DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Status
Claims 1-18 were previously pending and subject to a non-final rejection August 6, 2025. In the Response, submitted on January 6, 2026, claims 1, 4, 7, 10, 13 and 16 were amended. Therefore, claims 1-18 are currently pending and subject to the following final rejection.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s Remarks on Pages 7-8 of the Response, regarding the previous rejection of the claims 3-4, 9-10, and 15-16 under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) have been fully considered and are found persuasive in view of the amended claims.
Applicant’s Remarks on Page 8 of the Response, regarding the previous rejection of the claims 1-6 under 35 U.S.C. 101 for reciting non-statutory subject matter have been fully considered and are found persuasive in view of the claims.
Applicant’s Remarks on Page 8 of the Response, regarding the previous rejection of the claims 1-18 under 35 U.S.C. 101 for reciting non eligible subject matter have been fully considered, but are not found persuasive.
On Page 8 of the Response, Applicant states claim language from claim 1 and notes “the claims, as currently amended, conform with the requirements of 35 U.S.C. 101.” Examiner respectfully disagrees and as will be discussed further below in the amended rejection, the claims are still rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101.
Applicant’s Remarks on Pages 9-14 of the Response, regarding the previous rejection of the claims 1-18 under 35 U.S.C. 103 have been fully considered, but are moot in view of the amended claims and amended references.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 1 recites performing joins with “the datasets” in line 20. It is unclear whether “the datasets” has antecedent support from: (i) “datasets from one or more data sources” in lines 9-10, or (ii) “one or more datasets” in line 17. For examination purposes, the claim will be interpreted as (i).
Claim 1 also recites based on “the retrieved datasets” in line 23. It is unclear whether “the retrieved datasets” has antecedent support from: (i) “retrieve…datasets from one or more data sources” in lines 9-10, or (ii) “retrieving, from the data warehouse instance, one or more datasets” in line 17. For examination purposes, the claim will be interpreted as (i).
Similar issues exist in indepdentn claims 7 and 13 and will be interpreted similar to claim 1. Claims 2-6, 8-12 and 14-18 are rejected by virtue of dependency.
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 1-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to an abstract idea without significantly more.
Step 1
Claims 1-6 are directed to a system comprising one or more processors (i.e., machine), claims 7-12 are directed to a method, and claims 13-18 is directed to a non-transitory computer readable storage medium (i.e., a machine). Therefore, claims 1-18 all fall within one of the four statutory categories of invention.
Step 2A, Prong One
Claims 1 recites a series of steps/functions of providing access to stored enterprise data, including data descriptive of entities within an enterprise organization, providing access to data content using one or more dashboard, key performance indicators or other report; retrieving, receiving, or prepare datasets from one or more data sources, wherein customer data is sourced from a customer or tenant using a data pipeline process, extracting an area of responsibility data from the customer data; wherein the area of responsibility data is used by the system to provide one or more evaluation, implementation, and refinement of key performance indicators, dashboards, or scorecards, including, in response to a request received from a client; retrieving one or more datasets for use in generating and returning a requested data analytics or visualization information to the client; performing joins with the datasets and the area of responsibility data to determining determine one or more representatives responsible for particular organization units, during particular periods of time; and identifying, based on the retrieved datasets and area of responsibility data, key measures or metrics associated with the one or more representatives and indicative of relationships between a representative and an entity performance, for use in generating and displaying a key performance indicator scorecard reflecting such relationships.
Claims 7 and 13 recite: accessing stored enterprise data, including data descriptive of a plurality of teams within an enterprise organization, providing access to data content using one or more dashboard, key performance indicators or other report ; retrieving, receiving, or prepare datasets from one or more data sources, wherein customer data is sourced from a customer or tenant using a data pipeline process, extracting an area of responsibility data from the customer data; and in response to a request received from a client, assessing a stored area of responsibility data s to provide one or more evaluation, implementation, and refinement of key performance indicators, dashboards, or scorecards, including: retrieving one or more datasets for use in generating and returning a requested data analytics or visualization information to the client application; performing joins with the datasets and the area of responsibility data to determining determine one or more representatives responsible for particular organization units, during particular periods of time; and identifying, based on the retrieved datasets and area of responsibility data, key measures or metrics associated with the one or more representatives and indicative of relationships between a representative and an entity performance, for use in generating and displayinq a key performance indicator scorecard reflecting such relationships
The claim as a whole recites a certain method of organizing human activity. The limitations recited above, under broadest reasonable interpretation, recite the abstract idea of a certain method of organizing human activity, e.g., commercial interactions. Therefore, the claims recite an abstract idea.
Step 2A, Prong Two
The judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application. Claims 1, 7 and 13 as a whole amount to: merely including instructions to implement an abstract idea on a computer, or merely using a computer as a tool to perform an abstract, or “apply it”.
The claims recite the additional elements of: (i) a system comprising one or more processors and memory (claim 1); (ii) a data analytics environment (comprising a presentation layer) (claims 1, 7, and 13); (iii) a database (claims 1, 7, and 13); (iv) software analytic application, user interface or other interface (claims 1, 7, and 13); (v) one or more data source connections (claims 1, 7, and 13); (vi) (customer or tenant) enterprise software environment (claims 1, 7, and 13); (vii) a data warehouse instance (claims 1, 7, and 13); and (viii) client application (claims 1, 7, and 13).
The above additional elements are all recited at a high-level of generality, such that, when viewed as whole/ordered combination, they amount to no more than mere instructions to apply the judicial exception using generic computer components (See MPEP 2106.05(f)).
Accordingly, these additional elements, when viewed as a whole/ordered combination (e.g., Fig. 1) do not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application because they do not impose any meaningful limits on practicing the abstract idea. Thus, the claims are directed to an abstract idea.
Step 2B
As discussed above with respect to Step 2A Prong Two, the additional elements amount to no more than: merely including instructions to implement an abstract idea on a computer, or merely using a computer as a tool to perform an abstract, or “apply it”, and are not a practical application of the abstract idea. The same analysis applies here in Step 2B, i.e., merely including instructions to implement an abstract idea on a computer, or merely using a computer as a tool to perform an abstract, or “apply it” (See MPEP 2106.05(f)) does not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application at Step 2A or provide an inventive concept at Step 2B.
Therefore, the additional elements noted above do not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application at Step 2A or provide an inventive concept at Step 2B. Thus, even when viewed as a whole/ordered combination (See Fig. 1), nothing in the claims add significantly more (i.e., an inventive concept) to the abstract idea. Thus, the claims are ineligible.
Dependent claims 2-3, 5-6, 8-9, 11-12, 14-15, and 17-18 further recite details which merely narrow the previously recited abstract idea limitiaitions of claims 1, 7, and 13. For these reasons, as described above with respect to claims 1, 7, and 13 these judicial exceptions are not meaningfully integrated into a practical application or significantly more than the abstract idea. Thus, claims 2-3, 5-6, 8-9, 11-12, 14-15, and 17-18 are also ineligible.
Dependent claims 4, 10, and 16 further narrow the abstract idea by reciting joining one or more data sets with its area of responsibility data to generate a dashboard, or key performance indicator (KPI) for subsequent display at a client or dashboard as a KPI scorecard comparing one or more organization units within the organization indicative of the relationship of particular entity representatives on key performance indicators. Claims 4, 10, and 16 add the additional elements of a data visualization environment, and client/user interfaces. When viewed as a whole, the abstract idea is not integrated into a practical application because the additional elements merely serve as a generic computer component on which the abstract idea is implemented. See MPEP 2106.05(f). The claims do not include limitations sufficient, either alone or in combination, to amount to significantly more than the claimed abstract idea because the aforementioned additional elements merely serve as generic computer components on which the abstract idea is implemented. See MPEP 2106.05(f).
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, 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.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1-2, 4-8, 11-14, and 16-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2023/0081212 to Surendran et al. (hereinafter “Surendran”) in view of U.S. Patent No. 10,332,044 to Clover et al. (hereinafter “Clover”) and further in view of CN116629677A to Fang et al. (hereinafter “Fang”).
In regard to claim 1, Surendran discloses a system comprising one or more processors and memory and operating as a data analytics environment that provides access to a database of enterprise data, said data analytics environment comprising a presentation layer that provides access to data content using one or more software analytic application, user interface, dashboard, key performance indicators or other report or interface (Para. 52, 57-59, 66-67 and 70) (As illustrated in FIG. 1…a data analytics environment 100 can be provided by, or otherwise operate at, a computer system having a computer hardware (e.g., processor, memory) 101 (i.e., a system comprising one or more processors and memory and operating as a data analytics environment)… and including one or more software components operating as a control plane 102, and a data plane 104….the data plane can include a data pipeline or process layer 120 and a data transformation layer 134, that together process operational or transactional data from an organization's enterprise software application… that extracts transactional data from business applications and databases (i.e., that provides access to a database of enterprise data)… Different customers of a data analytics environment may have different requirements with regard to how their data is classified, aggregated, or transformed, for purposes of providing data analytics or business intelligence data…provide custom content to a presentation layer 190…the presentation layer can enable access to the data content using, for example, a software analytic application (i.e., said data analytics environment comprising a presentation layer that provides access to data content using one or more software analytic application), user interface, dashboard, key performance indicators (KPI's); or other type of report or interface as may be provided by products such (i.e., using one or more….user interface, dashboard, key performance indicators or other report or interface).
Surendran discloses wherein the data analytics environment operates to retrieve, receive, or prepare datasets from one or more data sources via one or more data source connections (Para. 119, and.241-243) (In accordance with an embodiment, the analytics system enables a dataset to be retrieved, received, or prepared from one or more data source(s), for example via one or more data source connections).
Surendran discloses wherein customer data is sourced from a customer or tenant enterprise software environment using a data pipeline process, wherein the data analytics environment extracts a first data from the customer data, and loads it into a data warehouse instance (Paras. 55, 57 and 59) (…the data plane can include a data pipeline or process layer 120 and a data transformation layer 134, that together process operational or transactional data from an organization's enterprise software application or data environment, such as, for example, business productivity software applications provisioned in a customer's (tenant's) SaaS environment (i.e., wherein customer data is sourced from a customer or tenant enterprise software environment using a data pipeline process). The data pipeline or process can include various functionality that extracts transactional data from business applications and databases that are provisioned in the SaaS environment (i.e., wherein the data analytics environment extracts a first data from the customer data)…. transforming the extracted data into a model format, and loading the transformed data into a customer schema of the data warehouse (i.e., and loads it into a data warehouse instance).
Surendran discloses including, in response to a request received from a client application: retrieving, from the data warehouse instance, one or more datasets for use in generating and returning a requested data analytics or visualization information to the client application (Para. 120) (…a request for data analytics or visualization information can be received via a client application and user interface as described above, and communicated to the analytics system (in the example of a cloud environment, via a cloud service). The system can retrieve an appropriate dataset to address the user/business context, for use in generating and returning the requested data analytics or visualization information to the client).
Surendran discloses performing joins with the datasets and the first data to determine information (Paras. 97,127-129 and 165-166) (In accordance with embodiments of analytics environments …a user can create a dataset that uses tables from different connections and schemas. The system uses the relationships defined between these tables to create relationships or joins in the dataset…. Create dataset table joins: joins indicate relationships between a dataset's tables. If the user is creating a dataset based on facts and dimensions and if joins already exist in the source tables, then joins are automatically created in the dataset. If the user is creating a dataset from multiple connections and schemas, then they can manually define the joins between tables… enabling a user to join two tables, the data from which can be further transformed or enriched to prepare it for analysis (i.e., to determine information))
Surendran does not explicitly disclose or teach, however, Clover teaches that the enterprise data, including data descriptive of entities within an enterprise organization (Col. 8, lines 66-Col. 9, line 6) (The assigned group of users are prescribed the performance goal by the present embodiment. That is, the interface enables the designer to select and target a group of users that are located within a database… that is used, for example by an entity to store information about their employees (i.e., provides access to a database of enterprise data, including data descriptive of entities within an enterprise organization)…
Surendran does not explicitly disclose or teach, however, Clover teaches that the first data of Surendran is an area of responsibility; wherein the area of responsibility data is used by the system to provide one or more evaluation, implementation, and refinement of key performance indicators, dashboards, or scorecards (Col. 6, line 19-30, Col. 7, lines 59-Col.8, line 65; Col. 15, lines 24-37; and Figs. 3 and 8) (…the prescriptive engine 210 is capable of automatically prescribing and tracking a set of performance goals prescribed to a targeted user or set of targeted users based on their roles, jobs (i.e., s that the first data of Surendran is an area of responsibility)…administrators and managers (… human resource personnel) are provided with the appropriate access for creating the prescriptive rule, and its associated criteria and performance goals. These administrators and managers are provided with web based access to the prescription engine for defining and applying the prescriptive rule, in one embodiment (i.e., wherein the area of responsibility data is used by the system to provide)…. That is, a web interface is provided through a back end server application that allows a designer (…human resources administrator) to develop and prescribe performance goals to individual users, or to groups of users, within an entity (…, organization) (i.e., evaluation, implementation, and refinement of key performance indicator)… FIG. 8 is a screen shot 800 illustrating the attachment of performance goals to multiple users…The screen shot 800 defines the deliverables or milestones expected of the particular individuals (i.e., dashboards, or scorecards).))
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include the employee information and interface of Clover with the data analytics environment of Surendran in order to enable an organization to ensure that the right groups of individuals get assigned, or prescribed the right performance goals (See Col. 8, lines 28-43 of Clover).
Surendran in view of Clover does not explicitly disclose or teach, however, Fang teaches that the determining information is determining one or more representatives responsible for particular organization units, during particular periods of time (Paras. 8-10, 13 and 53) (…embodiments of the present invention provide a data statistics system for human resources work analysis. By adding a human resources area division module, the employee departments set by the enterprise are determined as target areas. According to the employee departments set by the enterprise, The category division method divides each human resources area to be calculated into several human resource sub-areas…Employee KPI assessment data, including associated employee position information, is based on the enterprise employee social security information collection unit and the enterprise employee KPI assessment unit to obtain human resources employee performance ability index data, make accurate statistics on the human resources work analysis data, and provide corporate human resources Whether the resource management is healthy provides accurate data to solve the problems raised in the background art above…Human resources area division module: It is used to determine the employee department set by the enterprise as the target area, and divide each human resource area (i.e., determining one or more representatives responsible for) to be calculated into several human resource sub-areas according to the division method of the employee department types set by the enterprise (i.e., particular organization units), which are sequentially recorded as 1, 2, 3...N. Examiner notes Para. 13 discusses that the employee KPI assessment unit is used to calculate the salary performance of the enterprise employees for the month and Para. 53 discusses looking at overtime hours of enterprise employees in the current month (i.e., during particular periods of time).)
Surendran in view of Clover does not explicitly disclose or teach, however, Fang teaches identifying, based on the retrieved data sets and area of responsibility data, key measures or metrics associated with the one or more representatives and indicative of relationships between a representative and an entity performance, for use in generating and displaying key performance indicator scorecard reflecting such relationships (Paras. 6, 8, 13, 27, and 50 ) (…existing data statistics system for human resources job analysis uses distributed processing of enterprise employee information, which is a waste of time…The KPI assessment indicators of enterprise employees cannot make accurate statistics on the analysis data of human resources work (i.e., indicative of relationships between a representative and an entity performance)…In order to overcome the above-mentioned defects of the prior art, embodiments of the present invention provide a data statistics system for human resources work analysis. By adding a human resources area division module, the employee departments set by the enterprise are determined as target areas. According to the employee departments set by the enterprise, The category division method divides each human resources area to be calculated into several human resource sub-areas (i.e., the one or more representatives), refines the collection of enterprise employee information (i.e., retrieved datasets), solves the distribution and processing process of enterprise information, and collects enterprise information by adding a human resources employee performance capability index calculation module …By associating position information (i.e., area of responsibility data), different KPI parameter assessment indexes are set according to different position information. According to the formula (i.e., identifying key measures or metrics associated with the one or more representatives): Yn is the total KPI assessment data of enterprise employees, f1 is the enterprise The weight of employee KPI performance, f2 is the effective reward and punishment weight of enterprise employees, Dc is the proportion of salary increase of enterprise employees in the current month, Vs is the proportion of salary reduction of enterprise employees in that month, a is the number of salary increases of enterprise employees in that month, b is the salary decrease of enterprise employees in that month The number of times, Qs is the total number of overtime hours for the company's employees in the month, Na is the total number of working days specified by the company in the month, Rt is the prescribed working hours for the company's employees, and the human resources employee performance ability index β is obtained (i.e., for use in generating a key performance indicator scorecard reflecting such relationships)…The information display unit can be used to call the display to display the enterprise employee file information and to perform permissions on the real-time collected enterprise employee information (i.e., and displaying).).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include the human resources employee performance ability index β of Fang with the data analysis environment of Surendran in view of Clover in order to make accurate statistics on the human resources work analysis data, and determine whether the resource management is healthy (See Paras. 6 and 8 of Fang).
In regard to claims 7 and 13, Surendran discloses accessing, within a data analytics environment, a database of enterprise data, said data analytics environment comprising a presentation layer that provides access to data content using one or more software analytic application, user interface, dashboard, key performance indicators or other report or interface (Para. 52, 57-59, 66-67 and 70) (As illustrated in FIG. 1…a data analytics environment 100… (i.e., within a data analytics environment)… and including one or more software components operating as a control plane 102, and a data plane 104….the data plane can include a data pipeline or process layer 120 and a data transformation layer 134, that together process operational or transactional data from an organization's enterprise software application… that extracts transactional data from business applications and databases (i.e., accessing a database of enterprise data)… Different customers of a data analytics environment may have different requirements with regard to how their data is classified, aggregated, or transformed, for purposes of providing data analytics or business intelligence data…provide custom content to a presentation layer 190…the presentation layer can enable access to the data content using, for example, a software analytic application (i.e., said data analytics environment comprising a presentation layer that provides access to data content using one or more software analytic application), user interface, dashboard, key performance indicators (KPI's); or other type of report or interface as may be provided by products such (i.e., using one or more….user interface, dashboard, key performance indicators or other report or interface).
Surendran discloses wherein the data analytics environment operates to retrieve, receive, or prepare datasets from one or more data sources via one or more data source connections (Para. 119, and.241-243) (In accordance with an embodiment, the analytics system enables a dataset to be retrieved, received, or prepared from one or more data source(s), for example via one or more data source connections).
Surendran discloses wherein customer data is sourced from a customer or tenant enterprise software environment using a data pipeline process, wherein the data analytics environment extracts a first data from the customer data, and loads it into a data warehouse instance (Paras. 55, 57 and 59) (…the data plane can include a data pipeline or process layer 120 and a data transformation layer 134, that together process operational or transactional data from an organization's enterprise software application or data environment, such as, for example, business productivity software applications provisioned in a customer's (tenant's) SaaS environment (i.e., wherein customer data is sourced from a customer or tenant enterprise software environment using a data pipeline process). The data pipeline or process can include various functionality that extracts transactional data from business applications and databases that are provisioned in the SaaS environment (i.e., wherein the data analytics environment extracts a first data from the customer data)…. transforming the extracted data into a model format, and loading the transformed data into a customer schema of the data warehouse (i.e., and loads it into a data warehouse instance).
Surendran in response to a request received from a client application: retrieving, from the data warehouse instance, one or more datasets for use in generating and returning a requested data analytics or visualization information to the client application (Para. 120) (…a request for data analytics or visualization information can be received via a client application and user interface as described above, and communicated to the analytics system (in the example of a cloud environment, via a cloud service). The system can retrieve an appropriate dataset to address the user/business context, for use in generating and returning the requested data analytics or visualization information to the client).
Surendran discloses performing joins with the datasets and the first data to determine information (Paras. 97,127-129 and 165-166) (In accordance with embodiments of analytics environments …a user can create a dataset that uses tables from different connections and schemas. The system uses the relationships defined between these tables to create relationships or joins in the dataset…. Create dataset table joins: joins indicate relationships between a dataset's tables. If the user is creating a dataset based on facts and dimensions and if joins already exist in the source tables, then joins are automatically created in the dataset. If the user is creating a dataset from multiple connections and schemas, then they can manually define the joins between tables… enabling a user to join two tables, the data from which can be further transformed or enriched to prepare it for analysis (i.e., to determine information))
Surendran does not explicitly disclose or teach, however, Clover teaches that the enterprise data including data descriptive of a plurality of teams within an enterprise organization (Col. 7, lines 59 – Col., 8, line 13; Col. 8, lines 66– Col. 9, line 6; Fig. 3) (…That is, a web interface is provided through a back end server application that allows a designer (… human resources administrator) to develop and prescribe performance goals to individual users, or to groups of users (i.e., plurality of teams), within an entity (…organization) (i.e., plurality of teams within an enterprise organization)… The interface enables the designer to select and target a group of users that are located within a database (… relational database) that is used, for example by an entity to store information about their employees (i.e., database of enterprise data, including data descriptive of entities within an enterprise organization).)
Surendran does not explicitly disclose or teach, however, Clover teaches that the first data of Surendran is an area of responsibility; and in response to a request received from a client application, assessing an area of responsibility data stored in the database to provide one or more evaluation, implementation, and refinement of key performance indicators, dashboards, or scorecards ((Col. 7, lines 59 – Col., 9, line 6; Col. 15, lines 24-37; and Figs. 3 and 8) (The present embodiment allows management and employees of a corporation to define and align goals that will be achieved over a particular period of time…administrators and managers (… human resource personnel) are provided with the appropriate access for creating the prescriptive rule, and its associated criteria and performance goals. These administrators and managers are provided with web based access (i.e., in response to a request received from a client application) to the prescription engine for defining and applying the prescriptive rule, in one embodiment (i.e., accessing an area of responsibility data to provide)…. That is, a web interface is provided through a back end server application that allows a designer (…human resources administrator) to develop and prescribe performance goals to individual users, or to groups of users, within an entity (…, organization) (i.e., evaluation, implementation, and refinement of key performance indicator)… the interface enables the designer to select and target a group of users that are located within a database (… relational database) (i.e., stored in the database)… FIG. 8 is a screen shot 800 illustrating the attachment of performance goals to multiple users…The screen shot 800 defines the deliverables or milestones expected of the particular individuals (i.e., dashboards, or scorecards).)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include the employee information and interface of Clover with the data analytics environment of Surendran in order to enable an organization to ensure that the right groups of individuals get assigned, or prescribed the right performance goals (See Col. 8, lines 28-43 of Clover).
Surendran in view of Clover does not explicitly disclose or teach, however, Fang teaches that the determining information is determining one or more representatives responsible for particular organization units, during particular periods of time (Paras. 8-10, 13 and 53) (…embodiments of the present invention provide a data statistics system for human resources work analysis. By adding a human resources area division module, the employee departments set by the enterprise are determined as target areas. According to the employee departments set by the enterprise, The category division method divides each human resources area to be calculated into several human resource sub-areas…Employee KPI assessment data, including associated employee position information, is based on the enterprise employee social security information collection unit and the enterprise employee KPI assessment unit to obtain human resources employee performance ability index data, make accurate statistics on the human resources work analysis data, and provide corporate human resources Whether the resource management is healthy provides accurate data to solve the problems raised in the background art above…Human resources area division module: It is used to determine the employee department set by the enterprise as the target area, and divide each human resource area (i.e., determining one or more representatives responsible for) to be calculated into several human resource sub-areas according to the division method of the employee department types set by the enterprise (i.e., particular organization units), which are sequentially recorded as 1, 2, 3...N. Examiner notes Para. 13 discusses that the employee KPI assessment unit is used to calculate the salary performance of the enterprise employees for the month and Para. 53 discusses looking at overtime hours of enterprise employees in the current month (i.e., during particular periods of time).)
Surendran in view of Clover does not explicitly disclose or teach, however, Fang teaches identifying, based on the retrieved data sets and area of responsibility data, key measures or metrics associated with the one or more representatives and indicative of relationships between a representative and an entity performance, for use in generating and displaying key performance indicator scorecard reflecting such relationships (Paras. 6, 8, 13, 27, and 50 ) (…existing data statistics system for human resources job analysis uses distributed processing of enterprise employee information, which is a waste of time…The KPI assessment indicators of enterprise employees cannot make accurate statistics on the analysis data of human resources work (i.e., indicative of relationships between a representative and an entity performance)…In order to overcome the above-mentioned defects of the prior art, embodiments of the present invention provide a data statistics system for human resources work analysis. By adding a human resources area division module, the employee departments set by the enterprise are determined as target areas. According to the employee departments set by the enterprise, The category division method divides each human resources area to be calculated into several human resource sub-areas (i.e., the one or more representatives), refines the collection of enterprise employee information (i.e., retrieved datasets), solves the distribution and processing process of enterprise information, and collects enterprise information by adding a human resources employee performance capability index calculation module …By associating position information (i.e., area of responsibility data), different KPI parameter assessment indexes are set according to different position information. According to the formula (i.e., identifying key measures or metrics associated with the one or more representatives): Yn is the total KPI assessment data of enterprise employees, f1 is the enterprise The weight of employee KPI performance, f2 is the effective reward and punishment weight of enterprise employees, Dc is the proportion of salary increase of enterprise employees in the current month, Vs is the proportion of salary reduction of enterprise employees in that month, a is the number of salary increases of enterprise employees in that month, b is the salary decrease of enterprise employees in that month The number of times, Qs is the total number of overtime hours for the company's employees in the month, Na is the total number of working days specified by the company in the month, Rt is the prescribed working hours for the company's employees, and the human resources employee performance ability index β is obtained (i.e., for use in generating a key performance indicator scorecard reflecting such relationships)…The information display unit can be used to call the display to display the enterprise employee file information and to perform permissions on the real-time collected enterprise employee information (i.e., and displaying).).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include the human resources employee performance ability index β of Fang with the data analysis environment of Surendran in view of Clover in order to make accurate statistics on the human resources work analysis data, and determine whether the resource management is healthy (See Paras. 6 and 8 of Fang).
In regard to claims 2, 8, and 14, Surendran in view of Clover does not explicitly disclose or teach, however, Fang teaches wherein the one or more representatives responsible for particular organization units is a human resources (HR) representative, and wherein the key measures or metrics associated with the human resources representative includes HR measures for the particular organization units during the particular periods of time (Paras. 6, 8, 13, 27) (…existing data statistics system for human resources job analysis uses distributed processing of enterprise employee information, which is a waste of time…The KPI assessment indicators of enterprise employees cannot make accurate statistics on the analysis data of human resources work…In order to overcome the above-mentioned defects of the prior art, embodiments of the present invention provide a data statistics system for human resources work analysis…the category division method divides each human resources area to be calculated into several human resource sub-areas (i.e., wherein the one or more representatives responsible for particular organization units is a human resources (HR) representative), refines the collection of enterprise employee information, solves the distribution and processing process of enterprise information, and collects enterprise information by adding a human resources employee performance capability index calculation module …By associating position information, different KPI parameter assessment indexes are set according to different position information. According to the formula: (i.e., wherein the key measures or metrics associated with the human resources representative includes HR measures for the particular organization units during the particular periods of time): Yn is the total KPI assessment data of enterprise employees, f1 is the enterprise The weight of employee KPI performance, f2 is the effective reward and punishment weight of enterprise employees, Dc is the proportion of salary increase of enterprise employees in the current month, Vs is the proportion of salary reduction of enterprise employees in that month, a is the number of salary increases of enterprise employees in that month, b is the salary decrease of enterprise employees in that month The number of times, Qs is the total number of overtime hours for the company's employees in the month, Na is the total number of working days specified by the company in the month, Rt is the prescribed working hours for the company's employees, and the human resources employee performance ability index β is obtained.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include the human resources employee performance ability index β of Fang with the data analytics environment of Surendran in view of Clover in order to make accurate statistics on the human resources work analysis data, and determine whether the resource management is healthy (See Paras. 6 and 8 of Fang).
In regard to claims 4, 10, and 16, Surendran discloses wherein in response to a request received at a data visualization information, the data analytics environment operates to join one or more data sets (Paras. 97,116, 118, 127-129 and 165-166) (In accordance with embodiments of analytics environments …a user can create a dataset that uses tables from different connections and schemas. The system uses the relationships defined between these tables to create relationships or joins in the dataset…. Create dataset table joins: joins indicate relationships between a dataset's tables. If the user is creating a dataset based on facts and dimensions and if joins already exist in the source tables, then joins are automatically created in the dataset. If the user is creating a dataset from multiple connections and schemas, then they can manually define the joins between tables… enabling a user to join two tables, the data from which can be further transformed or enriched to prepare it for analysis)
Surendran does not explicitly disclose or teach, however, Clover teaches that the join is with its area of responsibility data, to generate a user interface, dashboard, or key performance indicator (KPI) for subsequent display at a client user interface or dashboard as a KPI scorecard comparing one or more organization units within the organization indicative of the relationship of particular entity representatives on key performance indicators (Col. 6, lines 19-30; Col. 13, lines 7-15; Col. 15, lines 24-Col. 16, line 10; Fig. 8) (…the application server 216 by querying a relational database server 220 for selecting targeted users. As such, the prescriptive engine 210 is capable of automatically prescribing and tracking a set of performance goals prescribed to a targeted user or set of targeted users based on their roles, jobs, hire date, or other attributes…That is, corporations may track particular attributes of employees that are unique and important to that the corporation… 800 illustrating the attachment of performance goals to multiple users, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 8 illustrates a view of the attachment of performance goals to multiple users, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. This is beneficial at a managerial level, and can be used to track performance of a particular group of individuals in achieving and completing performance goals. The screen shot 800 defines the deliverables or milestones expected of the particular individuals (i.e., key performance indicator (KPI) for subsequent display at a client user interface or dashboard as a KPI scorecard comparing one or more organization units within the organization indicative of the relationship of particular entity representatives on key performance indicators).)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include the dashboard of Clover with the data analytics environment of Surendran in order to enable an organization to ensure that the right groups of individuals get assigned, or prescribed the right performance goals (See Col. 8, lines 28-43 of Clover).
In regard to claims 5, 11, and 17, Surendran does not explicitly disclose or teach however Clover teaches wherein the organization units are teams provided within the enterprise organization (Col. 7, lines 59 – Col., 8, line 13; Col. 8, lines 66– Col. 9, line 6; Fig. 3) (…That is, a web interface is provided through a back end server application that allows a designer (… human resources administrator) to develop and prescribe performance goals to individual users, or to groups of users (i.e., plurality of teams), within an entity (…organization) (i.e., wherein the organization units are teams provided within the enterprise organization).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include the groups of users of Clover with the data analytics environment of Surendran in order to enable an organization to ensure that the right groups of individuals get assigned, or prescribed the right performance goals (See Col. 8, lines 28-43 of Clover).
In regard to claims 6, 12, and 18, Surendran in view of Clover does not explicitly disclose or teach, however, Fang teaches wherein the identifying of key measures or metrics associated with the one or more representatives and indicative of relationships between a representative and an entity performance are displayed as a key performance indicator scorecard reflecting such relationships for use in making analytics-assisted decisions (Paras. 6, 8-10, 13, 27, 53) (…embodiments of the present invention provide a data statistics system for human resources work analysis. By adding a human resources area division module, the employee departments set by the enterprise are determined as target areas. According to the employee departments set by the enterprise, The category division method divides each human resources area to be calculated into several human resource sub-areas…Employee KPI assessment data, including associated employee position information, is based on the enterprise employee social security information collection unit and the enterprise employee KPI assessment unit to obtain human resources employee performance ability index data, make accurate statistics on the human resources work analysis data, and provide corporate human resources Whether the resource management is healthy provides accurate data to solve the problems raised in the background art above…(i.e., as a key performance indicator scorecard reflecting such relationships for use in making analytics-assisted decisions).)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include the human resources employee performance ability index β of Fang with data analytics environment of Surendran in view of Clover in order to make accurate statistics on the human resources work analysis data, and determine whether the resource management is healthy (See Paras. 6 and 8 of Fang).
Claims 3, 9, and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable Surendran in view of Clover and further in view of Fang, as applied to claims 1, 7, and 13 above, and even further in view of U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2020/0104677 to Rae et al. (hereinafter “Rae”).
In regard to claims 3, 9, and 15, Surendran does not explicitly disclose or teach however, Clover discloses wherein the data analytics environment extracts the area of responsibility data from an enterprise organization customer data, and supplementing the area of responsibility data by customer-specific data as needed (Col. 13, lines 7-15) (In blocks 570 and 575, custom fields are presented for application of the prescriptive rule. That is, corporations may track particular attributes of employees that are unique and important to that the corporation. The present embodiment is able to incorporate these custom attributes for application of a prescriptive rule. For example, a custom field may define the number of sales products a particular sales group is responsible for, and prescribe certain performance goals associated with those sales products).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include the teachings of Clover in the data analytics environment of Surendran for the reasons discussed in the independent claims.
Surendran in view of Clover and further in view of Fang does not explicitly disclose or teach however Rae teaches loading it into a data warehouse instance, wherein the …data can be seeded in an immutable data analytics schema (Paras. 9 and 64) (…the immutable key data store 102 may store the seed data used to generate the plurality of keys rather than the plurality of keys themselves. Therefore, the addressing system 103 may be configured to re-generate the plurality of keys using the immutable seed data. By storing the immutable seed data rather than the plurality of keys, the storage/memory requirements of the immutable key data store 102 may be reduced)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include immutable data store of Rae with the system of Surendran in view of Clover and further in view of Fang in order to for the storage/memory requirements to be reduced (See Para. 64 of Rae).
Prior Art
The following is prior art not cited but considered relevant:
“The Relationship Between HR Practices and Firm Performance: Examining Causal Order” by Wright et al, dated February, 2005. (hereinafter “Wright”). Wright discloses how measures of HR practices correlate with past, concurrent, and future operational performance measures. The results indicate that correlations with performance measures at all three times are both high and invariant, and that controlling for past or concurrent performance virtually eliminates the correlation of HR with future performance.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0023377 to Sheridan (hereinafter “Sheridan”). Sheridan discloses a user specifying an organizational structure of an entity, designing survey respondents, customizing items, response logic and reporting dimensions. The system analyzes results and allows users to formulate action plans based upon the results.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2007/0061179 to Henderson et al. (hereinafter “Henderson”). Henderson discloses a system that integrates several processes (e.g., a process for developing a strategy and particularly for developing a set of rules on how human resources will be managed and sourced, a process for developing a long-term strategic plan for sourcing human resources to satisfy demands, a process for developing a near-term operational plan recommending individual human resources be used to satisfy selected demands, a process for selecting and assigning individual resources to specific engagements, etc.)
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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/RUPANGINI SINGH/
Examiner, Art Unit 3628