Patent ID: 8224683

Claim:
A method, in a computer system, for monitoring service tickets for information technology service providers to ensure that levels of service required to be provided to a customer pursuant to a contractual agreement between the customer and a service provider, are met, the method comprising: inspecting a service ticket in a database to determine a deadline for when a problem associated with the service ticket must be resolved, with the deadline based upon a contractually determined severity of the problem and a corresponding contractually required time for resolution of the problem; displaying, on a display device at the help desk, a graphical display populated with representations of service tickets that have reached a predetermined percentage of the time before their due date; determining a deadline approaching alert time at which a help desk user must be notified that the deadline for resolving the problem must be met; and alerting the help desk user that the deadline for resolving the problem is approaching when the deadline approaching alert time is reached.