Abstract:
Systems, devices, and methods for global enterprise workflow management are disclosed. The system may include a communications module, memory, and processor for executing a method of managing job information. The system receives job information and uses a model to identify a desirable resource to execute the job. Then the system sends the job information to the identified resource for execution. The resource may send back information associated with the running and/or completion of the job. Various models may be used in identifying a desirable approach, including a cost model, a staffing model, and other models.

Description:
RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/875,624, filed Oct. 19, 2007 (which issues as U.S. Pat. No. 8,508,766 on Aug. 13, 2013), which claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/880,923, filed Jan. 17, 2007. Both of the aforementioned applications are herein incorporated by reference in their entireties. 
    
    
     TECHNICAL FIELD 
     Aspects of the invention relate generally to industrial processing. More specifically, aspects of the invention provide automating end-to-end processing of document production, assembly, and/or mailing. 
     BACKGROUND 
     Today&#39;s direct mail house must be flexible in order to respond quickly to ever changing marketing demands from customers. The world is deeply entrenched in the digital age. Digital technologies are here to stay and the mailing industry must maximize efforts to stay with the times. One objective of the mailing industry is to get messages, statements, documents and merchandise to the correct recipient within the prescribed timeframe in order to secure the desired response. To properly address this problem requires a new approach, one that breaks with incremental solutions offering from the past. 
     In the mailing industry, customers are dealing with a rapidly changing industry, an evolving workforce, and environment of increasing regulation. The industry has several pressures facing each customer, vendor, supplier and 3rd party entities. The largest cost factor or cost element in producing mail is the postage. The industry faces double digit increases that are driving alternative methods by dealing with these extra pressures. This eliminates the cost of paper processing by abolishing the entire paper processing and using technology of the internet and email to reduce the need of the United States Postal Service. Noticeably, electronic document delivery and e-billing provides High Volume Mailing professionals the opportunity to achieve substantial reduction in print and mail costs. Overall electronic document delivery will continue to grow as an importance for all mailers, of all sizes. 
     The direct mail production process is an extremely complicated process with several incremental steps. Take for example a bank mailing the monthly bank statements to several thousand, or even million, bank customers. The banking records must be extracted from databases, processed into the proper format for a statement, printed out, separated, combined with other mailing items, folded, inserted into mailing envelopes, and sorted by postal codes to achieve mailing discounts. This entire process must be verifiable, so that the bank has reasonable proof that the mailing was properly assembled and mailed to each customer. Achieving efficiency for such processing is difficult. 
     Today, it is not enough for a company to provide great module technology. Integrated solutions supported by numerous products to maximize postal savings, which are regulated by the United States Postal Service, and other factors are needed to solve the aforementioned issues in the industry. 
     BRIEF SUMMARY 
     The following presents a simplified summary of the invention in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the invention. This summary is not an extensive overview of the invention. It is not intended to identify key or critical elements of the invention or to delineate the scope of the invention. The following summary merely presents some concepts of the invention in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description provided below. 
     A first aspect of the invention provides a system for providing workflow management. The system includes a communications module, memory, and processor for executing a method of managing job information. The system receives job information and uses a model to identify a desirable resource to execute the job. Then the system sends the job information to the identified resource for execution. The resource may send back information associated with the running and/or completion of the job. Various models may be used in identifying a desirable approach. A cost model, a staffing model, and other models exist in the art and are well-known. 
     A second aspect of the invention provides a method for workflow management using a plurality of resources located in remote locations in a plurality of countries. The method includes receiving job information, identifying a resource to perform the job, and sending the job information to that resource. In addition, the method steps may be implemented as computer-executable instructions stored in a computer-readable medium. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       A more complete understanding of the present invention and the advantages thereof may be acquired by referring to the following description in consideration of the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numbers indicate like features, and wherein: 
         FIG. 1  illustrates a suitable computing system in accordance with aspects of the invention; 
         FIG. 2  illustrates a simplified, illustrative operating environment for implementing various aspects and embodiments of the invention; 
         FIG. 3  illustrates a global enterprise printing and mailing model in accordance with aspects of the invention; 
         FIG. 4  illustrates a flowchart showing a method in accordance with aspects of the invention; 
         FIG. 5  illustrates a flow chart diagram of a print control and reporting module in accordance with aspects of the disclosure; 
         FIG. 6  illustrates a flow chart diagram of a local mailing control module in accordance with aspects of the disclosure; and 
         FIG. 7  illustrates a flow chart diagram of a costing and staffing module in accordance with aspects of the disclosure; 
         FIG. 8  illustrates a flow chart diagram of a concatenating and commingling module in accordance with aspects of the disclosure; 
         FIG. 9  illustrates a flow chart diagram of an insert control and reporting module in accordance with aspects of the disclosure; 
         FIG. 10  illustrates a flow chart diagram of a modeling module in accordance with aspects of the disclosure; 
         FIG. 11  illustrates a flow chart diagram of a job preparation module in accordance with aspects of the disclosure; 
         FIG. 12  illustrates a flow chart diagram of a floor monitoring module in accordance with aspects of the disclosure; 
         FIG. 13  illustrates a flow chart diagram of an insert manager module in accordance with aspects of the disclosure; and 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     In the following description of the various embodiments, reference is made to the accompanying drawings, which form a part hereof, and in which is shown by way of illustration various embodiments in which the invention may be practiced. It is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and structural and functional modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. 
     Aspects of the invention provide the ability to manage individual business processes or an entire document factory by providing workflow management with real-time analysis for production print and mail environments. The system allows views of the high-level job tracking that drills down into job details, such as analytical analysis on specific job(s), resource, sorting, house-holding, or employee productivity results. Furthermore, in accordance with various aspects of the invention, secure, real-time visibility provides the current process and status of every job, including the ability to identify those behind schedule and the processes, machines and/or people. Additionally, various aspects of the invention provide promotional content integrated in documents; enables organizations creating dynamic documents from self-service web portals; provides supply solutions that advance beyond just standalone modules or document management; provide software that continues to be a driving force; provide privacy regulations for customers and institutions within the mail world; provide total document integrity; provide an upgrading of legacy systems; and/or provide a focus on flexible systems with all the varied components that comprise a competitive end-to-end workflow. 
     An example of an illustrative personal computing system  100  in which various aspects and embodiments of the invention may be implemented is shown in the simplified diagram in  FIG. 1 . The features of such a device are well-known to those of skill in the art and need not be described at length here. The illustrative system  100  is only one example of a suitable system and is not intended to suggest any limitation as to the scope of use or functionality of the invention. Suitable computing environments for use with the invention include a computing device  102  or system that support interaction with an input devices  122  (e.g., digital camera  128 , document scanner  124 , multi-function office device  126 , etc.), output devices  118  (e.g., visual display device  120 ), and communication connections  130  (e.g., Ethernet connection, IEEE 802.11, dial-up connection, etc.). The communication connections  130  may be used to allow the computing device  102  to communicate with other devices. With reference to  FIG. 1 , a computing device  102  commonly includes a memory  106  and a processor  104  (e.g., an Intel microprocessor). The visual display device  120  may be configured to automatically display reporting information in near realtime. The reporting information may be received through the communication connections  130  and automatically passed to the visual display device  120  for near realtime display. 
     Programs, comprising sets of instructions and associated data, may be stored in the memory  106 , from which they can be retrieved and executed by the processing unit  103 . Among the programs and program modules stored in the memory  106  are those that comprise or are associated with an operating system  110  as well as application programs  112 . Application programs  112 , such as a web browser application, Java runtime environment, and others, and an operating system  110  are commonly installed in a computing device  102 . The memory  106  may also include a cache  106  to enhance device performance. Computing system  100  includes forms of computer-readable media. Computer-readable media include any available media that can be accessed by the computing device  102 . Computer-readable media may comprise storage media and communication media. Storage media include volatile and nonvolatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storage of information such as computer-readable instructions, object code, data structures, program modules, or other data. Communication media include any information delivery media and typically embody data in a modulated data signal such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism. 
     Aspects of the inventive methods may be embodied as computer readable instructions stored on a computer readable medium such as a floppy disk, CD-ROM, removable storage device, hard disk, system memory, or other data storage medium.  FIG. 1  illustrates a block diagram of a computer readable medium  106  that may be used in accordance with one or more of the above described embodiments. The computer readable medium  106  stores computer executable components, or the numerous software modules described below. More or fewer software modules may alternatively be used. Each component may be an executable program, a data link library, a configuration file, a database, a graphical image, a binary data file, a text data file, an object file, a source code file, or the like. As will be appreciated by one of skill in the art, the functionality of the software modules may be combined or distributed as desired in various embodiments. When one or more computer processors (e.g., processing units) execute one or more of the software modules, the software modules interact to cause one or more computer systems to perform according to the teachings of the present invention. 
     Referring to  FIG. 3 , the global enterprise printing and mailing model  300  is a process that is designed around the printing and mailing operations of any entity in the print and mail operations industry. This model allows global business entities to build staffing, financial, cost models, concatenate and/or commingle jobs to attain low cost per piece and maximize capacity. This concept also provides a global work flow view connecting all the national business entities and international business entities into one model. The concept is based on building several modules into a global model. Such modules and their core functionality are highlighted below. 
     One such module is the print control and reporting module, and local mailing control module. Numerous features of these modules in accordance with aspects of the invention are disclosed in U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/880,923 (filed Jan. 17, 2007), the entirety of which has already been incorporated by reference above, including, but not limited to, in the sections labeled accordingly, including the corresponding flow chart diagrams  500 ,  600  (see  FIG. 5 ,  FIG. 6 ). Those sections list various method steps and approaches associated with aspects of such modules. For example, Print Control and Reporting is a process  500  that monitors the print devices and reports information to a database. A hand held scanner allows a user to scan a barcode on the printer and log the information to the database. This allows the users to run reports on any logged information in the database. Functional Requirements include: ability to scan barcode at the output of the printer; ability to log any manual entries by the user; and/or ability to run reports on any logged information. 
     Pursuant to the preceding paragraph, Local Mailing control is a process  600  that provides the business logic required to prepare the mail to attain maximum postal discounts. This process also prepares the mail presentation documentation to the Postal services. Functional Requirements include: ability to sort indexes based on business rules; ability to sort indexes based on postal discounts; and/or ability to capture information into database for reporting. 
     In the global enterprise printing and mailing model  300 , a scanning device  124  (e.g., a bar code scanning device) may be located at each of the plurality of resources configured to scan a barcode on the printing device. For example, a different barcode may correspond to the various functions and inputs that a maintenance technician or device operator may wish to input/record about the system. The technician may scan a barcode designated for repairs each time a printing machine has a malfunction and requires repair. In some examples, there may be a barcode for start repair and a different one for stop repair. As such, information may be collected and stored regarding the system that may be used for model information. 
     Another module in the global enterprise printing and mailing model is the costing and staffing module. Numerous features of this module in accordance with aspects of the invention are disclosed in U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/880,923 (filed Jan. 17, 2007), the entirety of which has already been incorporated by reference above, including, but not limited to, in the section labeled “Costing/Staffing” which includes the corresponding flow chart diagrams  700  (see  FIG. 7 ). That section, which has already been incorporated by reference in this application, lists various method steps and approaches associated with aspects of such a module. For example, Costing and Staffing Model is a process  700  that collects information on the cost of material, people and equipment. Based on the information the users can generate a cost scheme for internal/external customers. The users can also generate staffing requirements based on the heuristics. Functional Requirements include: ability to generate cost models; ability to generate staffing requirements for equipment; and ability to generate cost per envelope to perform analysis. 
     In the global enterprise printing and mailing model  300 , the costing and staffing module may use model information stored in memory (e.g., a global enterprise database or a local database) to identify a desirable facility or resource located anywhere worldwide to utilize. The model information may comprise information about cost of materials (e.g., envelopes, inserts, paper, consumables, ink, etc.), cost of print image, cost of labor (e.g., cost of staff required to run various systems such as upstream software, printers, inserters, and cost of supervisors for the staff), postal cost, hard costs (e.g., building costs, utilities, any internal billing costs, etc.), history of cost, holiday schedule, vacation schedule, and production schedule. One skilled in the art will appreciate that other factors may be useful to monitor and/or record for purposes of creating a model, and the invention is not so limited to the aforementioned list of non-exhaustive factors. 
     The model information may be used to identify a desirable facility based on various business rules embodied in various models. For example, under a cost model approach, collected heuristic cost information is considered while predicting future cost per piece. In addition, information about the hard costs for a particular site (e.g., resource/facility) is considered. Moreover, the cost of paper and other materials is considered in light of the paper type and weight (e.g., 18 lb paper, 20 lb paper, 22 lb paper, etc.) used. Under a different model, the staffing model, collected heuristic schedule information is considered while predicting future schedules. In addition, information about how many employees a particular type of machine (e.g., printer device, inserter device, etc.) requires is considered. Moreover, the forecasted month end, quarter end, and year end volumes are considered. Finally, under yet another model the approach may be based on a maximizing utilization of the plurality of resources available to the workflow. For example, concatenate and commingle module may use business rules to sort based on achieving low cost per piece, or based on the international guidelines, or based on maximizing machine utilization. Likewise, information collected will be used to drive the decision process under the business rules. One skilled in the art will appreciate that various statistical methods may be used to construct each model with its associated business rules. 
     In one example, a desirable facility may be identified by attributing equal weight to cost savings and machine utilization. In such an example, each resource site&#39;s cost per piece may be calculated using numerous factors (e.g., cost of materials, cost of equipment, hard costs, etc.) and compared to a benchmark cost value. For example, site A may be found to cost $0.15 per piece, while site B costs $0.17 per piece. Assuming a benchmark cost of $0.15 per piece, site A would be assigned a higher rank (e.g., a value of 1.0) than site B (e.g., a value of 0.9). In addition, the utilization rating of each site may also be considered. Assuming site A has a machine utilization of 1.0 (i.e., where 0.5 represents 50% utilization) and site B has a machine utilization of 1.0 (i.e., where 1.0 represent 100% utilization), then site A may have a higher rank in this line-up than site B. Therefore, it may be identified that site A is the desirable resource to use since it has a lower cost per piece and has excess machine capacity to provide. One skilled in the art will appreciate that the weights attributed to the various considerations may be adjusted depending on a client&#39;s particular objectives. 
     Another module in the global enterprise printing and mailing model is the concatenating and commingling module. Numerous features of this module in accordance with aspects of the invention are disclosed in U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/880,923 (filed Jan. 17, 2007), the entirety of which has already been incorporated by reference above, including, but not limited to, in the section labeled “Concatenating and Commingling” which includes the corresponding flow chart diagrams  800  (see  FIG. 8 ). That section, which has already been incorporated by reference in this application, lists various method steps and approaches associated with aspects of such a module. For example, Concatenating is a process  800  through which several jobs can be concatenated to achieve maximum equipment utilization through job optimization. Several factors play a role in job optimization like job sizing, equipment characteristics. Commingling is a process  800  through which several jobs can be sorted to achieve low cost per envelope. Both these process together improve the production of envelopes by maintaining a low cost per envelope. Functional Requirements include: ability to combine jobs based on job size; ability to split jobs based on job size; ability to sort jobs based on postal codes to attain maximum discounts; ability to sort jobs based on page counts; and/or ability to combine envelopes based on business rules like same address. 
     Other modules in the global enterprise printing and mailing model include: the financial module, the insert control and reporting module, the job preparation module, the floor monitoring module, the modeling module, the inserter manager module, the enterprise manager module, the enterprise report module, the enterprise planner module, and the management/administration of work flow control module. Numerous features of these modules in accordance with aspects of the invention are disclosed in U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/880,923 (filed Jan. 17, 2007), the entirety of which has already been incorporated by reference above, including, but not limited to, in the sections labeled accordingly, including the corresponding flow chart diagrams  900 ,  1000 ,  1100 ,  1200 ,  1300  (see  FIGS. 9-13 ). Those sections list various method steps and approaches associated with aspects of such modules. For example, Insert Control and Reporting is a process  900  that controls the inserting equipment and report against that equipment. This process may log all the inserter related events into a database. This process also controls the inserting equipment to ensure that the right mail piece went into right envelope. Functional Requirements include: ability to control the inserter; ability to report against the inserter; and/or ability to log all events on an inserter. 
     Pursuant to the preceding paragraph, Modeling (i.e., modeling module) is a process  1000  that generates mini tabs based on the information supplied by the user, information available in the data ware house around staffing, financial and costing mechanism. Functional Requirements include: ability to generate mini tabs based on cost models; ability to generate mini tabs based on financial models; and/or ability to generate mini tabs based on staffing models. In addition, Job Preparation (i.e., job preparation module) is a process  1100  that prepares the jobs based on priorities and SLA and route them to the destination printing equipment in a specific order. This process allows the users to control the jobs based on SLA information. Functional Requirements include: ability to schedule jobs based on SLA information; ability to control job scheduling process; and/or ability to control job delivery mechanism. Furthermore, Floor Monitoring is a process  1200  that enables the users to monitor the end to end production on industrial monitors. This process can give a quick snapshot on the end to end process related to printing and mailing. This process can also alert the users using color scheme on displayed data on the monitors. Functional Requirements include: ability to display end to end process; ability to apply color scheme mechanism; and/or ability display pop up alerts. In addition, Inserter Manager (i.e., inserter manager module) is a process  1300  that allows the users to control the inserter. This process also allows the users to manage jobs that run on inserting equipment. In addition to the jobs this process can also manage the users that access the inserting systems. Functional Requirements include: ability to manage jobs on an inserter; ability to manage users on an inserter; and/or ability to change inserter properties. Also, Enterprise Planner (i.e., enterprise planner module) is a process that allows the businesses to plan their production on printing, inserting and mailing based on SLA information. This also allows the business units to estimate the materials, equipment, people needed on a billing cycle basis. Functional Requirements include: ability to estimate the materials required; ability to estimate the equipment required; ability to estimate the people required; ability to plan production on printing; ability to plan production on inserting; and/or ability to plan production on mailing. 
     In addition, numerous features of the systems and steps of the methods in accordance with aspects of the invention are disclosed in U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/880,923 (filed Jan. 17, 2007), the entirety of which has already been incorporated by reference above, including, but not limited to, in the table labeled “BRD Response Summary/Gap Analysis.” That table, which has already been incorporated by reference in this application, lists various business rules associated with aspects of the invention and various functionality that may be implemented to address application requirements and associated business rules. One of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that where words such as “need” or “must” have been used in the aforementioned U.S. Provisional Patent Application, they shall not be construed to limit the invention. 
       FIG. 2  depicts a simplified, illustrative operating environment for implementing various aspects and embodiments of the invention. The illustrative operating environment in  FIG. 2  is only one example of a suitable operating scenario and is not intended to suggest any limitation as to the scope of use or functionality of the invention. 
     In the global enterprise printing and mailing model  300 , resources may be spread across the globe. For example, resources  214 ,  202 , and  102  may be located in different countries in remote locations. Each resource may contain a computing device similar to the computing system  100  of  FIG. 1 . The computing system  202  may contain a memory  206  and processor  204 . In addition, a data store  208  may be in communication with a computing system  102  to store information, such as job information (e.g., information associated with a print and/or mail job) and model information. 
     In one example, a resource  202  with a computing device may receive job information from a computing system  102  controlling the global workflow. The computing device  202  may process the job information and send print image data to various devices  212  (e.g., printing device, inserting device, and/or sorting device) to perform the document functions. In addition, any additional information (e.g., information collected from a handheld barcode scanner at devices  212 ) may be collected and sent, along with other operating information, to computing system  102  for storage as model information in global enterprise database  208  (or data store). 
     One skilled in the art will appreciate that the network  210  may be any of the Internet, wide area network (WAN), local area network (LAN), wireless LAN (e.g., a LAN using IEEE 802.11, a Bluetooth network, etc.) or any other telecommunications network (e.g., satellite, cable, dial-up, etc.) that permits communication between remote computing systems. Furthermore, the network  210  may include wired and/or wireless communication. 
     The computing system  102  may be comprised of a memory  106  storing computer-executable instructions and a processor  104  for executing the instructions. The instructions may direct the computing device  102  to perform numerous function, including various functions described in  FIG. 4  and throughout this disclosure. One skilled in the art will appreciate that the computing devices as depicted in  FIG. 2  are not limited to a single machine or device. Rather, the term refers to any system of computers and/or devices (e.g., firewalls, routers, caching systems, proxy servers, etc.) that may be used to provide access to services and features available for access in the global enterprise model  300 . As such, different reference to the term performing particular steps does not require that the same machine/device perform all the steps. 
     Referring to  FIG. 4 , a method of workflow management using a plurality of resources located in remote locations in a plurality of countries is represented. In step  402 , job information is received from a remote location. In step  404 , the job information is stored in computer memory. In step  406 , using model information stored in the memory, a desirable resource is identified to execute a job corresponding to the job information. In step  408 , at least part of the job information is sent to the desirable resource. The desirable resource may include a printing device, inserting device, and sorting device  212 . In step  410 , reporting information is received from the desirable resource. The reporting information is associated with the job information and may include data collected at the resource facility by maintenance technicians and other employees operating the devices  212 . For example, this may include print device monitoring information entered using a scanning device. The print device monitoring information may be stored in memory as part of the model information. In step  412 , the reporting information is displayed on a visual display device in a near realtime manner. The visual display may be use the floor monitor module disclosed in U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/880,923 (filed Jan. 17, 2007), the entirety of which has already been incorporated by reference above. 
     Although the subject matter has been described in language specific to structural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the subject matter defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above. Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed as example forms of implementing the claims.