The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
DETAILED ACTION
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 11/04/2025 has been entered.
Notice to Applicant
In response to the communication received on 11/04/2025, the following is a Non-Final Office Action for Application No. 18533906.
Status of Claims
Claims 1-9, 11, and 13-25 are pending.
Claims 10 and 12 are cancelled.
Response to Amendments
Applicant’s amendments have been fully considered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to the claims have been fully considered but are moot in light of the new grounds of rejection, as necessitated by amendment.
Priority
As required by M.P.E.P. 201.14(c), acknowledgement is made of applicant’s claim for priority based on: 18533906 filed 12/08/2023 is a Continuation of 17542863 , filed 12/06/2021, now abandoned and having 1 RCE-type filing therein; 17542863 Claims Priority from Provisional Application 63121671, filed 12/04/2020.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 1-9, 11, and 13-25 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to a judicial exception (i.e., a law of nature, a natural phenomenon, or an abstract idea) without significantly more. The claims fall within statutory class of process or manufacture; hence, the claims fall under statutory category of Step 1.
Step 2 is the two-part analysis from Alice Corp. (also called the Mayo test). The 2019 PEG makes two changes in Step 2A: It sets forth new procedure for Step 2A (called “revised Step 2A”) under which a claim is not “directed to” a judicial exception unless the claim satisfies a two-prong inquiry. The two-prong inquiry is as follows: Prong One: evaluate whether the claim recites a judicial exception (an abstract idea enumerated in the 2019 PEG, a law of nature, or a natural phenomenon). If claim recites an exception, then Prong Two: evaluate whether the claim recites additional elements that integrate the exception into a practical application of the exception. The claim(s) recite(s) the following abstract idea indicated by non-boldface font and additional limitations indicated by boldface font:
A method, comprising: receiving input, via a processor and from each user from a plurality of users within an organization having an organizational purpose, the input including at least one response to a prompt that is selected from a plurality of prompts based on a path through a spanning tree; calculating, via the processor and for each user from the plurality of users, at least one weight based on a count of the at least one response from that user; defining, via the processor and based on the input and the at least one weight, a user purpose profile for each user from the plurality of users and including the at least one weight representing a relative importance of at least one user-specified objective from a plurality of user-specified objectives, a representation of each user-specified objective from the plurality of user-specified objectives being received in response to an interaction by an associated user from the plurality of users with a graphical user interface associated with that user; connecting, for each user from the plurality of users, a representation of a purpose of that user and the organizational purpose, by: comparing, via the processor and for each user from the plurality of users, (i) activity data associated with that user, and (ii) the user purpose profile associated with that user, and tracking, via the processor and based on the comparing: an individual purpose connection metric for each user from the plurality of users, and an aggregated purpose connection metric for the plurality of users;
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detecting, based on the tracking, that the individual purpose connection metric of a user from the plurality of users is below a predefined threshold; and automatically causing display of a user-selectable remediation object via a display of a compute device for the user, in response to detecting that the individual purpose connection metric of the user is below the predefined threshold.
[or]
A non-transitory, processor-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to: receive input, via a telecommunications network of an organization and from each user from a plurality of users within the organization, the input including at least one response to a prompt that is selected from a plurality of prompts based on a path through a spanning tree; calculate, for each user from the plurality of users, at least one weight based on a count of the at least one response from that user; define, based on the input and the at least one weight, a user purpose profile for each user from the plurality of users and including the at least one weight representing a relative importance of at least one user-specified objective from a plurality of user-specified objectives, a representation of each user-specified objective from the plurality of user-specified objectives being received in response to an interaction by an associated user from the plurality of users with a graphical user interface associated with that user; define an association, for each user from the plurality of users, between a purpose parameter defined by that user and a predefined purpose of the organization, by: comparing, for each user from the plurality of users, (i) activity data associated with that user, and (ii) the user purpose profile associated with that user, and tracking, based on the comparing: an individual purpose connection metric for each user from the plurality of users, and an aggregated purpose connection metric for the plurality of users;
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detect, based on the tracking, that the individual purpose connection metric of a user from the plurality of users is below a predefined threshold; and automatically trigger a remedial action in response to detecting that the individual purpose connection metric of the user from the plurality of users is below the predefined threshold.
Per Prong One of Step 2A, the identified recitation of an abstract idea falls within at least one of the Abstract Idea Groupings consisting of: Mathematical Concepts, Mental Processes, or Certain Methods of Organizing Human Activity. Particularly, the identified recitation falls within the Mental Processes including concepts performed in the human mind (including an observation, evaluation judgment, opinion) and/or Certain Methods of Organizing Human Activity including managing personal behavior or relationships or interactions between people (including social activities, teaching, and following rules of instructions).
Per Prong Two of Step 2A, this judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application because the claim as a whole does not integrate the identified abstract idea into a practical application. The processor and/or memory medium is recited at a high level of generality, i.e., as a generic processor performing a generic computer function of processing/transmitting data. This generic processor and/or memory medium limitation is no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using a generic computer component. Further, automatically trigger a remedial action by a processor and/or memory medium is mere instruction to apply an exception using a generic computer component which cannot integrate a judicial exception into a practical application. Accordingly, this/these additional element(s) does/do not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application because it does not impose any meaningful limits on practicing the abstract idea. Thus, since the claims are directed to the determined judicial exception in view of the two prongs of Step 2A, the 2019 PEG flowchart is directed to Step 2B.
Per Step 2B, the additional elements and combinations therewith are examined in the claims to determine whether the claims as a whole amounts to significantly more than the judicial exception. It is noted here that the additional elements are to be considered both individually and as an ordered combination. In this case, the claims each at most comprise additional elements of: compute device, processor and memory medium. Taken individually, the additional limitations each are generically recited and thus does not add significantly more to the respective limitations. Further, automatically trigger a remedial action by a processor and/or memory medium is mere instruction to apply an exception using a generic computer component which cannot provide an inventive concept in Step 2B (or, looking back to Step 2A, cannot integrate a judicial exception into a practical application). For further support, the Applicant’s specification supports the claims being directed to use of a generic computer/memory type structure at ¶1032 wherein “computer-implemented system 100 includes a plurality of compute devices 101, each of which can include a processor (not shown) and a memory (not shown) that stores processor-executable instructions.” Taken as an ordered combination, the claim(s) does/do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because the limitations are directed to limitations referenced in Alice Corp. that are not enough to qualify as significantly more when recited in a claim with an abstract idea include, as a non-limiting or non-exclusive examples: i. Adding the words "apply it" (or an equivalent) with the judicial exception, or mere instructions to implement an abstract idea on a computer, e.g., a limitation indicating that a particular function such as creating and maintaining electronic records is performed by a computer, as discussed in Alice Corp., 134 S. Ct. at 2360, 110 USPQ2d at 1984 (see MPEP § 2106.05(f));
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ii. Simply appending well-understood, routine, conventional activities previously known to the industry, specified at a high level of generality, to the judicial exception, e.g., a claim to an abstract idea requiring no more than a generic computer to perform generic computer functions that are well-understood, routine and conventional activities previously known to the industry, as discussed in Alice Corp., 134 S. Ct. at 2359-60, 110 USPQ2d at 1984 (see MPEP § 2106.05(d));
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iii. Adding insignificant extra-solution activity to the judicial exception, e.g., mere data gathering in conjunction with a law of nature or abstract idea such as a step of obtaining information about credit card transactions so that the information can be analyzed by an abstract mental process, as discussed in CyberSource v. Retail Decisions, Inc., 654 F.3d 1366, 1375, 99 USPQ2d 1690, 1694 (Fed. Cir. 2011) (see MPEP § 2106.05(g)); or
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v. Generally linking the use of the judicial exception to a particular technological environment or field of use, e.g., a claim describing how the abstract idea of hedging could be used in the commodities and energy markets, as discussed in Bilski v. Kappos, 561 U.S. 593, 595, 95 USPQ2d 1001, 1010 (2010) or a claim limiting the use of a mathematical formula to the petrochemical and oil-refining fields, as discussed in Parker v. Flook. The courts have recognized the following computer functions inter alia to be well-understood, routine, and conventional functions when they are claimed in a merely generic manner: performing repetitive calculations; receiving, processing, and storing data (e.g., the present claims); electronically scanning or extracting data; electronic recordkeeping; automating mental tasks (e.g., process/machine/manufacture for performing the present claims); and receiving or transmitting data (e.g., the present claims).
The dependent claims do not cure the above stated deficiencies, and in particular, the dependent claims further narrow the abstract idea without reciting additional elements that integrate the exception into a practical application of the exception or providing significantly more than the abstract idea. Since there are no elements or ordered combination of elements that amount to significantly more than the judicial exception, the claims are not eligible subject matter under 35 USC §101.
Thus, viewed as a whole, these additional claim element(s) do not provide meaningful limitation(s) to transform the abstract idea into a patent eligible application of the abstract idea such that the claim(s) amounts to significantly more than the abstract idea itself. Therefore, the claim(s) are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 as being directed to non-statutory subject matter.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1-9, 11, and 13-25 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Deodhar et al. (US 20170116552 A1) hereinafter referred to as Deodhar in view of Graff et al. (US 20130282421 A1) hereinafter referred to as Graff in further view of Van Dusen (US 11080336 B2) hereinafter referred to as Van Dusen.
Deodhar teaches:
Claim 1. A method, comprising:
receiving input, via a processor and from each user from a plurality of users within an organization having an organizational purpose, the input including at least one response to a prompt that is selected from a plurality of prompts based on a path through a spanning tree;calculating, via the processor and for each user from the plurality of users, at least one weight based on a count of the at least one response from that user;defining, via the processor and based on the input and the at least one weight, a user purpose profile, for each user from the plurality of users, and including the at least one weight representing a relative importance of at least one user-specified objective from a plurality of user-specified objectives, a representation of each user-specified objective from the plurality of user-specified objectives being received in response to an interaction by an associated user from the plurality of users with a graphical user interface associated with that user (¶0158 user's profile is defined and comparisons are made with peers having a similar profile and who voluntarily but anonymously shared their respective effort data, wherein the user's profile is selected from the group consisting of role, seniority, location and skills ¶¶0188-0192 A computer implemented system designed to answer the aforementioned needs should have the following capabilities: collector to measure and improve the exact work effort at individual level throughout the day by: tracking the online time spent by employees on one or more Computing System (CS) including desktop, laptop, any CS that is shared by multiple users through a common login, and remote servers; tracking the offline time spent away from the CS in work related meetings, phone calls, lab and other work areas in the office, travel and meetings at remote locations; differentiating work and non-work related time, with the non-work time details not made available to the organization ¶0748 Some embodiments of the present disclosure include a multi-level Purpose tree for enabling fine-grained effort tracking at project, module, or task level. Individual employees may be assigned to one or more tasks in different modules and even projects, for example. To distinguish work on each task, the employee must update the Current Purpose on the CS whenever there is a switch to a new task. A multi-level Purpose hierarchy enables a business unit head to track effort on projects, while project managers can get effort measurement on various modules, and module leaders can get insights into effort spent on features and tasks);
connecting, for each user from the plurality of users, a representation of a purpose of that user and the organizational purpose, by: comparing, via the processor and for each user from the plurality of users, (i) activity data associated with that user, and (ii) the user purpose profile associated with that user (¶0268 At step 156 the method includes generating, at the server, an n-dimensional effort data cube mapping individual and collective efforts of respective users as per the organization hierarchy. ¶0275 At step 170 the method includes enabling the user, over the web user interface, to define and generate custom analytical reports of interest from the n-dimensional effort data cube ¶¶0916-0919 Use adaptive learning to incorporate or change goals based on their correlation with user's work output:—if work output parameters like output.volume, output.schedule variance, output.effort variance are available, then for each of the key Work Pattern items (online work time, top 20%-mid 60% work time gap, % core activity time, % collaboration work time) correlate the Work Pattern item with each output parameter as below, output−effort correlation index=Pearson correlation coefficient, for daily average output parameter and Daily Average Work Pattern item; if correlation is positive for a majority of the available work output parameters, then if the Work Pattern item is not being used as goal, then consider setting as improvement goal for it.);
tracking, via the processor and based on the comparing: an individual purpose connection metric for each user from the plurality of users, and an aggregated purpose connection metric for the plurality of users (¶0766 Default rules for mapping online and offline time slots to Activities and Purposes are also configured, which may be rules adapted for organization sub-units based on their business attributes and further adapted for each user based on his or her position in the sub-unit hierarchy and the user's role therein. The system envisaged by the present disclosure computes the per-employee Daily Average Work Patterns and creates an n-dimensional effort data cube in which effort data of employees is aggregated and rolled up as per the organization hierarchy);
detecting, based on the tracking, that the individual purpose connection metric of a user from the plurality of users is below a predefined threshold; and automatically causing display of a user-selectable remediation object via a display of the compute device for the user, in response to detecting that the individual purpose connection metric of the user is below the predefined threshold (¶0575 If the work unit tracking is enabled, or if the work output is available from any external application, then it is possible to derive various aspects of the work output, such as a volume, an effort and a schedule variance. These are important performance benchmarks and correlating them with the plurality of Work Pattern items provides useful recommendations to the user ¶¶0661-0665 if the user is not able to complete assigned tasks on time or the work unit volume data is available and the user's volume is low relative to peers, then recommend training, mentoring or moving to work more suited to the user's skills; else, if the user is doing well on all the work parameters, then recommend to take up more challenging work and also, explore opportunities for improved work-life balance; if unaccounted time in office is >1 hour, then user to reduce time spent in the office; if the work time on the holidays is >0.5 hour, then reducing to <0.5 hour and complete the work during work days).
Although not explicitly taught by Deodhar, Graff teaches in the analogous art of system for enhanced event participation:
defining, via the processor and based on the input and the at least one weight, a user purpose profile, for each user from the plurality of users, and including the at least one weight representing a relative importance of at least one user-specified objective from a plurality of user-specified objectives, a representation of each user-specified objective from the plurality of user-specified objectives being received in response to an interaction by an associated user from the plurality of users with a graphical user interface associated with that user (¶0108 The user profile for each event will allow the user to enter and store information regarding their specific goals and objectives for the event. Additionally, by entering key words into their user profile, event management mechanism 227 will be able to more efficiently tailor the event management to match the event attendee's preferences. ¶0136 Referring now to FIG. 6, a user interface 600 for accessing at least a portion of the event calendar management functions of event management mechanism 227 is depicted. As shown in FIG. 6, an event attendee can add various event activities to one or more calendars by creating and saving an event activity entry. These events would be event attendee specific activities that would be added to the event attendee's personal calendar. The event attendee can name each activity and provide details on the date of the activity, the start and stop time, the location, the priority level, etc. The event attendee can also choose to make the event activities as private, public, or group events ¶0152 if an event attendee would like to meet new people while attending the event, they can specify their preferences in their user profile. Event management mechanism 227 will then locate other event attendees with similar preferences and interests who have also expressed a desire to meet new event attendees and connect the event attendees.);
connecting, for each user from the plurality of users, a representation of a purpose of that user and the organizational purpose (Fig. 6 and ¶¶0136-0137 Referring now to FIG. 6, a user interface 600 for accessing at least a portion of the event calendar management functions of event management mechanism 227 is depicted. As shown in FIG. 6, an event attendee can add various event activities to one or more calendars by creating and saving an event activity entry. … In the case of public events, anyone with access to the event calendar will be able to view the each event attendee's public calendar activities by selecting the event attendee from a list of event attendees. This is particularly useful for coordinating schedules for a large number of people.).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the system for enhanced event participation of Graff with the system for measure, aggregate and analyze exact effort and time productivity of Deodhar for the following reasons:
(1) a finding that there was some teaching, suggestion, or motivation, either in the references themselves or in the knowledge generally available to one of ordinary skill in the art, to modify the reference or to combine reference teachings, e.g. Deodhar ¶0017 teaches that it is desirable to establish organizational efficiency baseline and then making improvements;
(2) a finding that there was reasonable expectation of success since the only difference between the claimed invention and the prior art being the lack of actual combination of the elements in a single prior art reference, e.g. Deodhar Abstract teaches automatically measuring, aggregating, analysing, predicting exact effort and time productivity, of white collar employees, within an organization and thereafter providing instructions for improving productivity and workload allocation, and optimizing workforce and operational efficiency, without requiring manual intervention or configuration, and Graff Abstract teaches computer-based system for enhanced communications and event management that focuses on customization of the event attendee experience; and
(3) whatever additional findings based on the Graham factual inquiries may be necessary, in view of the facts of the case under consideration, to explain a conclusion of obviousness, e.g. Deodhar at least the above cited paragraphs, and Graff at least the inclusively cited paragraphs.
Therefore, it would be obvious to one skilled in the art at the time of the invention to combine the system for enhanced event participation of Graff with the system for measure, aggregate and analyze exact effort and time productivity of Deodhar. The rationale to support a conclusion that the claim would have been obvious is that "a person of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine the prior art to achieve the claimed invention and whether there would have been a reasonable expectation of success in doing so." DyStar Textilfarben GmbH & Co. Deutschland KG v. C.H. Patrick Co., 464 F.3d 1356, 1360, 80 USPQ2d 1641, 1645 (Fed. Cir. 2006). See MPEP 2143(G).
Although not explicitly taught by Deodhar in view of Graff, Van Dusen teaches in the analogous art of system for fuzzy concept mapping, voting ontology crowd sourcing, and technology prediction:
the input including at least one response to a prompt that is selected from a plurality of prompts based on a path through a spanning tree;calculating, via the processor and for each user from the plurality of users, at least one weight based on a count of the at least one response from that user (¶740) Fxxt based modeling rule formulas are applied on the relationships as mentioned, but note that depending upon the fxxt chosen, the relationships may apply in different directions depending upon how the Descendant Trees are formed, since directionality does not have to be stated on relationships of this nature, and the endpoint that is a child is determined from the result of the Spanning Tree operation for the Descendant Tree. ¶1232) Note also that the system does not presume an acyclic directed graph. Because spanning trees will have to serve as hierarchies and the contents of the spanning trees may depend greatly upon the strength (calculated result) of the relationships here, that there will be times that what might seem to be a hierarchical association will end up looking like an affinitive association, and vice-versa. ¶611) As used herein, the term “internal resource serving as an information resource” refers generally to an item stored in the system knowledge base that tends to be relevant in describing a ttx. Examples include, but are not limited to: a document registered by a user to explain his business idea (medium weighting); resumes of individuals in the field (low weighing); thesaurus listing (relevance weighting); registered ‘consortium’ mission statement (very high weighting)).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the system for fuzzy concept mapping, voting ontology crowd sourcing, and technology prediction of Van Dusen with the system for measure, aggregate and analyze exact effort and time productivity of Deodhar in view of Graff for the following reasons:
(1) a finding that there was some teaching, suggestion, or motivation, either in the references themselves or in the knowledge generally available to one of ordinary skill in the art, to modify the reference or to combine reference teachings, e.g. Deodhar ¶0017 teaches that it is desirable to establish organizational efficiency baseline and then making improvements;
(2) a finding that there was reasonable expectation of success since the only difference between the claimed invention and the prior art being the lack of actual combination of the elements in a single prior art reference, e.g. Deodhar Abstract teaches automatically measuring, aggregating, analysing, predicting exact effort and time productivity, of white collar employees, within an organization and thereafter providing instructions for improving productivity and workload allocation, and optimizing workforce and operational efficiency, without requiring manual intervention or configuration, and Graff Abstract teaches computer-based system for enhanced communications and event management that focuses on customization of the event attendee experience, and Van Dusen Abstract teaches system and method for providing ttx-based categorization services and a categorized commonplace of shared information; and
(3) whatever additional findings based on the Graham factual inquiries may be necessary, in view of the facts of the case under consideration, to explain a conclusion of obviousness, e.g. Deodhar in view of Graff at least the above cited paragraphs, and Van Dusen at least the inclusively cited paragraphs.
Therefore, it would be obvious to one skilled in the art at the time of the invention to combine the system for fuzzy concept mapping, voting ontology crowd sourcing, and technology prediction of Van Dusen with the system for measure, aggregate and analyze exact effort and time productivity of Deodhar in view of Graff. The rationale to support a conclusion that the claim would have been obvious is that "a person of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine the prior art to achieve the claimed invention and whether there would have been a reasonable expectation of success in doing so." DyStar Textilfarben GmbH & Co. Deutschland KG v. C.H. Patrick Co., 464 F.3d 1356, 1360, 80 USPQ2d 1641, 1645 (Fed. Cir. 2006). See MPEP 2143(G).
Deodhar teaches:
Claim 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising automatically retrieving, via the processor, in real time and via a telecommunications network, the activity data associated with each user from the plurality of users, the first activity data including data associated with at least one software application accessible via the telecommunications network (¶¶0188-0192 A computer implemented system designed to answer the aforementioned needs should have the following capabilities: collector to measure and improve the exact work effort at individual level throughout the day by: tracking the online time spent by employees on one or more Computing System (CS) including desktop, laptop, any CS that is shared by multiple users through a common login, and remote servers; tracking the offline time spent away from the CS in work related meetings, phone calls, lab and other work areas in the office, travel and meetings at remote locations; differentiating work and non-work related time, with the non-work time details not made available to the organization).
Deodhar teaches:
Claim 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the prompt is a first prompt, andthe calculating the at least one weight further includes dynamically adjusting the at least one weight based on that user not responding to a second prompt from the plurality of prompts (¶0187 Work and personal time has to be differentiated, and work time must be further mapped to business related Activities and Purposes that are automatically inferred. There was also felt a need for the captured work effort from each employee, to be aggregated and analysed as per the organization's hierarchy and business attributes that should be automatically collected from the organization's existing application data stores. ¶0766 Default rules for mapping online and offline time slots to Activities and Purposes are also configured, which may be rules adapted for organization sub-units based on their business attributes and further adapted for each user based on his or her position in the sub-unit hierarchy and the user's role therein. The system envisaged by the present disclosure computes the per-employee Daily Average Work Patterns and creates an n-dimensional effort data cube in which effort data of employees is aggregated and rolled up as per the organization hierarchy).
Deodhar teaches:
Claim 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the prompt is a first prompt, andthe path is a first path, the method further comprising determining a second path through the spanning tree based on the at least one response for that user;
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selecting a second prompt from the plurality of prompts based on the second path; and in response to the selecting the second prompt, causing display of the second prompt at the compute device for that user (¶0187 Work and personal time has to be differentiated, and work time must be further mapped to business related Activities and Purposes that are automatically inferred. There was also felt a need for the captured work effort from each employee, to be aggregated and analysed as per the organization's hierarchy and business attributes that should be automatically collected from the organization's existing application data stores. ¶0766 Default rules for mapping online and offline time slots to Activities and Purposes are also configured, which may be rules adapted for organization sub-units based on their business attributes and further adapted for each user based on his or her position in the sub-unit hierarchy and the user's role therein. The system envisaged by the present disclosure computes the per-employee Daily Average Work Patterns and creates an n-dimensional effort data cube in which effort data of employees is aggregated and rolled up as per the organization hierarchy ¶0748 Some embodiments of the present disclosure include a multi-level Purpose tree for enabling fine-grained effort tracking at project, module, or task level. Individual employees may be assigned to one or more tasks in different modules and even projects, for example. To distinguish work on each task, the employee must update the Current Purpose on the CS whenever there is a switch to a new task. A multi-level Purpose hierarchy enables a business unit head to track effort on projects, while project managers can get effort measurement on various modules, and module leaders can get insights into effort spent on features and tasks).
Deodhar teaches:
Claim 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the calculating the at least one weight further includes calculating the at least one weight based on a credibility associated with the at least one response (¶0187 Work and personal time has to be differentiated, and work time must be further mapped to business related Activities and Purposes that are automatically inferred. There was also felt a need for the captured work effort from each employee, to be aggregated and analysed as per the organization's hierarchy and business attributes that should be automatically collected from the organization's existing application data stores. ¶0766 Default rules for mapping online and offline time slots to Activities and Purposes are also configured, which may be rules adapted for organization sub-units based on their business attributes and further adapted for each user based on his or her position in the sub-unit hierarchy and the user's role therein. The system envisaged by the present disclosure computes the per-employee Daily Average Work Patterns and creates an n-dimensional effort data cube in which effort data of employees is aggregated and rolled up as per the organization hierarchy).
Deodhar teaches:
Claim 6. The method of claim 1, further comprising: automatically causing display of an alert via the display of the compute device, in response to detecting that the individual purpose connection metric of the user from the plurality of users is below the predefined threshold (¶0324 A server interface 326: The server interface 326 provides for communication between the CS agent 300 and the server 400. The server interface 326 enables download of valid Purposes and Activities, default mapping rules, goals and alerts, and user effort map from the server 400 ¶0757 The local user interface 322 compares user's current performance against goals, and generates an alert if required for the individual).
Deodhar teaches:
Claim 7. The method of claim 1, further comprising: identifying a task for a user from the plurality of users based on the tracking; and automatically causing a notification to be sent to the display of the compute device, the notification including a recommendation that the user perform the task (¶0674-0675 provide a daily notification to the user whether the goal was met and whether the user is on an improvement track or not; notification includes a best practice relating to one of the goals set for the user for each goal, starting with 0 points at the start of the month, the user is awarded points each month).
Deodhar teaches:
Claim 8. The method of claim 1, further comprising: identifying a recommendation for a user from the plurality of users based on the tracking; and automatically causing a signal to be sent to the display of the compute device, to cause display of a representation of the recommendation (¶0175 In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, the organization predictor and instructor module employs correlation between the sub-unit Work Pattern items and the sub-unit work output to: provide feedback to managers about the sub-unit Work Pattern items that impact sub-unit work output; and make recommendations to improve the sub-units performance).
Deodhar teaches:
Claim 9. The method of claim 8, wherein the recommendation includes at least one of: a recommendation to reallocate time within a calendar of the user, a recommendation to add a new task to the calendar of the user, or a recommendation to remove an existing task from the calendar of the user (¶¶0661-0665 if the user is not able to complete assigned tasks on time or the work unit volume data is available and the user's volume is low relative to peers, then recommend training, mentoring or moving to work more suited to the user's skills; else, if the user is doing well on all the work parameters, then recommend to take up more challenging work and also, explore opportunities for improved work-life balance; if unaccounted time in office is >1 hour, then user to reduce time spent in the office; if the work time on the holidays is >0.5 hour, then reducing to <0.5 hour and complete the work during work days ¶¶0675-0677 notification includes a best practice relating to one of the goals set for the user for each goal, starting with 0 points at the start of the month, the user is awarded points each month; if the user accumulates sufficient points for a goal in the month, the user is awarded a badge for that goal ¶0887 ensure that your best talent can move to more challenging work, while transferring and helping other staff members to take on some of their routine work).
Deodhar teaches:
Claim 11. The method of claim 1, wherein the spanning tree is defined by an engagement schema (¶0326 A comparator (not shown in figures): The comparator cooperates with the time tracker 306 to receive the marked offline slots for a user. The comparator further compares the scheduled engagements, meetings, calls, lab work, travel time and remote visits of the user ¶0889 if not anonymous mode, then review why each individual in the last 20% has a low level of work engagement ¶0748 Some embodiments of the present disclosure include a multi-level Purpose tree for enabling fine-grained effort tracking at project, module, or task level. Individual employees may be assigned to one or more tasks in different modules and even projects, for example. To distinguish work on each task, the employee must update the Current Purpose on the CS whenever there is a switch to a new task. A multi-level Purpose hierarchy enables a business unit head to track effort on projects, while project managers can get effort measurement on various modules, and module leaders can get insights into effort spent on features and tasks).
Deodhar teaches:
Claim 13. The method of claim 1, further comprising selecting the prompt from the plurality of prompts based on a strength of connectivity metric (¶0342 Table 1 summarizes an example of the log automatically generated by the OS collector 302. The OS collector 302 collects the events related to the user's interaction with the CS agent 300 from morning till lunch time (1 pm). For the sake of simplicity it is assumed that the user works on one activity for 10 minutes at a time and this is represented as one row in the log, even though the actual tracking may be at high sampling rate (typically every 15 seconds).).
Deodhar teaches:
Claim 14. The method of claim 1, wherein the tracking is performed according to a predefined schedule (¶0321 A user private time selector 330: The user private time selector 330 optionally enables the user to disable time tracking for a specified duration. The entire time is marked as Unaccounted and Private. The user private time selector may optionally be enabled only outside of regular working hours.).
Deodhar teaches:
Claim 15. The method of claim 1, wherein the input includes data that is stored in a memory operably coupled to the processor, in a manner that designates the data as being private (¶0196 providing the employee with a local user interface to privately view the time utilization on personal and work activities, and ensure adequate work effort by benchmarking against goals (set by the individual, manager, or at organization level) ¶0321 A user private time selector 330: The user private time selector 330 optionally enables the user to disable time tracking for a specified duration. The entire time is marked as Unaccounted and Private. The user private time selector may optionally be enabled only outside of regular working hours Cl. 5. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said CS agent includes a user interface local to the Computing System agent, and configured to provide the respective users with private access to their corresponding entire work related and personal online and offline effort data.).
Deodhar teaches:
Claim 16. The method of claim 1, further comprising, for at least one user from the plurality of users, predicting a qualitative variable based on the individual purpose connection metric associated with the at least one user (¶0070 The present disclosure envisages a computer implemented system for automatically measuring, aggregating, analysing and predicting the exact effort and time productivity, of at least one user having access to at least one Computing System (CS) agent, within an organization and thereafter providing instructions for improving productivity and workload allocation, and optimizing workforce and operational efficiency ¶0101 predict the improvements in the work effort, the work output, the work effectiveness index and the work life balance index for the user ¶0618 The user predictor and instructor module 334 provides a feedback to the user on highlights and weak areas related to a work effort, a work output, and the work life balance index. The user predictor and instructor module 334 suggests areas of improvements for the user. The user predictor and instructor module 334 sets the goals for the user based on the plurality of Work Pattern items and work habits. The user predictor and instructor module 334 provides encouragement for the user with points and badges. The user predictor and instructor module 334 generates a progress report based on the goals, the points and badges won. The user predictor and instructor module 334 predicts the improvements in the work output, the work effectiveness index and the work life balance index for the user.).
Deodhar teaches:
Claim 17. The method of claim 1, further comprising automatically triggering a remedial action in response to detecting that the individual purpose connection metric of at least one user from the plurality of users is below the predefined threshold (¶0575 If the work unit tracking is enabled, or if the work output is available from any external application, then it is possible to derive various aspects of the work output, such as a volume, an effort and a schedule variance. These are important performance benchmarks and correlating them with the plurality of Work Pattern items provides useful recommendations to the user ¶¶0661-0665 if the user is not able to complete assigned tasks on time or the work unit volume data is available and the user's volume is low relative to peers, then recommend training, mentoring or moving to work more suited to the user's skills; else, if the user is doing well on all the work parameters, then recommend to take up more challenging work and also, explore opportunities for improved work-life balance; if unaccounted time in office is >1 hour, then user to reduce time spent in the office; if the work time on the holidays is >0.5 hour, then reducing to <0.5 hour and complete the work during work days).
Deodhar teaches:
Claim 18. The method of claim 17, wherein the remedial action includes at least one of: reallocating time within a calendar of the at least one user from the plurality of users, adding a new task to the calendar of the at least one user from the plurality of users, or removing an existing task from the calendar of the at least one user from the plurality of users (¶0278 generating wellness instruction prompts for the user; ¶ 0482 A user Work Pattern analyser 332 cooperates with the rules and pattern mapping engine 314, the time analyser 308, the CS effort map database 310, the server interface 326, and a user Work Pattern database 336. The user Work Pattern analyser 332 receives the final user effort map. The user Work Pattern analyser 332 computes a plurality of Work Pattern items. The user Work Pattern analyser 332 generates wellness prompts on the local user interface for the user. The user Work Pattern analyser 332 automatically tags each day, in the final user effort map, as a workday, weekend day, a public holiday or a vacation).
As per claims 19-22, the non-transitory, processor-readable medium tracks the method of claims 1, 10, 17, 18, respectively, resulting in substantially similar limitations. The same cited prior art and rationale of claims 1, 10, 17, 18 are applied to claims 19-22, respectively. Deodhar discloses that the embodiment may be found as a non-transitory, processor-readable medium (Fig. 2 and ¶¶0314-0320).
Deodhar teaches:
Claim 23. The non-transitory, processor-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the instructions to define the user purpose profile for each user from the plurality of users include instructions to define the user purpose profile for each user from the plurality of users based on a multidimensional profile, from a plurality of multidimensional profiles, associated with that user (¶0011 Both ‘Activity’ and ‘Purpose’ can be multi-level so that they can cater to the diverse requirements across different parts of the business. Time utilization for an individual employee can get allocated only to Activities and Purposes that are applicable for that individual as per the role and position in the organization ¶0747 The multi-level Activity list can be further customized for the available roles or sub-units in the organization. ¶0748 Some embodiments of the present disclosure include a multi-level Purpose tree for enabling fine-grained effort tracking at project, module, or task level ¶0766 Default rules for mapping online and offline time slots to Activities and Purposes are also configured, which may be rules adapted for organization sub-units based on their business attributes and further adapted for each user based on his or her position in the sub-unit hierarchy and the user's role therein. The system envisaged by the present disclosure computes the per-employee Daily Average Work Patterns and creates an n-dimensional effort data cube in which effort data of employees is aggregated and rolled up as per the organization hierarchy).
Deodhar teaches:
Claim 24. The non-transitory, processor-readable medium of claim 19, further storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to automatically retrieve, in real time and via the telecommunications network, the activity data associated with each user from the plurality of users (¶¶0188-0192 A computer implemented system designed to answer the aforementioned needs should have the following capabilities: collector to measure and improve the exact work effort at individual level throughout the day by: tracking the online time spent by employees on one or more Computing System (CS) including desktop, laptop, any CS that is shared by multiple users through a common login, and remote servers; tracking the offline time spent away from the CS in work related meetings, phone calls, lab and other work areas in the office, travel and meetings at remote locations; differentiating work and non-work related time, with the non-work time details not made available to the organization).
Deodhar teaches:
Claim 25. The non-transitory, processor-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the activity data includes data associated with at least one software application accessible via the telecommunications network. (¶0311 A system for implementing the steps noted in FIG. 1 is now described. Referring to the accompanying drawing, FIG. 2 is a schematic of the system to measure, aggregate, analyse, predict and improve an organization's collective work effort and individual time productivity. The system includes at least one CS agent per employee, cooperating with at least one server communicating over the network 250. The CS agent is adapted to generate exact effort data for a user and the server providing the exact effort data and analytics for an organization. FIG. 3 is a schematic of the CS agent 300 and its components).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KURTIS GILLS whose telephone number is (571)270-3315. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 8-5 PM.
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/KURTIS GILLS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3624