Patent Application
20060095476
The present invention relates to methods and systems for synchronizing e-mail communications among multiple applications in a computer system. In particular, it relates to methods and systems for providing one to one e-mail collaboration among multiple users working on related tasks using discrete software applications.
As enterprises continue to grow in size and complexity, they have attempted to bring their business processes close with those of their customers, suppliers, and other business partners to provide more efficient services and to preserve their competitiveness. One solution was to integrate business processes beyond enterprise boundaries and to provide collaborative business processes by sharing enterprise software applications that were deployed by organizations to implement business processes.
SAP's Customer Relationship Management (“CRM”) application is an example of such a shared enterprise software application. The CRM application provides collaborative business processes to support marketing, sales, and service of a product among multiple users. In particular, the CRM application supports multiple users working on related tasks, allows access to the same data, and helps its users coordinate and keep track of ongoing projects together. The heart of the CRM application or any other interlinked enterprise software applications is a messaging system. Electronic mail (e-mail) is used to notify users, to obtain responses, to send alerts, and to provide communication among all the multiple users. E-mail messages also may include links to databases, intranets, and the internet. Thus, the CRM system includes its own e-mail server with SMTP capability. Typically, clients and business partners communicate through their e-mail application (e.g., Microsoft's Outlook, Lotus Notes, among others) and the contents of these e-mails are processed and stored by centralized enterprise software applications. The CRM application also sends notifications and responses to the clients in electronic mail form. In this way, the users of the CRM application can provide flexible and reliable communication among all users and maintain relations between the company and its clients, business partners, and other interested parties.
Often, however, the clients or business partners' own e-mail applications are written in different programming languages and run in different runtime environments or on different platforms than the interlinked enterprise software application. Thus, inbound e-mails that are related to the CRM application might arrive in an existing e-mail application. Outbound e-mails that are related to the CRM application may also lose its contents when transmitted to the recipient's e-mail application if not compatible. To obtain synchronized e-mail logs in two applications, therefore, users are often required to store copies of redundant e-mails and data on multiple applications. For example, an operator may maintain the same e-mails and data on his/her e-mail application as well as the shared enterprise software applications such as the CRM application. To relieve operators from having to copy common e-mails/data multiple times for different applications, there is a need for a method and system that provides collaborative e-mail communication among multiple users.
Accordingly, the present inventors perceive these and other needs in the art.
Embodiments of the present invention provide a method and system for synchronizing inbound and outbound e-mail communications among multiple applications in a computer system. Embodiments described herein allow e-mails to be kept track in both the e-mail application and the enterprise software application without losing any email data. Throughout the following description, a CRM application is used as an example of an enterprise software application that may be shared among multiple users, and a groupware application is used as an example of an e-mail application. These examples have been used with the expectation that doing so makes it easier to explain the principles of the present invention to a lay audience. The principles of the present invention, however, are not so limited and may find application in with other enterprise applications that include dedicated e-mail support.
Conventionally, a CRM application executes application programs that permit an operator to manage marketing, sales and services activity with respect to its customers. Thus, the CRM application maintains various databases that: define business processes through which the operator manages such business operations, identify the operator's business partners and record business activities conducted with respect to each business partner. Various servers (e.g., 120-1, 120-2) may be dedicated to provide this functionality. Indeed, CRM applications may include an e-mail server (say, 120-2) that supports SMTP communication to permit the operators to exchange e-mail messages with its business partners. In this regard, the structure and operation of CRM applications are well known.
Computer systems also typically support additional applications such as the groupware applications identified above. To support groupware applications, the computer system 100 may include a second e-mail server that manages exchange of e-mail messages generated by operators via the groupware application. For example, an operator may compose an e-mail message via a groupware application and, when the message is ready to send, the operator's terminal may communicate with the groupware e-mail server to transmit the e-mail message to its destination, perhaps out of the computer system to another network via the Internet. In this regard, the structure and operation of groupware applications are well known.
Embodiments of the present invention introduce a management application to synchronize e-mails sent or received from one application with e-mail logs of another application. Thus, if the groupware application receives an e-mail from a business partner, the e-mail may be stored in communication records maintained by the CRM application. Similarly, if an operator composed and sends an e-mail via the CRM application, the e-mail may be copied to the e-mail records of the groupware application. In managing this synchronization, it is sufficient for the management application to copy an e-mail from one application to the other. No further oversight is required.
As is known to those skilled in the art, the CRM application documents an interaction with a client and/or business partner as an “activity”, which may be related to all aspects of the daily selling processes. An activity may include information sheet and record events (i.e., which operator has been in contact with a client or business partner), time of these events, and status of these activities. The activities may appear automatically in all employees' and business partners' CRM application and allow the CRM operators to be informed at all times. Thus, the method 200 may also create a link within an activity to one or more of the transferred e-mail that are related/relevant to that activity.
The groupware application may adapt different schemes to initiate the e-mail transfer based on its type. According to one embodiment, the groupware application may include a HyperText Marked-Up Language (“HTML”) page embedded therein via JavaScript and Application Programming Interface (“API”) (box 202). This scheme is particularly useful for groupware applications with ActiveX controls. The operator may set the HTML page to a CRM homepage and select e-mails in the groupware's inbox to be synchronized with e-mail logs in the CRM application. The transfer may then be initiated by allowing a JavaScript component to access the e-mail logs stored in the groupware application either at the operator's request, periodically or in a rule-based manner. Because ActiveX controls allow a Web-page to work like software launched from a server, the groupware application may then be able to open up its API and allow access to the groupware's e-mail logs including its contents, recipient(s), sender, and the like via JavaScript. ActiveX controls may be embedded into an HTML page simply by providing an HTML tag.
According to another embodiment, the groupware application may include a control button embedded therein via API (box 204). API may automatically invoke transfer function calls available on the system when the control button is pressed. Thus, the method 200 may select e-mails stored in the groupware to be transferred to the CRM application, and initiate the transfer by pressing the control button. This scheme is useful for both the groupware applications with ActiveX controls and the groupware applications without ActiveX controls. By adapting a control button, the method 200 allows the operator to choose when to initiate the transfer, rather than initiating on its own in a predetermined manner.
According to yet another embodiment, the method 200 may adapt a discrete browser with ActiveX controls. The browser may be different and discrete from the groupware application and serve as a front end to a CRM homepage on the Internet. The discrete browser may be opened periodically at predetermined intervals or at the operator's request (box 206). The groupware application may then export inbox summary data via API from its inbox to the discrete browser when the browser is open (box 208). The inbox summary may be replicas of all e-mails in the inbox since the last transfer, or it may only contain high-level e-mail data. The method 200 may then select e-mails from the discrete browser to be transferred to the CRM application and initiate the transfer. This scheme is particularly useful for those groupware applications that do not have the option to embed arbitrary HTML pages located on arbitrary resources.
Additionally, for groupware applications with ActiveX controls, the groupware application may prompt the operator to make additional assignments to the selected emails by providing one or more pop-up assignment windows. For example, the groupware application may prompt the operator to specify the business partners, the type of activities, or the type of information the email contains if the operator chooses to do so. In this way, the operator can link the emails to CRM activities without having to switch to the CRM application according to a particular business need.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the e-mails that are transferred may be marked as “transferred” in the groupware application. This allows the operator to keep track of all e-mails transferred from the groupware's inbox. Also, marking transferred e-mails may prevent duplicate transfers of the CRM related e-mails.
When the inbound e-mail process is completed, both the groupware application and the CRM application have a copy of the e-mail. Because both contain a copy, no further synchronization between the e-mail stored in the groupware application and that in the CRM application is needed.
When the operator chooses to send an e-mail (i.e., by pressing a “send” button), an e-mail is sent from the CRM application via Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (“SMTP”) to the CRM Mail Server (box 335). The sent e-mail is stored in the CRM e-mail database (box 340). Also, a CRM activity is automatically created using the e-mail data and is stored in the CRM activity database (box 345). The CRM activity is then linked to the sent e-mail (box 350) and also to all recipients including all business partners (box 355). For example, when the e-mail is linked to a CRM activity, the e-mail body may define its text, the e-mail subject may define the activity's description, the e-mail may define a linked document, and all e-mail recipients may define business partners. In this regard, the operation of the CRM system is well known.
Embodiments of the present invention export the CRM generated e-mail to the groupware application's e-mail logs. To support this process, the e-mail data is exported to an XML string using JavaScript and API (box 360). According to one embodiment of the present invention, the XML string may be defined similar to the Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension (“MIME”) specifications by the World Wide Web Consortium (“W3C”), and is, therefore, capable of handling complex e-mails. The XML data may then be parsed using JavaScript (box 365). Using the parsed data, JavaScript accesses the groupware application via its API (box 370) and creates a copy of the e-mail in the groupware's record of transmitted e-mails (box 375).
Again, when the outbound e-mail process is completed, both the groupware application and the CRM application have a copy of the e-mail. Because both contain a copy, no further synchronization between the e-mail stored in the groupware application and that in the CRM application is needed.
When the transfer button is pressed, a new window may come up to allow the operator to select which business process within the CRM application the transfer e-mail should be linked to.
When the BO assignment is made, a copy of the e-mail is transferred to the CRM application. Because both the groupware application and the CRM application contain a copy of the email, no further synchronization between these two applications is required. When the e-mail is received by the CRM application, a CRM activity is automatically created using the e-mail data. The CRM activity has a customized transaction type.
According to another embodiment of the present invention, the groupware application may use a discrete browser to transfer its e-mails when the groupware application does not have its own browser. In such an event, e-mails contained in the groupware application may be copied to the discrete browser via JavaScript and API either periodically at regular intervals or at the operator's request.
As described above, some embodiments of the present invention provide methods and systems for providing one-to-one e-mail collaboration between e-mails in the CRM application and those in a groupware application. By providing one-to-one e-mail collaboration, some embodiments of the present invention enhance efficiency by speeding up the operator's daily business and allow the CRM operators to be informed of all activities at all times.
Functionality of the foregoing embodiments may be provided on various computer platforms executing program instructions. Such computing platforms commonly include one or more processors, a memory system, and various input/output (I/O) devices. The processor may be any of a plurality of conventional processing systems, including microprocessors, digital signal processors, or field programmable logic arrays. In some applications, it may be advantageous to provide multiple processors (not shown) in the platform. The processor(s) execute program instructions stored in the memory system. The memory system may include any combination of conventional memory circuits, including electrical, magnetic or optical memory systems. For example, the memory system may include read only memories, random access memories, and bulk storage. The memory system not only stores the program instructions representing the various methods described herein but also can store the data items on which these methods operate. The I/O devices permit communication with external devices (not shown) and operators.
Several embodiments of the present invention are specifically illustrated and described herein. However, it will be appreciated that modifications and variations of the present invention are covered by the above teachings and within the purview of the appended claims without departing from the spirit and intended scope of the invention.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60620684 | Oct 2004 | US |
