Incident Management for Automated Teller Machines

Abstract

A computer system monitors a financial transaction system that contains a plurality of remote transaction machines, e.g., automated teller machines (ATMs). The computer system detects and analyzes whether any of the automated teller machines has an outage, whereby customers may be experiencing failed financial transactions. When an outage occurs, a severity level is selected by processing outage data. For example, the computer system determines a measure of the number of failed transactions and then selects a severity level of the outage from which the appropriate recovery procedure can then be initiated. When the transaction system comprises a plurality of networks, the severity level of an outage may be determined by aggregating or separately processing outage data for the networks. Outage ATMs may be prioritized from the number of corresponding failed transactions, so that the prioritization can be included in an indicator that initiates resolution of the outage.

1 . A computer-assisted method for assessing a status of a transaction system, the transaction system including a plurality of automated teller machines (ATMs), the method comprising:
 obtaining, by a processor, an outage status for each of the plurality of automated teller machines from a first data structure stored by a first memory device, wherein the processor interacts with the plurality of automated teller machines through at least one network;   determining, by the processor, a measure of failed financial transactions for the transaction system from the outage status;   accessing, by the processor, information about a first and second set of criteria from a second data structure stored by a second memory device, wherein the first set of criteria specifies an unplanned outage and the second set of criteria specifies a planned outage of the transaction system, respectively;   when the unplanned outage within the transaction system occurs, selecting, by the processor, a severity level for the transaction system based on the first set of criteria for the measure of failed financial transactions; and   when the planned outage within the transaction system occurs, selecting, by the processor, the severity level based on the second set of criteria for the measure, wherein the first set and the second set of criteria are different.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the outage status is indicative of a communication outage between at least one of the plurality of automated teller machines and the processor. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the severity level is based on planned operations for the transaction system. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 updating the transaction system within a time duration only when the severity level has a predetermined value.   
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the transaction system spans a plurality of networks, each network providing communications with a different subset of the plurality of automated teller machines and is supported by a different vendor. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , further comprising:
 restricting the obtaining, the determining, and the selecting to one of the plurality of networks.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 5 , further comprising:
 aggregating the measure of failed financial transactions for the plurality of networks.   
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the determining comprises:
 accessing a transaction statistic for one of the plurality of automated teller machines;   repeating the accessing for a different automated teller machine; and   determining the measure of the failed financial transactions from the accessed statistics.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 revising the measure for a different time duration; and   updating the severity level from the revised measure.   
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the selecting is further based on a number of outage automated teller machines. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 rank ordering the outage automated teller machines according to the measure of failed financial transactions for a corresponding automated teller machine.   
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 generating, by the processor, an indicator, the indicator indicative of a request to correct an outage of the at least one network.   
     
     
         13 . An apparatus comprising:
 at least one memory; and   at least one processor coupled to the at least one memory and configured to perform, based on instructions stored in the at least one memory:   identifying an outage automated teller machine in transaction system, the transaction system having a plurality of automated teller machines, the apparatus interacting with the plurality of automated teller machines through a network;   accessing a transaction statistic for the outage automated teller machine;   obtaining a measure of failed financial transactions for the transaction system from the transaction statistic;   when an unplanned outage within the transaction system occurs, determining a severity level for the transaction system based on a first set of criteria for the measure of failed financial transactions; and.   when a planned outage within the transaction system occurs, determining the severity level based on a second set of criteria for the measure, wherein the first set and the second set of criteria are different.   
     
     
         14 . The apparatus of  claim 13 , wherein the determining includes further considering a number of outage automated teller machines. 
     
     
         15 . The apparatus of  claim 13 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to perform:
 generating an indicator, the indicator indicative of a request to correct an outage of the network.   
     
     
         16 . The apparatus of  claim 15 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to perform:
 rank ordering the outage automated teller machines based on the measure of failed financial transactions; and   including the rank ordering in the indicator.   
     
     
         17 . The apparatus of  claim 13 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to perform:
 revising the measure for a different time duration; and   updating the severity level from the revised measure.   
     
     
         18 . A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause a processor at least to perform operations comprising:
 obtaining, by a processor, an outage status for each of the plurality of automated teller machines, wherein the processor interacts with the plurality of automated teller machines through at least one network of a transaction system;   accessing a transaction statistic for an outage automated teller machine;   repeating the accessing for all other outage automated teller machines;   determining a measure of the failed financial transactions from the accessed statistics;   when an unplanned outage within the transaction system occurs, selecting a severity level for the transaction system based on a first set of criteria for the measure of failed financial transactions; and   when a planned outage within the transaction system occurs, selecting the severity level based on a second set of criteria for the measure, wherein the first set and the second set of criteria are different.   
     
     
         19 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of  claim 18 , wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed, cause the processor to perform:
 revising the measure for a different time duration; and   updating the severity level from the revised measure.   
     
     
         20 . A computer-assisted method for assessing a status of a transaction system, the transaction system including a plurality of automated teller machines (ATMs), the transaction system spanning a plurality of geographical regions, the plurality of geographical regions including a first geographical region and a second geographical region, the method comprising:
 obtaining, by a processor, outage data outage criteria for the transaction system, wherein the outage criteria is dependent on different geographical regions in the transaction system;   determining, by the processor, a first severity level for the first geographical region based on a first criteria for an outage in the transaction system, wherein the first geographical region comprises a first subset of the plurality of ATMs;   determining, by the processor, a second severity level for the second geographical region based on a second criteria for the outage, wherein the first criteria and the second criteria are different;   prioritizing, by the processor, the plurality of geographical regions of the transaction system based on the outage data, the prioritization indicative of an ordering for correcting an outage of a corresponding region of the transaction system; and   generating, by the processor, an indication that includes information indicative of the prioritization.   
     
     
         21 . (canceled) 
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 20 , wherein the prioritizing comprises:
 determining a measure of failed customer transactions for each geographical region of the transaction system; and   rank ordering the plurality of geographical regions based on the corresponding measures.   
     
     
         23 . The method of  claim 20 , wherein the rank ordering is further based on a location of each geographical region of the transaction system. 
     
     
         24 . (canceled) 
     
     
         25 . The method of  claim 20  further comprising:
 determining a combined severity level for the plurality of geographical regions based on a third criterion for the outage, wherein the third criterion is different from the first and second criteria.