Abstract:
An incentives platform receives information about business processes from a plurality of businesses. The information includes specific performance information for employees of each of the businesses. Each business may use the platform to tailor an incentives program for its employees, where employees receive rewards based on their performance metrics. The platform includes a gallery of predefined rules for computing the incentives, allowing a business to select one or more incentives from the gallery.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
       [0001]    This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/063,310, filed Oct. 13, 2014, which is incorporated by reference in its entirety. 
     
    
     BACKGROUND 
       [0002]    This invention relates generally to incentive programs for a business, and more specifically to generating an incentive program for a business. 
         [0003]    Many businesses implement incentive programs to motivate their employees to perform certain actions. For example, a business provides an employee with additional compensation for selling greater than a specified number of products within a specified time interval. As another example, a business ranks employees based on number of products sold or amount of revenue generated and provides additional benefits (e.g., additional compensation, additional vacation time) to employees having at least a threshold position in the ranking. 
         [0004]    Conventionally, different businesses internally develop incentive programs or collaborate with external vendors that design incentive programs. Frequently, businesses or vendors designing incentive programs rarely measure the return on investment of an incentive program, and often rely on personal preferences or loose interpretation of prior results when developing incentive programs. Accordingly, effectiveness of incentive programs is rarely evaluated by a third party or accessible to other entities. 
       SUMMARY 
       [0005]    To allow a business to more easily implement an incentive program, the rule system maintains information describing rules for providing employees with benefits based on satisfying performance metric criteria identified by the rules. In addition to storing the rules, the rule system includes additional information associated with various rules. For example, the rule system associates information with each rule in a set describing a number of times a rule has been implemented by one or more businesses, describing ratings or comments received from various businesses and associated with a rule, describing operation of a rule, describing strengths and weaknesses of a rule, or identifying additional rules as alternatives to a rules. The rule system may receive information from businesses describing performance of rules selected from the rule system by the businesses. For example, information describing effects of a rule on a budget of a business (e.g., compensation provided by the business to employees based on the rule) is received from the business and associated with the rule by the rule system. The rule system receives information describing rules from businesses over time, allowing the rule system to maintain accurate information describing performance of various rules. 
         [0006]    The rule system may also evaluate employees of a business based on one or more rules associated with the business and stored by the rule system  140 . For example, the business authorizes the rule system to access a subset if information associated with employees of the business and maintained by the business. Information accessible to the rule system does not include information allowing the rule system to determine identities of the business&#39;s employees, but allows the rule system to determine whether an employee of the business satisfies performance metric criteria specified by a rule. Based on the accessed subset of information, the rule system determines if information associated with various employees satisfy performance metric criteria specified by various rules applicable to the employees. If information associated with an employee satisfies performance metric criteria of a rule, the rule system communicates information describing a benefit associated with the rule to the business, allowing the business to accordingly compensate the employee. 
         [0007]    The rule system obtains information associated with a business and suggests or recommends one or more rules to the business based on the obtained information. For example, based on an industry associated with a business, the rule system recommends one or more rules previously implemented by at least a threshold number of additional businesses associated with the same industry to the business or previously implemented at least a threshold number of times by businesses associated with the same industry. Additionally, prior performance of various rules may be used by the rule store to recommend rules. For example, rules having at least at threshold performance are recommended. As another example, the rule system identifies an industry associated with the business and identifies one or more rules implemented by at least a threshold number of additional businesses associated with the industry to the business. In another example, the rule system obtains budget information for the business, such as a budget or budget range, and selects one or more rules having previously provided amounts of compensation that do not exceed the budget or that are within the budget range. Rules identified by the rule system may have been created by businesses different than the business or may have been created by the business itself. Hence, the rule system allows a user authorized with a business to view information describing rules stored by the rule system, which may be created or provide by other businesses, and identify rules for implementation by the business form the information describing the rules stored by the rule system. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0008]      FIG. 1  is a block diagram of a system environment for a rule system, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. 
           [0009]      FIG. 2  is an example interface provided by the rule system that identifies various rules maintained by the rule system, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. 
           [0010]      FIG. 3  is an example rule creation interface provided to an authorized user of a business by a rule system, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. 
           [0011]      FIG. 4  is an example interface for selecting a category including a rule provided by the rule system, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. 
           [0012]      FIG. 5  is an example interface for selecting an incentive campaign provided by the rule system in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. 
           [0013]      FIG. 6  is an example of an interface prompting an authorized user of a business to identify a name, description, and a duration associated with the rule, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. 
           [0014]      FIG. 7  is an example interface for an authorized user of a business to identify employees of the business to whom a rule is applied, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. 
           [0015]      FIG. 8  is an example interface for identifying employees to exclude from application of rules, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. 
           [0016]      FIG. 9  is an example interface for an authorized user of a business to provide information identifying additional employees of the business to whom the rule is applied, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. 
           [0017]      FIGS. 10-13  are example interfaces for specifying criteria associated with a rule to a rule system, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. 
           [0018]      FIG. 14  is an example summary interface describing information about a rule provided to the rule system, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. 
       
    
    
       [0019]    The figures depict various embodiments of the present invention for purposes of illustration only. One skilled in the art will readily recognize from the following discussion that alternative embodiments of the structures and methods illustrated herein may be employed without departing from the principles of the invention described herein. 
       DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Overview 
       [0020]      FIG. 1  is a block diagram of a system environment  100  for a rule system  140 . The system environment  100  shown by  FIG. 1  comprises one or more client devices  110 , a network  120 , one or more businesses  130 A,  130 B (also referred to individually and collectively using reference number  130 ), and the rule system  140 . In alternative configurations, different and/or additional components may be included in the system environment  100 . 
         [0021]    The client devices  110  are one or more computing devices capable of receiving user input as well as transmitting and/or receiving data via the network  120 . In one embodiment, a client device  110  is a conventional computer system, such as a desktop or a laptop computer. Alternatively, a client device  110  may be a device having computer functionality, such as a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile telephone, a smartphone or another suitable device. A client device  110  is configured to communicate via the network  120 . In one embodiment, a client device  110  executes an application allowing a user of the client device  110  to interact with the rule system  140 . For example, a client device  110  executes a browser application to enable interaction between the client device  110  and the rule system  140  via the network  120 . In another embodiment, a client device  110  interacts with the rule system  140  through an application programming interface (API) running on a native operating system of the client device  110 , such as IOS® or ANDROID™. Client devices  110  may be associated with users who are employees of one or businesses  130  and allow the employees to obtain or communicate data to a business. 
         [0022]    The client devices  110  are configured to communicate via the network  120 , which may comprise any combination of local area and/or wide area networks, using both wired and/or wireless communication systems. In one embodiment, the network  120  uses standard communications technologies and/or protocols. For example, the network  120  includes communication links using technologies such as Ethernet, 802.11, worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX), 3G, 4G, code division multiple access (CDMA), digital subscriber line (DSL), etc. Examples of networking protocols used for communicating via the network  120  include multiprotocol label switching (MPLS), transmission control protocol/Internet protocol (TCP/IP), hypertext transport protocol (HTTP), simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP), and file transfer protocol (FTP). Data exchanged over the network  120  may be represented using any suitable format, such as hypertext markup language (HTML) or extensible markup language (XML). In some embodiments, all or some of the communication links of the network  120  may be encrypted using any suitable technique or techniques. 
         [0023]    One or more businesses  130 A,  130 B may be coupled to the network  120  for communicating with the rule system  140 . A business  130  is associated with one or more employees who receive compensation from the business for performing various actions. To motivate employees to perform actions, a business  130  may implement an incentive program that provides employees with additional compensation or other benefits based on one or more rules. A rule associates a benefit with one or more performance metrics, so an employee receives the benefit when actions associated with the employee satisfy the one or more performance metrics. Examples of performance metrics include: a total number of sales, an amount of revenue, an amount of revenue generated within a specified time interval, a number of sales of a specific product or service, a threshold rating or evaluation, whether actions associated with an employee meet or exceed a target (e.g., whether a number of sales of a product equals or exceeds a threshold number), a threshold accuracy between actions of a user and predicted actions of the user, a position in a ranking relative to other employees, and a total number of a specific action performed by an employee. Other examples of performance metrics include: employee completion of one or more wellness goals, a number or percentage of wellness activities in which a user participated or completed, a number of percentage of training programs completed by employees, employee participation or completion of training programs in one or more subject areas, customer feedback received for an employee (e.g., a rating of an employee by customers), a number of reviews of an employee received from customers, recognition of an employee, or any other activity of an employee for which information describing the activity may be tracked or maintained. For example, a rule specifies an amount of compensation for an employee providing the business with at least a threshold amount of revenue. As another example, a rule specifies an amount of vacation time an employee receives for having at least a threshold position in a ranking of employees based on performance metrics associated with the employees (e.g., based on number of sales of a product or based on amount of revenue generated). In other examples, a rule specifies a number of points an employee receives for completing a threshold number of training programs; the employee may subsequently exchange the points with one or more entities for goods or services or, in some embodiment, exchange the points for monetary compensation based on the points from a business  130  employing the employee. In some embodiments, the rule system  140 , further described below, provides the employee with goods or services in exchange for points; alternatively, the business  130  or a third party system receives points from the employee and provides goods or services to the employee. For example, the business  130 , the rule system  140 , or other entity maintains a catalog of products or services provided to an employee in exchange for points, such as points received by the employee through a rule. Businesses  130  provide rules to the rule system  140 , which stores the rules for subsequent retrieval by the business  130  or by additional businesses  130 . In various embodiments, the rule system  140  provides an interface for a business  130  to generate one or more rules stored by the rule system  140 . 
         [0024]    To allow a business  130  to more easily implement an incentive program, the rule system  140  maintains information describing rules for providing employees with benefits based on satisfying performance metric criteria. In addition to storing the rules, the rule system  140  may include additional information associated with various rules. For example, the rule system  140  associates information with a rule describing a number of times a rule has been implemented by a business  130 , describing ratings or comments received from various businesses and associated with a rule, describing operation of a rule, describing strengths and weaknesses of a rule, or identifying additional rules as alternatives to a rules. However, in various embodiments, any suitable information may be associated with a rule. Additionally, the rule system  140  may receive information from businesses  130  describing performance of rules selected from the rule system  140  by the businesses  130 . For example, information describing effects of a rule on a budget of a business  130  (e.g., compensation provided by the business  130  to employees based on the rule) is received from the business  130  and associated with the rule by the rule system  140 . Information describing rules may be received from businesses  130  over time, allowing the rule system  140  to provide accurate information describing performance of various rules. In some embodiments, the rule system  140  communicates with the business  130  to receive information describing performance of rules stores by the rule system  140  subject to approval or verification from the business. Information the rule system  140  receives does not include information allowing the rule system  140  to determine an identity of an employee of the business  130 , but may include data for evaluating employees based on a rule. 
         [0025]    The rule system  140  may also evaluate employees of a business  130  based on one or more rules associated with the business  130  and stored by the rule system  140 . For example, the business  130  authorizes the rule system  140  to access a subset if information associated with employees of the business  130  and maintained by the business  130 . Based on the accessed subset of information, the rule system  140  determines if performance metrics associated with various employees satisfy criteria of various rules applicable to the employees. If an employee&#39;s performance metric satisfies criteria of a rule, the rule system  140  communicates information describing a benefit associated with the rule to the business  130 , allowing the business  130  to accordingly compensate the employee. 
         [0026]    Based on information associated with a business  130  or provided by the business  130 , the rule system  140  may suggest or recommend one or more rules to the business  130 . For example, based on an industry associated with a business  130 , the rule system  140  recommends one or more rules previously selected by at least a threshold number of additional businesses  130  associated with the same industry to the business  130 . Additionally, prior performance of various rules may be used by the rule store  140  to recommend rules. For example, rules having at least at threshold performance are recommended. The business  130  may also provide information to the rule system  140  for recommending rules. For example, the business  130  identifies an industry associated with the business  130  and a budget or budget range, and the rule system  140  identifies one or more stored rules based on the industry and budget information. The recommended rules may be rules received by the rule system  140  from additional businesses  130  or created by additional businesses  130  via the rule system  140 . In some embodiments, the rule system  140  maintains a catalog of products or services provided to employees of a business  130  in exchange for points provided to the employees. A business  130  may access the catalog through an application programming interface provided to the business  130  by the rule system  140 , or through any other suitable method. 
         [0027]    Hence, the rule system  140  allows a user authorized with a business  130  to view information describing rules stored by the rule system  140 , which may be created or provide by other businesses, and identify rule for implementation by the business form the information describing the rules stored by the rule system  140 . The rule system  140  may identify a gallery of candidate rules for a business  130  based on an industry associated with the business  130 , a number of employees of the business  130 , a budget for a rule specified by the business  130 , or other suitable information. Prior performance of rules stored by the rule system  130  may also be used to identify the gallery of candidate rules. For example, rules having at least a threshold rating by other businesses  130  having a threshold number of characteristics matching characteristics of the business  130  are identified as candidate rules. The business  130  may select one or more rules from the gallery of candidate rules to implement an incentive program for its employees. 
       Creating Rules 
       [0028]      FIG. 2  is an example interface provided by the rule system  140  that identifies various rules maintained by the rule system  140 . A business may select one or more rules from the interface of  FIG. 2  to obtain information for implanting the selected one or more rules. In the example of  FIG. 2 , the interface presents a name of a rule, a description of the rule, a rating of the rule by businesses  140  that previously implemented the rule, and a number of times the rule has been retrieved or implemented by businesses. Additionally, information describing a version and a modification date associated with a rule may also be displayed, allowing users from a business  130  to determine how recently the rule has been modified. In some embodiments, an indication that a rule was created or received by the rule system  140  within a threshold time from a current time is presented, allowing a user to identify rules recently received or created. 
         [0029]    The rules presented in the interface may be organized based on a type. A type associated with a rule may specify a performance metric used by the rule. Example types include: transactional rules, ranking rules, goal-based rules, and forecast rules. A transactional rule is based on a number of occurrences of an action or a number of products or services sold, while a ranking rule is based on an employee&#39;s position in a ranking relative to other employees. A goal-based rule is based on whether an employee&#39;s actions equal or exceed a threshold amount of action (e.g., whether the employee sold at least a threshold number of products), and a forecast rule is based on a difference between an employee&#39;s actions and actions predicted for the user. Selecting a type causes the interface to present rules having the selected type. 
         [0030]    A user associated with a business  130  may create a rule via the rule system  140 . In various embodiments, a business  130  identifies one or more authorized users to the rule system  140 , allowing the authorized users to create or select rules via the rule system  140  on behalf of the business. If an authorized user requests creation of a rule, the rule system  140  provides the authorized user with a rule creation interface, an example of which is shown in  FIG. 3 . The rule creation interface includes a field for specifying a description of the rule (i.e., the criteria for a performance metric and a benefit provided if the criteria are satisfied). Additionally, the rule creation interface allows the authorized user to provide documentation describing implementation of the rule, example implementations of the rule. Video data or audio data associated with the rule may also be provided via the rule creation interface. In some embodiments, information describing alternative implementations of the rule, possible modifications to the rule, or other information associated with the rule may also be provided. 
         [0031]    When creating a rule, the authorized user of the business  130  specifies one or more characteristics of the rule. For example, the authorized user of the business  130  specifies if the rule is included in an incentive campaign that also includes additional rules, if the rule applies to a specific set of employees (e.g., employees in a specific location, employees with a specific title, etc.). When creating a rule, the rule system  140  provides the authorized user of the business with an interface, such as the interface shown in  FIG. 4 , to select a category including the rule. In the example of  FIG. 4 , the interface shows example categories of rules based on rules maintained by the rule system  140 . For example, the interface identifies a category including basic rules (e.g., rules that provide a benefit if a criteria is met), a category including rules specifying a minimum criteria before a benefit is provided, a category including rules specifying a maximum criteria before a benefit is provided or after which a benefit is no longer provided, and rules specifying different benefits. Information describing different categories of rules may also be shown in the interface (e.g., prior performance of rules in a category, ratings of rules in the category received from businesses, a number of times rules in the category have been implemented, etc.). The information presented may be based on information received by the rule system  140  from additional businesses  130 , such as additional businesses associated with a common industry as the business  130  or having other characteristics matching or similar to characteristics of the business  130 . Further, the information presented may be based at least in part on evaluation of prior performance of rules in various categories by the rule system  140  based on information received from businesses  130  having at least a threshold similarity to the business  130 . 
         [0032]    After receiving a selection of a category including the rule, the rule system  140  presents an interface where the authorized user selects an incentive campaign including the rule.  FIG. 5  shows an example interface for selecting an incentive campaign where incentive campaigns associated with the business associated with the authorized user are presented, allowing the authorized user of the business  130  to select an incentive campaign including the rule. After selecting an incentive campaign, the authorized user of the business  130  is presented with an interface to provide information describing the rule. In the example interface of  FIG. 6 , the authorized user of the business is prompted to identify a name, description, and a duration associated with the rule. The name identifies the rule, while the description provides additional information describing implementation of the rule. In  FIG. 6 , the authorized user of the business identifies a start date and an end date to identify the duration, but the duration may be specified using any suitable format in various embodiments. 
         [0033]      FIG. 7  shows an interface for the authorized user of the business  130  to identify employees of the business to whom the rule is applied. For example, the authorized user identifies employees in specific geographic locations, in specific departments, having a specific job title, having a specific experience level, or any other suitable characteristics for identifying employees. When identifying employees, the authorized user may specifically identify one or more employees to whom the rule is not applied.  FIG. 8  shows an example interface for identifying employees to exclude from application of the rules. Specific employees may be excluded from the rule or a group of employees having a specific characteristic may be excluded from the rule.  FIG. 9  shows an example interface allowing the authorized user to identify additional employees to whom the rule is applied by providing information identifying the users. 
         [0034]      FIGS. 10-13  illustrate interfaces for specifying criteria associated with the rule. The criteria identify one or more performance metrics that when satisfied by an employee, cause the business  130  to provide the employee with a benefit specified by the rule. In the example of  FIG. 11 , the interface presents products associated with the business, allowing the authorized user of the business to select products for determining performance metrics of users. The rule system  140  may identify or recommend products to use for determining performance metrics based on other rules stored by the rule system  140  (e.g., additional rules associated with the business  130  or associated with other businesses  130  having at least a threshold number of common characteristics with the business  130 ).  FIG. 13  illustrates an example interface allowing the authorized user to specify a budget for the rule. Additionally, the interface of  FIG. 13  may also provide information describing an estimated result of the rule based on information associated with the business  130  or with similar businesses  130  having implemented a similar rule. For example, the interface identifies a predicted amount the business  130  will compensate employees based on different products included in the rule, allowing the authorized user to determine a predicted effect of the rule on sales of various products or to determine an expected cost to the business  130  from benefits predicted to be provided to employees. 
         [0035]    After specifying the criteria for the rule, the rule system  140  presents the authorized user of the business  130  with a summary interface  140  describing the rule. An example summary interface is shown in  FIG. 14  and describes the information provided to the rule system  140  via the interfaces described in conjunction with  FIGS. 2-13 . Additionally, the summary interface presents an interface element allowing the authorized user to store the rule to the rule system  140 . In some embodiments, the authorized user may request that the rule system  140  request confirmation from the authorized user before storing the rule,  FIG. 12  shows an example interface allowing an authorized user to provide confirmation before the rule store  140  stores the rule. 
       Virtual Hierarchy 
       [0036]    In addition to allowing an authorized user of a business  130  to generate a rule based on additional rules maintained by the rule system  140 , the rule system allows the authorized user to generate “virtual hierarchies” of users to whom a rule applies. For example, based on employees identified as subject to a rule, the rule system  140  generates a hierarchy of the identified employees and stores information identifying the identified employees in association with the rule. This allows an authorized user to more easily identify employees of a business  130  subject to the rule or to retrieve the employees&#39; performance relative to the rule. As some rules may apply to employees in disparate locations of an organizational structure of a business, storing information identifying users subject to a rule simplifies subsequent evaluation of users based on the rule. Information associated with the users subject to the rule may also be used to indicate relationships (e.g., hierarchical relationships) between various users subject to the rule. 
       SUMMARY 
       [0037]    The foregoing description of the embodiments of the invention has been presented for the purpose of illustration; it is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed. Persons skilled in the relevant art can appreciate that many modifications and variations are possible in light of the above disclosure. 
         [0038]    Some portions of this description describe the embodiments of the invention in terms of algorithms and symbolic representations of operations on information. These algorithmic descriptions and representations are commonly used by those skilled in the data processing arts to convey the substance of their work effectively to others skilled in the art. These operations, while described functionally, computationally, or logically, are understood to be implemented by computer programs or equivalent electrical circuits, microcode, or the like. Furthermore, it has also proven convenient at times, to refer to these arrangements of operations as modules, without loss of generality. The described operations and their associated modules may be embodied in software, firmware, hardware, or any combinations thereof. 
         [0039]    Any of the steps, operations, or processes described herein may be performed or implemented with one or more hardware or software modules, alone or in combination with other devices. In one embodiment, a software module is implemented with a computer program product comprising a computer-readable medium containing computer program code, which can be executed by a computer processor for performing any or all of the steps, operations, or processes described. 
         [0040]    Embodiments of the invention may also relate to an apparatus for performing the operations herein. This apparatus may be specially constructed for the required purposes, and/or it may comprise a general-purpose computing device selectively activated or reconfigured by a computer program stored in the computer. Such a computer program may be stored in a tangible computer readable storage medium or any type of media suitable for storing electronic instructions, and coupled to a computer system bus. Furthermore, any computing systems referred to in the specification may include a single processor or may be architectures employing multiple processor designs for increased computing capability. 
         [0041]    Embodiments of the invention may also relate to a computer data signal embodied in a carrier wave, where the computer data signal includes any embodiment of a computer program product or other data combination described herein. The computer data signal is a product that is presented in a tangible medium or carrier wave and modulated or otherwise encoded in the carrier wave, which is tangible, and transmitted according to any suitable transmission method. 
         [0042]    Finally, the language used in the specification has been principally selected for readability and instructional purposes, and it may not have been selected to delineate or circumscribe the inventive subject matter. It is therefore intended that the scope of the invention be limited not by this detailed description, but rather by any claims that issue on an application based hereon.