CN107085588B

CN107085588B - Networking fractional communication system

Info

Publication number: CN107085588B
Application number: CN201710032331.7A
Authority: CN
Inventors: G.拉曼; B.克雷姆斯
Original assignee: SAP SE
Current assignee: SAP SE
Priority date: 2016-02-15
Filing date: 2017-01-16
Publication date: 2021-01-29
Anticipated expiration: 2037-01-16
Also published as: CN107085588A

Abstract

The invention relates to a telecommunications method for communicating score data over a network (116), the method comprising: sending (402), by a client application (114) of a mobile telecommunication device (102), a request to a remote system (120) via a network, the request comprising a user ID of a user who has been authenticated to the client application; in response to receiving the request, selectively calculating (406) a time-stamped score of the request trigger for the physical object assigned to the user; and optionally, returning (410) current and previously computed request trigger scores to the client application in the event that the current request trigger score (138) differs from the request trigger score computed in response to the last request by the same user (158) for the same organization and the same physical object.

Description

Networking fractional communication system

Technical Field

The present invention relates to telecommunications systems, and more particularly to the use of telecommunications systems for fractional communication.

Background

Delivering applications and data to mobile workers over a network is a problem for many organizations and companies that have real-world (field) operations, particularly mobile repair and maintenance services in the field. Implementing full connection mobility (real-time access) is considered to be very important to ensure worker productivity (first-access service-call completion), fast and reliable service resolution, cost control, and profitability opportunities. Giving field personnel more timely access to technical data managed by a back-end system (e.g., a CRM system or technical knowledge base) and/or data related to a customer allows the field personnel to increase productivity. This requires a reliable and stable network connection.

For example, a company may have sold complex machines (e.g., microscope systems, complex biomedical devices, machines used in automated production lines, etc.) to multiple customers, and may employ assembly, operation, and maintenance personnel that are highly technically qualified and trained for repairing and maintaining the complex machines at the customer's site. The machine may automatically send status information and error codes to a backend system maintained by the company. The back-end system may constantly monitor and evaluate status information and/or error codes for calculating a score indicating what actions assembly, operation, and maintenance personnel will perform in order to install, test, or repair the complex machine.

According to another example, the score value provided by the back-end system may be a technical parameter for configuring operation of the machine. For example, the back-end system may monitor the quantity, status, and/or availability of consumables and production resources and automatically calculate a score for the consumables and production resources that may increase or decrease the relative amount of resources or consumables used by the machines used to produce certain goods or perform certain analytical tests in order to reduce costs or optimize technical parameters of the goods produced, such as mechanical durability, weight, elasticity, and so forth.

Service information such as component availability or repair tips may need to be checked at the customer's site to resolve the problem more quickly. Updating field service tickets may enable call center based service representatives to give real-time status reports. Poor cellular network and technology performance in the field may result in longer downtime, reduced productivity, and even misjudgment by field personnel.

However, there are a number of technical problems in providing reliable access to information maintained in backend systems for field-based personnel: at the customer's site, there may be no connection to the mobile network or only an unstable connection to the mobile network; also, field personnel's mobile devices tend to have fairly small displays (smart phones, tablets, netbooks, etc.), and thus the processing of a client application that requests score information from a backend system and displays the score information on the display of the mobile device may be difficult.

For example, a touch screen of a smartphone is often unsuitable for quickly inputting large amounts of data. Furthermore, data provided by backend systems is typically confidential, but protecting the data through additional authentication procedures and requirements may reduce productivity of field-based employees. Moreover, there is a risk that: data that has been received from the backend system by field-based personnel has become outdated, but frequent refresh rates may consume battery power and thus may shorten battery life time.

Disclosure of Invention

It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved telecommunications system, method, and computer program product for communicating a (communicating) score over a network to a mobile telecommunications device as specified in the independent claims. Embodiments of the invention are given in the dependent claims. Embodiments of the present invention can be freely combined with each other without mutual exclusivity.

A "database management system" (DBMS) is a specifically designed software and/or hardware-based application designed to allow the definition, creation, querying, updating, and administration (administration) of one or more databases. Typically, a DBMS is operable to interact with users, interact with other applications, and interact with one or more databases managed by the DBMS to process some requests and analyze data. The DBMS may allow for the definition, creation, querying, updating, and administration of databases. Well known DBMSs include MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, SQLite, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Access, Oracle, SAP HANA, dBASE, FoxPro, IBM DB2, and the like.

As used herein, a "database" is a collection of electronic information organized in memory or on non-volatile storage in the form of a specifically defined data structure. Preferably, the structure supports or is optimized for data retrieved through a specific type of database query (e.g., an SQL query).

A "data record," as used herein, is a data item that includes one or more attributes of an object (e.g., of a physical object or organization).

As used herein, a "score" is a numerical value that indicates a characteristic of a data record, either absolutely or relatively. The fraction may be, for example, an integer or a floating point number. Which can represent, for example, a scale value of a technical scale (e.g., temperature, pressure, degree of wear and tear), a percentage value, a state of the machine, a number of physical objects still present in the consumable container of the machine, etc.

A request-triggered score is a score triggered by the receipt of a request to either compute it or retrieve it from a database. A scheduler-triggered (scheduler-triggered) score is a score for which the computation or retrieval from a database is triggered by the scheduler regularly and independently of the reception of a request related to the score.

"login data" as used herein is data provided by a user to an application for authentication with the application. The login data can include, for example, a PIN, a password, biometric data of the user (e.g., a fingerprint), and so forth.

A "client application" is a computer program designed to perform a set of collaborative functions, tasks, or activities for the benefit of a user. According to an embodiment, the client application is an application with customized functionality and a customized GUI that is particularly suited for managing, requesting, and displaying scores for physical objects and additional data associated with the physical objects.

As used herein, a "remote system" is a distributed computer system or a single-chip computer system that is operatively coupled to a client application program via a network. For example, the remote system may be a single server computer or a collection of interoperable server computers (e.g., a collection of computers in a cloud environment).

In one aspect, the present invention relates to a telecommunications method for communicating score data over a network.

A client application of the mobile telecommunications device sends a request of the user to a remote system via a network. The request includes a user ID for which the user has been authenticated to the client application. The user is one of a plurality of users registered with the remote system.

In response to receiving the request, the remote system identifies one or more organizations and one or more physical objects assigned to the user ID of the user. The user is one of a plurality of users registered through the remote system. The remote system selectively calculates a current request-triggered score for each of the identified physical objects, storing a timestamp associated with each calculated score. Optionally, if the score of the current request trigger is different from the score of the request trigger calculated in response to the last request by the same user for the same organization and the same physical object, the remote system returns both the score of the current request trigger and the score of the previously calculated request trigger to the client application via the network.

The client application displays to the authenticated user both the current and previous request-triggered scores.

The remote system calculates scheduler-triggered scores for a plurality of physical objects regularly and independently of receipt of a request regardless of the user to whom the physical object is assigned. The remote system thus derives a timestamp associated with the score for each scheduler trigger. The remote system then compares the score of each scheduler trigger to the score of the request trigger that was most recently calculated for the same organization and the same physical object and for each of the plurality of users registered with the remote system.

When it is determined that one of the scores of the dispatcher triggers is different from the score of the request trigger most recently calculated for the user for the same organization and physical object, the remote system sends a message to the other application running on the mobile telecommunications device. The message includes an indication of the scheduler triggered score or change in score.

In response to receiving the message, the other application indicates to the user that the score change occurred regardless of whether the user is currently authenticated to the client application. The indication may be implemented, for example, by displaying a notification that the score has changed and/or outputting a sound signal (e.g., a voice message) and/or outputting a vibration signal (via a mobile telecommunications device, such as a smartphone that supports vibration functionality).

This feature may be advantageous because a way of communicating score information securely and at the same time very conveniently is provided: two separate communication channels for communicating score information to a user (e.g., field-based staff) are used: the first communication channel selectively provides score information to a user who has been authenticated at the client application. Thus, a user that does not have access permission to the client application will not be able to submit a request with a user ID and will not receive any score data in response to the request. The user is not required to log into the client application via the second communication channel of the other application. However, the second communication channel selectivity sends a score change notification to registered users. Thus, only registered users will be notified of a score change provided that the registration process is secure and that the address information of said other applications provided to the remote system during the registration process is correct and up-to-date.

The first communication channel is primarily used for exchanging score information related to requests, while the second communication channel is primarily used for communicating score change events, regardless of whether the user is currently logged in a client application that is "normally" used for requesting and monitoring scores. For example, the client application may be a custom application with a custom GUI for displaying score details or displaying technical and other data including scores.

Moreover, the method is fast and reduces network traffic, as only the score of the physical object assigned to a particular user is returned to the client application. Regular score requests by the client application are not required, as the checking of the rules of the score change event is run autonomously by the remote system and independently of the request. This reduces the total number of requests and the total amount of data that needs to be exchanged via the network in order to ensure that field-based personnel receive up-to-date point information: if the user has authenticated to the client application (has logged into the client application), then current information may be requested from the server.

The remote system "knows" the score information that has been communicated to the client application based on a user's previous request (e.g., based on the user's previous login action to the client application). In the event that the score communicated already is up-to-date, the remote system may not return any score information. This may further reduce network traffic.

Moreover, the user is not required to log into the client system multiple times a day in order to ensure that the score information is up-to-date when he or she arrives at a particular organization (e.g., a particular customer). This can reduce power consumption because: fewer applications are started on the mobile telecommunications device (insulation), the less energy is consumed and the longer the battery life. In case the score assigned to the physical object of the user has been changed in the backend system, the user can rely on being actively notified immediately (via a push service) via said other application (which may be running in any way on the mobile telecommunication device, e.g. a social network client or a mail client).

Launching many applications (other than client applications) on a mobile telecommunications device may reduce productivity for employees and also stem from the user having to switch between multiple different programs, which may not be easy to handle on a small device such as a smartphone. By being notified of any score changes in the backend system in dependence of the push service, the user is only rarely (when actually needed) required to launch and authenticate at the client application. This will reduce the power consumption of the mobile device, will reduce network traffic by avoiding the sending of a score request triggered by login for being notified of a score change, and will also increase productivity of field-based employees.

According to some embodiments, the remote system selectively returns the current request-triggered score to the client application via the network when none of the current request-triggered scores differ from the request-triggered scores computed in response to previous requests by the same user for the same organization and the same physical object. Alternatively, the remote system selectively returns an indication that the score for the particular physical object has not changed in this case. This may reduce network traffic.

According to an embodiment, the client application is configured to cache scores for a plurality of request triggers received from the remote system in response to a plurality of requests. For example, a client application is configured to cache an assigned timestamp of the client application that has been received by the client application from a remote system after a last login action by a user for the client application. In one of the described embodiments, the remote system does not even return the calculated score. Instead, the remote system returns an indication that the score has not changed and that the last login score cached by the client application can be used again. This may further reduce network traffic between the client application and the remote system.

In response to receiving an indication that the score of the request trigger for a particular physical object has not been changed, the client application displays a cached score of the request trigger for the physical object. The caching of the scores performed by the client application may further reduce network traffic.

According to an embodiment, the other application is accessible to the user without requiring the user to authenticate to the other application. For example, the other application may not perform a login action by the user before granting the user access to its functionality. The other application may be, for example, a browser such as Firefox, Internet Explorer, or Chrome, a mail client, and the like. The other application may also be a client application for a social media service, e.g. a client for a social network like facebook or a social media service inside a company. Preferably, the other applications are applications that are typically launched and run on the mobile telecommunications device as they are necessary for the user's normal working routines. This may have the advantage that: the user is not forced to launch and log into the client application in order to be notified of any score changes in response to an explicit request. Instead, starting and running the other application may be sufficient to ensure that the user is notified of the score change due to the other push service based communication channel. Time is saved because the user is not required to enter login credentials for the other application in order to be notified of score changes via the other application.

According to an embodiment, the request is selectively submitted by the client application when the user has successfully authenticated to the client application, or when a (explicit) user action causes the client application to request current score information from the remote system. The user action may be, for example, selection of a GUI element of the client application (e.g., a button that triggers sending a request to the remote system or a drop-down menu item). Thus, in the event of a login event or explicit user action, the current score is selectively calculated and returned to the client device, thereby reducing network traffic, as the client application is configured to not automatically and/or regularly send score requests to the remote system.

According to an embodiment, the calculation of the current request-triggered score comprises calculating a cumulative score for each of a plurality of physical object item quantities. The calculated cumulative score is non-linearly related to the number of physical object items for which the score is cumulative. Returning the current and most recently computed request-triggered scores to the client application includes returning current and most recently computed cumulative scores computed separately for each of the physical object item quantities. In some embodiments, the number of physical object items (number of items of physical object) of the mobile telecommunication device for which a cumulative score should be calculated and returned to the mobile telecommunication device may be predefined in the remote system or may be received from the client application together with the user ID. In the latter case, the number of items may be predefined in the client application and/or may be manually specified by the user.

As used herein, a "physical object item" is a physical entity associated with a particular physical object, whereby the number of physical object items is used as an input for calculating the cumulative score of the physical object to which the physical object item is assigned. The cumulative score depends on the number of physical object items.

According to an embodiment, the number of physical object items is the number of instances of a specific physical object that should be provided with a specific service. For example, a technical service company may have a contract with another company to regularly investigate the number of M machines at a particular production point. Each of the machine instances may correspond to a physical object item instance and may individually indicate a quantity of consumables that need to be filled up to a particular expiration date. The total cumulative score may indicate the total amount of consumables that the field-based maintenance worker needs to bring at his next visit. In this embodiment, each object item instance corresponds to a physical object instance.

According to other embodiments, the physical object instance associated with the physical object corresponds to a component of the physical object, e.g., to a single machine component that may have been assigned single state information. The state information of all components of a machine may be used to calculate a cumulative score for the machine.

In other embodiments, the number of physical object instances corresponds to the number of specific types of machines installed at the premises of a specific company that is technically hosted or maintained by the user. The calculated score for, for example, 50 machines may be an accumulated score value (e.g., an accumulated status indicator value), the time remaining until the next service check is required, the amount of consumable remaining, and so forth. For example, a score calculation for a particular physical object (e.g., a type a machine) may be calculated for 1 physical object item (one type a machine), for 50 physical object items (e.g., 50 type a machines), and for 100 physical object items (e.g., 100 type a machines). According to another example, a score calculation for a particular physical object (e.g., a type B machine) may be calculated for 1 physical object item, for 5 physical object items, and for 10 physical object items (e.g., for 1, 3, or 5 type B machines). The number of items and the association with one or more physical object items having a particular physical object depends on the respective use case scenario.

The client application receives the scores that have been calculated by the remote system for each of the number of items and displays the returned cumulative scores for each of the number of physical object items to the user who has authenticated the client application. The calculation of multiple scores for different quantities of items may be advantageous because it allows field-based personnel to receive scores that are calculated in a very complex and non-linear manner without having to send multiple separate requests for each of the multiple different quantities of items.

According to an embodiment, the request further comprises an organization ID. The request triggered and scheduler triggered scores are computed as organization specific scores. For physical objects assigned to the organization whose ID is contained in the request, a score for the request trigger is selectively computed and returned to the client application.

For example, the organization ID may be the ID of the organization that the user is currently visiting as a field clerk. This may further reduce data traffic via the network, as only the scores specifically assigned to the user and additionally assigned to the physical objects associated with the particular organization identified by the organization ID are calculated and returned to the mobile telecommunications device.

For example, the score may be a technical parameter that determines the energy consumption, output rate, and/or expected life of a particular type of manufacturing machine that has been sold to a plurality of customers, or may be a derivative value calculated from one or more technical parameters. The remote system may have different scoring schemes for calculating machine scores and/or for automatically minimizing energy consumption for different customers, or maximize output rate or maximize life expectancy of the machine by evaluating one or more score values and applying control routines or maintenance routines depending on the score values. This may allow for customized configuration and operation of the machine to optimally comply with the requirements of the company operating the machine. By including the organization ID in the request, an appropriate score calculation scheme customized to the customer's particular needs can be automatically used for score calculation. To give a specific example, the score may indicate the date when the machine requires technical review and investigation, which may depend at least to a lesser extent on the maintenance policy of the company operating and using the machine.

According to an embodiment, the request further comprises an organization ID. The remote system performs the following operations in response to receiving the request:

identifying one or more further physical objects assigned to the organization ID in the request, the further physical objects not being assigned to the user ID in the request;

retrieving a score change history for each of the identified further physical objects; the history is data, e.g., a collection of files or data records, indicating all request-triggered and scheduler-triggered scores that have been computed in the past for a particular physical object; and

each of the retrieved score change histories is returned to the client application via the network.

The client application displays each of the score change histories received by the client application from the remote system on a display of the mobile telecommunications device.

The features may be beneficial in that a user-independent but organization-dependent score history for one or more physical objects associated with the organization is received and displayed by a client application. Thus, a field-based employee visiting a particular customer may receive not only score data for physical objects for which he is responsible (e.g., type a machines that the user is specifically aware of), but may additionally receive score information for other physical objects not assigned to the user (e.g., type B machines that his colleagues are specifically aware of). Thus, a field-based employee may also automatically receive score history information for physical objects that he or she does not normally handle but that are relevant to the currently visited organization. This information may help field-based personnel represent colleagues during vacation. This information may also help field-based staff to obtain a rough overview of the score value of the physical object that is typically responsible for by the colleague, as in some cases this information may ease the resolution of technical issues associated with the physical object assigned to the staff.

For example, the staff member may be responsible for maintenance and repair of type a machines, but not type B machines. Machines of types a and B may be interoperable, and diagnosis and/or correction of a fault of machine a may require knowledge of some fractional values (e.g., some technical and configuration parameters of machine B). In some embodiments, the score may represent a parameter shared by all instances of a given physical object type. In some other embodiments, the score may indicate a characteristic specific to a particular physical object instance (e.g., a particular machine installed at a particular customer according to the customer's particular requirements), such as a configuration parameter, a measured status parameter, and so forth.

According to an embodiment, the remote system comprises a first scheduling module configured to perform the following steps regularly and independently of the reception of a request: triggering the calculation of scheduler triggered scores for all physical objects assigned to any one of a plurality of registered users, and comparing each calculated scheduler triggered score with request triggered scores calculated for the same organization and the same physical objects in response to recent requests by each of the registered users (including the user from which the request was received).

Additionally or alternatively, the remote system further comprises a second scheduling module configured to perform the following steps regularly and independently of the reception of the request: triggering the computation of a scheduler triggered score for creating a history of scores for all physical objects assigned to any one of a plurality of registered users.

Preferably, the first scheduling module has a higher trigger frequency than the second scheduling module.

The use of two independent trigger mechanisms may have the advantage of reducing network traffic. For example, it may be very important to immediately notify a field-based employee of any score changes for the physical objects for which he or she is responsible. Furthermore, there may be hundreds or thousands of physical objects that are not allocated to a staff member, yet whose score history may support the staff member's work or which may be relevant in the case of a vacation representative of a colleague. By using different trigger mechanisms, for example, using hourly or daily triggers for the scores of assigned physical objects and weekly or monthly triggers for the score history of all physical objects, the network traffic can be reduced and the computing resources of the mobile telecommunication device can be saved because: the score change for the physical object will be detected and stored in a history of all physical objects managed by the remote system, regardless of whether they are each assigned to the user, but communicated to the user via the network only if the score change affects an out-of-time score value that has been subscribed to the particular physical object and has been received in parallel with it in response to a previous request.

According to an embodiment, the scores and score changes stored in the history of a particular physical object are communicated in response to user requests submitted via a client application, not only for physical objects to which the user has subscribed, but also for physical objects assigned to an organization to which the user is currently accessing or planning to access, and for physical objects to which the user has not subscribed. The physical objects may be considered "unassigned but related" physical objects for a particular user.

According to an embodiment, the calculation of the request-triggered and/or scheduler-triggered score, and/or the calculation of the cumulative score is performed in real time.

According to an embodiment, the client application is configured to automatically determine the size of the display of the mobile telecommunication device. The client application relies on the determined size to display or hide one or more GUI elements of the GUI of the client application. For example, where the client application determines that it is running on a tablet computer (tabloid) or notebook computer, the client application may display a fractional history graph for one or more physical objects. In the event that the client application determines that it is running on the smartphone, the client application hides the score history map.

The features may be beneficial because the user need not be familiar with different client applications when using different client devices (e.g., desktop computers, tablet computers, and/or smart phones) for requesting current score information. Rather, the client application may automatically adapt to the display size of the respective client device, thereby enabling a user to operate with the same client application on many different client device types.

In yet another aspect, the invention relates to a computer readable storage medium comprising computer interpretable instructions which, when executed by a processor of a mobile telecommunications device and a remote system, cause the mobile telecommunications device and the remote system to perform a method according to any one of the embodiments described herein.

In yet another aspect, the invention relates to a distributed system comprising mobile telecommunication devices hosting (host) client applications and other applications. The distributed system further includes a remote system connected to the mobile telecommunication device via a network (e.g., the internet). The client application is configured to send a user's request to a remote system via a network. In response to receiving the request, the request is configured to perform the following operations:

identifying one or more organizations and one or more physical objects assigned to a user ID of a user, the user being one of a plurality of users registered with a remote system;

selectively calculating a current request-triggered score for each of the identified physical objects, thereby storing a timestamp associated with each calculated score;

optionally, in the event that the current request-triggered score is different from the request-triggered score calculated in response to the same user's last request for the same organization and the same physical object, both the current request-triggered score and the previously calculated request-triggered score are returned to the client application via the network.

The client application is configured to display both current and previous request-triggered scores returned in response to an authenticated user's request.

The remote system is configured to perform the following operations regularly and independently of the receipt of a request:

calculating scheduler-triggered scores for a plurality of physical objects regardless of which user the physical object is assigned to, storing a timestamp associated with each scheduler-triggered score, and comparing each scheduler-triggered score to a request-triggered score that was recently calculated for the same organization and the same physical object, regardless of which user the physical object is assigned to;

when it is determined that one of the scheduler trigger scores is different from the most recently calculated request trigger score for the user for the same organization and physical object, a message is sent from the remote system to other applications running on the mobile telecommunications device, the message including one scheduler trigger score or an indication of a change in the score.

The other application is configured to indicate to the user that a score change has occurred in response to receiving the message, regardless of whether the user is currently authenticated to the client application.

According to an embodiment, the mobile telecommunication device is a battery powered telecommunication device, such as a smart phone or a tablet computer, a netbook, or a notebook computer.

According to some embodiments, the score is a technical parameter derived from a machine owned or used by the organization. For example, a user may belong to a technical maintenance service team that accesses, repairs, and controls machines located at different customers.

According to some embodiments, at least one of the physical objects is a machine communicatively coupled (e.g., via a wired communication line) to a remote system. The machine repeatedly sends technical parameters, such as temperature, error codes, filling level of the fuel tank, amount of remaining consumables, amount of consumables consumed, energy consumption, etc., to the remote system via the communication link. The remote system receives the repeatedly transmitted technical parameters and calculates one or more scores from the technical parameters, the scores indicating, for example, the current state of the machine, and/or a value indicative of the state, and/or a quantitative indication of the number of days remaining until the next technical check is necessary, wear and tear, etc. The score may be calculated in response to a request and/or in response to a signal of a scheduler, as described herein for embodiments of the invention. For example, the score may indicate whether an error or fault is observed in the machine or one of its components, may indicate the number of consumables remaining, the temperature or energy consumption of the machine, and so forth. According to a preferred embodiment, the scheduler for calculating the fraction driven by the scheduler has a fraction calculation frequency of: once every minute or more, or once every second or more. Embodiments of the invention used in the context of field-based maintenance and repair may be particularly beneficial because maintenance personnel are immediately notified via a social media service whether any action performed on the machine to repair the error actually solved the problem, did not work, or even made the state of the machine worse. Further, the maintenance personnel can compare the score that the particular machine had at the last visit, or at the last explicit request for score information, to the currently received score via the GUI of the client application. Thus, maintenance personnel can readily identify trends in wear and tear of the machine, for example, with respect to the effect of any maintenance or repair work done since the last visit and/or on the status of a particular machine as compared.

According to some embodiments, the field-based maintenance team member also receives a history of scores that have been computed by the remote system for such machines: the maintenance of the machine is the responsibility of the colleague, and the machine is also located in the premises of the company that the team member is currently visiting or planning to visit.

According to an embodiment, the client application receives authentication data of the user, analyzes the authentication data, and authenticates the user or denies the user access to the client application. In the event that the user is successfully authenticated to the client application, the client application automatically requests the most recent score information from the remote system by sending a request. The authentication data may include, for example, a password (e.g., a PIN), biometric data (e.g., fingerprint information), or other forms of user credentials.

According to an embodiment, the computer system further comprises a client device. The client device hosts a client application and is operatively coupled to a server computer via a network.

Drawings

Embodiments of the invention will now be described in more detail, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

figure 1 depicts a distributed system including a mobile telecommunications device and a remote system,

figure 2 depicts a series of operations for creating a data record representing a physical object and for calculating a score for a request trigger,

figure 3 depicts a sequence of operations for identifying a score change,

figure 4 depicts the score history of a physical object of a particular type,

FIG. 5 depicts a network-based implementation of a client application;

FIG. 6 depicts a social media message indicating a score change; and

FIG. 7 depicts a flow diagram of a method of an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

Fig. 1 depicts a telecommunications system 100 whose components are configured for communicating score data over a network 116 (e.g., a mobile telecommunications network).

The system includes a mobile telecommunications device 102, such as a smartphone, a netbook, a notebook computer, or a tablet PC. The mobile telecommunications device includes a display 111, an energy source 110 (e.g., a battery), a main memory 106, a tangible, non-volatile storage medium 104, and one or more processors 108. The storage medium (e.g., hard drive) includes computer-interpretable instructions as part of one or more applications that are installed and/or launched on the mobile telecommunications device. For example, a social media client program 113, e.g., a Mail client (such as, e.g., "Mailbox," "BlueMail," "K-9 Mail," or "Mail" (for iOS), MS Outlook, Thunderbird, etc.) or a social network client (e.g., facebook application) may be installed on the mobile communication device. The social media client program may interoperate with a social media service 118 (e.g., a mail server, a cloud service providing a social network, a network-based groupware, or a collaboration platform, etc.) and be configured to receive messages from the social media service 118.

Further, the client application 114 may be installed and/or launched on the mobile telecommunication device 102. The client application may interoperate with a score query service 121 provided by a remote system 120 (e.g., a single server computer or a cloud system comprising multiple computers). The client application 114 is configured to automatically send a request to the remote system 120 for receipt of current score information in accordance with a login event of a user 158 who has successfully authenticated himself to the client application by providing some login data 160 (e.g., a PIN, pass, biometric data, or other credentials). Alternatively, the client application may send the request based on an explicit action by the user that has successfully authenticated to the client application. For example, the explicit action can be a user's action of pressing a button provided by a Graphical User Interface (GUI) of the client application.

The request includes at least an Identifier (ID) of the user 158, and may optionally further include data, such as an identifier of an organization that the user is planning to visit or is currently visiting.

A browser program 112, e.g. Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer, Safari, etc., may be installed on the mobile telecommunications device. According to some embodiments, client application 114 is implemented as a web-based application executing in browser 112. For example, the client application can be implemented as a JavaScript application. According to some embodiments, the client application is a Fiori application. SAP Fiori is a platform that provides for the migration of applications on mobile devices. SAP Fiori is a SAP-based technology platform NetWeaver, supports HTML5, and is available for iOS and Android mobile platforms.

Telecommunication device 102 is connected to remote system 120 via network 116. The network may be, for example, a cellular network or a mobile network (i.e., a communication network in which the last link is a wireless link). The network may be distributed over terrestrial areas known as cells, each cell being served by at least one fixed-location transceiver known as a cell site or base station. This base station provides network coverage for the cell that can be used for transmission of voice, data, etc. In a cellular network, each cell uses a different set of frequencies than neighboring cells in order to avoid interference and to provide guaranteed bandwidth within each cell. When joined together, these cells provide coverage over a wide geographic area.

The remote system, e.g., a server system or a cloud system, includes main memory 152, one or more processors 154, one or more storage media 156, and includes or is operatively coupled to score database 146. The database may be, for example, a relational storage database or a column storage database. The database may be managed by a DBMS (e.g., SAP Hana, MySQL, PostgreSQL, etc.). The database includes a plurality of scores 150 stored in association with identifiers of respective physical objects, and/or includes conditions 151 and other data that may be used as input by a score calculation program (e.g., score query program 122) for calculating and outputting user-specific object scores 136.

The remote system includes a score query Application Programming Interface (API)144 that allows other modules (e.g., score query application 122 and/or repeatedly executed score retrieval job module 142) to request and receive a calculated or predefined score 150 for one or more physical objects.

The remote system hosts a score query service 121, an application program or technology layer that implements a communication protocol suitable for exchanging data with the client application 114. According to some embodiments, the score query service implements a plurality of different communication protocols suitable for exchanging data with different client applications. For example, the fractional query service may implement the ODATA protocol and may be configured to process requests submitted by client applications according to the ODATA communication protocol. In addition, the score query service 121 may implement other REST-based APIs. The score query service converts requests received from the client application into a generic grammar that can be interpreted by the score query application 122 and forwards the generic grammar requests to the score query application 122.

According to some embodiments, the remote system may include a plurality of different score query applications 122, e.g., different applications for calculating different types of scores. In this case, the score query service 121 may be configured to map and forward requests for particular types of scores to respective ones of the score query applications.

According to one example, the plurality of score inquiry applications may include a first application for calculating a status indicator value for a first machine, a second application for calculating a status indicator value for a second machine, and a third application for calculating a status indicator value for a third machine, wherein the first machine may be a bottle cap cutting device, the second machine may be a machine for capping bottles, and the third machine may be an automated conveyor belt for transporting capped bottles to a next machine for downstream processing.

Multiple users (including user 158) may have registered with the remote system and may have subscribed to one or more physical objects whose respective data and scores are managed and provided by the remote system. The system includes a subscription service 124 configured to manage subscriptions of multiple users 158 to multiple different physical objects. For example, the subscription service may include a subscription API 128 that enables the score query application 122 and/or the message application 132 to access the subscription database 126 of the subscription service 124.

The subscription database may include an assignment of user IDs to IDs of physical objects. According to some embodiments, the subscription database 126 further includes an assignment of user IDs to organization IDs, whereby the assignment may imply, for example, that users are responsible for resolving tasks related to physical objects located at a particular organization or that should be provided to the organization.

According to an embodiment, via the user interface of the client application 114 and the subscription API 128, a user is able to modify the assignment of his user ID to a physical object and/or organization in the subscription database 126. Additionally or alternatively, via the social media service (e.g., via configuration email or via any other communication tool of the social media service 118), the user can modify the assignment of user IDs and/or object IDs stored, for example, in the subscription database 126.

Request triggered score computation

In response to receiving the request, the score query application identifies one or more organizations and one or more physical objects assigned to the user ID of the user. The identification of the assigned organization may include: evaluating the request and identifying one of the organizations whose identifier is contained in the request R. User 158 may be one of a plurality of users registered with the remote system and having subscribed to one or more physical objects at subscription service 124. It is possible that multiple users have subscribed to disjoint, overlapping, or identical sets of physical objects or object types.

The score query application 122 is configured to, in response to receiving a request for a user ID of a user 158 who has successfully authenticated with the client application 114, access the subscription service 124 and retrieve the ID(s) of the physical object 136 to which the user has subscribed (i.e., retrieve the ID(s) of the object or object type specifically assigned to the user).

The score query application 122 is further configured to, in response to receiving the request, calculate a score 138 for a current request trigger for at least one identified physical object, where the score may depend on an organization identified in response to the request. The score may be calculated by retrieving the score from a score database via a score query API, or by retrieving some condition and base score from the database 146 and using the condition and base score to calculate the current request-triggered score 138.

The calculation of the request-triggered score is selectively performed for each of the identified physical objects. Thus, the score query application stores a timestamp associated with each calculated score 138. The scores 138 are stored at least until a next further request for score computation for a particular organization is received, so the scores 138 include at least a time-stamped score computed in response to the current request, and a time-stamped score computed in response to a previous request by the same user for the same organization and the same physical object.

For example, the organization identified in response to the request may be identified as a single organization assigned to the user 158 in the subscription database 126. Additionally or alternatively, the request may include an identifier of a particular organization for which a product score should be obtained. In some example embodiments, the identified organization is an organization that the user is currently visiting or planning to visit in the future. To calculate a score for a particular organization, the score query application 122 is configured to retrieve the object scores 150 and/or conditions 151 via the score query API 144. The retrieved scores and/or conditions are used by the score query application to calculate a request-triggered score 136. One or more of conditions 151 may be specific to a particular object, object type, and/or specific to a particular organization.

The score query application checks whether one of the calculated request-triggered scores 138 is different from the request-triggered score 138 that has been calculated in response to a recently received request for the same organization and the same physical object by the same user. Optionally, in the event that one of the calculated scores 138 is different from the previously calculated request-triggered score 138, the score query application returns both the currently calculated and previously calculated request-triggered scores 138 directly to the client application via the network. The client application displays the two scores to the authenticated user.

Scheduler triggered score computation

Further, the score calculation job or module 142 is configured to retrieve and/or calculate the score 148 in response to regularly issued trigger signals of the scheduler 140. The scheduler 140 may be, for example, a regularly executing script, application, or application module. The point in time at which the score 148 is calculated is not dependent on any login actions by the user at the client application, nor any explicit request submissions by the user via the client application. The scheduler trigger score 148 is calculated for each of the physical objects and their respective assigned organizations, regardless of receipt of a request by the client application of the user 158 or any other user that has registered at the remote system. A scheduler-triggered score is calculated for each of a plurality of physical objects managed by a remote system, regardless of which user the physical object is assigned to. Accordingly, the score 148 is also referred to as a "scheduler triggered" or "user independent" score. The score for a request trigger may be calculated in an organization-specific manner according to embodiments. The scores 148 are stored in a score database 146 or in another data structure in a volatile or non-volatile storage medium operatively coupled to the remote system. Repeatedly executed jobs 142 are triggered by the scheduler 140, for example, on an hour or day basis. The job or module 142 assigns a timestamp to each of the calculated scores 148 and stores the timestamp associated with each calculated score 148.

After the dispatcher-triggered score 148 has been computed for a particular physical object or for all physical objects whose IDs are managed by the remote system, the message application 132 compares the dispatcher-triggered score with the request-triggered score 138 that was recently computed for the same organization and the same physical object, regardless of which user the physical object is assigned to. When it is determined that one of the dispatcher trigger scores is different from the score of the request trigger most recently computed for one of the registered users 158 and for the same organization and physical object, the messaging application 132 sends a message from the remote system to other applications 113, such as an email client or social network client application running on the mobile telecommunication device 102 of one user 158. The message is sent in a communication channel different from the communication channel used to communicate the request R from the client application to the remote system. For example, the message is converted by the social media integration service 134 into a grammar that can be interpreted by the social media service 118 for communicating the message from the remote system to the other applications 113. For example, the social media service 118 may be a mail server, the other application 113 may be a mail client, and the social media integration service 118 may generate a message in the form of an email. According to other embodiments, the social media service 118 is a social network, the other application 113 is a client application for the social network, and the social media integration service is configured to generate messages of a grammar that can be interpreted by the social media service 118. The message is passed on to the other application as a push message and the other application is configured to notify the user of the score change immediately upon receipt of the message, for example by outputting an optical signal, a sound signal, or a mechanical (e.g. vibration) signal. According to some embodiments, the social media integration service is implemented using a social media ABAP integration library (SAIL).

The message includes an indication of a scheduler triggered score and/or a change in score. Fig. 6 depicts an example of the message in the form of an email.

The other application receives the message and, regardless of whether the user has authenticated at the client application 114, indicates to the user that a score change has occurred in one of the physical objects to which the user has subscribed.

According to some embodiments, the remote system 120 includes a further scheduler 130 (e.g., a repeatedly executed script, application, or module), calculates a scheduler-triggered score 148 for any of the physical objects managed by the remote system, and stores the calculated score to the history 160. Preferably, the second scheduler 130 has a lower score computation frequency than the first scheduler. For example, the second scheduler may calculate and store the scores on a weekly basis. Using the second scheduler may prevent the creation of a large score history, which would consume network traffic if communicated to the client via the network.

According to an embodiment, the score query application also returns, in response to the request R, a score history calculated for each of the physical objects assigned to the organization identified in response to the request (regardless of whether the user who has submitted the request has subscribed to the object). This may allow the user to have a rough overview of the scores of products that the colleague has registered and that may be relevant to the user who has submitted the current request in the context of the pending task at the particular organization. This may be helpful in the following cases: for example, in the case of a vacation shift, or in the case where a survey of the scores of physical objects technically related to or having a technical impact on a specific physical object for which the user is responsible is helpful for solving a problem involving said physical object.

FIG. 2 depicts a series of operations for creating a data record representing a physical object and for calculating a score for a request trigger.

In a first step, the user 158 authenticates to the client application 114 and enters attributes of the physical object to be created. In addition, the user may enter conditions 151 and/or object-organization assignments. The entered data is used to create a data record representing the created physical object in a knowledge base (knowledge base) of the remote system, and optionally also to store conditions and/or associations in the knowledge base. The score query service 121 creates data records representing the physical objects to be added to the knowledge base and provides the created data records to the score query application 122, which score query application 122 stores the records or data objects in the score database 146 or another database operatively coupled to the remote system. In the same way, new data records representing new organization may be added to the knowledge base. A confirmation message is returned to the client application 114 via the score query application and the score query service. Upon receiving the confirmation, the client application automatically performs a page refresh of its GUI to notify the authenticated user that new data records representing the new organization and/or new physical objects have been added to the knowledge base of the remote system. The client application GUI includes GUI elements that allow a user to add, modify, and/or delete data records representing organizations, physical objects, and their respective assignments.

Further, the GUI of the client application enables the user to subscribe to one or more of the physical objects represented by the data records managed by the remote system. This enables the user to ensure that he (or she) is immediately notified of any score change for one of the physical objects to which the user has subscribed via the messaging application 132 and corresponding add-on program 113 on his client device 102. According to some embodiments, GUI elements for subscribing and unsubscribing physical objects are displayed only on client devices with sufficiently large screens (e.g., on desktop computers or tablet PCs).

The user may arrive at the company's organization O1 site and authenticate to the client application. Successful authentication (login event at client application) triggers submission of a request R to the score query service 121 to identify at least one physical object assigned to organization O1 and that has been subscribed to by the user via the subscription API 128. Score query service 121 converts this request into a grammar that can be parsed by score query application 122 and forwards the request to the score query application. The score query application 122 identifies a log (e.g., "log file," "history," or "history file") or a corresponding collection of data records 160 that includes historical score information data specific to one physical object and specific to the identified organization O1. The score query application 122 receives the pre-computed scores and/or various conditions and computes a request-triggered score 138 for the one physical object. The score query application may include a plurality of different score calculation manners that are organization dependent, and it may calculate the score of the request trigger differently for different organizations. The calculated score of the identified physical object is stored in a log of the physical object in association with the timestamp. The score triggered by the request may be compared to a score calculated in response to a previous request by the same user for the same physical object and the same organization to determine whether a score change has occurred since the user's last score calculation request (e.g., since the user's last login event to the client application). The currently calculated score, and optionally also the request-triggered score calculated in response to the user's previous request, is returned to the client application 114.

Further, score query service 121 may identify one or more further physical objects to which the user has subscribed via subscription service 124, and/or may identify one or more further organizations to which the further physical objects are assigned. The identified physical objects and organizations are returned to the client application and displayed to the authenticated user 158. The client application assigns a flag to each of the further returned physical objects to indicate whether the user has subscribed to the physical object.

Fig. 3 depicts a series of scheduler triggered operations for identifying a score change. In a first step, the dispatcher 140 identifies the physical objects to which a particular user has subscribed by sending a request to the subscription API 128. Alternatively, this step may be performed for each of a plurality of users who have registered with the remote system. For brevity, the following steps will be described for only one exemplary user. The subscription API returns one or more physical objects to which the user 158 has subscribed. Optionally, the subscription API 128 may additionally return an identifier of the organization for which the score should be computed. However, it is also possible that the request already comprises an identifier of the organization for which the score should be calculated. The scheduler then causes the score calculation module 142 to calculate a scheduler triggered score for the identified physical object that is specific to the identified organization. Score calculation includes receiving base scores and/or conditions from score database 146 via score query API 144. In the event that the computed scheduler-triggered score is different from the computed request-triggered score in response to the user's most recent request for the same organization and physical object, the module 142 or scheduler 140 causes the social media integration service 134 to generate and submit a message to the social media service 118. The social media service forwards the message to other applications 113 running on the client device 102 (e.g., mail client). The message informs the user of the following: the score of one of the physical objects to which the user has subscribed has changed since his last login or explicit score request.

Fig. 6 depicts a social media message 702 in the form of an email message. The message indicates a score change. It includes: the name of the physical object, "printer-paper type 00245"; the previously calculated request triggered score 138, "5.80 EUR/unit"; a "current" or "new" scheduler trigger score 148, "5.60 EUR/unit"; and optionally some supplemental information, e.g., a minimum number of object items related to a particular task, e.g., "1000 units".

Preferably, the client application is implemented as a web-based application, i.e. an application executed by a processor of the mobile telecommunication device and based on source code downloaded by a browser, either completely or partially, via the internet. For example, the client application may be implemented in whole or in part as a Java-Script application downloaded from a remote system or another server system. The message includes a link 602 with a URL pointing to the web-based application. The URL may include parameters indicating a specific score calculation request, a user ID, an object ID, and/or an organization ID. Selection of the link by user 158 automatically loads and launches client application 114 in browser 112 of telecommunication device 102. After the user is successfully authenticated at the client application, the client application displays further score-related and object-related details to the user via the custom GUI. An example of a GUI of a client application that is specifically customized to display scores and information related to objects is shown in FIG. 5.

Fig. 5 depicts a network-based implementation of the client application 114. The client application may be downloaded to a default browser 112 of telecommunication device 102 when the user enters a specific URL 602 into the URL field of the browser or when the user clicks on a corresponding link in an email 702 opened in the mail client 113. The GUI of the application 114 may include GUI elements customized to display score-related and physical object-related information, e.g., HTML and/or CSS based GUI elements such as

buttons

606, 608, links, search fields 610,

table columns

614 and 618, and

boxes

612, 604. For example, at button 606. . . An up click may trigger cancellation of the user 158's subscription for the physical object whose details are currently displayed in box 604 of the GUI. The details may be shown, for example, in a table that includes: column 618 with a score for an outdated request trigger computed in response to a previous request; a column 616 with a score of the current request trigger calculated in response to the current request R of the client application; and a column 614 indicating the number of subject items for which scores 616, 618 (in this case, cumulative scores) were calculated. For example, the score for each physical object item may differ depending on the number of physical items considered. The remote system may include a predefined set of object item quantities (e.g., 1000, 1500, and 2000 in the depicted example), and each request and/or scheduler-triggered score calculation may include a cumulative request or scheduler-triggered score calculation.

Block 604 may display the cumulative scores calculated for each of a number of predefined physical object items, while block 612 may display the current and previously calculated request-triggered scores for a single object item separately.

Fig. 4 depicts a further block 302 or sub-region of the GUI of the client application 114 (not shown in fig. 5). The further block or sub-region comprises a history of scheduler triggered scores computed for physical objects to which the user 158 has no subscription. The further frame or sub-area may only be displayed when the display of the mobile telecommunication device is sufficiently large. Otherwise, block 302 may be hidden. For example, a user may have subscribed to various physical objects that are related to a printer paper type (e.g., "printer paper type 00245"), but not related to a printer. Colleagues of user 158 may have subscribed to "printer", e.g., printer PR397, but not any "printer paper". User 158 and his colleagues may both be assigned to organization ORG00132, for example, may have been assigned the task of accessing the organization as a field-based clerk to check the quality of printer paper delivered to the organization, or to check the status and proper functioning of printers that process the printer paper. In response to the request R of the user 158, a score triggered by the request is calculated specifically for the organization ORG00132 for the printer paper type 00245 to which the user 158 has subscribed, e.g., by evaluating some conditions that may include organization-specific conditions. The scores are depicted in

blocks

604 and 612. Further, a scheduler triggered score history for printer PR397 and any other physical objects assigned to organization ORG00132 whose organization ID may be specified in request R is calculated and displayed in block 302, although user 158 is not subscribed to any printer. However, a score history of printer scores as depicted in FIG. 4 may assist user 158 in performing his or her tasks related to printer paper type 00245. Because the scheduler dependent module computes the score history for all physical objects represented in the knowledge base of the remote system, the score history is not computed in response to the request R and therefore can be returned very quickly. This significantly reduces the response time.

For example, a subscription to a particular printer may imply that users 158 belonging to the technical service team are responsible for regularly surveying, repairing, or updating multiple machines, e.g., printers that include paper containers of different capacities. The printer may be a complex industrial printer integrated in a complex production workflow. One of the status scores communicated to the user may be the calculated amount of toner remaining in the toner cartridge for each sheet of paper, taking into account the number of pages of the current print job. For example, a print job for 2000 items (pages) on a first printer may result in a score of 5.00 toner units per sheet, while a print job on another printer for 1000 items (pages) results in a score of 5.60 toner units per sheet. The calculated score may have changed since the toner cartridge was refilled, for example, due to a modified fill level of a new cartridge.

According to still other embodiments (not shown in fig. 4 or 5), user 158 may be a member of a field-based service technician responsible for inspecting, maintaining, and repairing the machine used to cap the bottles. The machine receives bottles from a first conveyor and caps from a cap cutting apparatus.

The machine used to cap the bottles may be one of the physical objects assigned to the user (i.e., the user 158 has subscribed to the machine used to cap the bottles), while the bottle cap cutting device may be assigned to a colleague. The bottle cap cutting device and the machine for capping bottles may both be connected to a remote system via the internet and constantly deliver status information and technical parameters to the knowledge base of the company that employs the technical maintenance personnel.

Due to a technical failure of the machine used to cap the bottles, the user 158 visits the bottle manufacturing company's production line and logs on to his client application. Thus, user 158 triggers the submission of a request for: the current score of the machine used to cap the bottles, as well as the corresponding score for the particular machine that user 158 received at the last visit of the bottle manufacturing company by half a year ago when he made his visit. The current and previously received scores are indicative of wear of well known machine components of bottle capping machines that deteriorate with use. The scores may be binarized (bin) in such a way that: the score change is only calculated in case of severe deterioration of the material of the component. In fact, multiple scores, respectively indicative of the state of components of the machine, may be requested, and any score changes relative to the scores obtained at the time of the user's previous visit are displayed in a box 604 of the GUI of the client application. The cumulative score may be a derivative score indicative of a cumulative degree of wear of the plurality of functionally connected machine components.

In the given example, block 302 may display a score value associated with the bottle cap cutting machine (i.e., the physical object to which user 158 has no subscription because he is not responsible for maintaining the bottle cap cutting machine). However, the score of the closure cutting machine may indicate an error condition, a degree of wear, or the availability of a metal sheet to be cut therefrom. Any errors in the components of the bottle cap cutting machine may result in incorrectly formed bottle caps that may affect the operability of the machine for capping bottles. By retrieving the score history of the bottle cap cutting machine in addition to retrieving and displaying the request-triggered scores related to the bottle capping machine and displaying the history in block 302, user 158 may readily determine whether the technical issue with the bottle capping machine is the result of an error in the bottle cap cutting machine.

In a further beneficial aspect, it should be noted that, especially for complex machines, repair processes based on trial and error (trial and error) schemes are frequent and any action of maintenance personnel may cause a severe and unpredictable deterioration of the system state of the entire machine. In case the scheduler 140 has a suitably short recurring interval, e.g. in the range of a few seconds or minutes, the scheduler 140 may immediately alert the repair person via the social media service 118 whether one of said "repair actions" actually results in a (respectively scheduler triggered fractional) change of the state of the machine, wherein said change indicates a severe deterioration or a significant improvement of the machine state. Thus, combining the request-triggered score calculation with the provision of a score history about the machine allows the user 158 to more quickly and accurately identify the source of a malfunction of the bottle capping machine. Combining retrieval of the score of the request trigger with the score calculation of the scheduler trigger is particularly beneficial for providing immediate feedback of the success of actions already performed on the machine, where performing the actions is used to repair the machine in the context of the machine automatically reporting state-related technical parameters (e.g. temperature, availability of consumables, mechanical blockage) to the remote system and in the context of the technical parameters being used by the remote system as input for calculating the scores indicative of the respective machine states.

It should be noted that while all machines of a bottle manufacturing company may be connected to a remote system via a wired, stable internet connection, a technical maintenance person typically operates with a mobile telecommunications device that may often only have an unstable, bandwidth-limited network connection.

Fig. 7 depicts a flow diagram of a telecommunications method for communicating score data over a network 116 in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. The method is implemented by components of a system 100 as depicted in fig. 1.

In a first step 402, the network-based client application 114 of the mobile telecommunication device 102 assigned to the user 158 sends a request R of the user 158 via the network to the remote system 120. The request includes a user ID of the user that has been successfully authenticated to the client application. The client application prohibits any unauthenticated user from having the client application send the request. In response to receiving the request, the remote system identifies one or more organizations and one or more physical objects assigned to the user ID of the user in step 404. The user is one of a plurality of users registered with the remote system. In step 406, the remote system selectively calculates a current request triggered score 138 for each of the identified physical objects, storing a timestamp associated with each calculated score. Optionally, where the current request-triggered score 138 is different from the request-triggered score calculated in response to the last request by the same user 158 for the same organization and the same physical object, the remote system returns both the current request-triggered score and the previously calculated request-triggered score to the client application via the network in step 410. In step 412, the client application displays to the authenticated user both the current and previous request-triggered scores.

The remote system 120 calculates 414 the scheduler triggered scores 148 for the plurality of physical objects regularly and independently of receiving the request. The calculation is performed independently of the user to which the physical object is assigned. The remote system stores the scores of the scheduler triggers associated with the timestamps and compares the score of each scheduler trigger with the score of the request trigger most recently computed for the same organization and the same physical object, regardless of which user the physical object is assigned to. When it is determined that one of the scores of the dispatcher trigger is different from the score of the request trigger calculated for the same organization and physical object for one of the plurality of registered users 158, the remote system sends a message to the other applications 113 running on the mobile telecommunications device in step 416. The message includes an indication of the scheduler triggered score or change in score.

In response to receiving the message, the other application indicates to the user 158 that a score change has occurred in step 418. The indication is performed regardless of whether the user is currently authenticated to the client application. This may save computational resources and extend battery life time because the user is not required to launch client applications (e.g., programs specifically adapted for score retrieval, management, and display) in order to be notified of score changes.

Embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented in digital electronic circuitry, or in computer hardware, firmware, software, or in combinations of them. The system can be implemented as a computer program product, i.e., a computer program tangibly embodied in an information carrier, e.g., in a machine-readable storage device or in a propagated signal, for execution by, or to control the operation of, data processing apparatus, e.g., a programmable processor, a computer, or multiple computers. A computer program can be written in any form of programming language, including compiled or interpreted languages, and it can be deployed in any form, including as a stand-alone program or as a module, component, subroutine, or other unit suitable for use in a computing environment. A computer program can be deployed to be run on one computer or on multiple computers at one site or distributed across multiple sites and interconnected by a communication network. A computer program can be deployed to be run on one computer or on multiple computers at one site or distributed across multiple sites and interconnected by a communication network. Method steps associated with the present system can be performed by one or more programmable processors executing a computer program to perform functions of the invention by operating on input data and generating output. Method steps can also be performed by, and apparatus of the disclosure can be implemented as, special purpose logic circuitry, e.g., an FPGA (field programmable gate array) or an ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit). Processors suitable for the operation of a computer program include, by way of example, both general and special purpose microprocessors, and any one or more processors of any kind of digital computer. Generally, a processor will receive instructions and data from a read-only memory or a random access memory or both. The elements of a computer are a processor for executing instructions and one or more memory devices for storing instructions and data. Generally, a computer will also include, or be operatively coupled to receive data from or transfer data to, or both, one or more mass storage devices for storing data, e.g., magnetic, magneto-optical disks, or optical disks. Information carriers suitable for embodying computer program instructions and data include all forms of non-volatile memory, including, by way of example: semiconductor memory devices, such as EPROM (erasable programmable read only memory), EEPROM (electrically erasable programmable read only memory), and flash memory devices; magnetic disks, e.g., internal hard disks or removable disks; magneto-optical disks; CD-ROM (compact disk read only memory) and DVD-ROM (digital versatile disk read only memory). The processor and the memory can be supplemented by, or incorporated in, special purpose logic circuitry. In preparation for interaction with a user, the present disclosure can be implemented on a computer having a display device, e.g., a CRT (cathode ray tube) or LCD (liquid crystal display) monitor, for displaying information to the user and a keyboard and a pointing device, e.g., a mouse or a trackball, by which the user can provide input to the computer. Other kinds of devices can also be used to prepare for interaction with the user; for example, feedback provided to the user can be any form of sensory feedback, e.g., visual feedback, auditory feedback, or tactile feedback; and input from the user can be received in any form (including acoustic, speech, or tactile input). The system can be implemented in a computing system that includes a back-end component (e.g., as a data server), or that includes a middleware component (e.g., an application server), or that includes a front-end component (e.g., a client computer having a graphical interface or a Web browser through which a user can interact with an implementation of the invention), or any combination of such back-end, middleware, or front-end components. According to an embodiment, the score is a price. The components of the computing system can be interconnected by any form or medium of digital data communication (e.g., a communication network). Examples of communication networks include a local area network ("LAN") and a wide area network ("WAN"), e.g., the Internet. The computing system can include clients and servers. A client and server are generally remote from each other and typically interact through a communication network. The relationship of client and server arises by virtue of computer programs running on the respective computers and having a client-server relationship to each other.

The present system has been described with specific embodiments. Other embodiments are within the scope of the following claims. Many additional modifications and variations of the present disclosure are possible in light of the above teachings. It is therefore to be understood that within the scope of the appended claims, the disclosure may be practiced otherwise than as specifically described herein. For example, elements and/or features of different illustrative embodiments may be combined with each other and/or substituted for each other within the scope of this disclosure and appended claims.

Claims

1. A telecommunications method for communicating score data over a network (116), comprising:

sending (402), by a client application (114) of a mobile telecommunication device (102), a current request of a user (158) to a remote system (120) via a network, the current request comprising a user ID of the user who has been authenticated to the client application;

in response to receiving the current request, performing, by the remote system:

identifying (404) one or more organizations and one or more physical objects assigned to a user ID of a user, the user being one of a plurality of users registered with a remote system;

calculating (406) a score (138) triggered by the current request for each of the identified physical objects, storing a timestamp associated with each calculated score triggered by the current request;

in the event that one of the calculated current request-triggered scores (138) is different from a calculated previous request-triggered score for the same physical object as the one of the current request-triggered scores in response to a previous request by the user (158):

returning (410), by the remote system to the client application via the network, both the score triggered by the one current request and the score triggered by the previous request;

displaying (412), by the client application, to the authenticated user, both the score triggered by the one current request and the score triggered by the previous request;

calculating (414), by the remote system, scheduler-triggered scores (148) for a plurality of physical objects managed by the remote system regularly and independently of receiving the current request, regardless of which user the plurality of physical objects are assigned to, storing a timestamp associated with each scheduler-triggered score, and comparing each scheduler-triggered score to a score triggered by a computed request most recently for a same physical object as the scheduler-triggered score was calculated for, regardless of which user the same physical object is assigned to;

when it is determined that one of the scheduler triggered scores is different from the score triggered by a calculated request for the same physical object as was most recently targeted for the calculation of the one scheduler triggered score, sending (416) a message from the remote system to other applications (113) running on the mobile telecommunication device, the message comprising the one scheduler triggered score or an indication of a change in the score;

in response to receiving the message, indicating (418), by the other application, to the user that a score change has occurred regardless of whether the user is currently authenticated to the client application.

2. The telecommunications method of claim 1, wherein the remote system returns the score triggered by the current request or an indication that the score triggered by the request for the physical object has not changed when none of the scores triggered by the current request is different from the scores triggered by computed previous requests in response to previous requests by the user for the same physical object as the score triggered by the current request was computed for.

3. The telecommunications method of claim 2, the client application configured to:

caching scores triggered by a plurality of requests received from a remote system in response to the plurality of requests;

in response to receiving an indication that the score triggered by the request for the physical object has not changed, displaying a cached score triggered by the request for the physical object.

4. The telecommunications method of claim 1, the other application being accessible to a user without requiring the user to authenticate to the other application.

5. The telecommunications method of claim 1, the current request being sent by a client application when a user has successfully authenticated to the client application or when a user action causes the client application to request current score information from a remote system.

6. The method of telecommunication of claim 1,

the calculating the score triggered by the current request comprises calculating a cumulative score for each of a number of items of the plurality of physical objects, the calculated cumulative score being non-linearly related to a number of items for which the cumulative score is calculated;

returning to the client application both the score triggered by the current request and the score triggered by the previous request comprises returning a current and a previous cumulative score calculated separately for each of the quantity of items;

the telecommunications method further includes displaying, by the client application to the authenticated user, the returned cumulative score for each of the number of items of the physical object.

7. The telecommunications method of claim 1, the current request further comprising an organization ID, the request triggered score and the scheduler triggered score being organization-specific scores, the organization-specific request triggered scores being computed and returned to the client application for physical objects assigned to an organization, the organization ID of the organization being included in the current request.

8. The telecommunications method of claim 1, the current request further including an organization ID, the telecommunications method further comprising:

in response to receiving the current request, performing, by the remote system:

identifying one or more further physical objects assigned to an organization ID contained in the current request but not assigned to a user ID contained in the current request;

retrieving a score change history (160) for each of the identified further physical objects, the score change history indicating all request-triggered and scheduler-triggered scores that have been calculated in the past for each of the identified further physical objects; and

returning each of the retrieved score change histories to the client application via a network;

displaying each of the score change histories received by the client application from the remote system on a display of the mobile telecommunications device.

9. The telecommunications method of claim 8,

performing, by a first scheduling module (140) of the remote system: triggering, regularly and independently of receiving the current request, computation of a scheduler-triggered score for a plurality of physical objects managed by the remote system, regardless of which user the plurality of physical objects are assigned to, wherein a message application (132) of the remote system compares the score triggered by each scheduler with a score triggered by a computed request most recently for the same physical object as the physical object for which the scheduler-triggered score computation was directed, regardless of which user the same physical object is assigned to; and

performing, by a second scheduling module (130) of the remote system: triggering computation of a score triggered by a scheduler for a plurality of physical objects managed by the remote system and storing the computed score regularly and independently of receiving the current request, and

wherein the second scheduling module has a lower score computation frequency than the first scheduling module.

10. Telecommunication method according to claim 6, the calculation of the score triggered by the current request and/or the cumulative score being performed in real time.

11. The telecommunication method of claim 1, the client application (114) configured to:

automatically determining a size of a display (111) of the mobile telecommunication device (102);

displaying or hiding one or more GUI elements of a GUI of the client application according to the determined size.

12. A computer-readable storage medium (104, 156) comprising computer-interpretable instructions that, when executed by a processor (108, 154) of a mobile telecommunications device (102) and a remote system (120), cause the mobile telecommunications device and the remote system to perform the method of any one of claims 1-11.

13. A distributed system (100) comprising a mobile telecommunication device (102) and comprising a remote system (120) connected to the mobile telecommunication device via a network (116), the mobile telecommunication device (102) hosting a client application (114) and a further application (113),

the client application is configured to send (402) a current request of a user (158) to a remote system (120) via a network, the current request comprising a user ID of the user authenticated to the client application;

the remote system is configured to perform the following steps in response to receiving the current request:

in the event that one of the calculated current request-triggered scores (138) is different from a calculated previous request-triggered score for the same physical object as the current request-triggered score was calculated for in response to a previous request by the user (158), returning both the one current request-triggered and the previous request-triggered scores to the client application via the network;

the client application is configured to display (412) both a score triggered by the one current request and a score triggered by the previous request returned in response to the authenticated user's current request;

the remote system is configured to perform the following steps regularly and independently of the reception of the current request:

calculating (414) scheduler-triggered scores for a plurality of physical objects managed by the remote system, regardless of which user the plurality of physical objects are assigned to, storing a timestamp associated with each scheduler-triggered score, and comparing each scheduler-triggered score to a score triggered by a most recent calculated request for the same physical object as the scheduler-triggered score, regardless of which user the same physical object is assigned to;

when it is determined that one of the calculated scheduler triggered scores is different from the score triggered by a calculated request for the same physical object as was most recently targeted for the calculation of the scheduler triggered score, sending (416) a message from the remote system to other applications (113) running on the mobile telecommunications device, the message including the one scheduler triggered score or an indication of a change in the score;

the other application is configured to indicate (418) to the user that a score change has occurred in response to receiving the message, regardless of whether the user is currently authenticated to the client application.

14. The distributed system of claim 13, wherein the mobile telecommunication device is a battery-powered telecommunication device.