Abstract: A telescoping antenna is disclosed having a plurality of telescoping hollow elements, including an inner-most hollow element. A button latches onto the top of the inner-most element. The inner-most element also includes a tab for preventing its full retraction into the other hollow elements. A wire antenna element is connected to the button, extends through the hollow elements, and is operably connected to a retracting mechanism. The button can be detached from the hollow elements in order to extend the wire antenna elements from out of the hollow elements. The wire antenna element is electrically connected to the receiver circuit such that the wire can act as a long-wire antenna of a calculable radio frequency (RF) resonance when extracted to a particular length.

Abstract: A system (10) for transforming custom content generation tags (62) includes a web server (20) that receives a request (18) from a web browser (12). The request (18) identifies a file (24) that includes one or more custom content generation tags (62) that the web browser (12) is unable to interpret. The system (10) also includes a transformation engine (34) that receives the custom content generation tags (62) from the web server (20) and transforms the tags (62) into first output that the web browser (12) is able to interpret. The transformation engine (34) communicates the first output to the web server (20) and the web server (20) communicates the first output to the web browser (12) in response to the request (18).

Abstract: A software system is provided for managing available to promise (ATP) and making promises to fulfill customer requests. The software system includes a plurality of generic product models (600) each representing a generic product. Each generic product model (600) specifies one component of a plurality of possible components. A plurality of specific product models (602) each represent a specific product and each specify all components of the specific product. Each component specified by each specific product model (602) is specified by one of the generic product models (600) such that each specific product model (602) is related to a subset of the generic product models (600). A customer request matching a specific product then can be fulfilled by available-to-promise of the specific product or by available-to-promise of all related generic products. In addition, an organization in a seller hierarchy can retain product and designate first-come-first-served product.

Abstract: A system and method for handling work items creates a work item object for each work item entered into the system. Each object maintains information regarding its state, and its type. Work items are maintained in queues, and each work item contains information identifying the queue it is in. Business processes, which may be controlled by people or automated modules, take items from queues, and perform actions on them. Actions modify the state of an item, and can alter its data. An item persists until the work it represents is completed.

Abstract: A system (10) for enabling remote monitoring and management of one or more applications (42) within a domain (30) includes one or more computers (40) that execute one or more applications (42) being monitored and managed. The system (10) also includes a firewall (50) that limits access to the applications (42). The system (10) further includes an application management layer (70) within the domain (30) that includes one or more agents (72) that each monitor applications (42) and that generate notifications in response to the occurrence of events associated with the applications (42). The system (10) also includes a communication layer (60) within the domain (30) that retrieves and communicates the notifications to a monitoring and management portal (20) using a communication protocol providing access through the firewall (50). The communication layer (60) may also receive a command for a particular application (42) and communicate the command to an agent (72) associated with the application (42).

Abstract: A bill of materials (BOM) sourcing system includes one or more data storage locations that store BOM sourcing criteria. The system also includes a sourcing engine that receives a BOM that includes a plurality of part identifiers. The sourcing engine identifies one or more part identifiers included in the BOM and searches supplier data to obtain pricing information associated with the identified parts. Furthermore, the sourcing engine receives sourcing criteria and determines which supplier should be used to supply each identified part based on the pricing information and the sourcing criteria. In addition, the system includes a transaction execution module that receives from the sourcing engine a part identifier for each identified part and the identity of the supplier to be used to supply each identified part. The transaction execution module generates one or more transaction documents based on this information and communicates the one or more transaction documents to the associated suppliers.

Abstract: A method for synchronizing planning information in a high availability planning and scheduling architecture includes processing requests from one or more external systems (40) using an advanced planning and scheduling (APS) engine (22) included in a first primary high availability (HA) system (20a). The processing of requests includes modifying planning information stored in memory of the first primary HA system (20a) according to the requests. The method also includes storing change information reflecting the modifications to the planning information in a database (64) and extracting the change information from the database (64) at an extraction time. Furthermore, the method includes updating the planning information using the extracted change information and storing the updated planning information in memory of a second primary HA system (20a?).

Abstract: A default selection to be presented to a user at configuration time is determined at the time a selection list is presented to the user. A desired function, such as profit maximization or price minimization, is applied against each of the available selections. The selection which thus meets the function's criteria is designated as the default selection, and presented to the user as such. The user may, of course, select any item on the list, but accepting the default selection will tend to maximize desirability of the final product in accordance with the criteria defined by the manufacturer. In accordance with an aspect of the invention, the criteria to be used in choosing default selections may itself be defined at run-time, so that different default selections will be presented to, for example, different users.

Abstract: A computer implemented process for enterprise collaboration is provided. The process includes storing a set of predefined functions for a work flow to be performed at a plurality of distributed nodes. The process automatically interacts with the work flow at each of the distributed nodes to perform the predefined functions.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a method for automatically identifying a program error in a computer program includes receiving a program error message indicating that a new program error has occurred during execution of the program and generating a program stack trace for the new program error indicating the source of the new program error within the program. A first operation is applied to a portion of the program stack trace to generate a first numerical code associated with the new program error. The first numerical code associated with the new program error is compared to one or more stored first numerical codes associated with previously identified program errors to determine whether the new program error is the same as a previously identified program error. If so, stored information associated with resolving the previously identified program error is provided for use in resolving the new program error.

Abstract: A computer-implemented system for graphical design and automatic generation of supply chain collaboration services capable of understanding supply chain semantics includes a collaboration service designer and a collaboration service generator. The collaboration service designer provides a graphical user interface (GUI), solicits from a user, using the GUI, information regarding the design for the supply chain collaboration service in a sequence of design steps, receives from the user, using the GUI, the solicited information, and generates a file based on the received information that contains a meta-model for the supply chain collaboration service. The collaboration service generator accesses the file containing the meta-model for the supply chain collaboration service. The collaboration service generator, using the meta-model, automatically generates the supply chain collaboration service, which is capable of understanding of supply chain semantics for an underlying supply chain.

Abstract: Within each iteration of an iterative process: (1) a low-pass filter is applied to an actual sales volumes series to extract low frequency components representing a base sales volume series for the iteration; and (2) a locally optimal base sales volume series is determined. A globally optimal base sales volume series is selected from among the locally optimal base sales volume series, comprising an estimated base sales volume for each time period. One or more of the estimated base sales volumes is made available for use in connection with at least one business analysis.

Abstract: A high availability planning and scheduling system includes a number of high availability (HA) systems (20) that are coupled to one or more external systems (40) using a message bus (50). Each HA system (20) includes an HA server (24) that receives and queues requests received from the external systems (40). Each HA system (20) also includes an advanced planning and scheduling (APS) engine (22) that receives a request from the HA server (24) and processes the request using planning information stored in memory of the HA system (20). Furthermore, the APS engine (22) also modifies the planning information according to the processing of the request and generates a response to the external system (40) from which the request originated. The high availability planning and scheduling system further includes a message manager (54) that directs each request received from the external systems (40) to an appropriate HA system (20) using the message bus (50).

Abstract: A security system for a computer system provides one or more security domains. Access to assets registered to the security system is controlled by rights and privileges. Rights are derived from roles, and each user is assigned one or more roles. Privileges are attached to assets, and an appropriate combination of rights and privileges is required before a user is granted the specified type of access to the asset.

Abstract: A computer-implemented method for mapping between part numbers that are based on different part numbering schemes includes receiving a first part number associated with an item, the first part number associated with the item being defined according to a first part numbering scheme. A database is searched for one or more second part numbers that are associated with the item and also cross-referenced to the first part number associated with the item, the one or more second part numbers associated with the item being defined according to one or more corresponding second part numbering schemes.

Abstract: A computer-implemented method for routing shipments according to criticality includes accessing an initial solution to an optimization problem of routing multiple shipments to multiple locations using multiple vehicles, the initial solution including multiple loads such that each shipment is routed within exactly one load and a global cost across all loads is minimized, the initial solution being generated independent of the criticality of the shipments. Into each of one or more critical loads in a current solution, one or more non-critical shipments are inserted that are within a neighborhood of the critical load, a critical load being a load containing at least one critical shipment.