JP3451983B2 - Report circulation system - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a form circulating system for filling blank fields in a form while circulating a form such as an electronic mail among a plurality of nodes.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in this type of form circulation system, a circulation route of a form is defined in advance, and the form is circulated in accordance with the circulation route. In setting and managing the route for circulation, it is a great burden to decide all necessary routes in advance and to delete / add / modify routes as necessary according to changes in the situation. Therefore, various methods for reducing this burden have been proposed.

[0003] For example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 9-81488, the optimum route is automatically selected from a plurality of predetermined circulation routes based on the information added during the circulation, and the burden of setting the transfer destination is set. A technique for reducing the amount has been proposed (first conventional example). This technique is to define a plurality of circulation routes for a form in advance, and to determine which of the defined circulation routes is defined for the created form and the storage means for storing the defined circulation route. Setting means for setting the unique identifier of
The circulation route is automatically selected from the storage means and executed based on the additional information of the form set at the time of executing the circulation. As a result, even if there are multiple circulation routes,
The unique additional information of the form makes it possible to automatically select and execute the appropriate circulation route from multiple circulation routes, so that at each circulation destination, the worker can send the circulation route to the next circulation destination. It eliminates the need to select a route.

Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-295901 proposes a technique for automatically setting a re-transfer destination of a form based on the characteristics of the header and the content of the body of the form (second).
Conventional example). In this technique, the characteristics specified by the contents of the header and body of the transferred form and the retransfer route information set corresponding to the characteristics are stored in the storage device as rule data. The analysis device analyzes the transferred form, and if this form matches the rule data, based on the control information described in the rule data, the route information for re-transfer is recorded in the form. Add and output.

Further, in order to save the labor of manually setting the transfer destination of the form, a technique of automatically setting the next transfer destination from the organizational hierarchy has also been proposed (third conventional example).

[0006]

However, the above conventional techniques have the following problems. (1) Although the first conventional example is excellent in flexibility in determining a route according to the situation, it is necessary to determine a plurality of circulation routes in advance. We have not yet solved the burden reduction. Further, even if the optimum route is dynamically determined, there is a problem that the route remains within the range of the predefined route. (2) In the second conventional example, a means for re-transferring to a sub route other than a predetermined route is proposed.
Although it is based on the contents of the form, it does not show the criteria for deciding the re-transfer destination and cannot function sufficiently. Another problem is that the range of automation is limited to re-transfer to the next route. (3) In the third conventional example, it is impossible to set a route that does not apply to the organizational hierarchy. Furthermore, there is a problem that flexible settings such as jumping over the hierarchy cannot be made even if there is no contradiction with the organizational hierarchy. There is also a problem that it takes time to manage the organizational hierarchy.

In view of the above-mentioned conventional problems, the present invention can automatically set a circulation route when a form with similar contents is circulated next time, and greatly reduces the burden associated with setting and management of the circulation route. It is also an object of the present invention to provide a form circulation system capable of improving operability. It is another object of the present invention to provide a form circulation system that can improve the speed and productivity of form circulation by omitting unnecessary circulation or parallelizing.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, in the form circulation system according to the invention of claim 1,
A form generation terminal that generates a form including one or more blank fields and sends the form to an arbitrary external node, and data in a blank field in the form transmitted from the external node including the form generation terminal. And at least one form circulation terminal for inputting the form, and the form is circulated among a plurality of nodes including the form generation terminal and the form circulation terminal in order to fill in the blank fields in the form. In the form circulation system, the form circulation terminal stores a form transferred from one or more external nodes, forms a data in a blank field in the form, and stores its own field in the field. In a state in which the identifier of the own node is assigned by the field editing unit that assigns an identifier, and the field editing unit,
When data is entered in all the fields, the form is transferred to the form generating terminal, and if not, a form transfer unit for transferring the form to an arbitrary node is provided. Based on the transfer history of the form returned to the generation terminal and the identifier of the node given to the field in which the data is filled, the series of nodes that have filled the field, the series of nodes that have not filled the field, and the Regarding the route analysis unit that generates a set with a form as a route, and the form generated by the form generation terminal, the similarity between the forms based on the same value of the field or the same frequency distribution of the keywords included in the field. A form similarity calculating unit that calculates a degree, and when the form generation terminal or the form circulation terminal transfers a new form to an external node, A route presenting unit that selectively presents, as a transfer destination, a route of a node whose field is filled out of the routes generated by the route analysis unit based on the calculation result of the vote similarity calculation unit. .

In the form circulating system according to the invention described in claim 2, in the form circulating system according to claim 1, when the route presenting unit transfers the form to the external node, the form generating terminal or the form circulating terminal. In addition to presenting the route of the node that filled the field as the transfer destination,
It is characterized in that the route of the node that does not fill the field is presented as the transfer destination of the reference information.

In the form circulation system according to the invention described in claim 3, in the form circulation system according to claim 1 or 2, the form has a circulation essential flag storage section as one of fields, and the form circulation system When the circulation terminal transfers a form to an external node, even if the field is not filled in by the self-node, when the flag in the circulation required flag storage section is set, it is considered that the form circulation terminal has filled the field, The analysis unit is characterized by being configured to analyze a route.

In the form circulating system according to the invention described in claim 4, in the form circulating system according to claims 1 to 3, a route display device for displaying the route analyzed by the route analyzing section and a field are filled. And a route correction device that corrects a node that does not fill the field or changes a node that does not fill the field to a node that fills the field.

[0012]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. [First Embodiment] FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the arrangement of a form circulating system according to the first embodiment of the present invention. This form circulation system includes a form generating unit 11 and a form sending unit 12
There is one form generating terminal 10 composed of and, and a plurality of form circulating terminals 20 are sequentially connected to the form generating terminal 10. Each form circulation terminal 20 has a form storage unit 21,
The field editing unit 22 and the form transfer unit 23 are included. In addition, the form circulation system of this embodiment includes a route analysis unit 30, a form similarity calculation unit 40, and a route presentation unit 50.

The form generation terminal 10 creates a form to be circulated and transfers it to an arbitrary node. As a result, the circulation of the form in the entire system is started. Form generation terminal 10
The form generation unit 11 has a function of generating a form including one or more blank fields, and in that case, there may be a plurality of fields in which values are filled. The field in which the value is filled indicates the circulation destination of the form depending on its content (see FIG. 2 described later). In addition, the form sending department 1
2 functions to send the generated form to another node.

On the other hand, the form circulation terminal 20 receives a form from another node, performs necessary processing such as filling a field, and circulates the form to another node. When all the fields are filled in by the own node, the form is returned to the form generation terminal 10.
The form storage unit 21 of the form circulation terminal 20 is an area for temporarily storing forms received from other nodes. In addition, the field editing unit 22 fills a blank field with a value.
For example, looking at the inquiry field from the customer and filling in the answer field if the user has knowledge. Further, the identifier of the own node is given to the field as a mark that fills the field. Further, the form transfer unit 23 has a function of transferring the edited form to another node, and returns the form to the form generation terminal 10 if there is no field to be filled, but if there are more fields to fill, another form is sent. Circulate to the node. At the time of transfer, the identifier of its own node is added to the form.

The route analysis unit 30 classifies the nodes that are useful for filling the fields and the nodes that are not so by matching the list of the identifiers of the nodes given by each node during the circulation with the identifiers filling the fields. Then, the route is generated (see FIG. 3 described later).

The form similarity calculator 40 calculates whether or not there is a similar form to a conventional form when a new form is created. For example, regarding an inquiry form from a customer, it can be considered that a customer having the same customer name field has a high degree of similarity. If the domain name in the customer address field is the same, it can be considered that the degree of similarity is slightly high. The above processing can be configured by a simple character string matching rule. For the inquiry content field, a method may be considered in which a keyword is extracted from them, a keyword vector is constructed, and the closeness between the vectors is evaluated. This is an existing technique, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-0452.
It can be configured by using the method disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 37.

When the form generation terminal 10 and the form circulation terminal 20 transfer a new form to another node, the route presenting unit 50
Based on the calculation result of the form similarity calculation unit 40, the route analysis unit 3
It has a function of selectively presenting, as a transfer destination, a node whose field is filled in the path generated by 0.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram of the form 60 in this embodiment. In this example, the customer name field, the customer address field, and the inquiry content field 3
It consists of three fields. Each field is
It comprises an attribute storage area 61 for storing field attributes, a value storage area 62 for storing field values, and an identifier storage area 63 for storing node identifiers in which the field values are filled. Further, an identifier list 64 for storing a list of node identifiers is provided to indicate a route along which the form is circulated.

FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram of the route 70 in this embodiment. The path 70 stores the final form 71 that has moved through the path 70, the final identifier list 72 that is a copy of the identifier list 64, and the final attribute storage that is the attribute of the field in which the identifier is filled for each element of the identifier result list. Area 73 and.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described. Figure 4
FIG. 6 is a diagram conceptually showing a route that a form in a route 70 in the present embodiment follows. The node with identifier 0 in the figure is a form generation terminal. It is circulated in the order of node 1 → node 2 → node 3 → node 4 → node 5 → node 0, and node 1 simply transfers to node 2 and node 2 fills the first answer field 3 transferred to node 3, simply transferred to node 4 at node 3, transferred to node 5 at node 4, simply transferred to node 0 at node 5 with the second answer field filled in. .

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing how the route presenting section 50 presents a route when a form similar to the form in the route 70 is newly circulated. Route 7 in the figure
By referring to the final attribute storage area 73 of 0, it can be seen that the fields are filled in the nodes 2 and 5, and the fields are not filled in the nodes 1, 3, and 4. Therefore, as shown in FIG.
Then, the node 1, the node 3, and the node 4 are skipped from the node 2 to the node 5, and the route is selected.

Next, a specific operation example of this embodiment will be described. For example, in a customer support department within a company,
The contact person receives the customer's question by e-mail, forwards the e-mail to the appropriate person in the company, the person in charge sends the response e-mail to the contact person, and the contact person answers the customer. The form circulation will be described as an example.

The contact person should forward the e-mail to the appropriate person according to the customer information and the content of the question. However, if the content of the inquiry is ambiguous, or if it is a new type of inquiry that cannot be processed by the existing route, the form will be transferred among multiple persons in charge, and the appropriate person will finally answer. Become.

The person in charge of the window uses the form generation terminal 10 to
Issue customer inquiry form. At that time, the customer name field and the inquiry field are filled, and the form is issued with the answer field being empty. The person in charge takes the form by using the form circulation terminal 20. If you cannot fill in the answer fields yourself, forward them to someone else you think is appropriate. When the answer field can be filled, the answer field is filled, and it is confirmed that there is no other field to be filled, and the answer field is transferred to the original contact person. The person in charge who responds here and the person in charge who simply forwards it to another person without answering are divided. Route analysis unit 3
0 is in charge of this.

Next time, when a similar inquiry is made, or when an inquiry is made from the same customer or a customer of the same company, the route presenting section 50 works to directly report the form to the person in charge who made the reply. Will be transferred.
The form similarity calculation unit 40 determines whether the contents are similar. Whether the customer is the same customer or a customer of the same company can be determined by the similarity judgment of a specific field such as name and e-mail address.

In the conventional form circulating device, it was difficult to take the idea of route reuse. That is because there was no proof that the end of the circulation route was the same as the original node. Therefore, the route must be defined in advance, and the route management is limited to the inspection of the predefined route omission and the change of only a part of the route. In this form circulation system, the form is returned to the issuer, which enables complete and efficient reuse.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the nodes that substantially pass through and the nodes that do not pass through are learned from the path of the form circulated in the past, and when similar forms are circulated, transfer to unnecessary nodes is performed. Can be omitted. As a result, it is possible to speed up the circulation of the form and improve the productivity. In addition, the circulation route of a form that has been circulated once is acquired in a regularized manner, and when the form with the similar content is circulated next time, the circulation route is automatically set, so that the circulation route is set and managed. The burden is greatly reduced and operability is improved.

[Second Embodiment] It is also effective to send the reference information to the person transferred to the person in charge in addition to the person who directly answered the last time. For example, it is possible to send a carbon copy for e-mail forms. That is, in the second embodiment, when the form generation terminal 10 or the form circulation terminal 20 transfers a form to another node, the route presenting unit 50 presents the route of the node in which the field is filled as a transfer destination, and The path of the node that did not fill the area is presented as the transfer destination of the reference information.

FIG. 6 is a conceptual diagram of a route taken by a new form in the form circulation system according to the second embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 6, the form is circulated from node 0 to node 1 and node 2, and from node 2 to node 3, node 4 and node 5. The form circulated to the nodes 1, 3, and 4 includes information indicating that this is a transfer as reference information and does not need to be transferred further. As a result, the transfer to the node that does not fill the field can be parallelized, and the efficiency of circulation can be expected.

[Third Embodiment] In some cases, it may be unfavorable for the management of the company to directly send to the person in charge who answered directly last time. For example, there is an operation rule that a form is circulated through a boss. In that case, it can be dealt with by including information that the route cannot be omitted in the form itself. That is, in the third embodiment, the form has a circulation essential flag storage unit as one of the fields, and when the form circulation terminal 20 transfers the form to another node, even if the field is not filled in by the own node, When the flag of the circulation required flag storage unit is set, the route analysis unit 30 analyzes the route as if the form circulation terminal has filled the field.

FIG. 7 is a conceptual diagram of a route taken by a new form in the form circulation system according to the third embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 7, the node 3 does not fill the field, but it shows that the form is always passed when the form is transferred to the nodes 4 and 5.

FIG. 8 is a conceptual diagram of the route 70 corresponding to FIG. As shown in FIG. 8, in the final attribute storage area 73 of the node 3, not the attribute name of the filled field but the reserved word “circulation required” is described. The reserved word may be any word that does not overlap with the attribute names of other fields.

FIG. 9 shows a form 60 corresponding to the third embodiment.
It is a conceptual diagram of A. The difference between the form 60A and the form 60 shown in FIG. 2 is that the circulation essential flag storage unit 101 is attached to each element of the identifier list. When this flag is set, the route analysis unit 30 describes the reserved word "circulation required" in the final attribute storage area 73 of the route 70.

[Fourth Embodiment] It is also possible to set an appropriate route by the user explicitly editing the obtained route. That is, in the present embodiment, the function of displaying the route analyzed by the route analysis unit 30 and the correction of the node in which the field is filled into the node which is not filled or the node which is not filled in the field is changed to the node which is filled. It has a function and.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing the arrangement of a form circulating system according to the fourth embodiment of the present invention. The difference between the system of this embodiment and the system shown in FIG.
This is the existence of the route management device 90. The route management device 90
It is composed of a route display device 91 and a route correction device 92.
The route display device 91 displays the route 70 analyzed by the route analysis unit 30 on the screen, and the route correction device 92 edits the final attribute storage area 73. As a result, the user can make detailed route settings by modifying the automatically created route.

[0036]

As described above in detail, according to the invention described in claim 1, it is possible to learn from a path of a form circulated in the past, a node that substantially passes through and a node that does not pass through. . As a result, when a similar form is circulated, transfer to unnecessary nodes can be omitted, so that the form can be circulated faster and productivity can be improved.
In addition, when the circulation route of a form that has been circulated once is obtained in a regularized manner, and the next form with similar contents is circulated,
Since the circulation route is automatically set, it is possible to significantly reduce the burden of setting and managing the circulation route and to improve the operability. According to the second aspect of the invention, the transfer to the node that does not fill the field can be parallelized, and the circulation efficiency can be improved. According to the invention described in claim 3, it becomes possible to include information that the route cannot be omitted in the form itself. According to the third aspect of the present invention, the user can make a detailed route setting by modifying the route automatically created.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a form circulation system according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram of a form according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram of a route in the first embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram conceptually showing a route followed by a form in the route in the first embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a conceptual diagram of a route followed by a new form in the first embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a conceptual diagram of a route taken by a new form in the form circulation system according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a conceptual diagram of a path taken by a new form in the form circulation system according to the third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a conceptual diagram of a route corresponding to FIG.

FIG. 9 is a conceptual diagram of a form corresponding to the third embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a form circulation system according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 Form generation terminal 11 Form generator 12 Form shipping department 20 Form circulation terminal 21 Form storage 22 Field editorial department 23 Form Transfer Department 30 Path analysis unit 40 Form similarity calculator 50 Route presentation section 60,60A form 61 Attribute storage area 62 value storage area 63 identifier storage area 64 identifier list 70 routes 71 final form 72 Final identifier list 73 Final attribute storage area 90 Route management device 91 Route display device 92 Route correction device 101 Circular required flag storage

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. A form generation terminal that generates a form including one or more blank fields and sends the form to an external node, and the form transmitted from an external node that includes the form generation terminal. And at least one form circulating terminal for entering data in blank fields of
In a form circulation system that circulates the form among a plurality of nodes including the form generation terminal and the form circulation terminal in order to enter data in a blank field in the form, the form circulation terminal includes one or more external nodes. A form storage unit for storing the form transferred from the table, a field editing unit for entering data in a blank field in the form and for assigning an identifier of the own node to the field, and the own node by the field editing unit. When the data is entered in all the fields in the state where the identifier is given, the form is transferred to the form generating terminal, and if not, the form is transferred to any node. And a transfer history of the form returned to the form generation terminal and the field filled with data. A path analysis unit that generates, as a path, a set of a node series in which the field is filled, a node series in which the field is not filled, and the form based on an assigned node identifier, and the form generation terminal generates the set. A form similarity calculating unit that calculates a similarity between forms based on the sameness of field values or the same frequency distribution of keywords included in the fields, and the form generation terminal or the form circulation terminal. When a new form is transferred to an external node, the route of the node in which the field is filled is selectively used as the transfer destination among the routes generated by the route analysis unit based on the calculation result of the form similarity calculation unit. A form circulation system comprising a route presenting unit for presenting. 2. The route presenting unit presents a route of a node in which a field is filled as a transfer destination when the form generation terminal or the form circulation terminal transfers a form to an external node, and does not fill the field. 2. The form circulating system according to claim 1, wherein the route of the node is presented as a transfer destination of the reference information. 3. The form has a circulation required flag storage unit as one of the fields, and when the form circulation terminal transfers the form to an external node, the circulation is required even if the field is not filled in by the own node. 3. The form according to claim 1 or 2, wherein when the flag of the flag storage unit is set, the form circulation terminal is configured to fill the field and the route analysis unit analyzes the route. Circulation system. 4. A route display device for displaying a route analyzed by the route analysis unit, and a node in which a field is filled is corrected to a node which is not filled, or a node which is not filled in a field is changed to a node which is filled. The form circulating system according to claim 1, further comprising a route management device configured with a route correction device.