Patent ID: 8224680

Claim:
A system for real-time maintaining an inventory of services and associated resources of a client company, comprising: feeds for receiving inventory data supplied by the client company; a product component in real-time communication with the feeds, the product component comprising inventory modules capable of storing inventory records indicative of the services and associated resources of the client company, and a processor capable of importing the inventory data received through the feeds as corresponding inventory records stored in the inventory modules, of updating the inventory records as a function of data update requests, and of processing the inventory records to produce informative reports on selected aspects of the inventory records; a transactional component in real-time communication with the product component, the transactional component comprising a transaction module capable of storing copies of the inventory records stored in the product component to form corresponding transactional records, and a processor capable of copying selected inventory records from the product component into the transaction module, of processing transactions on the transactional records, of processing responses related to the transactional records, and of communicating data update requests to the product component for updating the inventory records with the transactional records as a function of the responses; an expert engine component in real-time communication with the transactional component and the product component, the expert engine component comprising a rule module in which conditions defining possible transactions and corresponding action parameters are stored, a service order module capable of generating service orders for external notification or intervention, and a processor capable of evaluating the transactional records against corresponding ones of the inventory records stored in the product component to identify eventual changes to be made to the inventory records stored in the product component as determined by the conditions, and controlling the service order module to generate service orders articulated on the action parameters of the transactions and the inventory records concerned by the transactions; and a user interface in real-time communication with the product component, the transactional component and the expert engine component, the user interface being capable of displaying selected inventory records, of inputting transactions relative to the inventory records, and of inputting responses to the service orders placed by the expert engine component.