Email transaction system

• US 20060168058A1
• Filed: 10/20/2005
• Published: 07/27/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 12/03/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kyndryl Incorporated
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Midgley, Nicholas J.
• Granted Patent: US 8,122,085 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]

Abstract

The present invention provides a method and a system in which, a determination is made in order to determine whether a destination mail server is able to process a number of emails associated with a distribution list. By requesting performance metrics for each destination server, analysis is performed to understand the processing capacity of the destination server. In response to the determined processing capacity of the destination mail server, and the time in which the emails must be sent by, the emails are either sent, or a negotiation is performed with each of the destination servers, to determine an available time. Therefore, each destination server can control the time in which it receives and processes the emails. Therefore, avoiding large amounts of emails ‘hitting’ the destination servers, at a time when the destination servers are already very busy and available processing capacity is of a premium.

Claims

1. A method for determining a time period in which to send an email to a plurality of email addresses, each of the email addresses being associated within a distribution list and the email being sent to at least one destination server associated with each of the email addresses, the method comprising:

receiving a plurality of email addresses associated with the distribution list, each email address comprising an attribute, the attribute pertaining to a requested time period in which to send the email to each of the email addresses;

for each email address, identifying the destination server and requesting performance metrics indicative of the capacity of the identified destination server to receive the or each of the emails;

analysing each of the performance metrics to determine whether, the identified destination server is able to receive the or each of the emails within the requested time period; and

in dependence of the identified destination server not being able to receive the or each of the emails, negotiating a time period in which the identified destination server can receive the or each of the emails.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein, on receiving the plurality of email addresses associated with the distribution list, the or each email address is matched against a list of email addresses stored in a directory service to ensure that each of the email addresses is a valid email address.

3. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein on identifying the destination server, a determination is performed to identify whether, the identified destination server is part of an identified mail domain.

4. A method as claimed in claim 3, wherein the identified mail domain is defined by a directory service.

5. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the identified mail domain identifies which destination servers the performance metrics are requested from.

6. A method as claim 1, wherein on identification of the destination server, a determination is performed to determine a priority order for each of the email addresses, in response to a requested priority and the identified destination server.

7. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein on negotiation of an alternative time period, a message is transmitted to the destination server requesting an available time period.

17. A computer program product loadable into the internal memory of a digital computer, comprising software code portions for performing, when said product is run on a computer, to carry out the method of claim 1.

19. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein, on receiving the plurality of email addresses associated with the distribution list, the or each email address is matched against a list of email addresses stored in a directory service to ensure that each of the email addresses is a valid email address.

8. A method as claimed in claim 8, wherein after a predetermined number of unsuccessful attempts at requesting an available time period, the email is sent to each of the plurality of email addresses.

9. A system for determining a time period in which to send an email to a plurality of email addresses, each of the email addresses being associated within a distribution list and the email being sent to at least one destination server associated with each of the email addresses, the system comprising:

a receiver component, receiving a plurality of email addresses associated with the distribution list, each email address comprising an attribute, the attribute pertaining to a requested time period in which to send the email to each of the email addresses;

a prioritisation engine for identifying for each email address, the destination server and requesting performance metrics indicative of the capacity of the identified destination server to receive the or each of the emails;

the prioritisation engine analysing each of the requested performance metrics to determine whether, the identified destination server is able to receive the or each of the emails within the requested time period; and

a negotiation component for negotiating a time period in which the identified destination server can receive the or each of the emails, in dependence of the identified destination server not being able to receive each of the emails.

10. A system as claimed in claim 9 wherein, on receiving the plurality of email addresses associated with the distribution list, a validator component matches each email address against a list of email addresses stored in a directory service to ensure that each of the email addresses is a valid email address.

11. A system as claimed in claim 9 wherein on identifying the destination server, a validator component determines whether the identified destination server is part of an identified mail domain.

12. A system as claimed in claim 11, wherein the identified mail domain is defined by a directory service.

13. A system as claimed in claim 9, wherein the identified mail domain identifies which destination servers the performance metrics are requested from.

14. A system as claimed in claim 9, wherein on identification of the destination server, the prioritisation engine determines a priority order for each of the email address, in response to a requested priority and the identified destination server.

15. A system as claimed in claim 9 wherein on negotiation of an alternative time period, the negotiation component generates a message for transmitting to the destination server requesting an available time period.

16. A system as claimed in claim 15, wherein after a predetermined number of unsuccessful attempts at requesting an available time period, the negotiation manager transmits the email to each of the plurality of email addresses.

18. A method of deploying a computer program product for determining a time period in which to send an email to a plurality of email addresses, each of the email addresses being associated within a distribution list and the email being sent to at least one destination server associated with each of the email addresses, wherein when executed, the computer program performs the steps of:

receiving a plurality of email addresses associated with the distribution list, each email address comprising an attribute, the attribute pertaining to a requested time period in which to send the email to each of the email addresses;

for each email address, identifying the destination server and requesting performance metrics indicative of the capacity of the identified destination server to receive the or each of the emails;

analysing each of the performance metrics to determine whether, the identified destination server is able to receive the or each of the emails within the requested time period; and

in dependence of the identified destination server not being able to receive the or each of the emails, negotiating a time period in which the identified destination server can receive the or each of the emails.