Workflows
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Solution Overview
Problem
Stateless messaging systems, such as SMS, do not allow employees to respond to notifications with actions or directives, limiting productivity in enterprise environments where numerous messages are exchanged daily.
Innovation Solution
A response-enabled messaging system that associates a notification message with a corresponding response, using an Enterprise Mobile Notification System and Enterprise Messaging Gateway to correlate replies with original messages, enabling employees to respond with keywords that initiate actions and maintain message threads.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If stateless messaging systems (SMS) are used for enterprise notifications, then notification delivery is simple and timely, but employees cannot respond with actions or directives through the messaging channel
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary component that sits between the stateless SMS system and the enterprise workflow system. This intermediary captures SMS messages, extracts relevant information, translates them into workflow actions, and routes them to the appropriate enterprise applications. This mediator enables two-way communication functionality without modifying the core SMS infrastructure or enterprise systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback mechanisms where employee responses via SMS are captured, processed, and fed back into the enterprise workflow system as actionable directives. The workflow system can then respond with status updates or confirmations, creating a closed-loop communication system that enables continuous interaction between employees and enterprise processes through the messaging channel.
2Loss of information
If traditional SMS messaging is used, then message sending is straightforward and timely, but message threads and associations between notifications and responses are lost
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-configuring message templates with unique identifiers and correlation keys before messages are sent. These templates include embedded references to specific workflow items, employee records, and message threads. When responses are received, the system uses these pre-established identifiers to automatically associate responses with their corresponding notifications, maintaining message threads without requiring complex real-time tracking.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the messaging system into distinct functional components: message composition with embedded identifiers, message delivery through SMS gateway, response capture, message association logic, and workflow integration. This segmentation allows each component to handle specific aspects of message management independently, reducing overall system complexity while maintaining message associations through structured data elements.
3Productivity
If response-enabled messaging is implemented, then employees can respond with keywords that initiate actions, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements a universal message processing framework that handles multiple message types (notifications, responses, confirmations, error messages) through a single integrated architecture. The same core components process all message varieties, with configurable templates and routing logic that adapts to different workflow scenarios. This multi-functionality reduces complexity by avoiding the need for separate specialized systems for each message type.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses parameter changes to manage complexity, specifically by varying message templates, routing rules, and action mappings based on message content and context. Instead of hardcoding different processing logic for each message type, the system dynamically adjusts parameters such as workflow item identifiers, employee contexts, and action keywords, allowing a single flexible processing engine to handle diverse messaging scenarios without increasing structural complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
A method and apparatus for creating associations between messages in a stateless system. The method comprises adding a unique identification to a notification message at a gateway, and upon receiving a response from a user, identifying the unique identification within the response, and utilizing the unique identification to associate the response with the notification message.