WO2018231075A1

WO2018231075A1 - Systems and methods for business application aggregation

Info

Publication number: WO2018231075A1
Application number: PCT/NZ2018/050082
Authority: WO
Inventors: David Malcolm BELL; Mathew Mervyn STOKES
Original assignee: Asb Bank Limited
Priority date: 2017-06-16
Filing date: 2018-06-15
Publication date: 2018-12-20
Also published as: AU2018285366A1

Abstract

Business application aggregation system, and methods for providing business insights from aggregated business applications, are disclosed. The system interfaces with least two applications, at least one of the applications being a business application utilised by a user of the business application aggregation system, each application having associated application specific data. At least one business insight for the user is determined based on at least the application specific data, and at least one action associated with the determined business insight is determined to be available.

Description

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR BUSINESS APPLICATION AGGREGATION

STATEMENT OF CORRESPONDING APPLICATIONS

This application is based on the provisional specification filed in relation to New Zealand Patent Application No. 732943, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Embodiments of the disclosure relate to systems and methods for aggregating data and available actions from a plurality of business applications, and a user interface for interaction with same.

BACKGROUND

In an increasingly connected world, a plethora of business centric software applications are available for providing businesses with software tools for performing and managing aspects of their operations, and accessing information regarding their performance.

However, in many instances decision making remains reliant on a user being conscious of developments or statuses across the different aspects of the business; the availability of information does not automatically equate to informed decision making. Further, while one business application may be capable of performing a function relevant to an issue at hand, the user may not be aware of the availability of that function - particularly if the issue is identified while accessing another application.

It is an object of the present invention to address the foregoing problems or at least to provide the public with a useful choice.

Further aspects and advantages of the present disclosure will become apparent from the ensuing description which is given by way of example only.

SUMMARY

According to an aspect of the present disclosure there is provided a business application aggregation system, the system including: at least one processor; and a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith and executable by the at least one processor, the computer readable program code including: computer readable program code that interfaces with at least two applications, at least one of the applications being a business application utilised by a user of the business application aggregation system, each application having associated application specific data; computer readable program code that determines at least one business insight for the user based on at least the application specific data; and computer readable program code that determines at least one available action associated with the determined business insight.

According to an aspect of the present disclosure there is provided a method, the method including: utilizing at least one processor to execute computer code that performs the steps of: interfacing with at least two applications, at least one of the applications being a business application utilised by a user of a business application aggregation system, each application having associated application specific data; determining at least one business insight for the user based on the application specific data; and determining at least one available action associated with the determined business insight.

According to an aspect of the present disclosure there is provided a business application aggregation system, the system including: at least one processor; and a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith and executable by the at least one processor, the computer readable program code including: computer readable program code that interfaces with at least two business applications utilised by a user of the business application aggregation system, each application having associated application specific data and at least one action; computer readable program code that determines at least one business insight for the user based on at least the application specific data of at least one of the business applications; and computer readable program code that determines at least one available action associated with the determined business insight, wherein the available action is selected from a pool of actions including at least the action of each of the business applications.

According to an aspect of the present disclosure there is provided a method, the method including: utilizing at least one processor to execute computer code that performs the steps of: interfacing with at least two business applications utilised by a user of a business application aggregation system, each application having associated application specific data and at least one action; determining at least one business insight for the user based on the application specific data of at least one of the business applications; and determining at least one available action associated with the determined business insight, wherein the available action is selected from a pool of actions including at least the action of each of the business applications.

As used herein, reference to a business application should generally be understood to mean computer code executed by at least one processor to perform at least one business function for use by a business. By way of example, such business functions may include: accounting, inventory or stock management, staff management - for example staff scheduling, and/or payroll, payment management, customer relations management, benchmarking, banking, finance, marketing, insurance, website analytics, social media, point of sale, customer satisfaction/engagement, event management, collaboration, logistics, project management, workflow, productivity and communication tools (for example, an office suite such as Microsoft Office from Microsoft Corporation and G Suite from Google LLC - and more particularly including a personal information manager such as Microsoft Outlook from Microsoft Corporation and Gmail from Google LLC).

Reference to a business insight broadly means information communicated to the user which is associated with one or more aspects of a business and provides insight to an opportunity or an issue for the business, whether potential or realised. Further discussion regarding determination and presentation of a business insight is outlined below.

Reference to an action associated with the business insight should be understood to mean at least one function of the at least two business applications (or another resource) for performance of reactive, corrective or proactive actions associated with the opportunity or issue of the business insight.

In exemplary embodiments the application specific data may include historical data. In exemplary embodiments the application specific data may include real-time, or near real-time, data.

In an exemplary embodiment the system may be configured to interface with sources of data in addition to the business applications. By way of example, such data sources may include one or more applications such as: a weather application providing predicted or actual weather data, a traffic monitoring application providing projected or actual data regarding characteristics of traffic in a locality, an event promotion application providing data regarding events in a locality (for example dates, times, attendance details), stock market monitoring applications, news, regulatory, tax, levy, statistics, and business information (from various sources including local and central government).

In an exemplary embodiment the system may include an application programming interface (API) module configured to manage interfacing with the individual business applications. The API module may manage the respective authentication, authorisation, and encryption protocols required for the system to interface with the respective APIs of the business applications. The API module may also manage interfacing with other sources of data, and with the APIs of resources enabling actions outside those provided by the business applications - whether local or remote.

In an exemplary embodiment the system may include a business insight determination module configured to process at least the application specific data to determine the business insights. It should be appreciated that a number of analytical processes may be applied to the data in order to determine the business insights. The business insight determination module may include or interface with artificial intelligence, and in particular machine learning, engines. The insights determined for a user - whether that be an individual or an organisation - may be influenced by historical activity of the user.

In an exemplary embodiment the determination of the business insight may be based on the application specific data of at least two of the business applications. It is envisaged that the ability to aggregate different datasets at a centralised location may enable a wider, and potentially deeper, range of business insights to be determined in comparison with analysis of those datasets in isolation.

It should be appreciated that one or more business insights may be determined from the application specific data of a single business application. It is envisaged that exemplary embodiments of the system of the present disclosure may enable access to alternate actions than might otherwise be identified when operating the business applications in isolation.

In exemplary embodiments determined business insights may be attributed a hieratical value for presentation to the user. By way of example, determined business insights may be ranked based on the estimated time required to perform an associated action, or the projected savings (whether in terms of time, reduction of risk or exposure, or another resource) in performing an associated action.

In exemplary embodiments one or more of the determined business insights may be delivered automatically to a user's device. In some forms, the business application aggregation system may enable the user to elect display preferences - for example the number of, or delivery time of, business insights delivered to the user's device.

The API module may manage the respective authentication, authorisation, and encryption protocols required for the system to interface with the respective APIs of the business applications. The API module may also manage interfacing with other sources of data, and with the APIs of resources enabling actions outside those provided by the business applications - whether local or remote.

In an exemplary embodiment the system may include an action module configured to manage the identification and implementation of actions in the system. For example, the action module may include, or have access to, a record of potential actions - whether available via the business applications, other external resources (for example messaging or calling services external to the system), or dedicated system resources (for example a messaging or calling service integrated with the system). The action module may be configured to map one or more available actions to the business insights.

In an exemplary embodiment the system may be configured to automatically perform an available action based on predetermined user criteria. For example, the user may designate actions which should be automatically performed when certain conditions are met.

In an exemplary embodiment the at least one available action may be presented to the user for selection. In an exemplary embodiment the available action may be presented to the user on receiving a selection of a notification of a business insight. In an exemplary embodiment the available action may be presented to the user concurrently with the business insight.

In an exemplary embodiment the available action presented to the user may be actioned by selecting the desired action, for example by tapping, swiping, moving, pressing, clicking or similar on at least a portion of the notification of the business insight. Selection of the presented available action may automatically activate one or more processes to perform the selected action.

In an exemplary embodiment an aggregated user interface may be provided by which a user may access one or more of at least: the application specific data, functions of the business applications, the business insights, and the available actions. For example, the aggregated user interface may be a graphical user interface displayed on a user device.

In an exemplary embodiment, notifications from each business application may be issued to the user via the aggregated user interface. These notifications may include, for example, notifications standard to the business application but conveyed via the aggregated user interface, and notifications of a determination of a business insight. For example, the aggregated user interface may have a notification feed, displaying notifications and/or business insights and enabling access to associated actions.

In an exemplary embodiment the aggregated user interface may be configured to allow the user to designate individual business insights for later viewing - for example pinning the business insight to a pinned section, or snoozing the notification to be reissued at a later time.

In an exemplary embodiment the system may be configured to perform an action directly within the aggregated user interface of the system. In an exemplary embodiment the system may be configured to open an application associated with the action.

In exemplary embodiments the user device may be a personal computing device, for example a mobile phone or a tablet computer. It is envisaged that the business applications, and an application enabling access to the system described herein may be installed on the user device. However, it should be appreciated that the underlying architecture of the system may be achieved in a variety of ways, and distributed across a number of processing and data storage platforms.

For a firmware and/or software (also known as a computer program) implementation, the techniques of the present disclosure may be implemented as instructions (for example, procedures, functions, and so on) that perform the functions described. It should be appreciated that the present disclosure is not described with reference to any particular programming languages, and that a variety of programming languages could be used to implement the present invention. The firmware and/or software codes may be stored in a memory, or em bodied in any other processor readable medium, and executed by a processor or processors. The memory may be implemented within the processor or external to the processor.

In particular, it is envisaged that in exemplary embodiments methods described herein may be embodied in an application to be installed on a user device, where the application interacts with existing control functions and routines to implement the present disclosure.

The above and other features will become apparent from the following description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

Further aspects of the present invention will become apparent from the following description which is given by way of example only and with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an exemplary networked system for a business application aggregation service in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of an exemplary user device for use in the networked system; FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an exemplary business application aggregation service;

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method to be performed by the business application aggregation service;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a first screen of an exemplary user interface for accessing the business application aggregation service;

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of another exemplary method to be performed by the business application aggregation service;

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a second screen of the exemplary user interface for accessing the business application aggregation service;

FIG. 8A-D are screen views of an exemplary user interface implementing an exemplary function of the business application aggregation service.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 presents a schematic diagram of a system 100 depicting various computing devices that can be used alone or together in accordance with exemplary embodiments of the disclosure. The system 100 includes a business application aggregation service 102, illustrated in this exemplary embodiment as being implemented in a server - for example one or more dedicated server devices, or a cloud based server.

By way of example, the server of the business application aggregation service 102 may have a processor 104, memory 106, and other components typically present in such computing devices. In the exemplary embodiment illustrated the memory 106 stores information accessible by processor 104, the information including instructions 108 that may be executed by the processor 104 and data 110 that may be retrieved, manipulated or stored by the processor 104. The memory 106 may be of any suitable means known in the art, capable of storing information in a manner accessible by the processor, including a computer-readable medium, or other medium that stores data that may be read with the aid of an electronic device. The processor 104 may be any suitable device known to a person skilled in the art. Although the processor 104 and memory 106 are illustrated as being within a single unit, it should be appreciated that this is not intended to be limiting, and that the functionality of each as herein described may be performed by multiple processors and memories, that may or may not be remote from each other. The instructions 108 may include any set of instructions suitable for execution by the processor 104. For example, the instructions 108 may be stored as computer code on the computer-readable medium. The instructions may be stored in any suitable computer language or format. Data 110 may be retrieved, stored or modified by processor 104 in accordance with the instructions 108. The data 110 may also be formatted in any suitable computer readable format. Again, while the data is illustrated as being contained at a single location, it should be appreciated that this is not intended to be limiting - the data may be stored in multiple memories or locations. The data 110 stored on server may include databases 112.

The business application aggregation service 102 may communicate with other services 114a to 114n, for example servers hosting operation of business applications and other resources, via a network 116 potentially comprising various configurations and protocols including the Internet, intranets, virtual private networks, wide area networks, local networks, private networks using communication protocols proprietary to one or more companies - whether wired or wireless, or a combination thereof.

The business application aggregation service 102 may communicate with user devices via the network 116, for example smartphone 118a, tablet computer 118b, or personal computer 118c.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an exemplary smartphone 118a. It should be appreciated that the smartphone 118a may have more or fewer components than shown, may combine two or more components, or may have a different configuration or arrangement of the components. The various components shown in FIG. 2 may be implemented in hardware, software, or a combination of both hardware and software, including one or more signal processing and/or application specific integrated circuits.

The smartphone 118a includes a memory 200 (which may include one or more computer readable storage mediums), one or more processing units (CPU's) 202, a speaker 204, a microphone 206, a battery 208, radio frequency ( F) circuitry 210a for communication with the network 116, connector port 210b for connection to a bus for connection, communication, and power supply between the smartphone 118a and other electronic devices, motion sensors such as accelerometers 212, and a touch screen 214.

The touch screen 214 provides an input interface and an output interface between the smartphone 118a and a user. The visual output may include graphics, text, icons, video, and any combination thereof (collectively termed "graphics"). In some embodiments, some or all of the visual output may correspond to user-interface objects, further details of which are described below. The touch screen 214 has a touch-sensitive surface, sensor or set of sensors that accepts input from the user based on contact. The touch screen 214 detects contact and associated movement, and determines whether that contact is intended to be interaction with user-interface objects displayed on the touch screen 214. The one or more processors 202 run or execute various software programs and/or sets of instructions stored in memory 200 to perform various functions for the smartphone 118a and to process data. Software components stored in memory 200 may include an operating system and various modules or applications for controlling operation of the smartphone 118a.

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary structure 300 of the business application aggregation service 102. It should be appreciated that elements of the structure 300 may be implemented locally, i.e. by an application installed on one of the user devices 118a to 118c, in communication with the remote processing facilities of the business application aggregation service 102.

The business application aggregation service 102 includes an application programming interface (API) module 302 configured to manage interfacing with the other services 114a to 114n and local resources. A business application API module 304 manages interfacing with business applications via business application APIs 306a to 306n to obtain associated application specific data and access functionality of the business applications, accounting, inventory management, staff management - for example staff scheduling, and/or payroll, payment management, customer relations management, benchmarking, banking, finance, marketing, insurance, website analytics, social media, point of sale, customer satisfaction/engagement, event management, collaboration, logistics, project management, workflow, productivity and communication tools (for example, an office suite such as Microsoft Office from Microsoft Corporation and G Suite from Google LLC - and more particularly including a personal information manager such as Microsoft Outlook from Microsoft Corporation and Gmail from Google LLC).

An external resource API module 308 manages interfacing with other external resources via external resource APIs 310a to 310n to obtain associated application specific data and access functionality of the external resource. Examples of such external resources may include: a weather application providing predicted or actual weather data, a traffic monitoring application providing projected or actual data regarding characteristics of traffic in a locality, an event promotion application providing data regarding events in a locality (for example dates, times, attendance details), stock market monitoring applications, news, regulatory, tax, levy, statistics and business information (from various sources including local and central government).

A local resource API module 312 manages interfacing with other local resources via local resource APIs, for example calling service API 314a and messaging service API 314b.

It should be appreciated that data 316 may not be retained by the business application aggregation service 102, but accessed from the individual sources as required. The data 316 may include business application data 318a, and non-business application specific data 318b (for example obtained from the external resources).

The business application aggregation service 102 includes an insight module 320 configured to process the data 316 to determine one or more business insights for a user. The insight module 320 includes a business insight engine 322 implementing one or more algorithms to determine the business insights. The insight engine 322 may reference a library 324 of insights, including for example individual business application specific insights 326 determined on the basis of data from a single business application, and aggregated insights 328 determined on the basis of data from at least two business applications, or a business application and an external resource. In exemplary embodiments determined business insights may be attributed a hieratical value for presentation to the user. The business insight engine 322 may be configured to rank determined business insights based on relative value to a user, for example the estimated time required to perform an associated action, or the projected savings (whether in terms of time, reduction of risk or exposure, or another resource) in performing an associated action.

The business application aggregation service 102 includes an action module 330 configured to manage the identification and implementation of actions in the system 100. An action determination engine 332 may reference a record 334 of potential actions - whether available via the business applications, other external resources (for example messaging or calling services of the user device), or dedicated system resources (for example a messaging or calling service integrated with the system). The action determination engine 332 may map one or more available actions to the business insight(s) determined by the insight module 320. The action module 330 includes an action implementation engine 336 configured to manage implementation of the actions determined to be available - whether automatically based on predetermined user criteria, or on authorisation by the user as will be described further below.

The business application aggregation service 102 includes a user interface module 338 for delivery of an aggregated user interface by which a user may access one or more of at least: the application specific data, functions of the business applications, the business insights, and the available actions. For example, the aggregated user interface may be a graphical user interface displayed on a user device. The user interface module 338 may include a user interface delivery engine 340 - for example connecting to a locally installed application on the user device - and a record 342 of user settings or preferences (whether user initiated or determined by monitoring user activity).

FIG. 4 shows an exemplary method 400 to be performed by business application aggregation service 102. In step 402 the insight module 320 obtains data 316 via API module 302, including business application data 318a from at least two of the services 114a to 114n directed to business applications. In an alternate embodiment, the data 316 obtained may include non-business application specific data 318b from at least one of the services 114a to 114n directed to non-business applications, and business application data 318a from at least one of the services 114a to 114n directed to business applications. In another embodiment, the data 316 obtained may include business application specific data 318a from at least one of the services 114a to 114n directed to business applications.

In step 404 the business insight engine 322 determines at least one business insight for a user of the business application aggregation service 102 based on at least the business application data 318a. In an alternate embodiment determination may be based on the business application data 318a and nonbusiness application specific data 318b.

In step 406 the action determination engine 332 determines at least one available and recommended action associated with the at least one business insight determined by the business insight engine 322.

FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary user interface (Ul) 500 for accessing the business application aggregation service 102. Ul 500 includes a tab bar 502 from which the user may access different sections of the Ul 500, for example a home page 504, and a business application dashboard 506. FIG. 5 illustrates the home page 504, having a notification feed 508 populated with a plurality of notifications 510a to 510n.

For example, the first notification 510a is a business insight notification, generated on determination by the business insight engine 322. The business insight notification 510a includes, in this exemplary embodiment, a graphical identifier 512 of a business application to which the business insight notification 510a relates. The business insight 514 is displayed in the notification 510a, for example in a text based form. An action tab 516 is provided, selection of which displays one or more available actions associated with the business insight 514, as determined by the action determination engine 334, for selection by the user.

The notification 510a may include a pin option 518, selection of which designates the notification as "pinned" for later reference by the user. The notification 510a also includes a snooze option 520, selection of which temporarily removes the notification from the feed to be re-displayed at a later time. Feed controls 522 may be provided for selection by the user, including a display all option 522a, display pinned option 522b and display snoozed option 522c.

The home page 504 of the Ul may also include data or metric displays 524a to 524n, displaying current data or metrics from the business applications based on user preferences.

FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary method 600 to be performed by business application aggregation service 102. In step 602 the user interface module 338 communicates with the user device of the user to display at least one business insight and associated at least one action, for example as determined using method 400, in the user interface 500. In step 604 a selection of one of the associated actions by the user via the user interface 500 is received, and in step 606 the action implementation engine 336 implements the selected action in the business application aggregation service 102.

FIG. 7 illustrates the business application dashboard 506 of the Ul 500. The dashboard 506 may display representations of a plurality of business applications 700a to 700n capable of being aggregated by the business application aggregation service 102. Each business applications 700a to 700n has a status 702 of that application, for example a connection status such as: connected, disconnected, and synching (for example to access data and/or actions). Through the dashboard 506 the user may designate the business applications intended to be aggregated via the business application aggregation service 102 and preferences and settings for same.

A first exemplary set of business insights and associated actions may be determined based at least in part on data associated with a business application providing inventory management, and sales and processing services - for example the Vend business solution offered by Vend Limited.

Examples of data associated with the business application may include: stock levels, payment methods, sales within a time period - including item particulars and value, number of customers in a defined time period, retention rate, top selling item/brand/category in a defined period, sales associated with personnel, and derivatives and subsets thereof.

Other exemplary sources of data may include: a staff management application (for example, the Deputy solution offered by Deputechnologies Pty Ltd) to obtain data regarding shift timing and associated staffing levels, a weather application to obtain data regarding predicted weather, a benchmarking application (for example, the anqx solution offered by Ranqx Limited) to compare suppliers.

Exemplary insights of the first set of business insights are detailed below: 1^st exemplary insight: Busy day upcoming.

exemplary insight: Top selling margins.

r^d exemplary insight: Change in product margin.

exemplary insight: Opening rush.

0 exemplary insight: Item sell-out.

12 exemplary insight: Management of sales and rostering.

A second exemplary set of business insights and associated actions may be determined based at least in part on data associated with a business application providing accounting services - for example the business solution offered by Xero Limited - as detailed below:

1^st exemplary insight: Payables determined to be greater than bank balance.

exemplary insight: Invoices awaiting approval.

exemplary insight: Mid-month cash health.

exemplary insight: Customer invoice increase.

exemplary insight: Cash conversion cycle (CCC)

10 exemplary insight: Debtor days.

FIG. 8A to FIG. 8D illustrate another an exemplary user interface (Ul) 800 for accessing the business application aggregation service 102, in the context of management of payment cards. A payment card management application may be provided, allowing a user to set alert conditions for individual cards (for example, associated with different personnel). Exemplary alert conditions may include exceeding a predetermined spending threshold, whether in a designated number of transactions or within a designated time period.

In FIG. 8A, the business application aggregation service 102 has interfaced with a banking application and the payment card management application to determine an alert condition, specifically that a payment on a particular card has exceeded a single transaction limit. A business insight notification 802 is issued within a notification feed 804 of the Ul 800 alerting the user to this. The business application aggregation service 102 may also determine that the business insight is of a relatively high priority, and issue a priority alert 806 at the top of the Ul 800.

In the exemplary embodiment illustrated, the notification feed 804 also includes a pinned business insight 808, which the user has elected to retain in the notification feed 804 for later viewing. The notification feed 804 illustrated also includes a video 810, determined as being of interest to the user as a business insight. Further notifications associated with insights may be accessed by scrolling the notification feed 804 down - for example, using a touch gesture such as an upward swipe. Additional functions or information from the business application aggregation service 102 may be accessed by interaction with the Ul 800 - for example, use of a touch gesture such as a sideways swipe on a free region 812 of the notification feed 804 to access current financial information.

In FIG. 8B, on selection of either the feed notification 802 or high priority notification 806, an expanded business insight 814 is displayed, including available actions: contact option 816 to contact the employee associated with the card, and manage card option 818. On selection of the contact option 816, call option 820 and message option 822 may be displayed (as shown in FIG. 8C) and the local application of the business application aggregation service 102 may interface with calling and messaging applications to perform the selected option.

On selection of the manage card option 818, the user may be presented with options for: adjusting the user settings for one or more of the cards associated with the payment card management application, and requesting changes to the limits associated with the card. For example, FIG. 8D illustrates a request interface 824 for transmitting a request for an increase in credit to the financial institution behind the payment card. The request interface may include a card selector 826 for identifying a card for which the user has authorisation to request changes, a credit limit field 828 for entry of a value for the extended credit limit being requested. A contact mechanism selector 830 allows the user to select the preferred means of communication for the request, and a contact field 832 for entry of the associated contact details (for example, an email address or phone number).

It should be appreciated that further processing on submission of the request may be dependent on the credit provider. For example, a representative may contact the user to discuss options and confirm instructions, or the request may be automatically processed depending on the permissions and authorisations associated with the user.

The invention(s) may also be said broadly to consist in the parts, elements and features referred to or indicated in the specification of the application, individually or collectively, in any or all combinations of two or more of said parts, elements or features. Where in the foregoing description reference has been made to integers or components having known equivalents thereof, those integers are herein incorporated as if individually set forth.

It should be noted that various changes and modifications to the presently preferred embodiments described herein will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Such changes and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure and without diminishing its attendant advantages. It is therefore intended that such changes and modifications be included within the present disclosure.

For a firmware and/or software (also known as a computer program) implementation, the techniques of the present disclosure may be implemented as instructions (for example, procedures, functions, and so on) that perform the functions described. It should be appreciated that the present disclosure is not described with reference to any particular programming languages, and that a variety of programming languages could be used to implement the present invention. The firmware and/or software codes may be stored in a memory, or embodied in any other processor readable medium, and executed by a processor or processors. The memory may be implemented within the processor or external to the processor. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor may be any processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, for example, a combination of a digital signal processor (DSP) and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other such configuration. The processors may function in conjunction with servers, whether cloud based or dedicated, and network connections as known in the art.

In various embodiments, one or more cloud computing environments may be used to create, and/or deploy, and/or operate at least part of the software system that can be any form of cloud computing environment, for example: a public cloud, a private cloud, a virtual private network (VPN), a subnet, a Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), or any other cloud-based infrastructure known in the art. It should be appreciated that a service may utilize, and interface with, multiple cloud computing environments.

The steps of a method, process, or algorithm described in connection with the present disclosure may be embodied directly in hardware, in a software module executed by one or more processors, or in a combination of the two. The various steps or acts in a method or process may be performed in the order shown, or may be performed in another order. Additionally, one or more process or method steps may be omitted or one or more process or method steps may be added to the methods and processes. An additional step, block, or action may be added in the beginning, end, or intervening existing elements of the methods and processes.

Reference throughout this specification to "one embodiment" or "an embodiment" (or the like) means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the disclosure. Thus, appearances of the phrases "in one embodiment" or "in an embodiment" or the like in various places throughout this specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment.

Furthermore, the described features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in at least one embodiment. In the foregoing description, numerous specific details are provided to give a thorough understanding of the exemplary embodiments. One skilled in the relevant art may well recognize, however, that embodiments of the disclosure can be practiced without at least one of the specific details thereof, or can be practiced with other methods, components, materials, et cetera. In other instances, well-known structures, materials, or operations are not shown or described in detail to avoid obscuring aspects of the invention.

The illustrated embodiments of the disclosure will be best understood by reference to the figures. The foregoing description is intended only by way of example and simply illustrates certain selected exemplary embodiments of the disclosure. It should be noted that the flowchart and block diagrams in the figures illustrate the architecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementations of systems, apparatuses, methods and computer program products according to various embodiments of the disclosure. In this regard, each block in the flowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portion of code, which comprises at least one executable instruction for implementing the specified logical function(s). It should also be noted that, in some alternative implementations, the functions noted in the block may occur out of the order noted in the figures. For example, two blocks shown in succession may, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently, or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality involved. It will also be noted that each block of the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, can be implemented by special purpose hardware-based systems that perform the specified functions or acts, or combinations of special purpose hardware and computer instructions.

Throughout this specification, the word "comprise" or "include", or variations thereof such as "comprises", "includes", "comprising" or "including" will be understood to imply the inclusion of a stated element, integer or step, or group of elements integers or steps, but not the exclusion of any other element, integer or step, or group of elements, integers or steps, that is to say, in the sense of "including, but not limited to".

It will be understood by those with skill in the art that if a specific number of an introduced claim element is intended, such intent will be explicitly recited in the claim, and in the absence of such recitation no such limitation is present. For non-limiting example, as an aid to understanding, the following appended claims contain usage of the introductory phrases "at least one" and "one or more" to introduce claim elements. However, the use of such phrases should not be construed to imply that the introduction of a claim element by the indefinite articles "a" or "an" limits any particular claim containing such introduced claim element to disclosures containing only one such element, even when the same claim includes the introductory phrases "one or more" or "at least one" and indefinite articles such as "a" or "an"; the same holds true for the use in the claims of definite articles.

Claims

1. A business application aggregation system, the system including: at least one processor; and a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith and executable by the at least one processor, the computer readable program code including: computer readable program code that interfaces with at least two applications, at least one of the applications being a business application utilised by a user of the business application aggregation system, each application having associated application specific data; computer readable program code that determines at least one business insight for the user based on at least the application specific data; and computer readable program code that determines at least one available action associated with the determined business insight.

2. The business application aggregation system of claim 1, wherein the applications include at least two business applications, each business application having associated application specific data and at least one action; and wherein the at least one available action is selected from a pool of actions including at least the action of each of the business applications.

3. The business application aggregation system of claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the applications include at least two business applications and determination of the business insight is based on the application specific data of at least two of the business applications.

4. The business application aggregation system of claim 1 or claim 2, wherein determination of the business insight is based on the application specific data of a single business application.

5. The business application aggregation system of any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein determined business insights are attributed a hieratical value for presentation to the user.

6. The business application aggregation system of claim 5, wherein the determined business insights are ranked based on one or more of: estimated time required to perform an associated action, and projected savings in performing an associated action.

7. The business application aggregation system of any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein one or more of the determined business insights are delivered automatically to a user's device.

8. The business application aggregation system of any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the system includes computer readable code that automatically performs an available action based on predetermined user criteria.

9. The business application aggregation system of any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the system includes computer readable code that presents the at least one available action to the user for selection, on receipt of which the action is performed.

10. The business application aggregation system of claim 9, wherein presentation of the available action includes one of: presenting the available action to the user on receiving a selection of a notification of a business insight, and presenting the available action to the user concurrently with presentation of the business insight.

11. The business application aggregation system of any one of claims 1 to 10, wherein the system includes computer readable code that performs the available action directly within an aggregated user interface of the system.

12. The business application aggregation system of any one of claims 1 to 11, wherein the system includes computer readable code that opens an application associated with the available action in order to perform the available action.

13. The business application aggregation system of any one of claims 1 to 12, wherein the system includes computer readable code providing an aggregated user interface by which the user may access one or more of at least: the application specific data, functions of the business applications, the business insights, and the at least one available action.

14. The business application aggregation system of claim 13, wherein the system is configured to deliver notifications from each business application via the aggregated user interface, the notifications including one or more of: notifications standard to the business application but conveyed via the aggregated user interface, and notifications of determination of a business insight.

15. The business application aggregation system of claim 14, wherein the aggregated user interface is configured to allow the user to designate individual business insights for later viewing.

16. The business application aggregation system of any one of claims 13 to 15, wherein the system is configured to perform the at least one available action directly within the aggregated user interface.

17. The business application aggregation system of any one of claims 13 to 15, wherein the system is configured to open an application associated with the at least one available action.

18. The business application aggregation system of any one of claims 1 to 17, wherein each business application is configured to perform one or more business functions, including: accounting, inventory or stock management, staff management, payment management, customer relations management, benchmarking, banking, finance, marketing, insurance, website analytics, social media, point of sale, customer satisfaction and/or engagement, event management, collaboration, logistics, project management, workflow, productivity, and communication.

19. The business application aggregation system of any one of claims 1 to 18, wherein the at least two applications include one or more of: a weather application providing predicted or actual weather data, a traffic monitoring application providing projected or actual data regarding characteristics of traffic in a locality, an event promotion application providing data regarding events in a locality, stock market monitoring applications.

20. The business application aggregation system of any one of claims 1 to 19, wherein the determination of the at least one business insight is based in part on data obtained from one or more data sources, including: a news data source, a regulatory data source, a tax data source, a levy data source, a statistics data source, and a business information data source.

21. The business application aggregation system of any one of claims 1 to 20, wherein the determination of the at least one business insight includes: interfacing with a first business application to obtain data regarding sales activity; interfacing with a second business application to obtain data regarding staffing; and comparing the sales activity data with the staffing data to identify a potential staffing issue within a particular sales period.

22. The business application aggregation system of claim 21, wherein the determined available actions include one or more of: opening a staff management interface to manage staffing during the sales period, opening the second business application, and delivery of data regarding sales in that period to the user.

23. The business application aggregation system of any one of claims 1 to 22, wherein the determination of the at least one business insight includes: interfacing with a first application to obtain data regarding predicted weather conditions; interfacing with a second business application to obtain data regarding historic sales during the predicted weather conditions; and comparing the weather condition data with the historic sales data to predict future sales activity.

24. The business application aggregation system of claim 23, wherein the determined available actions include one or more of: opening an ordering interface for ordering product associated with the predicted future sales activity, delivery of data regarding staffing during the predicted weather conditions to the user, opening a staff management interface to manage staffing for the predicted future sales activity, and delivery of data regarding sales in the predicted weather conditions to the user.

25. The business application aggregation system of any one of claims 1 to 24, wherein the determination of the at least one business insight includes: interfacing with a first business application to obtain data regarding sales activity; analyzing the sales activity data to identify trends in sales activity relative to time of day, and determining a likelihood of increased profitability from changing open hours on at least one particular day.

26. The business application aggregation system of claim 25, wherein the determined available actions include one or more of: delivery of data regarding staff availability to the user, opening a staff management interface to manage staffing for the change in open hours, and delivery of data regarding sales on the at least one particular day to the user.

27. The business application aggregation system of any one of claims 1 to 26, wherein the determination of the at least one business insight includes: obtaining data regarding a change in cost of a product; obtaining data regarding sales activity of the product; comparing the sales activity data with the change in cost data to determining that a sale price of the product should be reviewed.

28. The business application aggregation system of claim 27, wherein the determined available actions include one or more of: delivery of data regarding the product to the user, delivery of data regarding a supplier of the product to the user, opening a communications interface to contact the supplier.

29. The business application aggregation system of any one of claims 1 to 28, wherein the determination of the at least one business insight includes: interfacing with a first business application to obtain data regarding invoices owing; interfacing with a second business application to obtain data regarding available cash; and comparing the invoice owing data with the available cash data to determine that a total value of invoices due to be paid is greater than the available cash.

30. The business application aggregation system of claim 29, wherein the determined available actions include one or more of: opening a communications interface to contact financial institution regarding an application for credit, delivery of data regarding the invoices owing to the user, delivery of data regarding outstanding customer invoices to the user, and opening a communications interface to seek payment of the outstanding customer invoices.

31. The business application aggregation system of any one of claims 1 to 30, wherein the determination of the at least one business insight includes: interfacing with a first business application to obtain data regarding a transaction on a payment card; interfacing with a second business application to obtain data regarding user conditions for a payment card; comparing the transaction data with the user conditions data to determine that a value of the transaction exceeds a transaction limit of the payment card.

32. The business application aggregation system of claim 31, wherein the determined available actions include one or more of: opening a communications interface to contact an individual associated with the payment card, opening a payment card management interface to adjust the user conditions for the payment card, and opening a request interface for submitting a request to extend the transaction limit to a financial institution associated with the payment card.

33. A method, the method including: utilizing at least one processor to execute computer code that performs the steps of: interfacing with at least two applications, at least one of the applications being a business application utilised by a user of a business application aggregation system, each application having associated application specific data; determining at least one business insight for the user based on the application specific data; and determining at least one available action associated with the determined business insight.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein the applications include at least two business applications, each business application having associated application specific data and at least one action; and wherein determining the at least one available action includes selecting the at least one available action from a pool of actions including at least the action of each of the business applications.

35. The method of claim 33 or claim 34, wherein the applications include at least two business applications and determining the business insight is based on the application specific data of at least two of the business applications.

36. The method of claim 33 or claim 34, wherein determining of the business insight is based on the application specific data of a single business application.

37. The method of any one of claims 33 to 36, including attributing a hieratical value to determined business insights for presentation to the user.

38. The method of claim 37, including ranking the determined business insights based on one or more of: estimated time required to perform an associated action, and projected savings in performing an associated action.

39. The method of any one of claims 33 to 38, including automatically delivering one or more of the determined business insights to a user's device.

40. The method of any one of claims 33 to 39, including automatically performing an available action based on predetermined user criteria.

41. The method of any one of claims 33 to 40, including presenting the at least one available action to the user for selection, and performing the action on receipt of a selection of the at least one available action.

42. The method of claim 41, wherein presenting the available action includes one of: presenting the available action to the user on receiving a selection of a notification of a business insight, and presenting the available action to the user concurrently with presentation of the business insight.

43. The method of any one of claims 33 to 42, including performing the available action directly within an aggregated user interface of the system.

44. The method of any one of claims 33 to 43, including opening an application associated with the available action in order to perform the available action.

45. The method of any one of claims 33 to 44, including providing an aggregated user interface by which the user may access one or more of at least: the application specific data, functions of the business applications, the business insights, and the at least one available action.

46. The method of claim 45, including delivering notifications from each business application via the aggregated user interface, the notifications including one or more of: notifications standard to the business application but conveyed via the aggregated user interface, and notifications of determination of a business insight.

47. The method of claim 46, including receiving designation of individual business insights for later viewing by the user via the aggregated user interface.

48. The method of any one of claims 45 to 47, including performing the at least one available action directly within the aggregated user interface.

49. The method of any one of claims 45 to 47, including opening an application associated with the at least one available action.

50. The method of any one of claims 33 to 49, wherein each business application is configured to perform one or more business functions, including: accounting, inventory or stock management, staff management, payment management, customer relations management, benchmarking, banking, finance, marketing, insurance, website analytics, social media, point of sale, customer satisfaction and/or engagement, event management, collaboration, logistics, project management, workflow, productivity, and communication.

51. The method of any one of claims 33 to 50, wherein the at least two applications include one or more of: a weather application providing predicted or actual weather data, a traffic monitoring application providing projected or actual data regarding characteristics of traffic in a locality, an event promotion application providing data regarding events in a locality, stock market monitoring applications.

52. The method of any one of claims 33 to 51, wherein determining the at least one business insight is based in part on data obtained from one or more data sources, including: a news data source, a regulatory data source, a tax data source, a levy data source, a statistics data source, and a business information data source.

53. The method of any one of claims 33 to 52, wherein determining the at least one business insight includes: interfacing with a first business application to obtain data regarding sales activity; interfacing with a second business application to obtain data regarding staffing; and comparing the sales activity data with the staffing data to identify a potential staffing issue within a particular sales period.

54. The method of claim 53, wherein the determined available actions include one or more of: opening a staff management interface to manage staffing during the sales period, opening the second business application, and delivery of data regarding sales in that period to the user.

55. The method of any one of claims 33 to 54, wherein determining the at least one business insight includes: interfacing with a first application to obtain data regarding predicted weather conditions; interfacing with a second business application to obtain data regarding historic sales during the predicted weather conditions; and comparing the weather condition data with the historic sales data to predict future sales activity.

56. The method of claim 55, wherein the determined available actions include one or more of: opening an ordering interface for ordering product associated with the predicted future sales activity, delivery of data regarding staffing during the predicted weather conditions to the user, opening a staff management interface to manage staffing for the predicted future sales activity, and delivery of data regarding sales in the predicted weather conditions to the user.

57. The method of any one of claims 33 to 56, wherein determining the at least one business insight includes: interfacing with a first business application to obtain data regarding sales activity; analyzing the sales activity data to identify trends in sales activity relative to time of day, and determining a likelihood of increased profitability from changing open hours on at least one particular day.

58. The method of claim 57, wherein the determined available actions include one or more of: delivery of data regarding staff availability to the user, opening a staff management interface to manage staffing for the change in open hours, and delivery of data regarding sales on the at least one particular day to the user.

59. The method of any one of claims 33 to 58, wherein determining the at least one business insight includes: obtaining data regarding a change in cost of a product; obtaining data regarding sales activity of the product; comparing the sales activity data with the change in cost data to determining that a sale price of the product should be reviewed.

60. The method of claim 59, wherein the determined available actions include one or more of: delivery of data regarding the product to the user, delivery of data regarding a supplier of the product to the user, opening a communications interface to contact the supplier.

61. The method of any one of claims 33 to 60, wherein determining the at least one business insight includes: interfacing with a first business application to obtain data regarding invoices owing; interfacing with a second business application to obtain data regarding available cash; and comparing the invoice owing data with the available cash data to determine that a total value of invoices due to be paid is greater than the available cash.

62. The method of claim 61, wherein the determined available actions include one or more of: opening a communications interface to contact financial institution regarding an application for credit, delivery of data regarding the invoices owing to the user, delivery of data regarding outstanding customer invoices to the user, and opening a communications interface to seek payment of the outstanding customer invoices.

63. The method of any one of claims 33 to 62, wherein determining the at least one business insight includes: interfacing with a first business application to obtain data regarding a transaction on a payment card; interfacing with a second business application to obtain data regarding user conditions for a payment card; comparing the transaction data with the user conditions data to determine that a value of the transaction exceeds a transaction limit of the payment card.

64. The method of claim 63, wherein the determined available actions include one or more of: opening a communications interface to contact an individual associated with the payment card, opening a payment card management interface to adjust the user conditions for the payment card, and opening a request interface for submitting a request to extend the transaction limit to a financial institution associated with the payment card.

65. A computer program product stored in a computer readable storage medium, comprising computer program code that, when executed by at least one processor, causes the processor to perform a method as claimed in any one of claims 33 to 64.