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US 2003/0191758 A1Published application
Configuration utility
AssigneeBellSouth Intellectual Property Corporation
InventorsEdward Kennedy Majewski, Donna B. Malone
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AssigneeBellSouth Intellectual Property Corporation
InventorsEdward Kennedy Majewski, Donna B. Malone
Estimating the term…
As part of electronically handling a large amount of data (e.g., error messages) generated within, for example, a telephone service provider's billing network, a configuration utility software allows a user to electronically change or update various configuration parameters for another software application, e.g., a loader application, and also to access the performance data generated by the loader application so as to optimize the performance of the loader application in varying data transfer situations. The loader application, in turn, is a computer-based data transfer application that electronically loads a large volume of data, e.g., telecommunication billing data, from one computer into another computer. The loader application thus substantially reduces human involvement during transfers of large amount of data, and thereby also reduces errors typically associated with manual data entries by human data operators. After completion of data transfers, an error handler program facilitates electronic investigation and disposal of errors in the received data, thereby minimizing participation of human operators in the data error rectification process. The reduced reliance on manual identification and correction of data errors thus results in increased accuracy and efficiency in the overall network data management and customer billing operations.
A method of changing values of one or more configuration parameters in a configuration file for a software application residing on a first computer, said method comprising:
A method of reviewing process status values for a software application residing on a first computer, said method comprising:
A telephone caller account management system comprising:
In a telephone caller account management system comprising:
The method as in claim 17, further comprising configuring said processor to save the initialization file with said one or more replacement values in said memory.
A configuration utility software for changing values of one or more configuration parameters in a configuration file for a computer program residing on a computer system, wherein the configuration utility software, when executed by said computer system, causes the computer system to:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.
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Arrangements for metering, time-control or time indication ; Metering, charging or billing arrangements for voice wireline or wireless…:…
Automatic or semi-automatic exchanges: arrangements for supervision, monitoring or testing
Arrangements for supervision, monitoring or testing: call detail recording
Arrangements for metering, time-control or time indication
Term end not estimated
(Not Applicable)
(Not Applicable)
1. Field of the Invention
Further advantages of the present invention may be better understood by referring to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
FIG. 1 illustrates a prior art scheme to transfer data from a mainframe computer system in a telephone service provider's regional service center to a central database in a central processing facility. FIG. 1 further shows how error messages are handled by service personnel of the telephone service provider;
FIG. 2 outlines the steps involved when an operator manually enters data from data printouts into a database using a workstation;
FIG. 3 depicts an exemplary relationship between the software applications of the present invention. The configuration utility according to the present invention is a software application that, when executed, configures one or more parameters used by the loader application as shown at block 52. The loader application, in turn, is a software program that loads one or more data files (e.g., case data files as described hereinbelow in more detail) from a mainframe computer system into a local server as shown at block 54. Finally, as shown at block 56, an error handler program operates on the data loaded by the loader application to investigate and dispose of pre-identified data sets containing error data, e.g., cases of error messages.
Although the discussion given hereinbelow focuses on data transfer and data error handling using the above mentioned three software applications in a telephone service provider's (TSP) telecommunication service billing and/or accounting systems, it is noted that these software applications (described hereinbelow in more detail) may be used in a variety of data transfer and data error correction applications, and in a number of industries where the handling of a large amount of data is required with minimal human intervention. Such data include, for example, the insurance billing data (including data files of client profiles), the data generated in the publishing industry or in a media organization (e.g., daily news archives maintained by a television network), the data generated in the medical profession (e.g., patient medical history files, patient billing data, etc.), etc.
FIG. 4 shows the locations of various software applications and the databases used by these software applications. As depicted in FIG. 4, the three software applications, i.e., the configuration utility (CU) 58, the loader application (LA) 60 and the error handler program (EHP) 62, may reside in a memory (not shown) in the workstation 34 for the operator or ASP 29. Alternatively, one or more of these software applications may be stored on an external storage device (not shown), e.g., a compact disc (CD) ROM (read only memory) or a high-density magnetic storage medium (e.g., a floppy disk or a data cartridge) and may then be loaded into the workstation's 34 memory during execution thereof.