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Configurable actions in a dashboard application

This application may be related to the following patents/applications:

This application is a nonprovisional application claiming, under 35 U.S.C. §119(e), the benefit of the filing date of provisional U.S. Patent Application No. 60/882,538, filed Dec. 28, 2006 by Gu et al. and entitled “Dashboard Application,” the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

This application is related to co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______, filed on a date even herewith by Gu et al. and entitled “Drill Down Functionality in a Dashboard Application” (attorney docket no. 021756-031400US), the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

This application is related to co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______, filed on a date even herewith by Gu et al. and entitled “Multi-Dimensioned Data Hierarchies” (attorney docket no. 021756-031410US), the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

This application is related to co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______, filed on a date even herewith by Gu et al. and entitled “Configurable Metric Groups” (attorney docket no. 021756-031420US), the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

This application is related to co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______, filed on a date even herewith by Gu et al. and entitled “Configurable Goals in a Dashboard Application” (attorney docket no. 021756-031440US), the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

The entire disclosure of each of the above applications/patents is incorporated herein by reference for all purposes.

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material that is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.

The present invention relates generally to providing information to computer users, and in particular to accessing data from business applications and providing that data in an organized manner.

Most large businesses (and many smaller businesses and organizations) employ one or more business applications, and in some cases, suites of business applications, to provide visibility and control over various aspects of the business. Such “business applications” (or, as they are sometimes called, “enterprise applications”) can include, without limitation, customer relations management (“CRM”) applications, enterprise resource planning (“ERP”) applications, supply chain management applications, and other applications dealing with various finance, accounting, manufacturing, and/or distribution functions, to name but a few examples. Exemplary enterprise application suites include, without limitation, the Oracle eBusiness Suite and JD Edwards Enterprise One, both of which are available from Oracle Corp.

To maximize the utility of a business application, users need to have visibility into the business processes managed by the business application, to monitor the health (e.g., the efficiency, operational status) of various business processes, and of the enterprise itself. Business applications, however, typically are more focused on managing the business processes (for example, acquiring, generating and processing business data) than on providing immediate visibility into the health of those business processes.

Consequently, many enterprise users either purchase third party business intelligence tools to integrate with the business application and/or suite, or develop their own business intelligence solution. The cost of business intelligence software is expensive (sometimes prohibitively so), however, and the complexity of such tools often requires intimate knowledge of extract-transform-load (“ETL”) technology and system integration simply to integrate an off-the shelf business intelligence tool. Similarly, it can be prohibitively expensive and/or time-consuming to develop a business intelligence solution in house, given the complexity of modem business applications and the lack of a preexisting framework within such applications to develop, add or modify such a solution.

Accordingly, there is a need for a more practical tool to provide visibility into business processes. In some cases, it would be helpful if such a tool were to provide real-time (or near real-time) visibility into the business processes. In other cases, it would be beneficial for such a tool to be relatively configurable by an end-user (and/or support staff) to mitigate the expense (both fiscally and chronologically) of developing solutions that fit the needs of the end-user.

In a set of embodiments, the present invention provides a dashboard application, which can enable a user to quickly view data (and, in a particular aspect, data from one or more business applications) in an efficient manner. In a set of embodiments, the dashboard application can be used to view data about one or more metrics that reflect the performance of business operations(s), as derived from data maintained (perhaps in an associated data store) by the business application(s).

In an aspect of some embodiments, the dashboard application provides the user with the ability to take actions with respect to the data being viewed. Merely by way of example, the user might be able to invoke a business application that produced the data being viewed in the dashboard application. Alternatively and/or additionally, the user might be able to send an electronic mail message to one or more persons responsible for the data. In this way, a user can quickly determine whether the data indicates any problems with business processes, and initiate corrective actions, all from within the dashboard application. In a novel feature, the dashboard application can be used to provide a context for these actions. For instance, in some embodiments, if the user has filtered and/or categorized the data being viewed, that context can be applied to the actions (e.g., by invoking the business application with that context, by including an indication of the context in an electronic mail message, etc.).

The tools provided by various embodiments invention include, without limitation, methods, systems, and/or software products. Mainly by way of example, a method might comprise one or more procedures, any or all of which are executed by a computer system. Correspondingly, an embodiment might comprise a computer system configured with instructions to perform one or more procedures in accordance with methods of the invention. Similarly, a computer program might comprise a set of instructions that are executable by a computer system (and/or a processor therein) to perform such operations. In many cases, such software programs are encoded on physical and/or tangible computer readable media (such as, merely by way of example, optical media, magnetic media, and/or the like). In a particular embodiment, the set of instructions might be incorporated within a business application.