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Method and apparatus for network-based sales force automation

This application is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/797,053 entitled “Method and Apparatus for Network-Based Sales Force Management,” filed Feb. 27, 2001, and naming Keith Raffel, Robert M. Schulman, Dixie Baker, Robert E. Currie, and Christine Currie as inventors, which is a continuation application under 35 U.S.C. §365(c) of PCT Application No. US99/19766 filed Aug. 27, 1999, which designated the United States and claims benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/098,194 filed Aug. 29, 1998. The above-mentioned application are incorporated by reference herein, in their entirety and for all purposes.

The invention relates to the field of managing sales force information. In particular, the invention relates to a method of providing transactional data over a network to sales force members.

In order to facilitate accurate decision making, it is desirable to be able to consider a maximum amount of available information in formulating a decision. Maximizing the amount of available information, however, often increases the difficulty of the decision making process, thereby reducing the accuracy of the corresponding decision. This is because the amount of information to be presented, assimilated, and considered in the making of business decisions can be significant in light of the current information age. Therefore, it is desirable to maximize the information presented to a decision maker while presenting the information in such a way as to be readily understood by the decision maker.

One approach to presenting information is to present raw information or statistics to a decision maker. This approach is generally not preferred because a large amount of time is expended by the decision maker in assimilating and understanding the information. Furthermore, the decision maker may not have the training or experience to correctly analyze the information.

Another frequently used approach for presenting information is to organize the material for presentation using graphs and charts compiled from the information. Many different forms of graphs and charts have typically been used, depending on the type of information to be presented. This approach can work well if the information is the type that is easily organized in graph or chart form. Again, however, information presented in graphs and charts can be difficult for the decision maker to assimilate, particularly when information relevant to one event must be compared with information relevant to other events.

Often, when there is a need to compare information from numerous events or transactions, there is a requirement to look at the historical statistics of the transactions. When the historical statistics of the transaction are relevant, concurrent presentation of historical data of the same type and format as the current data is required. It becomes extremely difficult to display historical data concurrently with current data in the same format on the same display using traditional graphs and charts. One reason for this difficulty is the limited space available on typical charts and graphs. In considering the limited space, a characteristic of the current transactional data must be deleted to allow room for each relevant historical characteristic that is displayed. This is especially true in the areas of business transactions, customer information support, and sales where there are large amounts of relevant data for each event, and historical event data are critical to efficient decision making by sales and marketing personnel.

Therefore, it is desirable for everyone in an organization, from the sales and support personnel to the chief executive officer, to be able to take a quick look at significant transaction data and make an efficient evaluation and determination as to the best potential business prospects to pursue or the most serious support problems to fix. Consequently, it is desirable to have an information presentation scheme to increase the efficient presentation of information in the general area of customer information management systems and contact management.

Another problem faced by many organizations in the current information age is that large amounts of information are frequently available regarding business transactions. However, as the members of the organization are mobile, particularly in a sales organization, it becomes problematic to get such large amounts of information into the hands of the individuals that need to act on the information. Furthermore, it becomes difficult to provide for communication among members of the organization, communication that improves the effectiveness of the organization and the personnel. It is equally as difficult to provide for communication among members of the organization and clients of the organization, something upon which survival of the organization may depend. Consequently, it is desirable to have an information provision scheme that is accessible by personnel from a number of locations.

A method and apparatus for network-based sales force automation are provided herein. Transactional information of deals, contacts, accounts, and leads is provided over an Internet using a Web browser. The information of related transactions is electronically linked, and the transactional information is electronically searchable using custom profiles. The transactional information is accessed and shared among host organization members according to a hierarchy and predefined territories. The transactional information may be automatically imported from and exported to other applications comprising Web sites, spreadsheets, databases, and contact managers. A Radar Screen™ Opportunity Display (RSOD) may be selected on which deal objects are displayed that represent the stages in a sales pipeline of corresponding deals. The deals comprise sales deals, services to be performed, product defects, and calls by representatives. New business information may be selected, wherein automatic notification is provided of new information and changed information relating to transactions, wherein the new business information comprises information on at least one monitored customer Web site. Calendar and to-do information may be selected that is automatically linked with corresponding transactional information. A communication capability is provided that comprises electronic mail, facsimile, telephones, and paging devices, wherein communication is automatically established using transactional information. A record of the communication may be saved in a history file corresponding to the transaction.

These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the accompanying drawings and from the detailed description and appended claims which follow.

The present invention is illustrated by way of example and not limitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings, in which like references indicate similar elements and in which:

FIG. 1 is a structure of the Customer Information Management System (CIMS) environment of one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a computer system using an embodiment of the present invention.