Customer relationship management system and method

• US 20070283287A1
• Filed: 05/29/2007
• Published: 12/06/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 05/26/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sugarcrm Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Sugarcrm Incorporated
• Inventors: Taylor, Jacob, Roberts, John, Oram, Clinton, Gupta, Ajay, Itani, Majed, Baroudi, Sadek, Smith, Roger
• Granted Patent: US 8,972,876 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/769
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions

Abstract

A software-based customer relationship management system and method.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for customizing a user interface of a business software application being executed on a computer system, the method comprising:

generating a user interface for the business software application based on user preferences stored in the system, the user interface having one or more elements that form the user interface;

dragging an element of the user interface to move an element of the user interface; and

dropping the element in the user interface to reconfigure the user interface based on the dragged element of the user interface.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the element of the user interface further comprises a graph element, a sub-panel element, a tab element or a layout of a home screen.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising ordering of one or more sub-panel elements of the user interface.

4. The method of claim 2 further comprising hiding a sub-panel element of the user interface.

5. The method of claim 2 further comprising adding one or more tab elements to the user interface wherein each tab pulls information from a particular module.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising generating a customized user interface for a user based on access level of the user wherein the access level changes the elements seen by the user and the actions taken by the user.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising generating an initial user interface for a user based on role of the user.

8. A customer relationship management system, comprising:

a client;

a database containing a plurality of pieces of information;

one or more modules that access the database to pull pieces of information from the database based on a request from the client and display a user interface to the user containing the requested information, the user interface having one or more elements that contain the requested information;

one or more controllers that control access by the client to the one or more modules and the database;

a sugarbean class wherein each module further comprises a subclass of the sugarbean class; and

the one or more modules further comprising a template mechanism and a theme mechanism that generate the user interface wherein the template mechanism further includes (or comprises) a drag and drop module that permits the user customization of the one or more elements of the user interface.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the element of the user interface further comprises a graph element, a sub-panel element, a tab element or a layout of a home screen.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the drag and drop module orders the one or more sub-panel elements of the user interface.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the drag and drop module hides a sub-panel element of the user interface.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the drag and drop module adds one or more tab elements to the user interface wherein each tab pulls information from a particular module.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the drag and drop module generates an initial user interface for a user based on access level of the user.

14. A customer relationship management system, comprising:

a client;

a database containing a plurality of pieces of information;

one or more modules that access the database to pull pieces of information from the database based on a request from the client and display a user interface to the user containing the requested information;

one or more controllers that control access by the client to the one or more modules and the database;

a sugarbean class wherein each module further comprises a subclass of the sugarbean class; and

wherein the one or more modules further comprises a forecasts module that generates a forecasts home page to set, manage and update quotas and forecasts.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the forecasts home page further comprises means for assigning quotas to a sales representative for a predetermined time period.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the forecasts home page further comprises means for analyzing historical quota and forecasts.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the forecasts time periods are configurable and multiple hierarchical and/or overlapping time periods are supported for quotas and forecasts.

18. A customer relationship management system, comprising:

a client;

a database containing a plurality of pieces of information;

one or more modules that access the database to pull pieces of information from the database based on a request from the client and display a user interface to the user containing the requested information;

one or more controllers that control access by the client to the one or more modules and the database;

a sugarbean class wherein each module further comprises a subclass of the sugarbean class; and

the database further comprising a duplicate checking module that checks the database records for duplicate records.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the duplicate checking module performs a check for a duplicate value in a field when a field of the database is identified to the duplicate checking module.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the duplicate checking module automatically performs periodic duplicate record checks of the database.

21. The system of claim 18, wherein the duplicate checking module logs an in process duplicate check for later completion.

22. A duplicate record checking method for a software based customer relationship system having a client, a database containing a plurality of pieces of information, one or more modules that access the database to pull pieces of information from the database based on a request from the client and display a user interface to the user containing the requested information, one or more controllers that control access by the client to the one or more modules and the database and a sugarbean class wherein each module further comprises a subclass of the sugarbean class, the method comprising:

performing a duplicate check in the database when a duplicate trigger has occurred;

determining if at least one field in the database has been specified in the duplicate check request;

performing a field based duplicate check if at least one field is specified in the duplicate check request to identify a duplicate record in the database; and

resolving the duplicate record when a duplicate record is found in the database.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the duplicate trigger further comprises a data import operation, a data update operation or an automatic periodic duplicate check.

24. The method of claim 22, wherein performing the field based duplicate check further comprises leveraging an external verification data source.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the external verification data source further comprises a postal code lookup or an address verification.

26. The method of claim 22, wherein resolving the duplicate record further comprises merging a piece of data into an existing record, overriding the data in the record, manually merging the duplicate record or rejecting the duplicate record.

27. The method of claim 22 further comprising logging the duplicate check request for completion of the duplicate check at a later time.

28. The method of claim 22, wherein a data normalization technique or service is used to enhance the ability to identify near duplicates.

29. A customer relationship management system, comprising:

a client;

a database containing a plurality of pieces of information;

one or more modules that access the database to pull pieces of information from the database based on a request from the client and display a user interface to the user containing the requested information;

one or more controllers that control access by the client to the one or more modules and the database;

a sugarbean class wherein each module further comprises a subclass of the sugarbean class; and

one or more modules further comprise a mapping module that maps the data in the database to a graphical world representation.

30. The system of claim 29, wherein the data further comprises address information, usage information, payment information, or activity information.

31. The system of claim 29, wherein the data further comprises time based information

32. The system of claim 31, wherein the display is changed to replay time based information (multiple snapshots played back to show the most recent 24 hours of data in 24 slices at 1 second each as an example).

33. An apparatus:

a client;

a database containing a plurality of pieces of information;

one or more modules that access the database to pull pieces of information from the database based on a request from the client and display a user interface to the user containing the requested information;

one or more controllers that control access by the client to the one or more modules and the database;

a sugarbean class wherein each module further comprises a subclass of the sugarbean class; and

wherein the one or more modules further comprises a forum module that supports one or more forum topics.

34. An apparatus:

an offline client;

a database containing a plurality of pieces of information;

one or more modules that access the database to pull pieces of information from the database based on a request from the client and display a user interface to the user containing the requested information;

one or more controllers that control access by the client to the one or more modules and the database;

a sugarbean class wherein each module further comprises a subclass of the sugarbean class; and

wherein the offline client has an installation of an application wherein the offline client synchronizes one or more pieces of data associated with the application installation on the offline client and the code for the application installation on the offline client.