Paul M Ulrich

6895438, May 17, 2005

Sep 6, 2000

09/655681

Paul C. Ulrich - Edgewater NJ, US

G06F015/16

709227, 709219, 709232, 707 1, 707 3, 707 6, 705 9, 704201, 704503, 455 661, 4551861, 455566, 370521, 370522, 370535, 345716

A proxy-server system () connected preferably to a computer-telephone system () intercepts, processes, and analyzes as traffic-analysis results (A-C) all forms of real- and non-real-time electronic communication passing over the network in the form of raw traffic data (). The proxy-server system normalizes each communication into the measure of time needed by recipient(s) of the communication to understand the information contained therein. Once normalized, the data may be aggregated into summary reports (A-C). As part of the analysis, the aggregated communication records are compared with user-defined rules to provide alerts if the individual or aggregated durations exceed boundaries set by the rules. In one embodiment, the summary reports may be integrated with general-ledger data () and other raw business data () via a relational database () to derive more accurate records of activity-based-costing information (). Additionally, the data of the summary reports may be visualized in two- or three-dimensional representations of communication-flow patterns to illustrate in an intuitive and semantically scalable manner the desired level of detail for time and time-based expense consumed by the electronic interactions of an individual or organization.