JP2003198630A - E-mail sending and receiving system management method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method for managing an electronic mail transmission/ reception system for transmitting/receiving electronic mails by a plurality of work groups via a mail server by a system manager. <P>SOLUTION: A mail server MS sets an authority regarding electronic mail transmitter/receiver in work groups to a novel thread and a transmission and a reception of the electronic mail of the electronic mail transmitter/receiver, by setting to and inputting a mail server MS by the manager M when the thread is newly set in the database DB for saving the electronic mails; in the electronic mail transmission/reception system having the electronic mail saving database DB having the threads for saving the electronic mails at each of a plurality of the work groups WG1, WG2, WG3, etc., and an electronic mail processing means for sorting and saving the received electronic mails in the threads of the electronic mail saving database DB. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a management method by an administrator of a system for sending and receiving electronic mail in companies and the like.

[0002]

Conventionally, electronic mail has been
The transmission / reception is performed on a one-to-one basis between the transmission side and the reception side via the mail server, and an e-mail received by a company or the like is also sent by the mail server MS ′ as shown in FIG. When the electronic mail transmitted from the customer C or the like is received via the Internet I, the electronic mail is directly transmitted from the mail server MS ′ to the terminal T of the person in charge who is the destination based on the respective mail addresses. Further, the electronic mail sent from the person in charge is also directly sent to the customer C via the mail server MS ′.

Therefore, in the conventional electronic mail system as described above, the electronic mail sent from the customer or the like can be opened only by the person in charge who is the destination, and the person in charge sends the customer to the customer. No one can check the content of the email sent, so for example
In a company or the like, the content of a business matter such as a business negotiation that is being carried out by e-mail exchange with a customer or the like is known only to the person in charge of exchanging the e-mail, and the affiliation of the person in charge. In many cases, the chief does not know the contents.

Therefore, for example, a person in charge of conducting a business negotiation etc. by exchanging electronic mail with a customer, etc.
If you are absent or moved due to vacation or business trip, other members of the same workgroup or a new person in charge will not be able to use the electronic Since the content of the exchange by email is not understood, this causes problems such as delay in responding to the customer, and inaccurate response.

In order to deal with such a problem, the applicant of the present invention has proposed an electronic mail transmission / reception system as shown in FIG. 7 together with the present invention.

In this electronic mail transmission / reception system, an electronic mail transmission / reception recording medium in which an electronic mail transmission / reception program is stored, a work group WG1, WG2, WG3, ...
E-mail storage database DB provided with a thread for storing e-mail addressed to each is provided, and e-mails received by the mail server MS are distributed to respective work groups of destinations. In addition to saving to the thread corresponding to each workgroup of the database DB for saving emails, the emails sent from each workgroup are saved to the threads corresponding to each workgroup, and the history of sending and receiving of the emails is stored. , Group members who belong to each workgroup can browse at any time.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for a system administrator to manage an electronic mail transmission / reception system in which a plurality of work groups send and receive electronic mail via the above mail server. There is.

[0008]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electronic mail transmission / reception system management method, wherein a mail server is set for each of a plurality of work groups to achieve the above object. An e-mail storage database that stores e-mails and storage areas that can be accessed from each workgroup, a destination determination procedure to determine the workgroup of the destination of the received email, and this destination determination procedure And an e-mail processing means having a storage procedure for distributing and storing e-mails in the storage area of the e-mail storage database corresponding to the workgroup of the destination determined by the plurality of works via this mail server. How to manage a system where groups send and receive e-mail When a system administrator inputs a setting to the mail server and an e-mail storage area is newly provided in the e-mail storage database by the e-mail processing means, the electronic mail in the work group for the storage area is stored. It is characterized by setting the authority regarding the sending and receiving of e-mails between the e-mail sender and the sender.

In the electronic mail transmission / reception system in which the management method according to the first aspect of the present invention is implemented, a plurality of workgroups are configured in a company or the like, and the members of each workgroup exchange e-mails with customers or the like. When a mail server receives an e-mail sent from a customer or the like to a person in charge in a work group while proceeding with a business such as a business negotiation, the mail server causes the e-mail processing means to first determine the destination. By the procedure, the workgroup to which the person in charge of the received e-mail belongs is determined based on various information included in the e-mail, and the workgroup to which the e-mail is addressed is determined. Then, depending on the storage procedure, multiple workgroups are stored in the database for storing emails stored in the mail server. Of the storage area that is set corresponding to each of the storage areas corresponding to the destination of the workgroup it has been determined by the determination procedure, and stores distributing the received e-mail.

The e-mail stored in the storage area set for each work group in the e-mail storage database of this mail server can be processed even if the member of the corresponding work group is not the person in charge. , Can be opened at any time by accessing the email storage database, which allows sharing of email content within workgroups,
Members other than the person in charge who belong to the same workgroup can easily understand the content of the email, so even if the person in charge of the matter such as the business negotiation that was being carried out by exchanging the email is absent, , Other members in the workgroup can easily and appropriately respond to customers, and even if the person in charge changes, it is easy for a new person to change. As well as being able to take over the case, the manager of the work group can easily grasp the content of work in the group by checking the email.

According to the management method of the first invention,
In the above e-mail transmission / reception system, a storage area for storing e-mail is newly provided in the e-mail storage database, and e-mail is stored in the newly provided storage area of the e-mail storage database. Set the email sender / receiver responsible for sending / receiving emails to / from this storage area within the workgroup, and the emails to be sent via the email sender / receiver system of this configured email sender / receiver. The setting of the range of authority for sending and receiving is performed based on the setting input to the mail server by the system administrator.

[0012] In this way, the system administrator collectively sets the settings relating to the sending and receiving of e-mails of the e-mail senders / receivers belonging to the work group to the mail server, so that the mail servers by a plurality of work groups can be set up. E-mails can be sent and received via the Internet smoothly.

In order to achieve the above object, a management method for an electronic mail transmission / reception system according to a second aspect of the present invention has the configuration of the first aspect of the present invention, in which the authority for transmitting / receiving the electronic mail is read It is characterized by settings related to restrictions on creation, transmission and reception.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the system administrator sets the restriction on the viewing of electronic mail by the electronic mail sender / receiver belonging to the work group, the restriction on the creation of the document format, and the setting on the restriction of the mail transmission / reception. It is done collectively for the server.

[0015]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION The most preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram showing an example of an electronic mail transmission / reception system in which the management method according to the present invention is executed.

The electronic mail transmission / reception system shown in FIG.
The configuration of the electronic mail transmission / reception system of FIG. 7 is almost the same, and an electronic mail transmission / reception recording medium in which an electronic mail transmission / reception program as described below is stored in a mail server MS managed in a company, and an electronic mail. A storage database DB is provided, and this e-mail storage database DB has work groups WG1, WG2, WG3 ... Which can access the mail server MS.
Each thread is provided with a thread for storing the sorted electronic mail.

Then, in this mail server MS, from the respective terminals of the group members belonging to the work groups WG1, WG2, WG3, ...
It can be accessed via N.

In this e-mail transmission / reception system, the e-mail sent from the customer C via the Internet I is received by the mail server MS and sent from the group members of the work groups WG1, WG2, WG3 .... E-mail is also mail server M
Sent via S.

The mail server MS of this e-mail transmission / reception system executes an e-mail transmission / reception program, whereby the system administrator M makes an input operation via a terminal connected to the mail server MS or directly to the mail server MS. Various settings relating to the transmission and reception of electronic mail, which will be described later, are performed by the input operation.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing an operation procedure at the time of receiving an electronic mail in the electronic mail transmitting / receiving system.

In FIG. 2, first, the operation procedure when receiving an electronic mail in this electronic mail transmission / reception system will be described. In FIG.
S is based on the electronic mail processing program read from the electronic mail transmission / reception recording medium and activated.
The customer C is constantly monitoring whether or not an email is sent (step a1). When an email is sent from any of the customers C, the email is added to the email by the following procedure. The message ID or address
Received mails are sorted into work groups WG1, WG2, WG3 ... Based on the subject, keywords in the text, and the like.

That is, first, the mail server MS detects a message ID indicating which work group is included in the received electronic mail, and the message ID is stored in the electronic mail storage database. It is determined whether or not it is registered in the DB (step a2).

In step a2, if the message ID is registered in the electronic mail storage database DB, then the received electronic mail is stored in the electronic mail storage database DB based on the message ID. Of the threads provided in advance,
It is determined which thread should be stored (step a3), and the e-mail is stored in the corresponding thread (step a4).

If it is determined in step a2 that the message ID included in the e-mail is not registered in the e-mail storage database DB, then the work is addressed to which work group. It is determined by the address display that is written before the @ mark of the email address of the email or the keyword that indicates the email content entered in the subject or the body of the email (step a5). ).

Then, a thread corresponding to the work group judged in this step a5 is newly created (step a6), and in this newly created thread,
The electronic mail is stored in step a4 described above.

When an electronic mail is stored in the thread newly created as described above, the message ID included in the stored electronic mail is newly stored in the electronic mail storage database DB. When the mail server MS is registered and receives an e-mail containing the same message ID, it is used for collation in the determination in step a2.

As described above, the table TB of FIG. 3 is provided in the electronic mail storage database DB in which the electronic mails are sorted by the mail server MS in association with each work group WG1, WG2, WG3. It shows the state saved in each thread.

As described above, in the mail server MS, the electronic mails sorted by the work groups WG1, WG2, WG3 ... And stored in the electronic mail storage database DB are the work groups WG1, WG.
2, the member belonging to WG3 ... opens at any time by accessing the mail server MS from his own terminal via the in-house LAN and designating the thread corresponding to the work group to which he / she belongs. You can

As a result, group members other than the person in charge who belong to the same work group can easily understand the contents of the e-mail, so that the items such as business negotiations that have been carried out by exchanging e-mail can be performed. Even when the person in charge is absent, other members in the work group can easily and appropriately respond to the customer, and even when the person in charge changes,
A new person in charge can easily take over the case.

The manager of the work group can easily grasp the contents of work in the group by checking the electronic mail.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure when a person in charge who belongs to a work group sends an electronic mail in the above electronic mail sending / receiving system.

Next, in this electronic mail transmission / reception system, the operation procedure when a person in charge of a work group sends an electronic mail will be described. In FIG. 4, the person in charge of a work group is When sending an e-mail regarding a business negotiation or the like to the customer in charge or replying to the e-mail from the customer, first, the person in charge accesses the mail server MS from his own terminal via the in-house LAN. Then, (step b1), the thread of the work group to which the user belongs is selected from the threads provided in the e-mail storage database DB by an operation such as inputting a password (step b2).

Then, the person in charge creates a message ID to be entered in the electronic mail to be sent, based on the message ID of the selected thread in the terminal (step b3).

Next, the person in charge edits the mail text (step b4), adds the message ID created in step b3 to create a mail header (step b5), and finally, in this way. The email header created in step S6 is added to the email body to create an email (step b6).

When the e-mail has been created in this way, the person in charge saves the e-mail in the thread of the work group to which he / she belongs (step b).
At the same time, the electronic mail is transmitted via the mail server MS by performing a transmission operation (step b8).

As described above, the e-mail sent from the person in charge of the workgroup to the customer and the reply to the e-mail of the customer are stored in the thread of the workgroup, so that they are stored in the same workgroup. The other members who belong to the mail server MS access the mail server MS from their own terminal via the in-house LAN and designate the thread corresponding to the work group to which the member belongs, so that the message is sent to the customer. You can open your email at any time.

As a result, employees other than the person in charge who belong to the same work group can easily understand the contents of the exchange of e-mails. Even when the person in charge is absent, other members in the work group can easily and appropriately respond to the customer, and even when the person in charge changes,
A new person in charge can easily take over the case.

Also, the head of the work group can easily grasp the contents of work in the group by checking the electronic mail sent from the person in charge to the customer.

In the electronic mail transmission / reception system as described above, an electronic mail is sent based on the setting input to the terminal connected to the mail server MS by the system administrator M or the direct input to the mail server MS. The mail transmission / reception program sets the system settings of the electronic mail transmission / reception system and the management settings for the operator (person in charge in the work group).

The system settings of the electronic mail transmission / reception system performed by this electronic mail transmission / reception program are the workgroup WG regarding the transmission / reception of electronic mail
1, WG2, WG3 ... Restricting access to the mail server MS for each operator, permitting transmission of e-mail created by each operator, extended attributes of e-mail, creating new thread, and saving in thread There are settings for changing workgroup data and deleting threads.

Further, in the system setting of the electronic mail transmission / reception system performed by the electronic mail transmission / reception program, when a master is set for each work group WG1, WG2, WG3 ... , Authority regarding creation, transmission / reception, new creation of master, deletion of master, and further, authority regarding viewing, creation, transmission / reception of e-mail of each operator by this master, setting regarding new creation of operator, deletion of operator.

FIG. 5 is a procedure for setting the operator and the authority for the operator performed by the system administrator M on the mail server MS when a new thread is created when receiving a mail (see step a6 in FIG. 2). It is a flowchart showing.

In FIG. 5, after the electronic mail is received (step c1), the system manager M displays the list of newly created threads in the mail server MS or the terminal connected to the mail server MS. The user browses (step c2) and sets the operator for this newly created thread (step c3).

Then, the authority for viewing, creating, and transmitting / receiving the electronic mail is set to the operator set in the newly created thread (step c4).

By the setting operation of the mail server MS by the system administrator M, the program for sending and receiving the electronic mail is executed in the mail server MS, and the operator of the work group and the electronic mail of this operator are executed for the newly created thread. The authority to view, create, and send and receive is set.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram showing an example of an electronic mail transmission / reception system in which the present invention is implemented.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a procedure of saving an electronic mail received in the electronic mail transmission / reception system.

FIG. 3 is a diagram schematically showing an aspect of an electronic mail stored in an electronic mail storage database in the electronic mail transmission / reception system.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a procedure for transmitting an electronic mail in the electronic mail transmission / reception system.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a setting procedure in an example of the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a system configuration diagram showing a conventional example.

FIG. 7 is a system configuration diagram of an electronic mail transmission / reception system according to the above proposal.

[Explanation of symbols]

M ... System administrator MS ... Mail server DB ... E-mail storage database WG1, WG2, WG3 ... Workgroup I ... Internet C ... Customer TB ... Table

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Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A database for storing e-mail, wherein a mail server is set for each of a plurality of work groups, stores e-mails of each work group, and has a storage area accessible from each work group. And a destination determination procedure for determining the workgroup of the destination of the received email, and the email is sorted and stored in the storage area of the email storage database corresponding to the workgroup of the destination determined by this destination determination procedure. A method of managing a system in which a plurality of workgroups send and receive e-mails via this mail server, the system manager setting the e-mail in the mail server. By inputting, the electronic mail processing means When an e-mail storage area is newly provided in the e-mail storage database, the e-mail sender / receiver in the work group and the e-mail transmission / reception authority setting for this e-mail storage area are set. A method for managing an electronic mail transmission / reception system, characterized by the above. 2. The management method for an electronic mail transmission / reception system according to claim 1, wherein the setting of the authority regarding the transmission / reception of the electronic mail is a setting regarding the restriction of viewing, creating, and transmitting / receiving of the electronic mail.