WO2009003269A1

WO2009003269A1 - System, computer program, and method for service management

Info

Publication number: WO2009003269A1
Application number: PCT/CA2008/001176
Authority: WO
Inventors: Mohamad Wael Taher
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2007-06-29
Filing date: 2008-06-26
Publication date: 2009-01-08
Anticipated expiration: 2009-12-29

Abstract

A service management system is an intermediary layer between customers and service providers. It works to facilitate the communication between the two parties, and help the customers track their transactions that are managed by the system. The system allows the customers to describe their service requirements, and displays the relevant service providers according to customers' criteria. The system lists, with each service provider, its region, rating, cost and deadline of the required service. In addition, it provides the customers with two methods of choosing a service provider: manually, where the customer selects his preferred service provider, and automatically, where the system chooses the suitable service provider on behalf of the customer but with respect to a set of factors. The system also plays the role of delivering the service output back to the customer. Furthermore, the system also automatically manages the service provider transactions and resources schedules, and allows the administrators to manage their employees, shifts, events and supported service properties.

Description

System, Computer Program, and Method for Service Management

Priority:

This application claims priority from US Provisional Application 60/947,034 filed

June 29, 2007

Field of Invention:

The present invention relates to a service management system, computer program, and method for managing the selection of a service provider from multiple service providers, and management of the workflow involved in one or more service projects.

Background of Invention:

The use of service management systems has become increasingly important for international service providers and customers in all industries and fields world wide. Service management systems have been used to manage various aspects of service delivery, including facilitating and shortening the life cycle of the various services provided. However, the current state of technology in the service management systems field provides relatively limited solutions for service providers to manage in-house work, based on customer requirements. Prior art solutions, for example, in many cases do not enable standardized electronic communications between customers and the service provider.

What is required is a system that enables an automated solution for managing a life cycle involved in the provision of services, especially where interaction between the customer and the personnel of the service provider is required, or where optimally the service provider personnel has specific skills or experience suited for a particular service requirement. Examples where this is relevant include translation, graphic design, copywriting, contract drafting, patent drafting, and other similar fields of service.

Certain fields of service have been particularly slow to adopt technologies to help manage the service life cycle, including the translation service industry. There is also a need for service management systems suited for the particular customer/service provider requirements of a particular service industry, including for example the translation service industry.

Brief Description of Figures: FIG. IA: is a high level system description;

FIG. IB: is a high level system diagram;

FIG. 2: illustrates the components of the system, in one aspect of the invention;

FIG. 3: is a service diagram that illustrates an example of operation of the system of the present invention; FIG. 4A: illustrates navigation of a customer within the system of the present invention, in one aspect thereof;

FIG. 4B 1 : illustrates the operation of the present invention, in one particular aspect of an implementation thereof, namely a screen for defining document definitions in the context of service management related to document translation; FIG. 4B2: illustrates the operation of the present invention, in one particular aspect of an implementation thereof, namely a screen for defining criteria for selecting a service provider, in this case a translation company;

FIG. 4B3: illustrates the operation of the present invention, in one particular aspect of an implementation thereof, namely a screen for generating a workflow summary, in this case a workflow related to the translation of a document;

FIG. 4C: illustrates the operation of the present invention, in one particular aspect of an implementation thereof, namely a screen for managing a communication utility component of the present system for sending and receiving communications in connection with the service management process defined by the system of the present invention; FIG. 5: illustrates in a workflow diagram the operation of the present invention, in one particular aspect of an implementation thereof, namely the process by which workload balancing is achieved in the context of a services provided by a translation company;

FIG. 6: illustrates in a workflow diagram, in one particular aspect of a translation company implementation thereof, one aspect of the selection of a translator; FIG. 7: illustrates in a workflow diagram, in one particular aspect of a translation company implementation thereof, one aspect of the selection of an auditor;

FIG. 8: illustrates in a workflow diagram, in one particular aspect of a translation company implementation thereof, one aspect of the selection of a translator supervisor;

FIG. 9: illustrates in a workflow diagram, in one particular aspect of a translation company implementation thereof, one aspect of the selection of a supervisor auditor;

FIG. 10: illustrates, in one particular aspect of a translation company implementation thereof, one aspect of a database management utility of the system of the present invention;

FIG. HA: illustrates in a resource diagram, in one particular aspect of the present invention, the resources made available to a service provider;

FIG. HB: illustrates a representative graphic user interface, in one particular aspect of a translation company implementation of the present invention, for enabling a translator/auditor to manage task assigned to him/her;

FIG. 12: illustrates in a resource diagram, in one particular aspect of the present invention, the resources made available to a service provider administrator; and

FIG. 13: illustrates in a resource diagram, in one particular aspect of the present invention, further resources made available to a service management administrator.

Detailed Description: One aspect of the present invention is a service management system comprising a service management utility. The service management utility also corresponds to one aspect of the computer program of the present invention. The service management utility is operable to enable one or more service providers to register with the system provided that they meet one or more criteria defined for the service providers by the operator of the system, or optionally by one or more customers of the operator of the system. In one aspect of the present invention, one or more service providers register with the system, and define their service criteria, by operation of the system.

The system, in one aspect thereof, also includes a selection utility that enables one or more customers of the operator of the system of the present invention to select a service provider that meets their criteria, as explained below.

In one particular aspect of the selection utility, in operation it enables selection of a service provider in (i) a manual mode that is operable to return a list of service providers registered with the system of the present invention based upon a matching of the service provider criteria and the customer criteria; or (ii) in an automated (meaning automated in whole or in part) wherein the selection facility is operable to select and return to the customer one or more registered service providers. In accordance with a particular aspect of the present invention, the system selects and returns one service provider on behalf of the customer by operation of a load balancing facility of the present invention, that based upon a matching of the service provider criteria and the customer criteria. In one particular implementation of the present invention, the matching occurs in accordance with the matching utility and matching method further described below.

It should be understood that the present invention is generally concerned with the management of any service that involves "workflow". By "workflow", what is meant in this disclosure is a series of activities and the relationships between such activities. This might include, for example, depending on the nature of the project: (i) understanding service requirements, (ii) defining service scope, (iii) development of more detailed requirements including project milestones and related timelines, (iv) development of testing/acceptance benchmarks, (v) testing/acceptance at different levels, (vi) rollout/deployment, (vii) fixes/updates/corrections, and so on. In another particular aspect of the present invention, the system of the present invention also includes a workflow management utility that is operable to enable the operator of the system to act as an intermediary between each customer and one or more service providers involved in engaging the workflow involved in a particular service contract. The workflow management utility is described in greater detail below.

The present invention is also generally concerned with services whose optimal delivery is dependent on one or more individuals having specific skills or experience that is suited for one or more activities that are part of the workflow. In one implementation of the present invention, and in a particular aspect of the selecting utility of the present invention, the system is deployed such that the selecting utility has insight into the specific skills or experience and schedule of particular personnel of the registered service providers at any given time, thereby enabling selection of service providers, and also of specific personnel of particular service providers, that meet the customer criteria. In another aspect of the present invention, and as further particularized below, the selecting utility also has insight into the availability of such particular personnel based on an assessment of the required resources by the workflow management utility.

The invention is also generally concerned with service delivery where load balancing is relevant. "Load balancing" is generally understood to mean completion of task where completion of activities involved in a workflow is distributed between multiple personnel in a way that acknowledges the relationship between the schedules, skills and experience of specific personnel and the various attributes of the workflow (including nature of specific activities, timelines, and so on). It should be understood that load balancing, especially load balancing achieved through computational means, may require specific expertise and significant system or program resources, which service providers may not possess.

In a still other particular aspect of the present invention, the resources of the service management utility are made accessible via the Internet. The present disclosure illustrates the operation of the present invention principally by reference to one particular area of implementation of the invention, namely translation services. It should be understood, however, that the present invention is equally applicable to other areas where service delivery involves a significant workflow and load balancing issues, and where specific skills or experience and availability in the schedule of service personnel are desirable in order to staff a job in an optimal manner. These areas include, for example, computer coding (i.e. computer coding in the context of computer programming projects), document management, patent drafting, translation, contract drafting, and so on.

A still further aspect of the present invention is a service management system that manages document translation services.

In order to better understand the operation of the present invention it is useful to consider the workflow and load balancing implications of the translation service process, by reference to Fig IA and Fig IB, which illustrate the translation service process at a high level of abstraction.

The present disclosure discusses certain system components, software components, or other utilities, as means for illustrating the operation and implementation of the present invention. It should be understood that the present invention may not be limited to particular software, system, or network architectures, configurations or other implementations, or to specific allocations of resources or functionality as between particular system components, software components, or other utilities. It should be understood that one or more system components, software components, or other utilities, could be provided as a greater or lesser number of system components, software components, or other utilities. Any references to a modular structure should be understood as denoting possible functions provided by one or more software components, and should not be interpreted as suggesting any particular modular structure, as one described module may incorporate several functions, and function may be provided by several modules. Also, for example, a number of software components described as being part of the system of the present invention, may be provided as an integrated appliance. Also, for example, while the present invention discusses certain utilities or modules, the invention also contemplates the functions or processes embodied on such utilities or modules being provided using a lesser or greater number of utilities or modules. The system of the present invention contemplates certain components being part of the service management system, and other components being part of the systems of the service prθvider(s), the service management system being operable to interface with one or more components of the systems of the service provider(s). It should also be understood that the system may also consist of a configuration or architecture wherein certain functions associated with the operator of the service management system could actually be deployed on the systems of the service provider(s), but in a manner that give the operator of the service management system the means achieve integration with certain operations of the systems of the service provider(s). Various implementations of the present invention are contemplated such as pre-loading one or more aspects of the software components described on computer systems, including for example computer systems preloaded with software that enable service provider systems to interoperate with the components of the service management system controlled by the operator thereof. While add-on utilities are not specifically discussed in this disclosure, it would be obvious to a person skilled in the art that various add-on utilities can be included into the system of the present invention, such as utilities to enable security of communication, authentication of data or users, database management, maintenance functions, reporting functions, payment tracking or accounting function, data mapping functions, data translation functions, data cleaning, document cleaning (such as meta data cleaning), document conversion, document de-spamming, and enhanced integration features. Some examples of add-on utilities are described below. In addition, the present invention refers to a number of representative interfaces. It should be understood that the present invention is not limited in any way to any particular user interface.

In one aspect of the method of the present invention, the customer logs into 110 the system of the present invention, for example, via a software component resident on customer machine or client computer 101. The system of the present invention, in one particular implementation thereof, is best understood as component 100 illustrated in Fig IB. Thereafter, the customer places an order for translation services 120, in this example of the implementation of the present invention. Component 100 illustrates a server computer, that includes a server application that includes the software components associated with the system in one particular implementation of the present invention, which include one or more customer modules 102, service manager modules 103, and service provider modules 104.

The customer may at this point establish the customer criteria, or in this case the customer translation criteria, in this particular implementation of the present invention, using customer module 102. This customer module 102 retrieves information about one or more relevant service providers relevant to customer's translation criteria. This information may include an offer (quote) of each applicable service provider.

It should be understood that in one particular implementation of the present invention, the system is operable to require customers and service providers to engage in communications and/or to produce contributions to the workflow that is consistent with specific formal and/or substantive requirements. For example, the offer (quote) of each applicable service provider, in order to be accepted by the system may need to meet certain requirements. This aspect of the invention not only increases the potential for automation of processes embodied by the operation of the system, but also decreases the time involved by the various stakeholders in engaging in such processes (e.g. related to the offer (quote), one advantage of the present invention may be a decrease in the time required to select a service provider for a particular engagement. In a particular aspect of the method of the present invention, the customer selects the service provider s/he wants from a list of relevant service providers (manual selection) or s/he enables the system to select a service provider (automatic selection). In one particular implementation of the present invention, automatic selection is performed by operation of the service manager module 103 illustrated in Fig IB.

In one particular implementation of the present invention, the selection of one service provider (whether manual or automatic) results in the creation of a new transaction or job ticket. It should be understood that the system includes a database (not shown) for managing the various data related to the operation of the system, including service provider profiles, personnel profiles, customer requirements, job transactions (tasks), past job transactions (tasks), customer satisfaction with particular service providers or their personnel in regard to particular job criteria, and so on.

The new transaction triggers the workflow management utility to commence processing the workflow for the particular job, including (i) assigning the job to proper resources within the selected service provider, (ii) providing the customer with a quote for the job, and (iii) other job attributes such as a delivery date and the like.

In another aspect of the present invention, the system of the present invention includes a payment utility (not shown) that enables the processing of payments as between the customers and the service providers. In one particular implementation of the payment utility of the present invention, after a service provider has been selected, the customer may enter his/her credit card information using, optionally by operation of a software component resident on the customer machine 101. This information may be transferred through the customer module 102 to the service manager module 103. The service manager module 103 may then pass this information to a payment management provider such as Paypal™ 105, which may enable a payment authorization therefore, including for example by interoperating with a transaction agent. In a particular aspect of the present invention, the service management utility, in the case of a service contract involving one or more documents, is operable to analyze and process the one or more documents, e.g. by scanning the document for viruses, and removing any viruses therefrom.

In another aspect of the method of the present invention, and the operation of the service management utility of the present invention, order handling 130 is initiated begins wherein the service provider resource 107 (translator or auditor to whom the transaction was assigned) may download the original document through the service provider module 104. After accepting the document, the service manager module 103 may complete the payment operation by sending a request to the payment management provider 105, which in turn may perform the payment operation.

After payment has been secured, one or more resources 107 may start working on his /her/their job. It should be understood that the present invention contemplates the workflow management utility creating for each job ticket a custom workflow based on application of one or more load balancing rules applied to the job based on the various attributes of the job. Accordingly, the one or more resources 107 may begin working on the job in accordance with such customer workflow. It should also be understood that the present invention contemplates the system 100 interfacing with one or more systems used by the service provider, for example, workflow management systems, scheduling systems, or other related systems associated with the service provider. By operation of such interfaces, system 100 may initiate operations of such systems of the service provider, or for example create a queue of requests for such operations which, if accepted by an administrator of the service provider, result in the operations being initiated.

For example, in the translation example of the operation of the present invention, after the translator finishes translating a document, the translator may upload the translated (or audited) file to the service manager module 103. In a further aspect of the method of the present invention, delivery 140 is initiated. Delivery may be done either by (1) downloading the translated document from a website associated with the system by the user, or (2) sending the document to the customer by e- mail, or some other communication means.

During the entire process, the customer by using the customer machine 101, the service provider administrator 108, the service manager administrator 109 and the service provider resource 107 can manage and monitor 150 the job based on their privileges. In one particular aspect of the system of the present invention, an administrative utility is provided that enables management of hierarchical permissions of the various stakeholders associated with the system.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a service management system 200 illustrating the interaction between an end user machine 201 and a server 205 that is associated with the system of the present invention. The block diagram further illustrates the exemplary software modules, and their related databases, in a representative architecture of the present invention. Server 205 may be provided generally with the hardware, software, middleware and other resources and utilities generally associated with a web server that enables an ecommerce website for example. As illustrated in FIG. 2, in a representative embodiment of the present invention, end user machine 201 accesses a web page on an intermediate server and is then subsequently transferred to server 205 or is then transferred to interface through an agent module 203 using integration with a web service provided by the system of the present invention, for example, which web service is performed in a manner that may be specific to a user associated with end user machine 201.

End user machine 201 may transmit a request 221 or 222 to the server 205 from the agent module 203 or optionally from web page 202, possibly including a request for a particular web page, or a request for a web service. Although only one end user machine 201 is shown, server 205 may interact via a network 204 with multiple end user machines and multiple intermediate servers maintaining web sites that may be accessible by users associated with various different end user machines.

In server 205, the request may be transmitted directly to a web server module 206, which may host the web service that integrates with the agent module.

A log in module 207 may receive the request and record certain data associated with the request, such as the user's request, internet protocol (IP) address or IP communication session, date and time, and/or particular demographic information. The request may then transmitted to a security and threats module 208, which may perform initial processing on the request, including for example decryption of any data (e.g. specified fields of data) identified for encryption (such as uploaded content files, confidential portions of documents or documents, and the like), and scanning for viruses in the transmitted data, etc. This security and threats module 208 may also use one or more known techniques in order to detect a person attempting to bypass particular steps of the process, or otherwise receive or access to the service without providing payment.

A reports module 210, which may be part of the process request module 209, may perform for generating reports (service manager reports, customer reports, service provider reports, for example). Report module 210 may include or may be linked to various means for displaying, analyzing or compiling such reports. Manage transactions module 211 which may be part of the process request module 209, may perform processing in order to conduct the transactions, including creating, modifying, terminating, forwarding, rejecting, or finishing one or more transactions. The manage transaction module 211 in one aspect thereof may also be operable to store transaction related information to a database. Administrative tasks module 212 may also be part of the process request module 209, and perform administrative functions related to operation of the system of the present invention, such enabling management of customer accounts, service provider registrations, management of service. A payment module 223, which may also be part of the process request module 209, may perform functions for processing payment transactions, including processing of credit card information. The payment module 223 may also be operable to record payment-related information.

In accordance with a particular aspect of the present invention, a build output module 213 is operable to assemble information for the request.

A log completion module 214 may perform final processing on the request. If the request is only for a web page, log completion 214 is operable to transmit the web page back to end user machine 201. If the request requires an e-content file, log completion module

214 may be operable to transmit the request to a download processor 217, which may check with the process request module 209 to verify the authenticity of the request and may perform a security check. If the request is valid, as determined by information transmitted back from the process request module 209, the download processor 217 may securely transmit the requested service from a service output database 218 to the end user machine 201.

The following provides a description of certain databases of a representative embodiment of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 2, a data warehouse database 216 may be used by the reports module 210 to generate business intelligent reports. Transactions database

215 may contain data tables storing information related to requests and transactions, such as a transactions table, tasks table, and other such tables. Service output database 218 may be operable to generate data output in digital for retrieval by a download processor. This configuration provides the advantage of storing the service output without wrappers or associated passwords, and instead providing for a secure download of the products. Wrappers or associated passwords may still be used, if desired. A site GUI/feature control database 219 and default GUI/feature control database 220 may be accessed by the process request module 209 and the build output module 213 for storage and retrieval of information related to web sites.

Fig. 3 is a service diagram that illustrates an example of operation of the system of the present invention.

In accordance with a particular aspect of the present invention, from a "Tools" menu or equivalent in MSWord (or any other application used by customer personnel to interact with the subject matter of an identified workflow), customer clicks a Wizard icon or equivalent, so a log-in dialog may appear. The customer may click "Register new user" to sign up 301, which may launch INTERNET EXPLORER™ or equivalent and enable the customer personnel to navigate to a registration web page, so as to enable the customer to create a new account, add activations codes 302 and engage in other functions. The customer logs in 300.

302 He may provide his activation code and click "OK" 300 so as to close the log-in dialog and a system wizard screen or equivalent may appear with welcome page that contains a description about the wizard.

Customer clicks "Next", so the disclaimer page may appears, he may read the disclaimer and select "I accept the disclaimer". The customer clicks the "Next" button so the system gets the supported categories 205 and source and destination languages 304, after which document definitions page appears FIG. 4Bl.

A customer may begin to establish the parameters of his/her his request 305, for example, in accordance with the translation example of the present invention, the customer may set the translation type 412, the operation type 413, the category of the document 414, source language 415 and destination language 416. Thereafter, he may whether he wants his document to be formatted for print or not 417. The customer may optionally select "Attach terminology document" 418 and select the terminology file 306. The customer may optionally write a note "Set translation note" 420 for the translation service provider (note should not exceed 4000 characters) 307.

The customer may select the "Next" option, so that the system may count the characters and words of the document 308, after which the translation companies' page may appear. The system of the present invention may establish which of the service providers relates to the relevant to customer definitions 309, and then the translation companies' page appears FIG. 4B2 with a list of the retrieved translation service providers.

Here the customer has two options 310: manual or automatic selection of the service provider. In the manual option he may select the service provider 311 then the system will apply load balancing on the resources of the manually selected service provider 312. In automatic selection 313 the load balancing operation is applied for all the companies Fig. 5.

The system may start a timer 314, this timer being used to cancel the operation and return the customer to welcome page if he was idle for a specific period.

Now summary page appears FIG. 4B3 that contains summary of customer's order definitions, price, end date and service provider that received the order 431.

Customer selects "Finish" to start uploading their document and the terminology document, if the customer has selected one 318, after completing the uploading, the system may check if the upload operation is done successfully 319, and if it failed then tasks assigned to resources by the load balancing operation may be de-assigned 322, and if upload is successful, then the system may scan the uploaded file(s) for viruses and threats 320, so if there is infection 321 then tasks may be de-assigned 322, and if there is no virus the credit card information appears. Now the system may check whether the authorization operation succeeded or not 317, if it failed - for any reason - then the customer may be able to redo the payment operation 315.

When authorization is successful the translator - that was assigned the task - will may download document 324 and if he does not accept the document then he will reject it 326, rejecting that the system will de-assign the tasks 342 and the payment third party will perform void operation 343.

If the translator accepts the document 327, the payment third party may capture the price 328 that was already authorized, in which case the translator may start translating the document 333; he finishes the document 334; and if the operation is translate and audit 335 the auditor - that the system assigned the task to - will start auditing the document 337 then the auditor finishes the document 338.

Now whatever the operation (for example, translate or translate and audit), the system may enable the download link for the customer 339 so he may be able to download the translated document 340, in which the customer may rate the service provider 341 that handled his order. It should be understood that the present invention contemplates the use in, incorporation in or linking to the system of various survey processes or technologies.

Alternative scenarios, in particular implementation of the present invention:

After the customer selects the translation service provider and clicks "Next", the summary page may appear. In the event that the customer leaves the wizard or equivalent idle for 15 minutes, his/her order may be cancelled and the wizard may return to the welcome page.

If the customer is a corporate customer - s/he may provide a corporate account created by the administration of the system, which may enable the corporate customer to log into the system, and using his/her account, and optionally in a translation company page FIG. 4B2, the service providers listed 423 may be those having contracts with this corporation and relevant to the customer's request. But if this corporate customer does not have an existing service contract, then the listed service providers may be all service providers relevant to the customer order.

In a translation phase or in an auditing, phase the service provider administrator will be able to forward the document to another translator 329 if we are in translating phase or to another auditor 336 if we are in the auditing phase.

The administrator of the service provider may be able to terminate document 330 any time after accepting it. Terminating the document may be operable to de-assign the tasks 331 and initiate the payment third party to process refund operations 332.

FIG. 4Bl, FIG. 4B2, and FIG. 4B3 are diagrams of an exemplary client module FIG. 2 on the end client machine, this client wizard module may be designed to be integrated with MSWord or other similar programs as explained above. These example diagrams represent, in a particular implementation of the present invention, screens illustrating the operation of one or more wizard steps that enable the customer to define his request and complete applying it. In accordance with the translation service example, the customer defines his translation request such as language pair, category, etc. and the system optionally displays the relevant translation companies, with each one's region, rating and cost of this request, as well as optionally additional information. And then the customer can choose the translation company manually or let the system automatically choose the company with best available end date. More details will be in the following sections.

FIG. 4Bl Document Definition form 410 permits the user to define his translation request. The document title 411 is automatically gotten from MS Word document title but it's editable so that the user can change it from the wizard. Translation type 412 allows the customer to choose if he wants only to translate his document or he wants to audit it also. Using speed type 413 the customer may determine if his request is critical such that he may need it to be finished as soon as possible, or it is a regular request so there is no problem if it takes the required time to be done. The category dropdown list 414 allows the customer to specify the category of his document. This list may contain the categories that are supported by the system, and the document category may be medical, business, general or any other category supported by the system. Customer may choose the source language he wants to translate from the source language dropdown list 415 (for example). This list of course contains the languages that are supported by the system. In the same way the customer may choose the target language using destination language dropdown list 416 when the customer chooses a source language from 415 the system automatically load the available destination languages according to the language pairs supported by the system.

If the customer wants his translated document to be formatted for print he may checks Format for Print checkbox 417. This form may also permit the customer to attach a "terminology document" with his request 418; and the terminology document helps the Translation Company to translate the terms according to the user intention or purpose, and this form may permit the customer to set note 426. The wizard buttons group 419 may enable the customer to deal with wizard steps, "Back" and "Next buttons" for navigating the wizard, or the "Finish" button is used to disable in this step.

FIG. 4B2 illustrates a service provider form (in this case a translation company form) 420 which displays the translation companies that support this kind of requests (category, language pair, critical, audit, print format) into the grid 423 for each company, in which case the grid may display company Name, Rating, Region, website URL, and the Cost of the required request, and the customer may filter the existing companies according to Company Region 421, and Company Rating 422. Selection Type 424 allows the user to choose if he wants to select a translation company manually or if he wants the system to automatically choose one for him depending on the Load Balancing algorithm.

FIG. 4B3 illustrates Summary form 430 shows the customer a summary about the request. The summary displays a detailed summary of the principal user choices through the wizard, such as "Document Title", "Source Language", "Destination Language", "Category Name", "Document Size" i.e. the size of the document file calculated into Kilo Byte (KB), "Units Count" the count of words or characters in this document, "Company Name" i.e. the selected company name, "End Date" that is the date when the request will be finished (delivery date), "Translation Price" i.e. the cost of this translation request, "Currency" ie. currency we used to calculate the price. Customer may print the summary using Print Summary button 432.

FIG. 4C is a diagram for managing the transactions sent by the customer, which transaction list 470 may be transmitted for display as a page on end user machine 201, such as on a display device 303 such as a computer screen, and permit the user to track and manage his transactions that he has sent to the translation companies.

Transactions list 470 includes a number of sections for displaying the information of the transactions: visible row section 472, which contains the important information of the transaction, an icon showing whether the transaction is critical in time or not 480, the arrival time, the document title, the source language, the destination language, an icon to display the status of the transaction 476, the remaining time by days (or other unit of time), and the action buttons available on the transaction, if applicable. The collapsed information section 475 may contain all the information of the transaction: i.e. the start date, the delivery date, the serial number, whether it is a request to translate, or translate and audit, whether the document was requested formatted or not description associated with the transaction, the document title, the document size, the number of words in the document, the source language, the destination language and the category name. Typically, the customer may have sent some documents to one or more translation companies so this list 470 displays these transactions. Each transaction's row has its own buttons: the expand/collapse button 472; a select check box 473; the "download original document" button 477; the "download translated document" button 478; and the "cancel" button. Upon selecting button 473 by using a cursor-control device to "click-on" it, the section 475 is expanded or collapsed depending on its situation. Upon selecting the check boxes 473 by using a cursor-control device to "check/uncheck" it and then selecting the "deleted" button 471 by using a cursor-control device to "click-on" it, all the checked transactions may be deleted. Upon selecting the "download original document" button 477 by using a cursor-control device to "click-on" it or by using a particular key stroke, the original document may be downloaded on the end user machine 201. Upon selecting the "download translated document" button 478 by using a cursor-control device to "click-on" it or by using a particular key stroke, the translated document may be downloaded to the end user machine 201. Upon selecting the "cancel" button 479 by using a cursor-control device to "click-on" it or by using a particular key stroke, the transaction may be canceled.

Fig. 5 is an activity diagram that explains a particular embodiment of a load balancing algorithm, which is implemented to the workflow management utility of the present invention. This load balancing algorithm is responsible for the fair distribution of incoming orders between service providers efficiently and with minimum count of reject cases. The load balancing algorithm is provided in a manner that is known in accordance with the explanation below.

This algorithm may obtain the candidate service providers 500 relevant to customer's criteria (source language, destination language, category, critical or regular, operation is translate or translate and audit, format for print, Rate, Region). The service providers may be retrieved from the system database Fig. 10 from Company ID vector 1000, and tested for their rate and region to filter them.

Then we start by looping through the candidate service providers 501, 506, and for each service provider we start getting the number we want from translators, auditor or from supervisors. It is decided whether one wants translators and auditors or supervisors depending on the size of the document, so if the document was large 502 we start getting the count we want from translators' supervisors 507 and then if the operation was translate and audit 508 then we get the count we want from the auditors' supervisors 509. Then whatever the operation was we get the next service provider to process 506. If the document was not large, then we one obtains the count we want from translators 503, and then if the operation was to translate and audit 504 we start getting the count we want from auditors 505.

And then whatever the operation was one may engage the next service provider to process 506.

After one has completed the list of candidate service providers, one checks whether the document is large or not, and if the document is relatively large 510, one may select the optimal supervisors 511 from the supervisors who were already gathered 507, 509 and the actual end date.

If the document was not large then one may select an optimal translator and auditor 512 from the translators and auditors already gathered 503, 505 and the actual end date.

Random selection utility:

In accordance with a particular aspect of the present invention, a random selection utility is provided which is optionally part of the selection utility of the present invention. The purpose of the random selection utility is to improve or solve efficiency and performance issues. The principle behind the random selection utility is that when dealing with a relatively large space it is advantageous to reduce possible studied options to obtain one or more best possible choices. This may include calculating one or more values which enable a calculated value to be obtained, which may reflect busyness of employees and companies. This calculation, however, has been replaced in some cases by an alternative, which gets acceptable results with minimum cost, so the idea which we have adopted was to select some random items from studied space as a representative of the whole space and find the best choice in this sub space, which may be controlled by two heuristics values: Random rounds level: i.e. the number of hits that we try to find (randomly) for an available employee, before we stop and take a decision that the system is full, and we couldn't find any other employees to get and check their ability to hold the request.

Solution search level: i.e. the number of items one is required to study in one round. The number is selected carefully because there are two challenges to overcome: first this number is preferably large enough to give a real picture about the studied space and select most probable items, second this number is preferably as small as possible for performance consideration. In one implementation of the present invention, an algorithm is used makes incremental changes to the search results depending on the increase in the number of probable items.

Fig. 6 is an activity diagram that explains how we get candidate translators 503, so we are now processing the resources of a particular service provider and obtaining these resources from the system database Fig. 10 from the translators vector 1003; then if MAXJLEVEL -the count of the translators we want to get from each service provider - is less than the count of the translators of the current service providers 600 then we randomly select this count (MAX_LEVEL) of translators from the translators of this service provider 601.

If the MAX_LEVEL is greater than the count of translators of the current processed service provider then we get all the translators of the service provider 602.

Fig. 7 is an activity diagram that illustrates how candidate auditors are selected (505) for a specific service provider. The auditors are obtained from the system database (Fig. 10) from the auditors' vector (1004); then if MAXJLEVEL - the count of auditors we want to get from each service provider - is less than the count of the auditors of the current service provider (700) then we select this count (MAX_LEVEL) randomly from the auditors of the service provider (701). If MAX_LEVEL is greater than the count of the auditors of the current processed service provider then we get all the auditors of the service provider (702).

In both cases (701, 702) and for each auditor, one may whether he is also a translator, if so we don't get him if he was already added as a translator.

Fig. 8 is an activity diagram illustrating how we select the translators' supervisors 507 from a specific service provider. The translators' supervisors are obtained from the system database Fig. 10 from translators' supervisors' vector 1005 and from translators and auditors supervisors vector 1007. If the MAX_LEVEL - i.e. the count of the translators' supervisors we want to get from each service provider - is less than the count of the translators' supervisors of the current service provider 800, then we select this count (MAX_LEVEL) randomly from the translators' supervisors of the service provider 801.

If the MAXJLEVEL is greater than the count of the translators' supervisors of the service provider, then we get all translators' supervisors of the service provider 802.

Fig. 9 is the activity diagram that illustrates how one obtains the candidate auditors' supervisors (509) from a specific service provider. We obtain the auditors supervisors from system database (Fig. 10) from the auditors' supervisors' vector 1006 and from translators, auditor's supervisor's vector 1007.

If the MAX_LEVEL - the count of the auditors' supervisors one wishes to obtain from each service provider - is less than the count of the auditors' supervisors and translators auditors supervisors 900, then we select this count (MAX_LEVEL) randomly from the auditors supervisors of the service provider (901).

If MAX_LEVEL is greater than we get all the supervisors auditors of the service provider 902. FIG. 10 illustrates representative embodiments of database utilities in accordance with one particular aspect of the present invention illustrating that all users' information, translation companies and their employees and supported categories and language pairs and their equations, transactions and tasks' information may be stored in related tables.

Modifying operations may be processed for a single transaction, with deleted data being kept as historical data, for example, deleting a language should delete its related language pair, related company language pairs, related company parts, related company parts, equations and premium ranges. All these operations may be performed in a single transaction. The delete action is just marking the data as deleted with an end date equals to the action date.

In accordance with a particular aspect of the present invention, data is obtained and made complete using multiple functions that calculate the translation price, check the possibility of some candidate service providers resources, select the best available resources, and finally assign the transaction to the selected resources.

The following illustrates specified procedures for obtaining and setting data in one particular implementation of the present invention:

Calculate Translation Price:

This procedure may calculate the total cost of a translation according to the document information (language pair, category, number of units, size, number of pages) and operation type (translation, auditing) and selected company equation and speed type (regular, critical) and whether it is to be formatted to print. It calculates unit price and then adds (i) the document size factor, (ii) a complexity factor, (iii) a formatted to print factor, the critical factor then subtracts the discount percentage then adds the quota percentage then adds the tax percentage, and after that it compares this calculated price with the minimum charge factor and return the biggest one.

Check Possibility of All Employees in Small Document Size: This procedure may be used in load balancing to check the availability of all personnel in all companies to assign tasks to them according to their types (translator, auditor) that matches the operation type and their schedule availability in delivery time. This procedure is used in small documents cases.

Check Possibility of All Employees in Large Document Size:

This procedure may provide the same functionality of the previous one but used with large documents, so it assigns tasks for supervisors only according to their tasks.

Select Gaps Considering Events Blocks In Critical Mode: This procedure may be used to obtain the gaps in employee schedule considering their events and returns the gaps that match the required time for critical documents.

Select Gaps Considering Events Blocks In Regular Mode:

This procedure may be used to get the gaps in employee schedule considering their events and returns the gaps that match the required time for regular documents.

Most frequently needed information may be obtained by calling stored views for example:

Company Part Information:

This view returns all valid company part information and their categories and language pair.

In FIG. HA, a Service Provider resource can login from login 1101, apply manage functionality 1104, navigate summary and detailed reports 1103, and manage his inbox or requests from main page 1102.

In Fig. HB, operation of an employee inbox is illustrated. All tasks are loaded into the 1116 data grid and each row in it may have revealed information and hidden information and some actions: new documents with actions, 1124 accept, 1125 reject and pending documents with actions 1119 forward, 1120 finish, 1121 download, 1122 terminate, and finished documents with actions 1123 delete.

Employee can expand or collapse hidden information section by clicking on 1117 expand/collapse link next to each row.

He can click on 1121 download link to download document, and click on 1124 accept link to accept new document, click on 1125 reject link to reject any corrupted document.

After accepting document, employee can click on 1120 finish link to finish his task and upload the translated document, and employee may want to send requests to his administrator to forward a task to another employee or to terminate a document, so he can send forward request with notes by clicking on 1119 forward link and send terminate request with notes by clicking on 1122 terminate link.

FIG. 12 shows that a service provider administrator may be able to login to his/her account 1201, and when s/he logs in s/he may be able to go to the manage page 1202 that allows him/her to edit his/her personal information 1206, the events of the employees 1208, the events of the company 1211, and s/he may add and remove language pairs 1210 and categories 1209, and s/he may also edit his/her service provider profile 1207, and s/he may manage the service provider employees 1212, search for employees 1213, and may manage his/her requests 1205. Also s/he may go to the reports page 1204 that contains summary reports 1215 and detailed report 1216. Also s/he may go to the main page 1203.

FIG. 13 illustrates that a service management administrator may login from login page 1301, from manage page 1303 s/he can manage Transactions 1305, users 1306, Groups 1307, companies 1308, categories 1309, languages and language pairs 1310, and manage contracts 1311, also he can navigate summary reports 1312 and detailed reports 1313, and manage his inbox 1314 and requests 1315 and deleted items 1316 from main page 1302.

Claims

1) A service management system characterized in that it comprises: a) one or more service providers registered with said service management system wherein upon registration each service provider indicates a set of service provider criteria; b) one or more customers requiring the services of a service provider wherein the customer registers with said service management system by providing a set of customer criteria; c) a selection facility to assist in the selection of a service provider for a particular task, the task including one or more activities, including optionally selecting one or more service provider resources of the service provider; and d) a workflow management utility that is operable to: i. define a workflow for completion of the task and management of service provider resources to achieve such completion; and ii. manage the service provider resources based on the workflow.

2) The service management system as described in claim 1 characterized in that the selection facility is operable in a customer selected manual mode to report to the customer a complete set of registered service providers based upon service provider criteria and customer selected criteria.

3) The service management system as described in claim 1 characterized in that the selection facility is operable in a customer selected automatic mode to report a service provider selected by the service management system based upon the service provider criteria and the customer criteria.

4) The service management system as described in claim 1 characterized in that the service provider criteria comprises a service region, a rating, a cost and a time to complete the required service. 5) The service management system as described in claim 1 characterized in that the customer criteria includes a company region and a company rating.

6) The service management system as described in claim 1 characterized in that system comprises a load balancing component integrated with the workflow management utility as to distribute the tasks between personnel using a set of load balancing criteria.

7) The service management system as described in claim 6 characterized in that the set of load balancing criteria include: personnel schedules, personnel skill sets, personnel experience and attributes of the workflow.

8) The service management system as described in claim 7 characterized in that the attributes of the workflow include: nature of specific task, and timelines for completion of task.

9) The service management system as described in claim 1 characterized in that the system is implemented using an on-line architecture wherein a customer logs on to the system and registers with said service management system by providing the set of customer criteria.

10) The service management system as described in claim 1 characterized in that the system is implemented using a distributed system wherein a software component resident on a customer computer interacts with a server computer running a server application associated with said system.

11) The service management system as described in claim 1 characterized in that upon selection of a service provider, the workflow management utility: a) assigns appropriate resources to the task; b) provides the customer with a pricing quote; and c) provides the customer with a date of completion. 12) The service management system as described in claim 1 characterized in that the system further comprises a database for managing a plurality of service management system data types.

13) The service management system as described in claim 12 characterized in that the data types include one or more of: a) service provider profiles; b) personnel profiles; c) customer requirements; d) job transactions; e) past job transactions; and f) customer satisfaction associated with particular service provider or their personnel;

14) The service management system as described in claim 1 characterized in that the customer may be required to login to a login module for the purposes of placing their request.

15) The service management system as described in claim 14 characterized in that the login module records data associated with the customer request.

16) The service management system as described in claim 15 characterized in that the data associated with the customer request include one or more of: a) customer's task request; b) customer's Internet protocol (IP) address; c) date and time; and d) customer demographic information.

17) The service management system as described in claim 1 characterized in that the system further comprises a security utility operable to detect if a customer is attempting to bypass any particular step of the system. 18) The service management system as described in claim 1 characterized in that the system further comprises a reports utility operable to generate reports for the customer, the service provider or the service management system.

19) The service management system as described in claim 1 characterized in that the system may further comprise an administrative tasks utility operable to perform system administrative tasks.

20) The service management system as described in claim 19 characterized in that the system administrative tasks include one or more of: a) management of customer accounts; b) service provider registration; and c) overall management of service;

2I) A method for implementing a service management system characterized in that the steps comprise: a) registering one or more service providers with said service management system wherein upon registration, each service provider provides a set of service provider criteria; b) registering one or more customers requiring the services of a service provider for a particular task with said service management system wherein upon registration, each customer provides a ser of customer criteria; c) administering a selection utility to assist in the selection of a service provider for the one or more customers; and d) administering a workflow management utility that is operable to assist in defining a workflow for completion of the particular task and to assist in managing the service provider resources based on said workflow.

22) The method for implementing a service management system as described in claim 21 characterized in that the administration of the selection utility is operable in a customer selected manual mode such that a report of a complete set of registered service providers based upon service provider criteria and customer selected criteria is provided to the customer.

23) The method for implementing a service management system as described in claim 21 characterized in that the administration of the selection utility is operable in a customer selected automatic mode such that the service provider is selected by the service management system based upon the service provider criteria and customer selected criteria.

24) The method for implementing a service management system as described in claim 21 characterized in that the customer registers with the system by logging on through an on-line architecture.

25) The method for implementing a service management system as described in claim 21 characterized in that the customer registers with the system using a software component resident on a customer computer operable to interact with a server computer running a server application associated with said system.