Siebel Systems, Inc.

Anthony Deighton

Dougal Brindley

Ken Wells

Mitchell Kreaden

Mark Sunday

Mingte Chen

Wister Walcott

Yu Cheng Weng

Prasad Gune

Richard Kuo

Juergen Habichler

Issac Lau

Isaac Lau

A facility for screening service requests for requesting assistance is described. The facility receives from a user a service request that requests assistance with solving a problem associated with a system accessible to the user and includes information related to the system. The facility searches a collection of system status information for at least one entry that corresponds with the received information related to the system. Where a corresponding entry is found, the facility provides to the user an indication of the correspondence and an opportunity to cancel the service request.

Screening electronic service requests

A method, system, and computer-readable medium for using competency-related information for individuals to provide a variety of benefits is described. In some situations, competency-related information is used to assist members of an organization in managing future career paths within the organization. An organization member can specify a starting position type and a target future position type, and one or more possible career paths leading from the starting position type to the target future position type (possibly through one or more intermediate position types) are identified. Competency gaps for the member relative to the position types along the career path can be identified, and actions to reduce those competency gaps can be identified for possible inclusion in a future action plan for the member.

Managing future career paths

A method, system, and computer-readable medium for using competency-related information for individuals to provide a variety of benefits is described. In some situations, individuals may propose self-assessments of competencies that they believe that they possess, such as specified skill levels of specified skills. Various techniques to independently approve proposed self-assessed competencies can be provided, such as by defining groups of appropriate reviewers (e.g., supervisors, peers and/or subordinates) for self-assessed competencies and by automatically retrieving and processing validation information from such reviewers upon receipt of a competency self-assessment in order to determine whether to approve the self-assessed competency. Various approval criteria for a proposed competency self-assessment can also be specified, such as agreement of a majority of reviewers, unanimous validation by some or all of the specified reviewers, and/or a threshold for a weighted average of reviewers' assessed skill levels for the proposing individual.

Competency self-assessment approval

A facility for presenting approval requests is described. The facility simultaneously displays information describing both a first approval request and a second approval request, where the first approval request is generated using a first application program, and the second approval request is generated using a second application program that is distinct from the first application program.

User interface for processing requests for approval

A facility for defining a process for approving requests for approval of a selected type is described. The facility displays a palette containing visual representations of each of a plurality of approval process elements. The facility then receives a number of user input instances, each user input instance dragging one of the visual representations into a selected location in a workspace, so as to form an arrangement of approval process elements. The facility then stores a process definition corresponding to the formed arrangement of approval process elements.

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San Francisco, CA, United States of America

Anthony Deighton