Approval authority registration system and method

• US 20040249690A1
• Filed: 04/19/2004
• Published: 12/09/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 04/18/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Fuse, Satoshi, Uenoyama, Makoto
• Granted Patent: US 7,379,942 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/606 by securing the transmission between two devices or processes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6209 to a single file or object, e.g. in a secure envelope, encrypted and accessed using a key, or with access control rules appended to the object itself
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2101 Auditing as a secondary aspect
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2137 Time limited access, e.g. to a computer or data

Abstract

An approval authority registration system 100 which includes terminals 101al-101an, a personal information database 103, and a server 102 interconnected via a network. The approval authority registration system 100 registers, with the personal information database 103, approval relation information which shows relationships between approval-authorized persons and approval object persons who are both users of the approval authority registration system 100. The server 102 receives, from a user via a terminal, a registration request requesting registration of apiece of approval relation information, judges whether the user who input the registration request matches either an approval-authorized person or an approval object person specified in the requested piece of approval relation information, and registers the piece of approval relation information with the database 103 if it judges that the user matches neither the specified approval-authorized person nor the specified approval object person.

Claims

1. An approval authority registration system which comprises terminals, a database, and a database management apparatus interconnected via a network and registers, with the database, approval relation information which shows relationships between approval-authorized persons and approval object persons who are both users of the approval authority registration system, wherein

the database management apparatus includes:

a receiving unit operable to receive, from a user via a terminal, a registration request requesting registration of a piece of approval relation information;

a judging unit operable to judge whether the user who input the registration request matches either an approval-authorized person or an approval object person specified in the requested piece of approval relation information; and

a registration unit operable to register the piece of approval relation information with the database if the judging unit judges that the user matches neither the specified approval-authorized person nor the specified approval object person.

2. The approval authority registration system of claim 1, wherein

the database includes an attribute database with which user attribute information showing attributes of the users is registered,

the judging unit further judges whether an attribute of the user who input the registration request satisfies a predetermined condition by referring to the user attribute information, and

the registration unit registers the piece of approval relation information with the database if the judging unit judges that the attribute of the user satisfies the predetermined condition.

3. The approval authority registration system of claim 2, wherein

the judging unit further judges whether an attribute of the specified approval-authorized person satisfies a predetermined condition by referring to the user attribute information, and

the registration unit registers the piece of approval relation information with the database if the judging unit judges that the attribute of the specified approval-authorized person satisfies the predetermined condition.

4. The approval authority registration system of claim 1, wherein

the receiving unit further receives, from a user via a terminal, a registration request requesting registration of a piece of approval relation information specifying a proxy approval-authorized person,

the judging unit further judges whether the user who input the latter registration request matches an approval-authorized person indicated by a piece of approval relation information that has already been registered with the database, and

the registration unit registers the latter piece of approval relation information with the database if the judging unit judges that the user who input the latter registration request matches the approval-authorized person indicated by the already-registered piece of approval relation information.

5. The approval authority registration system of claim 4, wherein

each piece of approval relation information further includes (i) effective period information that indicates an effective period of the piece of approval relation information and (ii) user information that indicates a user who input a registration request requesting registration of the piece of approval relation information, and

the database management apparatus further includes:

a storage unit operable to store a list of notification destinations respectively corresponding to the users of the approval authority registration system;

a monitoring unit operable to monitor, at regular intervals, effective period information included in one or more pieces of approval relation information which, among pieces of approval relation information having been registered with the database, specify proxy approval-authorized persons, and operable to judge whether any of the one or more pieces of approval relation information has an effective period end date that is within a predetermined range of days including a day on which the monitoring unit is currently monitoring; and

a notification unit operable to, if the monitoring unit judges that one of the one or more pieces of approval relation information has an effective period end date that is within the predetermined range of days, notifies a notification destination corresponding to a user indicated by the one of the one or more pieces of approval relation information, of the judgment result by the monitoring unit.

6. The approval authority registration system of claim 1, wherein

the registration unit further registers a piece of update history information with the database each time a user newly registers or updates a piece of approval relation information,

the receiving unit further receives, from a user via a terminal, a request to obtain a piece of update history information, and

the database management apparatus further includes

a history information distribution unit operable to read the requested piece of update history information from the database and distribute the read piece of update history information to the terminal.

7. The approval authority registration system of claim 1, wherein

the receiving unit further receives an approval request from a user via a terminal, and

the database management apparatus further includes:

an identifying unit operable to identify, by referring to approval relation information registered with the database, an approval-authorized person to whom the user, as an approval object person, corresponds;

an approval request distribution unit operable to distribute the received approval request to the identified approval-authorized person;

an obtaining unit operable to obtain approval information, which indicates an approval or a denial by the approval-authorized person in response to the approval request, from the approval-authorized person via a terminal; and

an approval information distribution unit operable to distribute the obtained approval information to the user who sent the approval request.

8. The approval authority registration system of claim 1, wherein

each piece of approval relation information to be registered and having been registered with the database includes responsible person classification information that indicates whether an approval-authorized person specified in the piece of approval relation information is a responsible person or proxy, wherein

if the receiving unit receives a piece of approval relation information with responsible person classification information indicating that an approval-authorized person is proxy, the judging unit judges whether the user who input a registration request requesting registration of the received piece of approval relation information matches a responsible person indicated by a piece of approval relation information that has already been registered with the database, and

the registration unit registers the received piece of approval relation information with the database if the judging unit judges that the user who input the registration request matches the responsible person indicated by the already-registered piece of approval relation information.

9. An approval authority registration system which comprises terminals and a database management apparatus interconnected via a network and registers approval relation information showing relationships between approval-authorized persons and approval object persons who are both users of the approval authority registration system, wherein

the database management apparatus includes:

a database that stores, in advance, registered approval-authorized person identification information for identifying registered approval-authorized persons among the users;

a receiving unit operable to receive, from a user via a terminal, a registration request that requests to newly register a piece of proxy approval relation information that specifies (i) one of the users as a proxy approval-authorized person and (ii) a different one of the users as a proxy approval object person;

a judging unit operable to judge whether the user who input the registration request has been registered as an approval-authorized person, by referring to the registered approval-authorized person identification information stored in the database;

a registration unit operable to newly register (i) the piece of proxy approval relation information and (ii) a piece of proxy approval relation registration history information that shows a history of registrations of proxy approval relation information by the -user, with the database if the judging unit judges that the user has been registered as an approval-authorized person; and

a history information distribution unit operable to, if the receiving unit receives a request to obtain the piece of proxy approval relation registration history information from a user via a terminal, distribute the piece of proxy approval relation registration history information to the terminal via which the request to obtain the piece of proxy approval relation registration history information was received.

10. An approval authority registration method for use in a database management apparatus comprised in an approval authority registration system which comprises terminals and a database as well, and registers approval relation information with the database, wherein the database management apparatus, the terminals, and the database are interconnected via a network, the approval relation information showing relationships between approval-authorized persons and approval object persons who are both users of the approval authority registration system, wherein

the approval authority registration method includes:

a receiving step for receiving, from a user via a terminal, a registration request requesting registration of a piece of approval relation information;

a judging step for judging whether the user who input the registration request matches either an approval-authorized person or an approval object person specified in the requested piece of approval relation information; and

a registration step for registering the piece of approval relation information with the database if the judging unit judges that the user matches neither the specified approval-authorized person nor the specified approval object person.

11. An approval authority registration program for use in a database management apparatus comprised in an approval authority registration system which comprises terminals and a database as well, and registers approval relation information with the database, wherein the database management apparatus, the terminals, and the database are interconnected via a network, the approval relation information showing relationships between approval-authorized persons and approval object persons who are both users of the approval authority registration system, wherein

the approval authority registration program includes:

a receiving step for receiving, from a user via a terminal, a registration request requesting registration of a piece of approval relation information;

a judging step for judging whether the user who input the registration request matches either an approval-authorized person or an approval object person specified in the requested piece of approval relation information; and

a registration step for registering the piece of approval relation information with the database if the judging unit judges that the user matches neither the specified approval-authorized person nor the specified approval object person.

12. A computer-readable recording medium recording therein an approval authority registration program for use in a database management apparatus comprised in an approval authority registration system which comprises terminals and a database as well, and registers approval relation information with the database, wherein the database management apparatus, the terminals, and the database are interconnected via a network, the approval relation information showing relationships between approval-authorized persons and approval object persons who are both users of the approval authority registration system, wherein

the approval authority registration program includes:

a receiving step for receiving, from a user via a terminal, a registration request requesting registration of a piece of approval relation information;

a judging step for judging whether the user who input the registration request matches either an approval-authorized person or an approval object person specified in the requested piece of approval relation information; and

a registration step for registering the piece of approval relation information with the database if the judging unit judges that the user matches neither the specified approval-authorized person nor the specified approval object person.