Patent ID: 7912744
Filing Date: 2011-03-22
Classification: G06Q

Abstract:
1. An automated service broker communicatively linked to a plurality of systems and to a plurality of service providers, each service provider deemed suitable for performing maintenance and repair on at least one of the systems, comprising: a Global Positioning System (GPS) data processor for processing GPS data associated with the communicatively linked service providers, said GPS data corresponding to a geographic position; an event handler for responding to system maintenance and repair events received from the communicatively linked systems; a service provider selector for selecting a particular service provider to respond to a particular received maintenance and repair event received from a particular communicatively linked system, the selection being based on (a) whether said selected service provider is suitable to perform required maintenance and repair on the particular communicatively linked system, (b) the geographic position of the particular service provider relative to the particular system as reported by GPS data associated with the particular service provider, wherein the service provider selector is configured to query a selected service provider for a current geographic position, to identify a geographic position using Global Positioning System (GPS) data for said system, to compare said current geographic position of said selected service provider to said geographic position of said system, said comparison indicating how close said selected service provider is to said system; and, a time-on-site calculating unit for calculating a total time that said selected service provider is within a predetermined zone of said system based upon said GPS data, wherein said time-on-site calculating unit is configured to record each arrival time when said selected service provider arrives at the predetermined zone and each departure time when said selected service provider departs from the predetermined zone, each departure time corresponding to a particular arrival time, wherein an absolute difference between an arrival time and its corresponding departure time defines an on-site interval for the selected service provider, and wherein said total time is a summation of each on-site interval.