System and methods for processing information regarding relationships and interactions to assist in making organizational decisions

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2017236081-A1
Application number	US-201615134099-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Apr 20, 2016
Priority date	Apr 29, 2015
Publication date	Aug 17, 2017
Grant date	—

Abstract

A system and methods for generating an interaction-weighted visualization of an organization or group, with the relationships between members being based on or weighted by the amount, type, degree, or significance of interactions between them and the flow of communications between members, etc. In some embodiments, this may have the form of a tree structure with nodes representing employees being connected by branches. The size, color, or number of branches may indicate characteristics of the interactions between the connected nodes (e.g., the frequency, importance, or topic of the interactions, etc.). For some purposes this provides a more accurate and realistic view of how information and communications move within an organization. It may also be used to provide insight into the strength of certain relationships, the degree of involvement of certain people or groups in implementing policies or in making decisions, or the relative importance of certain communication channels.

First claim

That which is claimed is:

1 . A method for assisting in making organizational decisions, comprising:
identifying one or more sources of information regarding interactions between a first employee and one or more other employees of an organization; accessing the one or more sources of information and identifying data for further analysis and evaluation; processing at least some of the identified data to determine one or more characteristics of the interactions between the first employee and the one or more other employees; applying a data analysis, modeling, or decision process to the determined characteristics to identify an employee or employees that are most likely to have, or be associated with, a desired characteristic or would be expected to be in possession of a specific item of information, wherein such an employee or employees are those that either attended a meeting where certain projects or tasks were discussed, interacted with one or more persons who attended the meetings, or was made aware of aspects of a project or task of interest to the user; and based on the data analysis, modeling, or decision process, identifying one or more indicators of suggested organizational actions or potential concerns.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more indicators of suggested organizational actions or potential concerns include one or more of:
resignation of a key employee; an increase in the employee churn rate; a possible reason for a lack of operational effectiveness or efficiency; one or more factors associated with a successful task or project completion; one or more indicators of under recognized influencers within the organization; an employee most likely to have specific information or an understanding of a task or project; one or more potentially more effective communication channels within the organization; or a training or development opportunity for an employee that the organization may wish to encourage.

3 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising generating a display illustrating two or more employees of the organization and a representation of at least one characteristic of the interactions between at least two of the two or more employees.

4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the represented characteristic of the interactions between at least two of the two or more employees is one of a measure of the number of interactions between the at least two persons, a measure of the frequency of interactions between the at least two persons, an indication of the topic of interactions between the at least two persons, or an indication of a primary form of interactions between the at least two persons.

5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the display illustrates two or more characteristics of the interactions, and further, wherein at least two characteristics of the interactions are indicated in contrast to each other.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the sources of information regarding interactions include one or more of email, text messages, calendar appointments, news sources, or social network content.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the interactions between a first employee and one or more other employees include one or more of attendance at a meeting, participation in a task, membership in a group or team, or an exchange of verbal or text communications.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the determined characteristics of the interactions between the first employee and the one or more other employees include one or more of a type of interaction, a number of interactions, a frequency of interactions, a topic of interactions, or an indication of the directional flow of one or more interactions.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the applied data analysis, modeling, or decision process includes one or more of machine learning, statistical analysis, construction of a mathematical model, construction of a neural network, or pattern matching.

10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein identifying data for further analysis and evaluation further comprises applying one or more of a filter, a threshold, a smoothing operation, or a search query to the accessed data.

11 . The method of claim 3 , further comprising:
comparing the display illustrating two or more employees of the organization and an indication of the interactions between at least two of the two or more employees to information regarding the current task assignment, task management, or reporting structure of the organization; and altering an aspect of the task assignment, task management, or reporting structure based on the display to facilitate more effective organizational behavior.

12 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
accessing data representing one or more operational aspects of the organization; and determining the relevance of that data to the interactions between two or more employees of the organization, wherein the accessed data includes one or more of data related to enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), human resources (HR), eCommerce, or the financial operations of the organization.

13 . A data processing system, comprising:
a data storage element; a processor programmed with a set of instructions, wherein when executed by the processor, the instructions cause the system to
identify one or more sources of information regarding interactions between a first employee and one or more other employees of an organization;
access the one or more sources of information and identifying data for further analysis and evaluation;
process at least some of the identified data to determine one or more characteristics of the interactions between the first employee and the one or more other employees;
apply a data analysis, modeling, or decision process to the determined characteristics to identify an employee or employees that are most likely to have, or be associated with, a desired characteristic or would be expected to be in possession of a specific item of information, wherein such an employee or employees are those that either attended a meeting where certain projects or tasks were discussed, interacted with one or more persons who attended the meetings, or was made aware of aspects of a project or task of interest to the user; and
based on the data analysis; modeling; or decision process, identifying one or more indicators of suggested organizational actions or potential concerns.

14 . The data processing system of claim 13 , further comprising one or more business related data processing applications installed in the system, wherein the one or more business related data processing applications include one or more of an enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), human resources management (HR), or eCommerce application.

15 . The data processing system of claim 13 , wherein the one or more indicators of suggested organizational actions or potential concerns include one or more of:
resignation of a key employee; an increase in the employee churn rate; a possible reason for a lack of operational effectiveness or efficiency; one or more factors associated with a successful task or project completion; one or more indicators of under recognized influencers within the organization; an employee most likely to have specific information or an understanding of a task or project; one or more potentially more effective communication channels within the organization; or a training or development opportunity for an employee that the organization may wish to encourage.

16 . The dat

Assignees

• Netsuite Inc

Inventors

• Grady Smith Celestine Star
• Solomon Douglas P
• Fung Joseph
• Fung Donna
• Clark Simon
• Ignatyev Oleksiy
• Mihaylov Mihail

Classifications

• G06Q10/067

  Enterprise or organisation modelling · CPC title

• G06Q10/0637 Primary

  Strategic management or analysis, e.g. setting a goal or target of an organisation; Planning actions based on goals; Analysis or evaluation of effectiveness of goals · CPC title