Real-time collaboration and workflow management for a marketing campaign

• US 7,788,126 B2
• Filed: 10/05/2006
• Issued: 08/31/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/22/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Original Assignee: Accenture Global Services GmbH (Accenture PLC)
• Inventors: Corugedo, George R., Plourde, Robert W., Wagner, Todd R., O'Halloran, J. Patrick, Tyner, Chuck
• Primary Examiner(s): LOFTIS, JOHNNA RONEE
• Application Number:
  US11/543,660
• Publication Number:
  US 20070083417A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,426 Days
• Field of Search: 705/7, 705/10
• US Class Current: 705/7.13
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0637 Strategic management or analysis, e.g. setting a goal or target of an organisation; Planning actions based on goals; Analysis or evaluation of effectiveness of goals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/101 Collaborative creation, e.g. joint development of products or services
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]

Abstract

A system for enabling real-time collaboration and workflow management of a marketing campaign within a marketing organization is disclosed. In one aspect, user displays for the marketing organization'"'"'s computer system are provided. A role portal component provides at least two respective role portals that correspond to at least two marketing roles within the marketing organization (for example, marketing executive, marketing manager, data analyst, etc.). A workbench component generates, on a user display, a workbench that corresponds to each of the role portals. Each workbench permits a user to access metric and workflow information associated with the corresponding marketing role. The workbench for each role may comprise several displayable web-pages, such as a home page, an activities page workflow, a marketing campaigns with information and metrics about various marketing campaigns, and a customer analysis page.

Claims

1. A system for enabling workflow management of a marketing campaign within a marketing organization, the marketing organization having a plurality of marketing roles defined therein, the system comprising:

a processor for processing computer instructions;

at least one display for displaying information to a respective user in response to the processor;

memory for storing computer instructions, the instructions providing for a portal layer configured to access a workbench file associated with a unique identifier of the respective user, and to determine, using the workbench file, whether the user is assigned an executive role, a marketing manager role, or a data analyst role, the portal layer further comprising;

a role portal component for providing;

a first role portal corresponding to the marketing manager role within the marketing organization,

a second role portal corresponding to the data analyst role within the marketing organization, and

a third role portal corresponding to the executive role within the marketing organization; and

a workbench component for generating one or more workbenches on the at least one display that include color-coded status indicators scoring current marketing campaign metrics tailored to the user'"'"'s role, the workbenches comprising;

a first workbench corresponding to the marketing manager role, the first workbench permitting the user to selectively access metric and workflow information associated with the marketing manager role including marketing analysis and reporting information,

a second workbench corresponding to the data analyst role permitting the user to selectively access metric and workflow information associated with the data analyst role including information that determines whether a proposed marketing campaign will be successful, the metric and workflow information associated with the data analyst role being different from the metric and workflow information associated with the marketing manager role, and

a third workbench corresponding to the executive role permitting the user to selectively access metric and workflow information associated with the executive role, the metric and workflow information associated with the executive role including information that tracks completed and incomplete tasks and being different from the metric and workflow information associated with the marketing manager role and the metric and workflow information associated with the data analyst role,

wherein, if the user is assigned the executive role, the third workbench further comprises an executive home page further comprising;

a company scorecard region displaying high-level key company retention and financial metrics, organized according to a current value for a specified time period, a target value for the same time period, and the color-coded status indicators;

an employee scorecard region displaying overview information about employees for whom the user is responsible, including a number of employees and an attrition rate and the color-coded status indicators; and

a customer scorecard region organized according to the current value, the target value, and the color-coded status indicators.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the workbench file further comprises:

role information specifying that the user is assigned the executive role, the marketing manager role, or the data analyst role; and

modifications to the one or more workbenches specified by the user.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein, for each role, the one or more workbenches further comprises:

a home page displaying top-level scorecard for marketing efforts;

an activities page displaying a listing of tasks to be completed and computer-accessible resources usable to complete the tasks;

a campaigns page displaying high-level information describing campaigns and metrics pertaining to the campaigns;

an analysis page displaying results of analysis; and

an industry news page,

wherein each page is tailored to the role the user serves in the marketing organization.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the listing of tasks is displayed on the activities page and the home page.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the portal layer is further configured to:

cause the one or more workbenches to be customized to the user'"'"'s role, despite allowing the user to generally customize the one or more workbenches.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the portal layer is further configured to:

determine information applicable to the role the user serves within the marketing organization; and

display the information on the one or more workbenches.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein

the customer scorecard region further comprises:

a retention measures sub-region displaying key customer metrics in retention, acquisition and development, including a number of accounts closed over the specified time period, a percent asset retention, a percent customer retention rate, and a percent customer satisfaction,

an acquisition measures sub-region displaying an average cost of acquiring a new customer, a number of customers acquired, and an average profitability measure for new customers, and

a development measures sub-region displaying a total number of accounts held by each existing customer, a total number of active customer accounts, a number of customers, and revenues, costs and net income per customer; and

a company news scorecard region displaying company news, news links, and research links, including stock charts and links to most recent earnings statements.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein, if the user is assigned the executive role, the third workbench further comprises an executive activities page further comprising:

a task details region displaying details regarding a specific selected task and providing an interface through which the user interacts with a non-marketing workflow application; and

an online references region linking to references stored within a marketing organization'"'"'s computing resources.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein, if the user is assigned the executive role, the third workbench further comprises an executive campaigns activities page further comprising:

an active campaigns region identifying current marketing campaigns and displaying high-level return-on-investment metrics for each of the identified current marketing campaigns;

a campaign history region organized according to the current value, the target value, and the color-coded status indicators, and displaying;

metrics pertaining to marketing campaigns identified in the marketing activity region, including a campaign description, a count of contacts made in the identified marketing campaigns, a response rate, and a conversion rate, and

a spreadsheet column showing a percentage of contacts in which there was a purchase; and

a campaign selection region for selecting campaigns by category.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein, if the user is assigned the executive role, the third workbench further comprises an executive analysis page further comprising:

a segment overview region showing customer breakdowns for a specified marketing segment;

a key metrics region displaying a total product count, products per customer, total assets, and total profitability;

a demographics region displaying metrics regarding customers organized by a customer type; and

a psychographics region displaying metrics including percentages of customers who value specified activities.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein, if the user is assigned the marketing manager role, the first workbench further comprises a manager home page further comprising:

a marketing activity region organized according to a current value for a specified time period, a target value for the same time period, and the color-coded status indicators, and further comprising;

a customer retention activities sub-region displaying metrics associated with loyalty programs and retention of high-value customers,

a customer development activities sub-region displaying metrics associated with programs for developing existing customers, and

an acquisition activities sub-region displaying metrics associated with programs for developing new customers;

a customer scorecard region organized according to the current value, the target value, and the color-coded status indicators and comprising;

a retention measures sub-region displaying key customer metrics in retention, acquisition and development, including a number of accounts closed over the specified time period, a percent asset retention, a percent customer retention rate, and a percent customer satisfaction,

an acquisition measures sub-region displaying an average cost of acquiring a new customer, a number of customers acquired, and an average profitability measure for new customers, and

a development measures sub-region displaying a total number of accounts held by each existing customer, a total number of active customer accounts, a number of customers, and revenues, costs and net income per customer;

a company news scorecard region displaying company news, news links, and research links, including stock charts and links to most recent earnings statements; and

a tasks region displaying data derived from a non-marketing workflow application, without providing direct access to the non-marketing workflow application.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein, if the user is assigned the marketing manager role, the first workbench further comprises a manager campaigns activities page further comprising:

a campaign management application region providing access to the campaign management application;

an active campaigns region identifying current marketing campaigns and displaying high-level return-on-investment metrics for each of the identified current marketing campaigns;

a campaign history region organized according to the current value, the target value, and the color-coded status indicators, and displaying;

metrics pertaining to marketing campaigns identified in the marketing activity region, including a campaign description, a count of contacts made in the identified marketing campaigns, a response rate, and a conversion rate, and

a spreadsheet column showing a percentage of contacts in which there was a purchase; and

a campaign selection region for selecting campaigns by category.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein, if the user is assigned the data analyst role, the second workbench further comprises an analyst home page further comprising:

a marketing activity region organized according to a current value for a specified time period, a target value for the same time period, and the color-coded status indicators, and further comprising;

a customer retention activities sub-region displaying metrics associated with loyalty programs and retention of high-value customers,

a customer development activities sub-region displaying metrics associated with programs for developing existing customers, and

an acquisition activities sub-region displaying metrics associated with programs for developing new customers;

a campaign scorecard region organized according to the current value, the target value, and the color-coded status indicators, and displaying metrics pertaining to marketing campaigns identified in the marketing activity region, including a campaign description, a count of contacts made in the identified marketing campaigns, a response rate, and a conversion rate;

a company news scorecard region displaying company news, news links, and research links, including stock charts and links to most recent earnings statements; and

a tasks region displaying data derived from a non-marketing workflow application, without providing direct access to the non-marketing workflow application.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein, if the user is assigned the data analyst role, the second workbench further comprises an analyst analysis page further comprising:

an analytical modeling application region providing access to the analytical modeling application;

a marketing report region allowing the user to add a marketing report created by an outside vendor;

a segment overview region showing customer breakdowns for a specified marketing segment;

a key metrics region displaying a total product count, products per customer, total assets, and total profitability;

a demographics region displaying metrics regarding customers organized by a customer type; and

a psychographics region displaying metrics including percentages of customers who value specified activities.

15. A computer-implemented method for enabling workflow management of a marketing campaign within a marketing organization, the marketing organization having a plurality of marketing roles defined therein, the method comprising:

providing, using a processor for processing computer instructions, at least one display for displaying information to a respective user in response to the processor, and memory for storing computer instructions, a portal layer configured to access a workbench file associated with a unique identifier of the respective user, and to determine, using the workbench file, whether the user is assigned an executive role, a marketing manager role, or a data analyst role, the portal layer further comprising;

a role portal component for providing;

a first role portal corresponding to the marketing manager role within the marketing organization,

a second role portal corresponding to the data analyst role within the marketing organization, and

a third role portal corresponding to the executive role within the marketing organization; and

a workbench component for generating one or more workbenches on the at least one display that include color-coded status indicators scoring current marketing campaign metrics tailored to the user'"'"'s role, the workbenches comprising;

a first workbench corresponding to the marketing manager role, the first workbench permitting the user to selectively access metric and workflow information associated with the marketing manager role including marketing analysis and reporting information,

a second workbench corresponding to the data analyst role permitting the user to selectively access metric and workflow information associated with the data analyst role including information that determines whether a proposed marketing campaign will be successful, the metric and workflow information associated with the data analyst role being different from the metric and workflow information associated with the marketing manager role, and

a third workbench corresponding to the executive role permitting the user to selectively access metric and workflow information associated with the executive role, the metric and workflow information associated with the executive role including information that tracks completed and incomplete tasks and being different from the metric and workflow information associated with the marketing manager role and the metric and workflow information associated with the data analyst role,

wherein, if the user is assigned the executive role, the third workbench further comprises an executive home page further comprising;

a company scorecard region displaying high-level key company retention and financial metrics, organized according to a current value for a specified time period, a target value for the same time period, and the color-coded status indicators;

an employee scorecard region displaying overview information about employees for whom the user is responsible, including a number of employees and an attrition rate and the color-coded status indicators; and

a customer scorecard region organized according to the current value, the target value, and the color-coded status indicators.

16. A computer storage medium encoded with a computer program, the program for enabling workflow management of a marketing campaign within a marketing organization, the marketing organization having a plurality of marketing roles defined therein, and the program comprising instructions that when executed by data processing apparatus cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

providing, using a processor for processing computer instructions, at least one display for displaying information to a respective user in response to the processor, and memory for storing the computer instructions, a portal layer configured to access a workbench file associated with a unique identifier of the respective user, and to determine, using the workbench file, whether the user is assigned an executive role, a marketing manager role, or a data analyst role, the portal layer further comprising;

a role portal component for providing;

a first role portal corresponding to the marketing manager role within the marketing organization,

a second role portal corresponding to the data analyst role within the marketing organization, and

a third role portal corresponding to the executive role within the marketing organization; and

a workbench component for generating one or more workbenches on the at least one display that include color-coded status indicators scoring current marketing campaign metrics tailored to the user'"'"'s role, the workbenches comprising;

a first workbench corresponding to the marketing manager role, the first workbench permitting the user to selectively access metric and workflow information associated with the marketing manager role including marketing analysis and reporting information,

a second workbench corresponding to the data analyst role permitting the user to selectively access metric and workflow information associated with the data analyst role including information that determines whether a proposed marketing campaign will be successful, the metric and workflow information associated with the data analyst role being different from the metric and workflow information associated with the marketing manager role, and

a third workbench corresponding to the executive role permitting the user to selectively access metric and workflow information associated with the executive role, the metric and workflow information associated with the executive role including information that tracks completed and incomplete tasks and being different from the metric and workflow information associated with the marketing manager role and the metric and workflow information associated with the data analyst role,

wherein, if the user is assigned the executive role, the third workbench further comprises an executive home page further comprising;

a company scorecard region displaying high-level key company retention and financial metrics, organized according to a current value for a specified time period, a target value for the same time period, and the color-coded status indicators;

an employee scorecard region displaying overview information about employees for whom the user is responsible, including a number of employees and an attrition rate and the color-coded status indicators; and

a customer scorecard region organized according to the current value, the target value, and the color-coded status indicators.