Patent ID: 7856498

Claim:
A method for dynamically monitoring, processing, and managing alerts, comprising: (a) receiving a message from a client, wherein said message is one of an alert or a response to an existing alert, and wherein said message comprises a plurality of data fields; (b) parsing said message to determine if said message is an alert or a response to an existing alert; (c) updating an alert state if it is determined in step (b) that said message is a response to an existing alert, wherein the updated alert state is stored in a data repository; (d) saving alert data in a data repository if it is determined in step (b) that said message is an alert; (e) sending notifications regarding said message to a collaboration list of registered subscribers, wherein said subscribers are associated with one or more subscription channels, and wherein said collaboration list dynamically expands over time including at least additional subscribers or subscription channels based upon alert escalations; and (f) repeating steps (b)-(e) in response to determining that more messages have been received, wherein said plurality of data fields include a suppression time, and suppression keys indicating rules regarding when notifications will be suppressed in step (e), wherein said suppression keys are identifiers passed into an alert message that, combined with the alert type that is also passed into the alert, uniquely identify a group of alerts that can be suppressed within a suppression period, wherein the suppression time and suppression keys are independently defined.