Methods and structure for collaborative customer account management

• US 20040128150A1
• Filed: 12/31/2002
• Published: 07/01/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/2002
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Employers Reinsurance Corp. (Swiss Re AG)
• Original Assignee: Employers Reinsurance Corp. (Swiss Re AG)
• Inventors: Lundegren, Mark Edward
• Application Number:
  US10/334,285
• Publication Number:
  US 20040128150A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/067 Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/103 Workflow collaboration or project management

Abstract

Methods and associated structure for utilizing a planning template to enable collaborative management of strategic customer information within a business enterprise and for facilitating customer management or account management. Strategic customer information may be shared in a central repository by multiple users/entities within the business enterprise and by customers outside the enterprise. Data is entered using the planning template according to standardized requirements and formats to create a canonical form of the strategic customer information. Each user of the strategic customer information may view and/or modify the shared information through the planning template using a customizable “dashboard” interface. The dashboard interface may group the strategic customer information into one or more zones of related information defined by the planning template. The zones are provided according to the planning template to help enforce high quality in the gathering, management and application of the strategic customer information.

Claims

1. A collaborative customer account management system comprising:

a shared storage subsystem for storing strategic information relating to strategic customers of a business enterprise;

a plurality of workstations coupled to said shared storage subsystem for generating information to be stored on said shared storage subsystem and for retrieving information previously stored on said shared storage subsystem; and

a user interface component associated with each workstation of said plurality of workstations for providing a customizable user interface to a user of said information; and

a standardized account planning template to enable multiple users to access different subsets of said strategic information as appropriate to a type attribute associated with each user of said multiple users,

wherein said standardized account planning template includes;

a plurality of information zones wherein each information zone of said plurality of information zones includes related portions of said strategic information.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein said type attribute of said each user is selected from the group consisting of:

customer, customer owner, executive and analyst.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein said standardized account planning template includes:

a view customizer to permit said each user to customize said each view of said strategic information to create a custom view of said strategic information.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein said type attribute of said each user is selected from the group consisting of:

customer, customer owner, executive and analyst.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein said view customizer includes:

a view restrictor to permit a customer owner type user to restrict the portions of said plurality of available portions that may be selected by a customer type user.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein said standardized account planning template includes:

a zone selector to permit said each user to select from among said plurality of information zones of said standardized account planning template.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein said plurality of information zones includes at least one of:

a Customer Overview zone;

a Relationship Summary zone;

a Portfolio Analysis zone;

a Critical-To-Quality zone;

a Voice Of The Customer zone; and

an Opportunities zone.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein said type attribute of said each user is selected from the group consisting of customer, customer owner, executive and analyst.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein said standardized account planning template includes:

a multi-customer view to allow a user to review said strategic information relating to multiple strategic customers.

10. A collaborative workspace for strategic customer management comprising:

a central repository for storing strategic customer information associated with a plurality of strategic customers;

a planning template to permit a plurality of users to share access to said strategic customer information through workstations coupled to said central repository wherein said planning template includes a plurality of information zones defining related portions of said strategic customer information; and

a customizable view of each zone of said planning template.

11. The workspace of claim 10 wherein said customizable view includes:

a customer selection element to select one or more customers for which strategic customer information is to be presented;

a zone selection element to select among said plurality of information zones wherein each zone includes related information elements of said strategic customer information;

a view selection element to select information fields for display from among information fields within a selected zone; and

an information edit element to permit user modifications to selected information fields.

12. A method for managing strategic customer information relating to one or more strategic customers of a business enterprise, the method comprising the steps of:

storing said strategic customer information in a central repository of said business enterprise; and

presenting said strategic customer information on a user'"'"'s display wherein the information display is subdivided into a plurality of zones such that each zone includes a subset of related portions of said strategic customer information, and wherein the information display is customizable by the user to select desired portions of said strategic customer data.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising:

selecting one zone of said plurality of zones in response to user input; and

displaying only portions of said strategic customer data stored in the selected said one zone.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising:

customizing the display of said one zone on the user'"'"'s display in response to receipt of user input.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the step of customizing comprises:

selecting a portion of information stored in said one zone in response to receipt of said user input.

16. A business planning system comprising:

a shared repository for strategic customer information; and

a plurality of user workstations coupled to said shared repository wherein each workstation of said plurality of user workstations each operable to present a standardized planning template thereon to thereby provide access to said strategic customer information to a plurality of users.

17. The system of claim 16 wherein said template includes:

a plurality of information zones wherein each zone includes a subset of said strategic customer information.

18. The system of claim 17 wherein said plurality of information zones include:

a Customer Overview zone;

a Relationship Summary zone;

a Portfolio Analysis zone;

a Critical-To-Quality zone;

a Voice Of The Customer zone; and

an Opportunities zone.

19. The system of claim 16 wherein said template user interface includes:

a view customizer element to permit a user to select portions of said strategic customer information for display on the user'"'"'s workstation.

20. The system of claim 19 wherein said template user interface further includes:

a customer selection element to permit said user to select one customer associated with said strategic customer information from which said portions are selected.

21. The system of claim 19 wherein said template user interface further includes:

a customer selection element to permit said user to select multiple customers associated with said strategic customer information from which said portions are selected.

22. In a business enterprise, a method for collaborative customer planning comprising the steps of:

retrieving strategic customer information corresponding to a select customer from a repository shared by multiple users;

organizing said strategic customer information into a plurality of information zones wherein each zone includes a related subset of said strategic customer information;

presenting said plurality of information zones on a display screen;

receiving requests from a user to update said strategic customer information; and

storing the updated strategic customer information in said repository.

23. The method of claim 22 further comprising:

verifying a login request from a user to permit authenticated user to access the repository; and

selecting said select customer in accord with input from the authenticated user prior to retrieving said strategic customer information corresponding to said select customer.

24. The method of claim 23

wherein the step of selecting comprises:

selecting multiple select customers, and

wherein the step of retrieving comprises;

retrieving said strategic customer information corresponding to all of said multiple select customers.

25. The method of claim 22 further comprising:

verifying a login request from a user to permit authenticated user to access the repository;

determining a user type associated with said authenticated user; and

selecting said select customer as the authenticated user in response to a determination that the authenticated user is associated with a customer user type prior to retrieving said strategic customer information corresponding to said select customer.

26. The method of claim 22 further comprising:

selecting, in response to input from a user, a current zone for display from said plurality of information zones,

wherein the step of presenting comprises;

displaying said current zone on said display screen.

27. The method of claim 26 further comprising:

selecting, in response to input from a user, selected fields of said strategic customer information in said current zone,

wherein the step of displaying said current zone comprises;

displaying said selected fields of said current zone on said display screen.

28. A computer readable storage medium tangibly embodying program instructions for a method for managing strategic customer information relating to one or more strategic customers of a business enterprise, the method comprising the steps of:

storing said strategic customer information in a central repository of said business enterprise; and

presenting said strategic customer information on a user'"'"'s display wherein the information display is subdivided into a plurality of zones such that each zone includes a subset of related portions of said strategic customer information, and wherein the information display is customizable by the user to select desired portions of said strategic customer data.

29. The storage medium of claim 28 the method further comprising:

selecting one zone of said plurality of zones in response to user input; and

displaying only portions of said strategic customer data stored in the selected said one zone.

30. The storage medium of claim 29 the method further comprising:

customizing the display of said one zone on the user'"'"'s display in response to receipt of user input.

31. The storage medium of claim 30 wherein the method step of customizing comprises:

selecting a portion of information stored in said one zone in response to receipt of said user input.

32. A computer readable storage medium tangibly embodying program instructions for a method for collaborative customer planning in a business enterprise, the method comprising the steps of:

retrieving strategic customer information corresponding to a select customer from a repository shared by multiple users;

organizing said strategic customer information into a plurality of information zones wherein each zone includes a related subset of said strategic customer information;

presenting said plurality of information zones on a display screen;

receiving requests from a user to update said strategic customer information; and

storing the updated strategic customer information in said repository.

33. The storage medium of claim 32 the method further comprising:

verifying a login request from a user to permit authenticated user to access the repository; and

selecting said select customer in accord with input from the authenticated user prior to retrieving said strategic customer information corresponding to said select customer.

34. The storage medium of claim 33

wherein the method step of selecting comprises:

selecting multiple select customers, and

wherein the method step of retrieving comprises;

retrieving said strategic customer information corresponding to all of said multiple select customers.

35. The storage medium of claim 32 the method further comprising:

verifying a login request from a user to permit authenticated user to access the repository;

determining a user type associated with said authenticated user; and

selecting said select customer as the authenticated user in response to a determination that the authenticated user is associated with a customer user type prior to retrieving said strategic customer information corresponding to said select customer.

36. The storage medium of claim 32 the method further comprising:

selecting, in response to input from a user, a current zone for display from said plurality of information zones,

wherein the method step of presenting comprises;

displaying said current zone on said display screen.

37. The storage medium of claim 36 the method further comprising:

selecting, in response to input from a user, selected fields of said strategic customer information in said current zone,

wherein the method step of displaying said current zone comprises;

displaying said selected fields of said current zone on said display screen.

38. A system for managing strategic customer information relating to one or more strategic customers of a business enterprise, the system comprising:

means for storing said strategic customer information in a central repository of said business enterprise; and

means for presenting said strategic customer information on a user'"'"'s display wherein the information display is subdivided into a plurality of zones such that each zone includes a subset of related portions of said strategic customer information, and wherein the information display is customizable by the user to select desired portions of said strategic customer data.

39. The system of claim 38 further comprising:

means for selecting one zone of said plurality of zones in response to user input; and

means for displaying only portions of said strategic customer data stored in the selected said one zone.

40. The system of claim 39 further comprising:

means for customizing the display of said one zone on the user'"'"'s display in response to receipt of user input.

41. The system of claim 40 wherein the means for customizing comprises:

means for selecting a portion of information stored in said one zone in response to receipt of said user input.

42. In a business enterprise, a system for collaborative customer planning comprising:

means for retrieving strategic customer information corresponding to a select customer from a repository shared by multiple users;

means for organizing said strategic customer information into a plurality of information zones wherein each zone includes a related subset of said strategic customer information;

means for presenting said plurality of information zones on a display screen;

means for receiving requests from a user to update said strategic customer information; and

means for storing the updated strategic customer information in said repository.

43. The system of claim 42 further comprising:

means for verifying a login request from a user to permit authenticated user to access the repository; and

means for selecting said select customer in accord with input from the authenticated user prior to retrieving said strategic customer information corresponding to said select customer.

44. The system of claim 43

wherein the means for selecting comprises:

means for selecting multiple select customers, and

wherein the means for retrieving comprises;

means for retrieving said strategic customer information corresponding to all of said multiple select customers.

45. The system of claim 42 further comprising:

means for verifying a login request from a user to permit authenticated user to access the repository;

means for determining a user type associated with said authenticated user; and

means for selecting said select customer as the authenticated user in response to a determination that the authenticated user is associated with a customer user type prior to retrieving said strategic customer information corresponding to said select customer.

46. The system of claim 42 further comprising:

means for selecting, in response to input from a user, a current zone for display from said plurality of information zones,

wherein the means for presenting comprises;

means for displaying said current zone on said display screen.

47. The system of claim 46 further comprising:

means for selecting, in response to input from a user, selected fields of said strategic customer information in said current zone,

wherein the means for displaying said current zone comprises;

means for displaying said selected fields of said current zone on said display screen.