Method and apparatus for identifying available work stations

摘要

A processing device of an information processing system is configured to automatically determine availability status for multiple work stations of an enterprise by monitoring information technology resources associated with respective ones of the work stations. The processing device is further configured to generate availability indicators for the respective work stations based on the determined availability status, and to provide the availability indicators for presentation to one or more users. For example, the processing device may be configured to automatically determine availability status of the work stations by monitoring network ports associated with respective ones of the work stations, with a given one of the work stations being considered unavailable if the corresponding network port is in use and otherwise being considered available. The processing device may deliver the availability indicators to a client application running on a user device in order to facilitate user selection of an available work station.

主权项

1. A method comprising the steps of:
automatically determining availability status of a plurality of work stations of an enterprise by monitoring information technology resources associated with respective ones of the work stations; generating availability indicators for the respective work stations based on the determined availability status; and providing the availability indicators for presentation to one or more users; wherein automatically determining availability status comprises: monitoring one or more network ports for each of the work stations; monitoring output of a wireless user locator system to determine if users are accessing at least one wireless network from locations corresponding to respective ones of the work stations; and if it is determined that the one or more network ports of a given one of the work stations each have a level of activity below a specified minimum threshold level of activity, and that no user is accessing the wireless network from the location corresponding to the given work station, identifying the given work station as available, such that availability status for the given work station is determined as a function of both network port activity at that location and wireless network activity at that location; wherein the steps are performed by at least one processing device comprising a processor coupled to a memory.