CYCLE PLANNING TOOL FOR TERRITORY MANAGEMENT

• US 20080103870A1
• Filed: 10/26/2007
• Published: 05/01/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/27/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Purdue Pharma L.P.
• Original Assignee: Purdue Pharma L.P.
• Inventors: Subramanian, Ramachandran, Aleksiejczyk, Kim, Ciszkowski, Mietek, Stahl, Jake, Natarajan, Sayee
• Granted Patent: US 8,027,858 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/9
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1093 Calendar-based scheduling for persons or groups
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1097 Task assignment

Abstract

Electronically creating a schedule plan of events which replicates one or more previously scheduled events. A source date range is acquired into a memory of a machine. A set of previously scheduled events within the source date range is identified. A target date range is received through a user interface. At least a portion of the previously scheduled events is assigned to a date within the received target date range to create the schedule plan. The schedule plan is posted to a calendar. Another method creates a schedule plan on the basis of one or more search criteria used for identifying any match from a database. At least a portion of any matches are assigned a time slot within a target date range of a calendar program.

Claims

1. A computer-assisted method for electronically creating a schedule plan of events for a representative by replicating one or more previously scheduled events, comprising the steps of:

acquiring a source date range for entry into a memory of a machine;

identifying a set of previously scheduled events within the source date range within the memory of the machine;

receiving a target date range input through a user interface;

assigning at least a first portion of the set of previously scheduled events to a date within the received target date range to create the schedule plan; and

posting the schedule plan to a calendar maintained by the machine.

2. The method of claim 1, including the additional step of testing the target date range for a conflict, and, in the absence of the conflict, performing the assigning step.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein, in the event of the conflict, performing the additional step of augmenting the schedule of events by assigning a second portion of the one or more previously scheduled events to a date outside of the received target date range.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the one or more previously scheduled events in the second portion is associated with a respective day-of-the-week value and wherein the augmenting step assigns the date outside of the received target date ranges so as to schedule the second portion of events on a corresponding day of the week.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the assigned portion of the one or more previously scheduled events includes at least one event in the source date range having a day-of-the-week value, wherein the assigned date within the target date range maintains the day-of-the-week value.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying step comprises retrieving an entry from the calendar.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the received target date range comprises at least one end of a date range, and wherein the assigning step is performed in a single action.

8. A computer-assisted method for electronically creating a schedule plan of events of a representative, comprising the steps of:

acquiring one or more search criteria into a memory of a machine;

receiving a target date range input through a user interface;

executing a search of a database on the machine to identify at least one criterion match;

assigning in the memory at least a portion of any matches to a time slot in a date within the received target date range; and

populating the target date range of a calendar program with the memory assignments.

9. The method of claim 8, including the additional step of selecting one or more candidates, and wherein the portion of any matches include the selected candidates.

10. The method of claim 9, including the additional step, prior to the selecting step, of displaying through the user interface of the machine, the candidates and criterion matches.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the assigning step further comprises assigning in the memory at least a portion of any matches to a time slot in a date within the received target date range based on candidate preference.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the candidate preferences are stored in a database on the users machine.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the candidate preferences are stored in a database on a central server.