Patent Document

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001]     1. Field of the Invention  
         [0002]     The present invention relates to the field of time card systems and more particularly to electronically tracking employee work attendance through an employee computing workstation.  
         [0003]     2. Description of the Related Art  
         [0004]     Time card systems provide a mechanism for employers to track the attendance of employees in a semi-automated way. Generally, in a time card system, an employee “punches in” whenever the employee arrives at the workplace. Conversely, an employee “punches out” whenever the employee departs the workplace. Time spent by the employee in the workplace can be determined from the times recorded from successive punch-in and punch-out operations. In this way, the employer can track the attendance record for employees without having to dedicate personnel to visually account for each employee during times of work.  
         [0005]     More advanced forms of time card systems avoid the use of ancillary equipment and rely upon the network login and logoff activities of employees. In a common form of the network based time card system, the logging in operation for an employee can be interpreted by the time card system as a “punch in” whereas the logging out”. Notwithstanding, an the common form of the network based time card system, the ability to track the attendance of an employee relies largely on the employee adhering to a strict logon and logoff cycle each day. Yet, for many employees, a logon each morning does not occur because the employees frequently fail to logoff each evening. Rather, many employees remain perpetually logged into the company network throughout the work week.  
         [0006]     Despite the raw ability of time card systems to track the arrival and departure of employees, time card systems generally cannot account for the work habits of employees. Specifically, it is well known that employees engage in work related activities for only a portion of the time employees are present in the workplace. At other times, employees engage in social activities, enjoy breaks, both sanctioned and unsanctioned, and, in many cases, temporarily depart the workplace for short periods of time. Time cards are woefully unprepared to account for this behavior due to reliance upon employees to engage in punch-in and punch-out operations. Accordingly, management cannot rely upon the attendance data provided by time card systems when engaging in strategic planning.  
       BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0007]     Embodiments of the present invention address deficiencies of the art in respect to time card systems and provide a novel and non-obvious method, system and computer program product for computing employee work patterns through presence and place awareness. In one embodiment of the invention, a method for computing employee work patterns through presence and place awareness can be provided. In the method presence awareness data can be repeatedly collected for an employee already logged into a computing system. Subsequently, a time card can be generated for the employee based upon the repeatedly collected presence awareness data.  
         [0008]     In one aspect of the embodiment, place awareness data can be repeatedly collected for the employee already logged into the computing system. As such, the repeatedly collected place awareness data can be reduced for strategic information technology planning. In this regard, repeatedly collecting presence and place awareness data for an employee already logged into a computing system can include repeatedly collecting presence and place awareness data from a collaborative tool for an employee already logged into a computing system. For instance, the collaborative tool can be an instant messenger.  
         [0009]     In another embodiment of the invention, a data processing system can be configured for computing employee work patterns. Specifically, the system can include presence awareness logic coupled to a client computing device hosting one or more applications. A server computing device can be communicatively coupled to the client computing device over a computer communications network and a data store can be coupled to the server computing device. Notably, a data acquisition process can be disposed in the server computing device and can include program code enabled to acquire presence awareness data from the presence awareness logic and store the acquired presence awareness data in the data store. Likewise, a data reduction process can be disposed in the server computing device and can include program code enabled to compute time cards from the acquired presence awareness data stored in the data store.  
         [0010]     In one aspect of the embodiment, the system further can include place awareness logic coupled to the client computing device. As such, the data acquisition process further can include program code enabled to acquire place awareness data from the place awareness logic and store the acquired place awareness data in the data store. Moreover, the data reduction process further can include program code enabled to compute strategic information technology planning from the acquired place awareness data stored in the data store.  
         [0011]     Additional aspects of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The aspects of the invention will be realized and attained by means of the elements and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims. It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive of the invention, as claimed. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0012]     The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention. The embodiments illustrated herein are presently preferred, it being understood, however, that the invention is not limited to the precise arrangements and instrumentalities shown, wherein:  
         [0013]      FIG. 1  is a pictorial illustration of a computing environment arranged for computing employee work patterns through presence and place awareness;  
         [0014]      FIG. 2  is a schematic illustration of a data processing system configured for computing employee work patterns through presence and place awareness; and,  
         [0015]      FIG. 3  is a flow chart illustrating a process for computing employee work patterns through presence and place awareness. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0016]     Embodiments of the present invention provide a method, system and computer program product computing employee work patterns through presence and place awareness. In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, presence awareness data for an employee can accumulated for the employee to compute a period of time when the employee actively interacts with an employee computer in the workplace. Also, place awareness data for the employee can be accumulated to identify applications with which the employee actively interacts with the employee computer. Utilizing the computed time and identified applications for each employee, strategic management decisions can be executed, including more accurately tracking employee attendance and monitoring application usages on an employee, department, or temporal basis.  
         [0017]     In more particular illustration,  FIG. 1  depicts a computing environment arranged for computing employee work patterns through presence and place awareness. As shown in  FIG. 1 , employee computing users  110  can interact with one or more computing applications  130  disposed within associated computing devices  120 . Presence and place awareness data  140  can be acquired whenever the employee computing users  110  interact with the computing applications  130 .  
         [0018]     Presence awareness commonly refers to the availability and willingness of a computing user to communicate and has wide application in voice over Internet protocol (IP) and instant messaging. Place awareness, in turn, commonly refers to the recognition of a markup language specified page, a document, a forum, a Web site or an application utilized by a computing user and similarly has wide application in instant messaging and collaboration environments such as the Lotus™ Notes™ environment. Lotus and Notes are registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation of Armonk, N.Y., United States.  
         [0019]     In this regard, the presence awareness portion of the presence and place awareness data  140  can provide an indication of when the employee computing users  110  actively utilize the resources of the associated computing devices  120 . The place awareness portion of the presence and place awareness data  140 , in turn, can provide an indication of with which applications  130  the employee computing users  110  interact. Utilizing both, strategic information technology (IT) and human resources (HR) planning can be undertaken, including IT resource provisioning  150  based upon employee computing activity for employee end users  110 , HR management  160  including employee time card tracking, and application procurement  170  based upon application usage patterns for the employee end users  110 .  
         [0020]     The computing environment of  FIG. 1  can be enabled through the arrangement of a data processing system configured for computing employee work patterns through presence and place awareness. In further illustration,  FIG. 2  is a schematic illustration of a data processing system configured for computing employee work patterns through presence and place awareness. As shown in  FIG. 2 , the data processing system can include a host computing platform  230  communicatively coupled to a client computing platform  210  over a computer communications network  220 . The client computing platform  210  can host the operation of one or more applications  240  for use by an end user.  
         [0021]     Notably, the client computing platform  210  also can include place awareness logic  250  and presence awareness logic  260 . The place awareness logic  250  can include program code enabled to publish the availability and willingness of the end user to communicate with other computing devices over the computer communications network  220 . For example, the place awareness logic  250  can be included as part of an instant messenger or other collaborative tool and can detect activity on the part of the end user in the client computing platform  210 . In contrast, the place awareness logic  250  can include program code enabled to publish the identity of a markup language specified page, a document, a forum, a Web site or an application utilized by the end user in the client computing platform  210 .  
         [0022]     The server computing platform  230  can include a data acquisition process  270  enabled to receive presence awareness data and place awareness data from the client computing platform  210  in addition to other communicatively coupled client computing platforms (not shown for the sake of illustrative simplicity). The data acquisition process  270  further can store the acquired presence awareness data and place awareness data in a data store  290 . Finally, the server computing platform  230  can include a data reduction process  280 . The data reduction process  280  can be enabled to process the presence awareness data and the place awareness data in the data store  290  to provide for strategic IT and HR management including accurate employee time card tracking beyond merely logging into and out of a network.  
         [0023]     In yet further illustration,  FIG. 3  is a flow chart illustrating a process for computing employee work patterns through presence and place awareness. Beginning in block  310 , the status of the employee can be set to idle as the employee will not yet have interacted with the host computing environment. In block  320 , the state of the host computing environment can be monitored to detect activity on the part of the employee. In decision block  330 , if activity is detected in the host computing environment, the process can branch to decision block  380 . Otherwise, the process can continue through decision block  340 .  
         [0024]     In decision block  340 , if the employee had been considered idle, the time and date can be logged for the detection of the activity in block  350  and in block  360 , the application associated with the activity further can be logged. Subsequently, in block  370  the status of the employee can be set to active as the employee now actively interacts with the host computing environment. Thereafter, the process can continue in block  320  in which the state of the host computing environment can be monitored to detect activity on the part of the employee. In decision block  330 , when idleness is determined based upon inactivity on the part of the employee, the process can branch to decision block  380 .  
         [0025]     In decision block  380 , if the employee had been considered active, the time and data can be logged for the detection of the activity in block  390 . Subsequently, in block  310 , the status of the employee can be set to idle as the employee no longer actively interacts with the host computing environment. In consequence, the actual presence of the employee in a working posture can be tracked rather than merely tracking the proximity of the employee to the workplace. Moreover, by monitoring place awareness for the employee strategic IT decisions can be founded upon helpful resource usage data collected through place awareness.  
         [0026]     Embodiments of the invention can take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment or an embodiment containing both hardware and software elements. In a preferred embodiment, the invention is implemented in software, which includes but is not limited to firmware, resident software, microcode, and the like. Furthermore, the invention can take the form of a computer program product accessible from a computer-usable or computer-readable medium providing program code for use by or in connection with a computer or any instruction execution system.  
         [0027]     For the purposes of this description, a computer-usable or computer readable medium can be any apparatus that can contain, store, communicate, propagate, or transport the program for use by or in connection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. The medium can be an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system (or apparatus or device) or a propagation medium. Examples of a computer-readable medium include a semiconductor or solid state memory, magnetic tape, a removable computer diskette, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), a rigid magnetic disk and an optical disk. Current examples of optical disks include compact disk-read only memory (CD-ROM), compact disk-read/write (CD-R/W) and DVD.  
         [0028]     A data processing system suitable for storing and/or executing program code will include at least one processor coupled directly or indirectly to memory elements through a system bus. The memory elements can include local memory employed during actual execution of the program code, bulk storage, and cache memories which provide temporary storage of at least some program code in order to reduce the number of times code must be retrieved from bulk storage during execution. Input/output or I/O devices (including but not limited to keyboards, displays, pointing devices, etc.) can be coupled to the system either directly or through intervening I/O controllers. Network adapters may also be coupled to the system to enable the data processing system to become coupled to other data processing systems or remote printers or storage devices through intervening private or public networks. Modems, cable modem and Ethernet cards are just a few of the currently available types of network adapters.

Technology Category: 3