CREATING OR UPDATING A SOCIAL NETWORK GROUP BASED ON CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT RECORDS IN AN ENTERPRISE SOCIAL NETWORK

• US 20150120588A1
• Filed: 10/15/2014
• Published: 04/30/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/2013
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Inventors: Mencke, Rasmus
• Application Number:
  US14/515,362
• Publication Number:
  US 20150120588A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/319
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/244 Grouping and aggregation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/288 Entity relationship models
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9027 Trees
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/906 Clustering; Classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services

Abstract

Disclosed are systems, methods, and computer program products for creating or updating a social network group based on customer relationship management (CRM) records in an enterprise social network. In some implementations, a server of a database system receives from a client machine a first request to create or update a social network group based on a CRM record. The server identifies one or more users associated with the CRM record and sends information identifying the users to the client machine for display. The server receives a second request in relation to creating or updating the social network group, the second request identifying a user to be included as a member of the social network group. Responsive to the second request, the server creates or updates the social network group to include the user as a member, the social network group being identified as being associated with the CRM record.

Claims

1. A system for creating or updating a social network group based on customer relationship management (CRM) records in an enterprise social network, the system comprising:

database system software stored on a tangible medium for at least one server of a database system in communication with a client machine and configured to host an enterprise social network, the database system software operable to;

receive, from the client machine, a first request to create or update a social network group based on a first CRM record stored as a data object in the database system;

identify one or more users associated with the first CRM record;

send information identifying the one or more users to the client machine for display in a user interface on a display of the client machine;

receive a second request in relation to creating or updating the social network group, the second request identifying at least a first user selected from the one or more users to be included as a member of the social network group; and

responsive to the second request, create or update the social network group to include at least the first user as a member, the social network group being identified by one or more data objects in the database system as being associated with the first CRM record.

2. The system of claim 1, the database system software further operable to:

identify one or more CRM records of the database system associated with the first CRM record;

send information identifying the one or more associated CRM records to the client machine for display in the user interface;

receive a third request to associate with the social network group a second CRM record selected from the identified one or more CRM records; and

associate the second CRM record with the social network group such that updates to the second CRM record are published as feed items in a group feed associated with the social network group.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the second CRM record is associated with the first CRM record in a child-parent or a parent-child relationship in a hierarchical data model.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the first CRM record is an account, and the second CRM record is an opportunity, a lead, a case, a contact, or a task associated with the account.

5. The system of claim 1, the database system software further operable to:

identify one or more files of the database system associated with the first CRM record;

send information identifying the one or more files to the client machine for display in the user interface;

receive a third request to associate with the social network group a first file selected from the identified one or more files; and

associate the first file with the social network group such that updates to the first file are published as feed items in a group feed associated with the social network group.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the one or more files are attached to feed items of a record feed associated with the first CRM record.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the social network group is associated with a group feed of the enterprise social network such that updates to the first CRM record are published as feed items in the group feed.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the first CRM record is associated with a first topic, and the identified one or more users include users designated as experts regarding the first topic.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the identified one or more users include users following the first CRM record.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the identified one or more users include users having access to the first CRM record.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the identified one or more users include a user who created or has ownership of the first CRM record.

12. The system of claim 1, the database system software further operable to:

determine that the user interface of the client machine is displaying the first CRM record.

13. A computer-implemented method for creating or updating a social network group based on customer relationship management (CRM) records in an enterprise social network, the method comprising:

receiving, at one or more servers of a database system from a client machine, a first request to create or update a social network group based on a first CRM record stored as a data object in the database system;

identifying one or more users associated with the first CRM record;

sending information identifying the one or more users to the client machine for display in a user interface on a display of the client machine;

receiving, at the one or more servers, a second request in relation to creating or updating the social network group, the second request identifying at least a first user selected from the one or more users to be included as a member of the social network group; and

responsive to the second request, creating or updating the social network group to include at least the first user as a member, the social network group being identified by one or more data objects in the database system as being associated with the first CRM record.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

identifying one or more CRM records of the database system associated with the first CRM record;

sending information identifying the one or more associated CRM records to the client machine for display in the user interface;

receiving a third request to associate with the social network group a second CRM record selected from the identified one or more CRM records; and

associating the second CRM record with the social network group such that updates to the second CRM record are published as feed items in a group feed associated with the social network group.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

identifying one or more files of the database system associated with the first CRM record;

sending information identifying the one or more files to the client machine for display in the user interface;

receiving a third request to associate with the social network group a first file selected from the identified one or more files; and

associating the first file with the social network group such that updates to the first file are published as feed items in a group feed associated with the social network group.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the first CRM record is associated with a first topic, and the identified one or more users include users designated as experts regarding the first topic.

17. A computer program product comprising computer-readable program code to be executed by one or more processors when retrieved from a non-transitory computer-readable medium, the program code including instructions configured to cause:

receiving, at one or more servers of a database system from a client machine, a first request to create or update a social network group based on a first CRM record stored as a data object in the database system;

identifying one or more users associated with the first CRM record;

sending information identifying the one or more users to the client machine for display in a user interface on a display of the client machine;

receiving, at the one or more servers, a second request in relation to creating or updating the social network group, the second request identifying at least a first user selected from the one or more users to be included as a member of the social network group; and

responsive to the second request, creating or updating the social network group to include at least the first user as a member, the social network group being identified by one or more data objects in the database system as being associated with the first CRM record.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, the instructions further configured to cause:

identifying one or more CRM records of the database system associated with the first CRM record;

sending information identifying the one or more associated CRM records to the client machine for display in the user interface;

receiving a third request to associate with the social network group a second CRM record selected from the identified one or more CRM records; and

associating the second CRM record with the social network group such that updates to the second CRM record are published as feed items in a group feed associated with the social network group.

19. The computer program product of claim 17, the instructions further configured to cause:

identifying one or more files of the database system associated with the first CRM record;

sending information identifying the one or more files to the client machine for display in the user interface;

receiving a third request to associate with the social network group a first file selected from the identified one or more files; and

associating the first file with the social network group such that updates to the first file are published as feed items in a group feed associated with the social network group.

20. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the first CRM record is associated with a first topic, and the identified one or more users include users designated as experts regarding the first topic.