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Idea managementIdea management description/claimsThe Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20090132350, Idea management. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/044,779 filed on Jan. 10, 2002 entitled “Idea Management,” issued as U.S. Pat. No. ______, which in turn is a continuation-in-part application of abandoned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/375,401 filed on Aug. 17, 1999 entitled “Employee Proposal Management System and Method” which claims priority from U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/144,877 filed on Jul. 20, 1999. The present invention relates to idea submission methods and computer systems for idea submission and development. It is known in the prior art to provide an idea box for manual submission of an employee\'s idea. Further, it is known in the art to employ computers which are coupled together to submit comments or ideas to business management and for business management to respond to such comments and ideas. Such systems simply employ e-mail and the comments and ideas are submitted to a business manager for review. These prior art systems fall short of providing a cohesive system for formulating, reviewing, and implementing an idea. Further, such prior art systems fail to provide a systematic methodology for routing ideas through the network to appropriate reviewers and implementers based upon content and workflow criteria. In the prior art, ideas are either submitted to a central computer repository where users of the system may look at submitted ideas or the prior art systems rely on manual human intervention and decision making in determining where the idea should be routed. In a first embodiment of the invention there is provided a system, method and computer program product for idea management and development of a structured idea. The methodology includes obtaining a structured response over a computer network from an employee of a business. In certain embodiments of the invention the system and method may be employed without the use of a computer network. The structured response is developed through a series of templates in which the employee enters information into a template. From the responses in the first template a second template is selected. For example, the first template may inquire as to the idea type which is selected from a selection of idea types, Based upon the idea type selected, a second template is provided by a server to a processing device of the employee. The second template may request information regarding the financial consequences of implementing the idea. Once the structured idea is developed through the series of templates a routing decision is made by the server. The server determines one or more members of the business management to route the idea to. In such an embodiment, an idea log which contains all submitted information in the templates is sent via the computer network to the one or more members of the business management. In other embodiments, the routing decision causes the server to send a message to the business management that they have been selected to evaluate the submitted structured idea of the employee. The routing decision is made in part based upon information that is presented in the templates by the employee. In one embodiment the selection of templates by the server may be based upon the selected type of idea/proposal. Examples of idea types include but are not limited to: cost saving, revenue generation, quality improvement, safety improvement and policy change. In completing the templates, the employee is provided with various resources including access to a cost database. The cost database may be accessed through the financial template in order to assist in determining costs that will contribute to the implementation of the idea. By entering all of the costs and possible benefits, the server automatically calculates the financial impact of implementing the idea. Other entries that may trigger selection of a template by the server include, the selected department of the business that the idea will affect, the type of proposal selected, whether the proposal is a group proposal, or whether the proposal will have financial consequences. In the event that the financial information is not present in the cost database for a particular item, the employee may send a message to the server requesting that the additional information is provided. The server will then route the request to the proper department such as accounting in order to obtain the information. Decisions may be made about the requested information based upon the employee\'s log in information. If the employee is aware of the financial information or receives a response with the information provided by the accounting or other department, this financial information will be automatically added to the cost database for future users of the idea management system. The process of routing the idea or contacting business management to review the idea may be based in part upon the group within the business that the employee has indicated will benefit from the idea. Routing may also be based on other criteria entered in the templates such as: whether the employee indicated that the idea submission will have a financial benefit, whether the idea is a team suggestion, the idea type that is selected, the workload of the business management, information about the employee who submitted the idea such as the department that the employee works in or any time limits for example. In another embodiment in which a third template is provided to the employee by the server, the employee is queried regarding the implementation process and asked to enter the names of potential implementers. Routing in turn may be based upon the one or more implementers that are selected by the employee. After information has been gathered at the server such that there is a structured idea submission the information is then routed. The business management that either, approve, disapprove or request additional information about the idea are contacted and provided with evaluation templates. The business management can then check the entries that are made by the employee regarding the various costs and the financial impact of the idea that the employee has submitted. In certain embodiments there may be more than one level of review of the idea. In other embodiments at each stage of the review process the employee is contacted through e-mail and informed of the progress of the idea submission status. The idea submission is generally stored in an idea log in a memory location associated with the server. The idea log contains all of the information that has been submitted to the server for the idea submission by the employee and any of the business management that have reviewed the idea and may also include such time and date information regarding the review process, and the status of the idea. The idea log may be requested by any party involved in the idea management process and sent to a processing device of the party for display. At each stage in the development of the idea, timers may be employed. Upon expiration of a timer, the person that is required to give a response or to add additional information will be contacted by the server and sent a reminder communication. The foregoing features of the invention will be more readily understood by reference to the following detailed description, taken with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Continue reading about Idea management... 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