Interface System for Sales Order Parsing and Schedule Generation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Integrating sales management systems with project planning systems is challenging due to the complexity of managing interactions with customers for information technology services, including equipment, software, and labor, which requires accurate scheduling and cost estimation to maintain competitiveness and customer satisfaction.
Innovation Solution
An interface system that integrates a sales management system with a project planning system using a schedule engine to parse sales orders, generate schedules, and estimate costs, allowing for accurate scheduling and quoting by combining labor, parts, and agreements products into schedule phases, and updating both systems dynamically.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If a sales management system is used to manage complex sales orders with many options, then the ability to manage sales complexity is improved, but the difficulty of ensuring information consistency with the project planning system increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an interface system as an intermediary between the sales management system and the project planning system. This interface receives sales order information from the sales management system, parses it to identify products and project tasks, generates corresponding schedule tasks, and transmits the schedule information to the project planning system. This intermediary mechanism ensures accurate information transfer and maintains consistency between the two systems without requiring direct integration.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces manual information transfer and scheduling processes with an automated computer-based interface system. The interface automatically parses sales orders, generates schedule tasks, and transmits information to the project planning system, eliminating the need for manual data entry and reducing information inconsistency errors.
2Measurement precision
If a project planning system is used to manage scheduling complexity and provide accurate estimates, then scheduling accuracy is improved, but the complexity of integrating with the sales management system increases
Solution Approach 1:
The interface system serves as a mediator that simplifies integration between the sales management system and the project planning system. It handles the complex tasks of parsing sales orders, identifying products and project tasks, generating schedule tasks with appropriate dependencies and resources, and transmitting information to the project planning system, thereby reducing the integration complexity for both systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the integration process into distinct functional components: receiving sales order information, parsing to identify products and project tasks, generating schedule tasks, determining order of performance, and transmitting to the project planning system. This segmentation makes the integration process more manageable and reduces overall system complexity.
3Reliability
If schedules are estimated pessimistically to avoid delays, then customer satisfaction is improved, but resource utilization decreases leading to increased costs
Solution Approach 1:
The interface system enables feedback between the sales management system and the project planning system by transmitting schedule information back to influence future sales estimates. The project planning system can provide feedback on actual schedule performance and resource utilization, allowing the sales management system to refine its scheduling estimates and achieve better balance between reliability and productivity.
Solution Approach 2:
The system allows schedules to be dynamic rather than static. The interface can update schedule information in the project planning system based on changes in the sales management system, and vice versa. This dynamic adjustment capability allows the system to optimize resource utilization while maintaining schedule reliability as conditions change.
4Productivity
If schedules are estimated optimistically to improve competitiveness, then cost competitiveness is improved, but the risk of schedule delays and customer disappointment increases
Solution Approach 1:
The feedback mechanism enabled by the interface system allows the project planning system to provide information about actual schedule performance and resource availability back to the sales management system. This feedback loop helps refine scheduling estimates to be more realistic, reducing the risk of delays while maintaining competitiveness.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary scheduling analysis through the interface before finalizing sales commitments. By parsing sales orders and generating schedule tasks in advance, the system can identify potential scheduling conflicts and resource constraints before making firm commitments, allowing for more accurate and reliable scheduling estimates.
Data Source
AI summary
The present disclosure facilitates interfacing between a sales management system and a project planning system. In some embodiments, the system includes an interface and schedule engine, both executing on a server. The interface can parse a sales order from the sales management system into products and project tasks within the products. The products can also include at least one of a labor product, a parts product, and an agreements product. The schedule engine can generate schedule tasks corresponding to the project tasks, determine a performance order of the schedule tasks, and combine the schedule tasks into schedule phases based on the performance order. The schedule engine can determine a performance order of the schedule phases and combine the schedule phases into a schedule component based on the performance order. The interface can transmit the schedule component to the project planning system for execution.