Methods and systems for performing email management customizations in a multi-tenant database system

• US 8,935,193 B2
• Filed: 05/06/2011
• Issued: 01/13/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/07/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Inventors: Arora, Pratima, Walters, Jeanine
• Primary Examiner(s): Starks, Wilbert L
• Assistant Examiner(s): Tran, Mai T
• Application Number:
  US13/102,914
• Publication Number:
  US 20120089550A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,348 Days
• Field of Search: 706/47, 709/206, 709/201, 709/203, 709/226
• US Class Current: 706/47
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

An email object is provided in a multi-tenant database system that can be related to multiple people (e.g., contact, lead, user) or any object represented for storage in the multi-tenant database system via sharing relationships. The email object follows a sharing model such that an email inherits the sharing model or attributes of a parent record specified via sharing relationships. In various aspects, a sharing model provides users with a true value of a multi-tenant database system as users are more informed about communications concerning people or other objects represented for storage in the multi-tenant database system.

Claims

1. A method for processing emails in a multi-tenant database system, the method comprising:

receiving, at one or more computer systems associated with the multi-tenant database system, a plurality of recommendation rules, each recommendation rule in the plurality of recommendation rules defining;

one or more conditions that need to be met in order to satisfy the recommendation rule, and

an action that is suggested to be performed when the one or more conditions are met;

determining, with one or more processors associated with one or more computer systems, that at least one email received at the one or more computer systems satisfies at least one recommendation rule in the plurality of recommendation rules by;

identifying at least one of a sender and one or more recipients of the at least one email; and

matching the at least one of the sender and the one or more recipients of the at least one email with the one or more conditions of the at least one recommendation rule; and

performing, with the one or more processors associated with the one or more computer systems, the action suggested to be performed by the at least one recommendation rule in response to input provided by a user approving the action, the action comprising instantiating at least one predefined workflow indicative of further processing on the at least one email.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein performing, with the one or more processors associated with the one or more computer systems, the action suggested to be performed by the at least one recommendation rule in response to the input provided by the user approving the action comprises generating an association between an email object stored in a database of the multi-tenant database system for the at least one email and a target entity identified in the action.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein performing, with the one or more processors associated with the one or more computer systems, the action suggested to be performed by the at least one recommendation rule in response to the input provided by the user approving the action comprises tagging the at least one email with content received from the user approving the action.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein performing, with the one or more processors associated with the one or more computer systems, the action suggested to be performed by the at least one recommendation rule in response to the input provided by the user approving the action comprises creating a target entity identified in the action based on the at least one email and storing the target entity in a database associated with the multi-tenant database system.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the target entity comprises at least one of a contact, a lead, an opportunity, and an account.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein performing, with the one or more processors associated with the one or more computer systems, the action suggested to be performed by the at least one recommendation rule in response to the input provided by the user approving the action comprises tracking interactions between at least one party identified in the at least one email and entities stored in a database associated with the multi-tenant database system.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein performing, with the one or more processors associated with the one or more computer systems, the action suggested to be performed by the at least one recommendation rule in response to the input provided by the user approving the action comprises scheduling at least one interaction with at least one party identified in the at least one email.

8. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable program code for implementing the method of claim 1.

9. A method for processing emails in a multi-tenant database system, the method comprising:

receiving, at one or more computer systems, a plurality of email customizations, each email customization in the plurality of email customizations defining;

one or more triggers that need to be satisfied in order to trigger the email customization, and

one or more actions to be performed when the one or more triggers are satisfied;

requesting, with one or more processors associated with one or more computer systems, user approval for one or more items associated with the at least one email;

determining, with one or more processors associated with one or more computer systems, that at least one email received at the one or more computer systems satisfies at least one email customization in the plurality of email customizations by;

identifying at least one of a sender and one or more recipients of the at least one email; and

matching the at least one of the sender and the one or more recipients of the at least one email with the at least one email customization in the plurality of email customizations; and

performing, with the one or more processors associated with the one or more computer systems, the one or more actions defined by the at least one email customization in response to the user approval, the one or more actions including instantiating at least one predefined workflow indicative of further processing on the at least one email.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein performing, with the one or more processors associated with the one or more computer systems, the one or more actions defined by the at least one email customization comprises forwarding the at least one email to another user of the multi-tenant database system.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein performing, with the one or more processors associated with the one or more computer systems, the one or more actions defined by the at least one email customization comprises adding predetermined content to the at least one email.

12. The method of claim 9 wherein performing, with the one or more processors associated with the one or more computer systems, the one or more actions defined by the at least one email customization comprises sending an outbound message in reply to the at least one email when the at least one email message is an inbound message.

13. The method of claim 9 wherein performing, with the one or more processors associated with the one or more computer systems, the one or more actions defined by the at least one email customization comprises changing a status associated with the at least one email.

14. The method of claim 9 wherein determining, with the one or more processors associated with the one or more computer systems, that the at least one email received at the one or more computer systems satisfies the at least one email customization in the plurality of email customizations comprises:

identifying one or more metrics related to the at least one email; and

matching the one or more metrics with the one or more conditions of the at least one email customization.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable program code for implementing the method of claim 9.