Message processing device, message management method and storage medium for storing message management program

• US 20050188041A1
• Filed: 03/04/2005
• Published: 08/25/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 04/24/1998
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: Kuriki, Minoru, Naganuma, Kiyoto
• Application Number:
  US11/071,308
• Publication Number:
  US 20050188041A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/23 Reliability checks, e.g. acknowledgments or fault reporting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/48 Message addressing, e.g. address format or anonymous messages, aliases
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 715/971 Cooperative decision support systems for group of users

Abstract

A method and system of providing a receiver state list with names of receivers of a message, the title of the message, confirmation information indicating whether or not receivers of the message confirmed content of the message, completion information indicating whether or not the business related to the message is completed, and comments which the receivers prepared for the message. From the receiver state list, a sender and all receivers of the message can obtain or display the states of all the receivers and may confirm whether or not each receiver confirmed the content of the message or whether or not business related to the message is completed.

Claims

1. A message processing apparatus connected to a plurality of terminal apparatuses via a network, comprising:

a preparation unit, wherein a manager managing business activities uses the message processing apparatus for sending to a plurality of persons interpersonal messages inquiring about progress statuses concerning respectively assigned business activities, receiving response messages each including at least a completion state indicating whether the assigned activity has been completed from the plurality of persons who are receivers of these interpersonal messages, and preparing a receiver state list that associates names and the completion states of the plurality of receivers; and

a message management unit enabling display of, in a mutually associated manner, the interpersonal message and the receiver state list, where the displaying is enabled on each of the terminal apparatuses belonging to the manager who is a sender of the interpersonal message and belonging to the plurality of the receivers of the interpersonal message.

2. A message processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein,

the sender comprises a manager managing the business activity, the receivers comprise respective staff, the interpersonal message is a message inquiring about progress of the staff concerning the business activity, and the manager receives the response messages from the staff, where the responses include completion information indicating whether the business activity has been completed, and wherein

the preparation unit prepares the receiver state list containing, in the mutually associated manner, the names of the plurality of receivers and the states of each of the respective receivers to indicate, based on completion information in the responses, whether the business activity has been completed.

3. A message processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising

a message preparation unit preparing the interpersonal message to be sent to the receivers by providing the interpersonal message with a confirmation button to be used by each of the receivers to inform the sender whether the assigned business activity has been completed, and

when the confirmation button is activated by one of the receivers, the information contained in the receiver state list is set to indicate that the activating receiver has completed the business activity.

4. A message processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a storage unit storing the content of the interpersonal message, receivers'"'"' names and completion information indicating whether the receivers have viewed the content of the interpersonal message or whether the receivers have completed business activities related to a content of the interpersonal message, in an associated manner, wherein

the preparation unit prepares the receiver state list based on the receivers'"'"' names and the completion information.

5. A message processing apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising:

an amendment unit amending the contents of a transmitted interpersonal message stored in the storage unit; and

a recovery unit recovering all the receivers'"'"' open information indicating an open state to a not-opened state when the interpersonal message is amended by the amending unit.

6. A message processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein:

the storage unit stores a plurality of comments prepared by the receivers in response to the interpersonal message; and

the recovery unit causes the comments stored in the storage unit to be stored without modification, when the transmitted message is amended by the amendment unit.

7. A message processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein:

the storage unit stores a message type of the interpersonal message, and

the preparation unit prepares the receiver state list according to the message type, the receivers'"'"' names and the completion information.

8. A message processing apparatus according to claim 7, comprising:

a setting unit displaying comment alternatives of comment patterns which correspond to the message type of the received interpersonal message, in a comment section of the received interpersonal message, and setting a comment pattern which corresponds to a comment alternative selected by the receiver as the receiver'"'"'s comment to the received interpersonal message, wherein

the storage unit includes a comment pattern storage portion for storing, corresponding to the message type, the comment patterns and the comment alternatives which correspond respectively to the comment patterns.

9. A message processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the message management unit provides a comment section for inputting a comment to the received interpersonal message and causes the comment inputted to the comment section to be displayed as the comment of a corresponding receiver, in the receiver state list.

10. A message processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the message management unit causes a delay state for a response time limit that is set in the interpersonal message to be displayed as delay information in a received message list.

11. A message processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

an open ratio obtaining unit obtaining an open ratio associated with the interpersonal message relating to the business activity, based on the individual states of the respective receivers, wherein

the message management unit enables display of a message list presenting the open ratio in association with a title of the interpersonal message relating to the business activity, where the display is enabled on each of the terminal apparatuses belonging to the sender and the plurality of receivers.

12. A message processing apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising:

a completion ratio obtaining unit obtaining a completion ratio based on the completion information indicating the individual states of the respective receivers on the assigned business activity, wherein

the message management unit enables display of a message list presenting the open ratio in association with a title of the interpersonal message relating to the business activity, where the display is enabled on each of the terminal apparatuses belonging to the sender and the plurality of the receivers.

13. A message processing apparatus according to claim 1, where the responses are capable of being made in an arbitrary order with respect to each other.

14. A message management method for managing a plurality of interpersonal messages transmitted from a plurality of terminal apparatuses, the message management method comprising:

preparing, when a manager managing business activities uses the message processing apparatus for sending to a plurality of persons interpersonal messages inquiring about progress statuses concerning respectively assigned business activities and receiving response messages each including at least a completion state indicating whether the assigned activity has been completed from the plurality of persons who are receivers of these interpersonal messages, a receiver state list that associates names and the completion states of the plurality of receivers; and

enabling display of, in a mutually associated manner, the interpersonal message and the receiver state list, where the display is enabled on each of the terminal apparatuses belonging to the manager who is a sender of the interpersonal message and belonging to the plurality of the receivers of the interpersonal message.

15. A message management method according to claim 14, further comprising displaying the receiver state list in a manner associated with the interpersonal message.

16. A message management method according to claim 14, further comprising:

displaying the receiver state list in a manner associated with the interpersonal message,

wherein, the receiver state list includes receivers'"'"' names and completion information indicating whether receivers of the interpersonal message have viewed the interpersonal message or whether the receivers of the interpersonal message have completed business activities related to a content of the interpersonal message.

17. A message management method according to claim 14, wherein

when a manager managing the business activity sends the interpersonal message to respective staff inquiring about progress states concerning the business activity, and receives response messages from the plurality of receivers of the interpersonal message inquiring about respective progress states concerning the assigned business activities, preparing the receiver state list containing, in the mutually associated manner, the names of the plurality of receivers and pieces of completion information based upon which the states of the respective receivers indicate whether the receivers have individually completed the business activity.

18. A computer readable storage medium storing a program for enabling a computer to perform a method according to claim 14.

19. The computer readable storage medium storing the program according to claim 18, wherein, the program enables display of the receiver state list which includes names of the receivers of the interpersonal message and completion information indicating whether the receivers of the interpersonal messages have viewed the interpersonal messages or completed business activities related to the contents of the interpersonal messages, on the terminal apparatus.

20. The computer readable storage medium storing the program according to claim 18, wherein,

when a manager managing the business activity sends the interpersonal message to respective staff inquiring about progress states concerning the business activity, and receives response messages from the plurality of receivers of the interpersonal message inquiring about respective progress states concerning the assigned business activities, preparing the receiver state list containing the names of the plurality of receivers in mutual association with the states of the respective receivers based on the responses indicating whether the receivers have individually completed the business activity.

21. The computer readable storage medium storing a program according to claim 18, wherein the program further comprises:

recovering open information for all the receivers of the interpersonal message indicating an open state to a not-opened state when a content of the transmitted interpersonal message is amended by a sender, wherein

the receiver state list includes open information indicating whether the receivers have opened the interpersonal message.

22. A method of providing e-mail information, comprising:

sending, as requested by a manager managing business activities, to a plurality of recipients, an e-mail message inquiring about progress statuses concerning respectively assigned business activities, and receiving, from the plurality of recipients who are receivers of the e-mail message, response messages including at least a completion state indicating whether the assigned activity has been completed, where a receiver state list associates names and the completion states of the plurality of receivers;

based on interactive input generated by the recipients of the e-mail message when viewing the e-mail message, storing states of the recipients, where a stored state indicates whether a recipient has completed an activity discussed in the e-mail message received by the recipients, and where the interactive input is inputted using interactive content displayed with the e-mail message; and

displaying to the recipients and the manager who sent the message, a list of the stored states of the recipients of the e-mail message.

23. A method according to claim 22, wherein a state of an activity reflects a recipient'"'"'s determination that the recipient has completed the activity.

24. A message processing apparatus according to claim 1, where the receivers comprise respective staff and the interpersonal message is a message inquiring about progress of the staff concerning the business activity, and the manager receives the response messages from the staff, where the responses include completion information indicating whether the business activity has been completed.

25. A message processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the message management unit further comprises a comment section for inputting a comment to the received interpersonal message and causes the comment inputted to the comment section to be displayed as the comment of a corresponding receiver in the receiver state list.