Electronic mail follow-up system

• US 5,245,532 A
• Filed: 06/12/1989
• Issued: 09/14/1993
• Est. Priority Date: 06/16/1988
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Mourier, Yves P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Shaw, Gareth D.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chavis, John Q.
• Application Number:
  US07/364,944
• Time in Patent Office: 1,555 Days
• Field of Search: 395/650, 395/700
• US Class Current: 700/90
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/234 for tracking messages

Abstract

In a data processing and transmission digital network wherein users have been individually assigned a virtual machine including a memory zone and a capability for sharing hardware and software facilities for entering processing and mailing data to one another using terminal keyboards attached to the network, a mail follow-up system is provided for monitoring and processing selected mail items. The system includes a facility for generating mail tags including predefined fields; a facility for tracking the mail and deriving therefrom mail characteristic data; a facility for storing said characteristic data into tag fields; a facility for storing the filled-in tags into a file and for accessing and processing predefined mail fields, whereby processed tags are automatically transferred to different tag files. The system further includes an administrator system for centrally administrating the tagged mail on a departmental basis.

Claims

1. An electronic mail follow-up system for utilization in conjunction with an electronic mail item transmission and reception facility within a data processing network having a plurality of users enrolled therein, said electronic mail follow-up system comprising:

assignment means within said data processing network for generating a plurality of mail tags having predefined fields therein and assigning a mail tag to each mail item received by a selected user;

data determination means within said data processing network for automatically fetching or deriving from each mail item received by a selected user predefined characteristic mail data;

recordation means coupled to said data determination means within said data processing network for recording said predefined characteristic mail data into corresponding predefined fields within each assigned mail tag;

means responsive to said recordation means for storing mail tags including said predefined characteristics mail data within a predefined storage facility within said data processing network; and

mail management means coupled to said predefined storage facility within said data processing network for accessing and processing mail tags stored therein and for transferring selected mail tags into a second predefined storage facility in response to said predefined characteristic mail data wherein mail items may be managed utilizing said mail tags.

2. The electronic mail follow-up system according to claim 1, wherein each of said plurality of users enrolled within said data processing network has associated therewith at least one mail storage log within said data processing network and wherein said data determination means comprises means for automatically fetching or deriving from each mail item received by a selected user predefined characteristic mail data in response to a transfer of a mail item into a mail storage log associated with said selected user.

3. The electronic mail follow-up system according to claim 1, further including a sequence number counter and means for assigning a unique sequence number to each mail item received by said selected user.

4. The electronic mail follow-up system according to claim 3, wherein said data determination means includes means for fetching said unique sequence number assigned to each mail item.

5. The electronic mail follow-up system according to claim 4, wherein said recordation means includes means for recording said unique sequence number assigned to each mail item into a corresponding predefined field within an assigned mail tag.