A System And A Method For Providing Intergrated Business Performance Management Platform

Abstract

The present invention provides a system and a method for providing an improved in the business performance management and process on an ongoing basis. In one embodiment of the present invention, a business performance management system is provided. The business performance management system comprises an instrumentation layer that is configured for deriving plurality of measurement information from multiple sources and integrating said measurement information in a canonical format. A consolidation layer is configured for filtering and preprocessing instrumentation layer output and capturing all measurement information in operational data storage. A business-modeling layer is configured for processing said measurement information. A presentation layer configured for dispersing said measurement information. The presentation layer is configured to provide different forms and channels of distribution of Information to different end users. The data provided by the presentation layer can be both real-time and historic data.

Information

Applicants

Inventors

Specification

FIELD OF THE INVENTION:
This invention relates to the field of business performance management for improving business processes on an ongoing basis.
DESCRIPTION OF THE BACKGROUND:
The computer information systems, and improvements ir software and technology, has guided to many improvements and gains in business and society over the last few decades. However, majority of business organization lack automated performance management system.
An organization such as a BPO needs performance management system to clearly identify, articulate, and execute their strategic goals. To effectively achieve these goals, organizations need to measure and manage actual bus ness performance in a highly coordinated manner In the process, it is critically important for management to create a culture of accountability, clearly communicating both strategy and goals, meeting all data access and information delivery requirements, and involving everyone from employees to Senior Management in a closed-loop process cf continual improvement. Wh'le developing and communicating a strategy is one thing, successfully executing it is another. Fortune magazine studies show that in more than 70 percent of cases where businesses fail, it isn't the strategy but the execution that went awry. In fact, fewer than 10 percent of effectively developed strategies are effectively implemented. To ensure that they execute their goals successfully, organizations reed to measure and manage actual business performance against those goals in a highly coordinated manner. Performance management incorporates both top-down and bottom-up accountability and visibility. It involves generating tactical data around processes and publishing metrics that roll up and represent the ability of the organization to meet strategic goals.
Therefore there is a need for a system and a methodology to provide stronger integration across various operational systems, measurement, tracking and improvement of Key Performance Indicators (KPI).

The present invention provides a system and .a method for providing an improved in the business performance management and process on an ongoing basis.
In one embodiment of the present invention, a business performance management system is provided. The business performance management system comprises an instrumentation layer that is configured for deriving plurality of measurement information from multiple sources and integrating said measurement information in a canonical format. A consolidation layer is configured for filtering and preprocessing instrumentation layer output and capturing all measurement information h operational data storage. A business-modeling layer is configured for processing said measurement information. A presentation layer configured for dispersing said measurement information. The presentation layer is configured to provide different forms and channels of distribution of Information to different end users. The data provided by he presentation layer can be both real-time and historic data
As per the present invention, the multiple sources include relational database, multidimensional database, flat, modern and legacy database, enterprise applications, mainframe entries and the like. Further, the measurement information is integrated in the instrumentation layer by cleansing, validation, auditing and synchronizing the derived data through ETL/EAI tool.
In various embodiments of the present invention, the consolidation layer comprises of multiple databases including Knowledge Management and E-learning Repository, Metadata, Event Store, OLAP, ODS, Data Mart, and Data Warehouse. The business-modeling layer is configured to provide plurality of Business Definitions, Performance Measurement Events, Roles and Rules for consumptior of content and information, Administration and Security. The business-modeling layer is basically a bridge between the consolidation layer and the presentation layer.
In one embodiment of the invention, the business-modeling layer is interactivity-based layer and the business-modeling layer is a business user usage area. The business performance management system of claim 1, wherein the presentation layer uses a

ana delivery to multiple channels like browser, e-mail, SMS and Wallboards.
A Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) Engine is provided n the Business modeling layer that generates real time/near real time alerts, messages, and reports for subscribed business users.
In one embodiment of the invention, a method for providing integrated business performance management platform is provided. The method comprises the steps of: deriving plurality of measurement information from multiple sources in an instrumentation layer; integrating said measurement information in a canonical format within the instrumentation layer; filtering and preprocessing instrumentation layer output in a consolidation layer having an operational data storage; capturing all measurement information in said operational data storage of the consolidation layer; processing said measurement information within a business modeling layer; and dispersing said measurement information to end users through a presentation layer.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS:
Reference will be made to embodiments of the invention, examples of which may be illustrated in the accompanying figures.
Fig 1 shows functional architecture of the integrated business performance management platform according to the present invention.
Fig. 2 shows technical architecture of the integrated business performance management platform according to the present invention.
Fig. 3 shows the design of the message bus according to the present invention.
Fig. 4 illustrates the design of BAM module according to the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS:
1 •'—• ■ i .ii.
The present invention herein after is referred to as "MpacT". MpacT is an Enterprise Performance Management Platform enabling substantial improvements in performance by providing real time control and insight of the business for bettei anticipation and faster

resolution of issues, stronger team collaboration and better design of processes thdtt tne businesses run on.
Using the information available from MpacT, enterprises should be able to measure, control, respond, collaborate and improve the business processes. The present invention provides an information visibility platform, for alignment of activities to KPi's (Key Performance Indicator) to objectives to organizational goals and vision.
FUNCTIONALITY OF THE INVENTION:
Figure 1 shows business performance management system 100 that comprises four tiers or layers according to one embodiment of the present invention.
1. Tier 1 : Instrumentation layer 101
2. Tier 2 : Consolidation /Storage layer 102
3. Tier 3 : Business Modeling layer 103
4. Tier 4 : Presentation layer 104
Tier 1; Instrumentation layer 101 (refer Figure 1) is configured for deriving plurality of measurement information from multiple data sources 110 and integrating sajd measurement information in a canonical format. The instrumentation layer 101 is designed to identify, interact and get the data from any :orm cf storage and bring it to a consolidation storage area in a (neutral) common format. Said instrumentation layer 101 is capable of receiving data, which is a 'Push' from source and specific custom adapters (pull). If the facility to Push is not available with the source, it has to be built in.
The features of this layer are:
j Features Detail
| Capability to interact and transform the data to neutral measurement format from source | (Push).
Capability to define adaptors for specific sources, interact and transform the data to neutral measurement format where the source does not have capability to Push.
Capability to define and integrate both extraction methodology
Capability to define connection points to source

Capability to deploy Push / pull strategy depending on the distinction of whether the Information is Pushed from Source or needs to be Pulled.
Capability to consume the schedule rules for Pull extraction
Tier 2: Data Consolidation / Storage Layer 102 (refer Figure 1) is the key differentiator in MpacT platform. The consolidation layer is configured for filtering and preprocessing instrumentation layer output and capturing all measurement information in an operational data storage. The data should be made available for consumption by various internal and external business consumers of the platform. Consolidation / Data layer 102 will store the data as given by Instrumentation Layer 101 in a reutral format. Identification of data, which needs to be transformed before storing for consumption, is the first step. Specific data that requires transformation, undergoes cleansing, validation, auditing, prioritizing, standardizing, transformation and finally stored in the MpacT database for consumption by MpacT consumers.
The features of this layer are listed in the table below.
Activity / Features Detail
JlYPe
Storage of Ability to store & retrieve Organization Goals, Strategies, Pathways,
Business objectives, cross functional relationships and there inter relationships
modeling /
Ability to store & retrieve Multiple Hierarchies to business context reference
(Business/organizational, operational / functional, Geography, Product, data
People) ond inter relationships.
Ability to store & retrieve Scorecard model
Ability to store & retrieve Metric tree Model
Ability to store & retrieve Business work flow Model
Ability to store & retrieve Business specific Process modeling data
Ability to store & retrieve Security model for data and application
Ability to define initiatives (Actions) and assign to individual / group and track for closure.

Data model to be dynamic based on Business Structure Ability to store & retrieve any business, client specific Master data
Ability to store & retrieve any business, client specific Transactions
i
Ability to store & retrieve any business, client specific dimensions
Meta data Ability to create and store multiple types of meta data.
Ability to create Administrative metadata used for managing and administering Information resources.
Ability to create descriptive Metadata used to describe or identify
information resources

Ability to create Prescription Metadata related to the preservation
management of information resources

Ability to create Technical Metadata related to how a system functions or metadata behave
Ability to store, hyperlink resources and create meta data by perspective
and usage
Ability to store, hyperlink from different resources and create meta data in
combination of reference, fact and dimensions.
Ability to create / link information across sources based on business.
ODS Ability to distinguish and store operational data based on business
(Operational requirements
Data Store)
Ability to provide integrated, collective on-line processing.
i *
i
Ability to deliver consistent high transaction performance

Ability to support on-line update.
Ability to integrate across many consumers, applications of MpacT. Ability to provide a foundation for collective, up-to- the-second views of the enterprise.
Ability to support decision support processing.

Event Store Ability to create an event store based on event based data auditing,
reporting and any other consumer usage of MpacT
Ability to categories events and store events in perspective for ease of
access
Ability to have event store for custom real lime reporting.
OLAP Database to have Ability to support multiple types of OLAP (Online Analytical
(Online Processing) such as Multidimensional Relational and Hybrid for Web based,
Analytical Desktop and Real time usage.
Processing)
Support
Database
Data Marts Ability to have functional data marts and cross functional data marts

Data Ability to extend to a data warehouse
Warehouse
KM Ability to have a Knowledge Management (KM) repository
Repository
Ability to link KM data with other data stores as required by business for
! usage of KM repository
E-learning Ability to have a e-learning repository
Ability to link E-learning data store with other data stores as required by
| business for usage.
Tier 3: Business Modeling Layer 103 (refer Figure 1, module 3) defines the business
architecture and rules required for governing, processing the performance and
measurements of the organization. This layer contsins all business definitions,
performance measurement events, roles and rules for consumption of content and
information. This layer acts as the bridge between the data storage layer and the
presentation layer. This is the interactivity based, business user usage area.

The features of this layer are listed in the table below.
Component [Features Detail
Metrics The key to joining Business architecture and technology architecture is
Metrics that accurately reflect and measure the Business strategy and
performance from consolidation /storage layer and calculate/ transform
based on the Metric rules, present the same in the Presentaiion layer
This forms the base of the Business layer.
Ability to define and manage multidimensional measures
Ability to define and manage lead, Lag and Diagnostic metrics
Ability to define metric rules (Calculation, Aggregations, Applicability,
j level of measurements and period of measurements)

Ability to link metrics to functions

Ability to link metrics to performance Objectives
I Ability to create a Metric/ Key Performance Indicators (KPI) Tree.
Ability to map metrics to data points in consolidation data store
Ability to create complex Parent-child-parent relationships.
Ability to link metrics to other hierarchy and dimensions.
Ability to track and inspect forward, backward mapping and impact on

any changes on metric-data-output.

Semantics Ability to model and define Multiple Hierarchies (Business,
operational/functional, Geography, Prod jet and People) and inter
!relationships.
Operational Ability to define global time zones; currents
modeling
Ability to create calendar for operations
Ability to define Business specific Dimensions
Ability to map and create reference d;atc from source applications. If

; reference data is unavailable in any of the source systems;
Ability to create and manage Master data.
Ability to define and manage the Rules for processing and transformation for consumption
Ability to define and manage rules for Meta data creation
Ability to define and manage Application and, Usage rules (Content and
modules)
Ability to define and manage Governance rules
Strategy & Ability to define Organization Goals, Strategies across verticals
Tactics
Ability to model strategic pathways
Business Ability to define performance objectives

Ability to define a Balanced scorecard mode I
Ability to define rules conduct SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunities
and Threats) analysis

Ability to define rules and conduct What-lf -Analysis
Ability to define centralized measure model (refer measure section;
Ability to link Metrics to Performance Objectives.
Ability to create initiatives, link with metrics and assign to people, group

for improvements and tracking. Ability to interface with project i
management software and link with initiatives
Ability to link Performance objectives to Strategies and to organizational goals.
Ability to define Business work flow ancj cha ige management
Ability to define Business life cycle
Ability to define transaction life cycle
Ability to manage Impact analysis for business process changes
Ability to view end-to-end business process impact with data governance
and linkages across independent application data. |

Tier 4: Presentation layer 104 (refer Figure 1, module 4) is the most important layer front the end users perspective. Presentation of MpacT can be divided into information availability in different forms and channels of distribution of Information to different user through different delivery channels 120. Based on the type of the users and the reporting requirements, information and channel will be selected. An objective of this layer is to make information visibility at Right time for Right People using Right Channel.
The features of this tier as follows:
Module
i Dashboards Objective: Enterprise Performance Monitoring, Measurement
i
Purpose: Performance progress at a glance across the Organizational
I Presentation: Combination of different outputs - Charts, Tables, Text
i
Updates: Real time, Event based and periodic abstracted data
Data; Event, abstract data, Summary, Calculated data
Dashboard is a collection of multiple widgets (Output forms) in a collaborative form, which has relevant information presented as a state.
Ability to define, view and manage Operational dashboards - Track core operational processes performance. Information to be populated on real time, Near real time and Business usage of on time-real time. Used largely by business users for Monitoring on event based from event store.
Ability to define, view and manage Tactical dashboards - Track
departmental processes and projects performance. Information required
| periodically. Used largely for analysis based on data marts and warehouse.

Ability to define, view and manage a strategic dashboards - Monitor execution of corporate strategies / objectives at each level. Information to be populated periodic and event based. Used largely for Management than monitoring and analysis.
.
Ability to provide information on KPI's using multi paned screens and
multiple visual elements

! Abilitv to have a consolidated information sets covering alerts, IB |
I (Information Broadcast), Graphs, Symbols and Indicator Charts.
i
! Ability to drill down from highest level of information to lowest level of

information across dimensions applicable to Business perspective
Ability to switch from visual to charts and tables, reports with conditional formatting
Availability of high personalization capabilities for end users.

Scorecards

Objective: Enterprise Progress Charting
Purpose: Performance Progress indicator across the Organization
Presentation: Tables, Scorecard, trends, Symbols, Icons
Updates: Real time, Periodic Snapshots
Data: Summaries , Calculated scores
Scorecard is a visual / textual representation of the Progress of the organizational goals, strategies, metrics converted as a score across the functions and operations. This is a representation of comparative scores and trends. This is tightly coupled with dashboards.
Ability to define, view and manage Operational Scorecards - Track core operational performance progress. Information to be populated on real time, Near real time and Business usage of on time-real time. Used largeiy by business users for Progress charting based on the events converted to calculated weighted scores and trend progressions.
Ability to define, view and manage Tactical scorecards - Track departmental processes and projects progress, information required periodically.
Ability to define, view and manage a strategic scorecards - Monitor progress of corporate strategies / objectives at each level . Information to be populated periodic and event Based, calculated as a balanced score card . Used largely for Management
Ability to define scores and weight ages based on KPI's using multi paned screens and multiple visual elements
Ability to drill down from highest level of scores to contributors of the score until the lowest level of information across dimensions applicable to Business perspective

Ability to switch from visual to charts and tables, reports with conditional formatting
Availability of High personalization capabilities for end users.

Strategies, Objective: Enterprise Alignment
Goals, and
Obiprti Purpose: Common communication and usage
Presentation: Visual, Textual and Scoring
Updates: Business change management, Non real time
Data: Reference Information, Creation or Extraction from source
Ability to view the performance of KPI's Metrics against the Strategy, goals in various forms of Output (Dashboard, Sccrecard, Alert, IB, Reports and graphs)
Ability to perform impact and casual effect analysis on system
Ability to do simulation of strategies and forward performance analysis
Ability to personalize the outputs and view:; on perspective and time
Ability to have multiple views calendarized on the period of viewing the
Strategy Maps and drill down to lowest level of impact areas.

.nitiatives
Objective: Initiatives for Performance improvement
Purpose: Create and Manage initiative, actions across people, Process
Presentation: Visual, Textual, Alerting
Updates: Event, Manual, period

Data- Event, activity completion , Updating by users
Ability to view Initiatives linked to Objectives to understand the status and activities performed for performance improvement.
Ability to create initiatives and Link to metrics / Objectives.
Ability to create Milestones and link to the Objectives.
Ability to prioritize initiatives based on Matrix of initiative to urgency and relative importance. Also group initiatives with relevance and milestones.

Ability to conduct impact analysis
Ability to perform Fish bone analysis.
Ability to view initiatives by Objective, people, Timeline, owners and Impact.
Ability to read from external Project clocuments and integrate with the internal defined initiatives both for dates and overlapping milestones.
Ability to conduct reviews, from status to root cause analysis linking with current and historical metric performance:.
Ability to view metric performance pre, ongoing and post initiative and linking the metric to initiative tracking.
Ability to track and send auto reminders for status based on the priority and completion status.
Reporting Objective : Business , Management and operational reporting
Purpose : Create , manage and distribute reports to all users
Presentation : Text, charts, data table, Spreadsheets
Updates : Near real time, Batch, Period , Query based/On demand
Data : Any data in the data store
General features :
Capability to Create Standard and Ad-hoc Reports.
Capability to Create End user (View / filter) and Business user reports (Create, Schedule, Deploy)
Capability to have the Web based reports (Create and Publish)
Capability to have Real time and Histo-ical reports
Capability to have Report Publications
Capability to export to XLS, PDF, RTF etc./ Select destination of publishing (E-mail, Portlet/Brdwser, FTP, Hand held device)
Capability to have alert and error management for generation/delivery and Non generation/non delivery
Capability for rich Formatting and personalization

Standard Reports features
Capability to define Templates on perspective (Product-Sales, Revenue-Cost, Agent Performance, Process performance, Line of Business
Performance) or combination of perspectives (Product Sales - Revenue,
Skill-Agent-call-revenue).
Capability to create reports based on pre-defined templates.
Capability to Schedule a report for a defined period and users
Capability to generate on request basis and schedule if necessary
Capability to regenerate reports

Ad-hoc Reports features:
Capability to allow the reports to be created dynamically at run-time (ad-hoc report?) by selecting metrics , Reference , Transaction and pass any dimension.
Capab'lity to allow reports to be created with parameter set that would be required to be filter report data at run time.

Schedule the Ad-hoc report if repeatability is a factor
Report Design / Creation / Publishing Features
Capability to create both free form & intera:tive reports. Free-form reports
can have data as well as powerful charts, while grid reports allow for

advanced analytics such as grouping, sorting, filtering, etc. Freeform layout
allows you to create flexible layouts in any form . j

I i
! Capability to create Template and use different data sets for the same
\ template. Ability to store templates and reuse.
| Capability to support creation multiple types of reports ( Cross Tab, Form-
! Style, Sub reports, conditional reports, OLAP reports, Drill down/sub reports,
! Conditional reports, Top/bottom reports... )
i
! Capability to choose any metric, data column from the data store.
I Capability to define/change data formatting rules
Capability to define/change data presentation rules

Capability to have Text and calculated columns j
Capability to support standard functions and user defined calculations

Capability to support Pivot table reporting or Interface with MpacT data store for conducting Pivot table analysis
Capability on drag and drop utilities for commonly used report components such as the connection object, charts, alignment bands (header, footer, title, summary, etc.). This should enable users to drag and drop the required objects to the layout.
Capability to visualize the report even while creating the report or preview the Report on Run time.
Capability to specify the number of records (data) to be displayed (Max
Records field for reducing the loading time of the report.
Charting Objective : Business, Management and Operational Metric Status and Trend
; Analysis
Purpose : Create, View and conduct Analysis using charting
Presentation : Charts ( Visual)
Updates '.Event Real time , Interval/period and Historical
Data : Metrics, raw and Calculated values
General features :
Capability to Create Predefined Charts and Publish for viewing
Capability to create Run time charts
Capability to create Real time ( event based ) Chart population. The charts (esp real-time charts) should automatically refresh to present current data at a pre-defined refresh rate. This refresh rate can be set for each chart.
Chart Creation features
Capability to create Multiple chart types ( Line, Point, column, bar, pie, Area, Range, Polar, Gantt, Funnel , Combination, Statistical, funnel, Range... ) and plat against the metrics.
Capability to support for all measures and combination of measures in MpacT. Type of chart to be dependent on the Metric and applicability.
Capability to support all data elements from the data store. However a

separate configuration can be provided so that at implementation time I various data objects can be exposed based on the organization-specific
requirements of viewing the data as a chart.
Capability to support Multiple series on a I co-ordinate lines (X - Axis, Y -
i
Axis etc.) of the chart
Capability to define multiple plotting areas, series, formats .legends, Axis and templates.

Capability to support multiple Legends , Docking and Alignment
Capability to support Date/Time series and missing points support ,
Capability to support custom points, custom events and custom no data message formats
Capability to support Title features ( Docking, alignment, positioning, text tyles and appearance )
Capability to support multiple visual types ( 2D, 3D, Gradient, Hatching.... ) [
Capability to support multiple Axis features (Logarithmic , Lines, scaling, Tick marks... )
Capability to support color pallets.
Capaoility to support multiple layouts .
Capability to support Financial , Statistical , arithmetic Operators and formulae's.
Capability to support run time formulae's.
Capability to support interactivity between charts , sub charts and drill down
on metrics and dimensions.

Capability to covert chart to data tables
Capability to generate Limit charts and point charts.

Capability to export , mail and attach the chart to documents.

Analytics Objective : Data Analysis for Strategies and Performance improvements Query and

Analysis
Purpose : Conduct Analysis on Data set Presentation : Text, visual
Updates : Real time , Historical, Data : Any data in data store , Metrics
Analytics is an extension of features of "eporting and Charting explained above.
Reporting, charting and Analytics car be a combined functionality depending on the User requirement and complexity of usage.
Support access for Multi dimensional data extraction
Support drill down, drill through, slice and dice of information
Ability for Real Time Analysis: Drag-and-drop functionality, which enables to manipulate data in real-time outputs. Collapsible outlines which define the hierarchy of information and display exactly the information that is selectad.
Ability for Offline Analytics: Extracted reports / outputs to be saved and made available for any statistical / analytical tool for further analysis which are not part of MpacT.
Ability for Advanced analytics: Operations such as grouping, sorting, filtering, adding pivot tables, etc.
Ability for Filtering: Filtering options to filter the records displayed in a report and add additional dimensions and data points for producing perspective and combination of data.
Capability for conditional formatting.
Capability to access data from any MpacT data store and synchronize it within a single outputs Creation of Super record set)
Ability to create custom queries including sub queries, combined queries, and edit SQL.
Ability to Support for the vast majority of the full-client formula and calculation functions
Ability of advanced output creation features such as data ranking and custom sorts
Alerts/IB Objective : Actionable Real time Alerting on Business metrics for Corrective
and Predictive Management

Purpose : Define alerts , Deliver and Track Actions. Presentation ; Text, visuals
Updates : Real Time, Event, Predictive calculations, Summaries.
Data : Metrics , Events.
Ability to support multiple types of Alerts
Ability to support Event based Alerting ( An event on Source system, MpacT data store )
! Ability to support Alerting on Business process Metric Value covering i people level metrics, Process level metrics and Technology asset ; performance metrics
■! Abilitv to alert on a data Calculated value t ireshold adherence
I Ability to support predicative alerting ( based on lead Metrics )
i i
! Ability to support subscription of alerts based on content and type
Ability to publishing of alerts on different channels ( Browser, PDA, SMS, Email, Wall board Broadcast)
Ability tc define the Alert description by Business user ( Alert type, Group, Applicability, Level, Measurement frequency ..)

Ability to define Alerting condition (define the business rules for alerting based on certain conditions and comparison of real-time values to the target
threshold values using arithmetic / logical operators)
•
Ability to define Alerting Action (define the action and action attributes for a
combination of alert and alert condition and recipients )

Ability to define Aggregations and Alert escalations based on the event, condition and recipients lists )
Ability to maintain an alert History and user should be able to search query and filter alerts on perspectives, metrics, people, Process , time period and group of Business activity.

Ability to support re-alerting based on the repetition of events , metric value thresholds as set in the definition of Alert conditions.
Ability to link Alert to detail reporting ,charting fo." a Metric, Event, process, group , Time period for detailed analysis.

Collaboration
Objective : Collaborate between different functions and people for Information , knowledge share and Actions
Purpose : Communicate and Collaborate across people and process
Presentation : Text, messaging, Visual, Documents
Updates : On Line , real time
Data : User defined , shared
General features :
A stack of collaboration tools can be integrated with MpacT depending on the requirement and usage of the tools.
Capability to integrate and interact with MpacT.
Capability to write information to MpacT database
Capability to have threaded discussions
Capability for file sharing.
Capability to distribute information on multiple channels.
Sample Tools and respective Functionality
Ability to Chat : Chat with the other users of MpacT and store the text chat details for further usage. Threading is required.
Support White Board : Display of drawings, pictures or documents for group discussion and comment. Participants can annotate in real time as well. Store details in MpacT database if user demands.
Bulletin Board : Used to post notices and facilitate discussions on any topic. Discussion Boards : Topics to be posted on MpacT for discussion and
I comment where participants can follow a line of discussion on a topic

File sharing : Connect to Virtual file cabinets from MpacT and allow information to be stored on web servers, and are available to anyone authorized on MpacT to use the files.
Application sharing : MpacT to be the single window and provide link for other applications .
Work Flow To be discussed ; Need direction from Product management Group to I document this section
Knowledge \ To be discussed ; Need direction from Product management Group to Management | document this section

E-Leaming i To be discussed ; Need direction from Product management Group to I document this section.
DESIGN OF THE INVENTION:
MpacT uses the best technology available today, both in terms of off-the-shelf products as well as application development methodologies and tools. Best practices based on market research as well as several hundred man-years of experience have been brought in to create application and data integration within the platform. From the outset, the platform has been designed to be portable, flexible and scalable, so that it can operate effectively in diverse environments.
The platform of the MpacT comprises off-the-shelf third party applications; best-of-breed tools and J2EE based application components, which help to maintain the reliability, availability, manageability, performance and scalability of the platform.
The principal architectural strategies employed ensure a reliable and scalable platform. MpacT leverages proven off-the-shelf technology components for standard functionality like portals, document management, workflow, reporting, Bl, ETL (Extract, Transform and Load), and messaging. MpacT platform achieves seamless integration among MpacT and third party applications by enabling integration at multiple levels. ETL based

data integration into data stores like ODS (Operational data store) and Data warehouse to support integration of historical information for reporting and Analytics.
MpacT uses a message bus to support workflow data integration and delivery to multiple channels like browser, e-mail, SMS anc Walboards. J2EE is used for development of all MpacT application components. VIpacT is developed with a strong focus on current and emerging industry-wide standards like WSRP (Web Services for Remote Portlets) for application delivery' through the portal, XML (Extended Markup Language) based messaging, J2EE patterns for application development and integration.
MpacT has a generic data model, which minimizes heed for custom development. These architectural principles ensure that MpacT applications and services operate in a high reliability and availability environment, yet they maintain a loose coupling with each other, so as to ensure their ability to accommodate multiple deployment environments. This helps to protect any investments customers of MpacT may have made in other applications and infrastructure.
The technical architecture is depicted in Figure 2.
As explained previously, the Mpact comprises four tiers and the first tier is the instrumentation tier, which does the function of data gathering. The Extract, Load and Transform (ETL) are the first step in the data gathering process. Data may be gathered from external sources or systems 210. The external systems 210 include but do not limit to Human Resource System (HR) 201, Call Management System (CMS) 202, Automatic Call Distributors (ACD) 203, Work Force Management (WFM) System 204, Quality Management System (QSM) 205, and XLS 206. Mpact's ETL can use an industry strength ETL tool like informatica or Microsoft DTS service to meet the Tier 1 functionality.
The external systems 210 use a plurality of adaptors such as DB Adapters 221, Event Adapter 222, Screen Adapter 223, Web Services 225, and XLS, CSV 225. These adaptors work on getting data extracted through the following mechanisms.

1. HTTP - Screen Scraping
2. ODBC - connectivity to source systems
3. TCP/ IP - Listeners to ports for packet data
4. Web Service - Executing queries oi systems
5. CTI Link - Gathering switch events in real time
By periodicity, there are adaptors that gather data as per ihe following time frames
1. End of Day
2. End of Interval - Half hourly
3. Real Time / Near Real time
According to the present invention, an Operationa Data Store (ODS) 240 and a Stage 230 is provided in the Mpact architecture. The ODS 240 and the Stage 230 form the central store of all performance related data that is extracted from various source systems 210. The data is stored in stage 230 in a vendor neutral way so as to enable integration to sources provided by various vendors. The translation of the data from jach vendor to a common format is done using the linked repository.
In MpacT ODS 240 consists of both real-time and historic: data. Data Integration tier or the instrumentation layer is responsible for obtaining and transforming the data from source systems 210 and loading it to the staging area of ODS 240. The staging data would be processed by the Transformation Module 232 (for lookups, establishing relationships etc.) and loaded into the ODS 240. The ODS 240 provides data for various MpacT modules like security authority 250, portal presentation layer) 280, Business Analysis Model (BAM) Engine 260, Chart/Report Component 270 as shown in figure 2.
The security authority 250 contains the details of the authorized business users 251 and administrative users 252. Each authorized user 251 , 252 may access the presentation tier after the secured login.
The BAM Engine 260 is the Business layer engine designed to provide Build Measures 261, Rule Engine 262, Generate Notification 263, and Cispatcher 264. The measures

Events are available to BAM Engine 260 from a scheduler 290, which is used To schedule events to trigger the building and evaluation of a measure. The Data Integration Layer or the instrumentation layer will provide real time events, which the BAM dnaine 260 will nrocess to build and evaluate a measure. These measures are stored [n measure repository 265.
ODS 2|40 is broadly responsible for providing a data source to the operations, proviaing data wjth the required granularity to cater Reports 281, Charts 282, Dashboard 283, Real-tirfie Alerts & Information broadcast (IB) 284, helpirg in monitoring service level commit|ments (both external and internal Service Level Agreements "SLAs"), and providing data that is aggregated along the dimensions- of time, groups, service and physica| locations. The reports 281 and charts 282 are stored in the report repository 292 anq the chart repository 293 respectively.
The tim|e refers to actual transaction time that may consist of half,an hour, a day, a week, a| month, three months, or a year. The groups may comprise an agent, working unit, operations unit, or any other group. The service may include customer service, collections, help desk, sub-process, process, client, or organization. The physical location^ may include facility, city, state, country, region.
The m^del has subject areas that address transact on performance, employee
performance and process service levels, support service levels, transaction quality, etc
with reference data for each. Mpact uses this Hybrid data modeling approach, which
brings ih the features/capabilities of Dimensional Modeling as well as ER (Entity
Relationship) Modeling into design. This can satisfy users like Charting / Reporting who
» requireslhuge volume of aggregated data as veil as Business Activity Monitoring "BAM"
applications that needs specific sets of data. Apart from this, this model can be extended
without any major impact to the existing design with this approach.
The invention allows less number of join is required compared to the 3 Normal Form Modeling (3NF modeling) to provide faster data retrieval, less Impact on model if there is change In source system, rolling up and rolling down of data on dimensional data elements without any complex queries/joins.
The Storage layer stores data in multi dimensional, Online Analytical Processing "OLAP" schem|a which supports slice & dice facility along with drill up & down in multi dimensional analysis.
Figure 13 shows the usage of message bus and is explained as follows.The invention uses n|iessages buses as backbone for loosely coupled and flexible architecture. It uses Measurement Gathering Channel 310 to collect/ gather raw data from external systemls. Also this uses another kind of message bus Measurement Distribution Channel 320 to distrioute the consolidated measure to presentation tier 104 or business analytics 103.
Referring again to figure 2, a Unified Measure Model (UMM)' 231 is designed to cater to all the consumer applications. This is the layer wiich sits in between ODS 240 and consumers or end users. It stores fetches data from ODS 240 and computes in accordance with business requirements and presents to consumers. The execution flow of UMrvf is shown in figure 4.
The unjiqueness in the design of the present invention is the ability to manage the measurje definition by business users. Though dimensiona model supports, sparse facts through! the concept of fact dimension, the ability to confic ure the fact in fact dimension is uniqije to UMM 231. This has also achieved the objective of storing the aggregated measure ror real time alerts.
Anothej key aspect of the UMM 231 is that it can be configured to handle any base and derived measure, it can handle queries across various operational areas like operations and finance. The UMM 231 is also designed to be generic to handle different kinds of dimenspns.
Figure 4 shows the design of the Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) engine 260. The BAM engine 260 ensures the process of generation* of real time/near real time alerts, messagjes, and reports for subscribed business users.
BAM engine 260continuously looks for events or activities that take place within the system.! Generally, measures Events are available to BAM Engine 260 from the

scheduler, which is used to schedule events to trigger the; building and evaluation ofea* measure. The Data Integration Layer or the instrumentation layer 101 will provide real time events, which the BAM engine 260 will process to build and evaluate a measure.
As shown in figure 4, the BAM engine 260 is designed to perform the following functions:
• Building the measure 261: The BAM engine 260 will use the measure repository 265 to get the data required to build tie measure.
• Evaluating the measure: The BAM engine 260 will build the rule expression, and the data required to process the rule, .and use a rule engine 262 to evaluate the rule.
• Generating a notification: Based on the rule result, the BAM engine 260 will use the subscription repository 291 to generate notifications for all subscribed users.
• Dispatching the notification: The BAM engine 260 wiil use a dispatcher 264 to dispatch the notification by user to the appropriate channel.
The BAM Engine 260 is a J2EE component. As it is designed generically, it can be used for any domain for Business Activity monitoring purpose. As BAM engine designed for loosely coupled fashion, it uses Java Messenger Service "JMS" message layer 320 for its input/ output. BAM engine 260 can be deployed in multiple servers. As the message layer uses Queue, all BAM engine 260 instances make competitive subscription to the queue. Hence one event consumed by only one BAM Engine instance alone. This fashion, the load is distributed evenly and fault tolerance also managed. The following are USP (?) of the BAM engine 260.
Rules definition
a. Activity Monitoring
i. Support for Complex Event Definition Rule Definition
ii. Support for Realtime and Scheduled Events
iii. Aggregation and Consolidation

b. Action
i. Support for Multiple Delivery Modes (Alerts, IE)
ii. Support for Escalations/Re-alerting
c. Delivery
i. Subscription Based (Multi-Level, Profile based subscription)
ii. Support for Multiple Delivery Channels (Portal, Email, SMS)
BAM engine uses Quartz (open source) as scheduler and Rhino, an open source Java Script Engine, is used for processing the rule. BAM engine uses OS cache ^open source) as caching framework.
Referring again to figure 2, the presentation tier 104 provides an integrated Reporting 281, Charting 282, Dash boarding 283 and Alerts/IB 284 framework. This helps users to visualize the health of the contact center. The framework provides profile-based access to information that can be customized to groups need and personalized to user's need. The presentation tier 104 is written in J2EE and is generic to provide the information required for third party reporting and dash boarding tools.
The foregoing description of the invention has been describee for purposes of clarity and understanding. It is not intended to limit the invention to the precise form disclosed. Various modifications may be possible within the scope and equivalence of the appended claims.

WE CLAIM
1. A business performance management system comprising:
an instrumentation layer configured for deriving plurality of measurement information from multiple sources and integrating said measurement information
in a canonical format;
a consolidation layer configured for filtering and preprocessing instrumentation layer output and capturing all measurement information in an operational data storage;
a business modeling layer configured for processing said measurement
information;
a presentation layer configured for dispersing said measurement information.
2. The business performance management system of claim 1, wherein the multiple sources include relational database, multi-dimensional database, flat, modern and legacy database, enterprise applications, mainframe entries and the like.
3. The business performance management system of claim 1, wherein the measurement information is integrated in the instrumentation layer by cleansing, validation, auditing and synchronizing the derived data through ETL/EAI tool.
4. The business performance management system of claim 1, wherein
consolidation layer comprises of multiple databases including Knowledge Management
and E-learning Repository, Metadata, Event Store, CLAP, ODS, Data Mart, and Data
Warehouse.
5. The business performance management system of claim 1, wherein the business modeling layer is configured to provide plurality of Business Definitions, Performance Measurement Events, Roles and Rules for consumption of content and information, Administration and Security.
6. The business performance management system of claim 1, wherein the business modeling layer is a bridge between the consolidation layer and the presentation layer.

7. The business performance management system of claim 1, wherein the business modeling layer is interactivity based layer.
8. The business performance management system of claim 1, wherein the business modeling layer is a business user usage area.
9. The business performance management system of claim 1, wherein the presentation layer is configured to provide different forms and channels of distribution of Information to different end users.
10. The business performance management system of claim 1, wherein the presentation layer uses a message bus to support workflow, data integration and delivery to multiple channels like browser, e-mail, SMS and Wallboards.
11. The business performance management system of claim 1, wherein the presentation layer provides both real-time and historic data.
12. The business performance management system o: claim 1, wherein a Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) Engine is provided in the 3usiness modeling layer.
13. The business performance management system of claim 12, wherein the BAM engine is configured to generate real time/near real time alerts, messages, and reports for subscribed business users.
14. A method for providing integrated business performance management platform, the method comprising the steps of:
deriving plurality of measurement information from multiple sources in an instrumentation layer;
integrating said measurement information in a canonical format within the instrumentation layer;
filtering and preprocessing instrumentation layer output in a consolidation layer having an operational data storage;
capturing all measurement information in said operational data storage of the consolidation layer;

processing said measurement information within a business modeling layer; and
dispersing said measurement information to end users through a presentation layer.
15. The method of claim 14, wherein the multiple sources include relational database, multi-dimensional database, flat, modern and legacy database, enterprise applications, mainframe entries and the like.
16. The method cf claim 14, wherein the measurement information is integrated in the instrumentation layer by cleansing, validation, auditing ;and synchronizing the derived data through ETL/EAI tool.
17. The method of claim 14, wherein consolidation layer comprises of multiple
databases including Knowledge Management and E-learning Repository, Metadata,
Event Store, OLAP, ODS, Data Mart, and Data Warehouse.
18. The method of claim 14, wherein the business modeling layer is configured to provide plurality of Business Definitions, Performance Measurement Events, Roles and Rules for consumption o. content and information, Administration and Security.
19. The method of claim 14, wherein the business-modeling layer is a bridge between the consolidation layer and the presentation layer.
20. The method of claim 14, wherein the business-modeling layer is interactivity based layer.
21. The method of claim 14, wherein the business modeling layer is a business user usage area.
22. The method of claim 14, wherein the presentation layer is configured to provide different forms and channels of distribution of Information to different end users
23. The method of claim 14, wherein the presentation layer uses a message bus to support workflow, data integration and delivery to multiple channels like browser, e-mail, SMS and Wallboards.

24. The method of claim 14, wherein the presentation layer provides both real-time
and historic data.
25. The method of claim 14, wherein a Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) Engine is
provided in the Business-modeling layer.
26. The method of claim 25, wherein the BAM eng[ne is configured to generate real
time/near real time alerts, messages, and reports for subscribed business users.
27. A computer program product embodied on a computer readable medium for
providing integrated business performance management platform, the computer
program product comprising computer instructions for:
configuring an instrumentation layer for deriving plurality of measurement information from multiple sources and integrating said measurement information in a canonical format;
configuring a consolidation layer for filtering and preprocessing instrumentation layer output and capturing all measurement information in an operational data storage;
configuring a business modeling layer for processing said measurement
information; and
configuring a presentation layer for dispersing said measurement information.

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