JP2003223502A - Intellectual support system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a system to give appropriate intellectual support, including introduction of a specialist, to a person who needs the intellectual support. <P>SOLUTION: When an intellectual support part 1 receives a specific intellectual support item from a member 2, a processing part 4 compares the item with data stored in an intellectual support item database 5 and decides whether a typical answer can be made to the support item needed by the member 2. When it is decided as possible, the processing part 4 selects a predetermined answer from an information supply database, and provides the answer to the member 2. When it is decided that a typical answer is impossible, a specialist 3 suitable for the support item needed by the member 2 is selected based on data stored in a specialist introduction database 8, and introduced to the member 2 after his (her) intention as to the acceptability is confirmed. After the completion of processing of the case by the specialist 3, the member 2 enters the level of satisfaction with the specialist 3, which is processed into data to serve as one of materials for decision in future introductions of specialists. <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 system for providing intellectual support to persons who need specialized knowledge in a specific field, regardless of individuals or corporations, and particularly to lawyers, certified public accountants and patent attorneys. It relates to a system that supports those who need such specialized knowledge, including introductions of specialists in specific fields such as tax accountants and tax accountants.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Whether an organization such as an individual or a corporate body encounters a situation that requires specialized knowledge, such as a legal problem, should be consulted with a specialist. It is not easy for these individuals, etc. to make a judgment as needed, such as how to select an expert. Usually, in such a case, the law consultation corner of public facilities such as city halls is asked, or there is some misunderstanding, but the act is problematic, such as jumping into a so-called "random hit" law office. In many cases, it is doubtful whether it is the best action for resolution.

Particularly, visiting an office run by an expert such as a law firm is not a daily activity for the above-mentioned individuals, so that the fee charged, anonymity, etc. may be uneasy or work may be performed. It seems that the so-called threshold is often high, such as being unable to visit the office at the reception hours due to circumstances such as the above. In addition, the law firm side is not good enough to consult with a specialist because the matters to be consulted are trivial matters as an expert, or it is happening that the consultation process happens to be too busy to obtain sufficient consultation time. It is also possible that there are circumstances such as.

[0004]

In view of the above points, an individual such as an attorney is introduced by accessing the home or company at any time using an information transmission system such as the Internet from home or company. A system has been proposed (JP 2001-319005, JP 20).
01-325472).

It is expected that this system will significantly solve the problems of the prior art. On the other hand, it seems that it is not uncommon for individuals and others to have anxiety in terms of the level of ability of the introduced expert or the human nature of the expert. In addition, before the introduction of the expert, it is considered that the consultation items include a considerable number of items that can be routinely processed without the need for the expert to take the trouble as described above. In such a case, the processing by the expert may be time-consuming or expensive.

[0006]

The present invention is constructed in view of the above problems. That is, the present invention relates to a member consisting of an individual, a corporation or the like that needs support based on knowledge in a specialized field (intellectual support), an intellectual support unit for providing intellectual support to these members, and this intellectual support. It is an intellectual support system consisting of attorneys, certified public accountants, patent attorneys, tax accountants, and other specialists in specific fields who provide intellectual support to specific members through intermediary activities of the department. The department, the intellectual support department and the expert are connected and connected to each other so as to be able to exchange information with each other by means of information transmission such as the Internet, and the intellectual support department can provide a fixed response to the consultation items of the member. Means to evaluate whether it is content, Memorize the answer when the fixed answer is possible, Specialize to select a specific expert when the fixed answer is difficult or impossible A memorizer accumulating data about the house Is intellectual support system characterized in that it has and.

[0007]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION When it becomes necessary for a member to receive intellectual support, the member accesses the home page of the intellectual support department via the Internet and selects a file for filling in a question. Prescribed items are described in this file, and the file in which the prescribed items are described is transmitted to the intelligent support unit.

The intellectual support section, which has input the data of the predetermined items from the members, judges whether or not the consultation item is a question for which a standard answer is possible from this data, and can provide a standard answer. In this case, the answer corresponding to the question item is retrieved from the database and displayed in the answer column of the file opened by the member, for example.

On the other hand, when it is determined that a fixed answer is difficult or impossible, a message indicating that expert advice is required for the file opened by the member is displayed, and the member requests. For example, include the criteria for selecting an expert, such as the location of the expert's office, the approximate cost, and in the case of particular legal issues, the gender of the expert.

The intellectual support department selects an expert corresponding to the request of the member from the expert introduction database, the fact that the member has requested the intellectual support to the selected expert, and the intellectual support. We will inform you of the contents of the above and confirm whether or not the expert will be accepted. When the expert informs that he / she will be accepted, the data of the expert (address, rough cost, etc.)
Attach to and introduce to members.

After that, the member processes the case by the positional support of the expert, the act of acting, etc. After the incident, the member describes the degree of satisfaction with the expert such as the processing result, cost, processing time, etc. to the intellectual assistance department in a predetermined file on the homepage of the intellectual assistance department, for example. The department evaluates experts based on data such as satisfaction of each member.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will be specifically described below with reference to the drawings. First, FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a system according to the present invention. As is clear from this figure, the present system includes an intellectual support unit 1 and a member 2 who is a member contract with the intellectual support unit 1 and is an organization such as an individual or a corporation.
It consists of an intellectual support department 1 and a specialist 3 in a specific field, such as a lawyer, a certified public accountant, a patent attorney, or a tax accountant who provides intellectual support to members who need specialized knowledge in a specific field. . Note that the expert 3 makes a contract (hereinafter referred to as an “intellectual support contract”) to provide specific intellectual support to a specific member 2 when requested by the intellectual support department 1 and Register as an expert with the technical support section 1.

Of these, the intellectual support unit 1 has the following configuration. The intellectual support unit 1 is connected to the member 2 or the expert 3 by information transfer means such as the Internet IN so that information can be transferred to each other, and the member 2 or the expert 3 receives information from the member 2 based on the information input from the member 2 or the expert 3. It has a central function of this system, such as directly providing intellectual support, or introducing the expert 3 to allow the expert 3 to provide more specific intellectual support, as will be described later. It has a processing unit that performs a predetermined process and a database that stores various information and outputs data to the processing action performed by the processing unit.

Reference numeral 4 in the figure denotes a processing unit, which is an intellectual support unit 1.
It plays a central role as, and is composed of one or a plurality of computers. Reference numeral 5 is an intellectual support item diagnosis database. This intellectual support item diagnosis database 5 stores question items that can be answered in a fixed form. The question item data accumulated regarding the member's question items is searched and the member's question items are retrieved as data as a result of the search. If it is accumulated in it, it is judged that a standard answer is possible.

Reference numeral 6 is a fixed answer database in which answers (fixed answer) to the question items stored in the intellectual support item diagnosis database 5 are input. As described above, when the question from the member is stored in the question items stored in the database 5, the fixed answer corresponding to this question item is drawn from the fixed answer database and displayed to the member 2. . Intellectual support items (question items) from member 2 are, for example, "how long is the product cooling off period?", "What is the legacy portion of the heritage, and how is the residual portion calculated?" Questions that allow for routine answers such as "what kind of rights are" are stored in the intellectual support item diagnosis database 5, and the formal answers corresponding to these questions are accumulated in the formal answer database. .

Reference numeral 7 is a cost database, in which data for calculating the cost for the services provided by the intellectual support unit 1 to the members, such as these standard responses or introduction of the expert 3 described later, is input. Has been done.

Reference numeral 8 is an expert introduction database. This database 8 is a database in which necessary data for introducing a specific expert to members is accumulated for each expert. Of these, the specialized field data 8A is a specialized field of each expert 3, for example, if the expert 3 is an attorney, a specialized field such as civil and criminal, or if it is a patent attorney, a technical relationship centered on the invention, or In the case of trademark or technology, the field of specialty such as mechanical, electrical, chemical, and information engineering is input.

In the address data 8B, the address of the office of each expert 3 and, in some cases, the address data including the home address are entered. Depending on the request of the member 2 who is the requester, for example, an expert in the vicinity of the address of the member 2 may be requested. Therefore, this data may be important information when a specific expert is selected. Although not shown, Expert 3
Gender, age, etc. should be converted into data. In certain legal issues, members may specify the gender of the lawyer they request. It should be noted that these data are to be self-reported by experts, and it is natural that information about privacy of experts not disclosed by each expert is converted into data.

The customer satisfaction data 8C is a data of the satisfaction level of the member 2 requested by a specific expert for the expert 3. Normally, after the item requested by the member 2 has settled down, it is converted into data by obtaining information from the member. For example, for each item such as satisfaction with the item processing itself, processing time, billing amount, and attitude of expert, for example, A:
Very satisfied, B: Almost satisfied, C: Neither can be said,
Ask the members to rank D: Somewhat dissatisfied, E: Very dissatisfied, and so on. In addition, if a problem arises, such as dismissing an expert during the course of handling an incident, and if this fact is received from a member, it is necessary to introduce a new expert. Input in data 8C.

In general, it is not easy for the intellectual support section 1 to know when the introduced expert 3 has completed the case processing. For this reason, for example, when the expert 3 accepts the case, the expert 3 should be notified of the end of the case by e-mail or the like to the intellectual assistance department 1. The fact that no referral is provided is included in one of the intellectual support contract items. When the expert 3 notifies the end of the case, the member 2 is requested to evaluate the expert 3 (customer satisfaction) with respect to the above-mentioned matters by e-mail or the like.

The customer satisfaction data sent from the member 2 is filed for each expert, and is processed into the introduction ranking data 8D as a part of the material for determining the next introduction order based on the satisfaction data 8C. Remembered. In addition,
The customer satisfaction data 8C and the introduction ranking data 8D are data as internal materials of the intellectual support unit 1, and their contents are not normally provided to both the member 2 and the expert 3. In addition, since there is a part where the satisfaction degree is evaluated due to factors other than the original ability of the expert 3, such as the goodness and badness of the compatibility between the member 2 and the expert 3, the customer satisfaction data 8C is
It is used as a guide for introducing experts. Reference numeral 9 is a server for exchanging information with the member 2 and the expert 3 via the Internet IN.

Next, an example of the execution state of this system will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3. The member 2 who wants to receive intellectual support opens a predetermined file from the home page of the intellectual support unit 1 via the Internet IN. In this file, enter the contents for which you want to receive intellectual assistance. At this time, for example, “Trouble of land and house”, “Traffic accident”,
A category such as "tax consultation" may be displayed in advance and a predetermined category may be clicked.

When the consultation items are specifically described, the member 2 transmits this data to the intellectual support unit 1 and the intellectual support unit 1
After receiving this item (S1), the item is classified according to its content, that is, the item for which intellectual assistance is desired, that is, the consultation item (S)
2). Classifications are categorized as, for example, divorce for legal consultation, damage compensation for traffic accident, tax filing, etc. Based on this classification, specialized fields such as legal matters (civil matters) and tax matters are specified ( S3).

Next, as described above, this consultation item is, for example, "how long is the cooling off period of the product?"
It is possible to make a standardized answer in the first place, such as "what is the residual portion of the heritage, how is the residual portion calculated, and what is the patent right?" It is determined whether or not (S4).

When it is judged that a fixed answer is possible, the answer data corresponding to this consultation item is selected from the fixed answer database 6 shown in FIG. 1 (S5), and this answer is stored in the file opened by the member. Is sent (S6), and when the member is satisfied with the displayed answer, the processing of the consultation item is completed.

Although not included in the illustrated step, a step of determining whether or not a fixed answer is possible by the staff of the intellectual support unit 1 may be added after the step S4. That is, although the questions of the member 2 are the questions that are not stored in the intellectual assistance matter diagnosis database 5, but the staff determines that the questions can be routinely answered, and the expert's decision As for those who have received the question, the members are given a fixed answer to this question and the question and the fixed answer are stored in the intellectual support item diagnosis database 5 and the fixed answer database 6, respectively. Here, the staff is not an expert, but a person who has intellectual support ability in a specific field, for example, a person who has knowledge as an assistant to a lawyer in the legal field (commonly known as paralegal, in the United States, A person who has the ability to be recognized professionally as a competent assistant to a lawyer).

On the other hand, when the member judges that the standardized answer presented is not sufficient (S7), the step S
Enter the same expert referral step as when you cannot give a standard answer in 4. That is, the expert introduction procedure (S8) is executed in FIG. 3, and the intellectual support unit 1 asks the file opened by the member about the conditions of the expert 3 shown in FIG. 1 (S9). For example, the address of a professional office, gender, age,
If there are matters such as careers that the members particularly want, describe them in the file, and the intellectual assistance unit 1 inputs this condition (S
10).

The intellectual support unit 1 compares the input condition with each data in the expert database 8 and selects the expert 3 who meets the condition presented by the member 2 (S11). Contact the selected expert with the consultation items and requester data (company name, business type, etc. for corporations, age, sex, etc. for individuals) (S12), and confirm whether or not the appointment is accepted. (S13).

When the expert informs that he / she can be accepted, the expert is sent to the member together with the expert data (special field, age, sex, office address, etc.) (S14). . The member judges whether to request the case to the expert based on the displayed data of the expert (S15), and when the expert is designated and requested, the member is designated. Based on this, the expert is notified that the member has been designated (S16), and it is confirmed whether the contacted expert will finally accept the case (S1).
7). By the way, even if the expert 3 side has room to accept the appointment at the stage of the referral procedure, there is a possibility that the specialist cannot be accepted at the final stage due to an urgent case or the like. Therefore, for experts, in step 17 above,
It is advisable to get a final answer regarding acceptance / rejection.

If the designated expert becomes unacceptable in step 17, the process returns to step 14 as in the case where the member introduced by the member is not designated in step 15, and the The support unit 1 introduces another expert to the member.

On the other hand, when the designated expert approves the appointment in step 17, the expert is officially introduced to the member (S18), and the expert handles the case (S19).

After the processing of the case is completed, the intellectual support section 1 confirms the satisfaction level of the introduced expert to this member by e-mail or the like by the method described above (S2).
0), it is stored in the expert database 8 and used as reference data for the next introduction. As mentioned above, it is difficult for the intellectual support department 1 to know the end of case processing independently, so it is obligatory to notify the intellectual support department 1 of the end of case processing to the introduced expert. It is desirable to take measures.

[0033]

As described above, according to the present invention, the intellectual support section first determines the intellectual support items transmitted from the members, and the intellectual support section according to the present invention. A system that evaluates whether routine processing is possible, informs members who can process routinely to members immediately, and introduces experts for the first time when routine processing is difficult or impossible. Therefore, compared with the conventional expert intermediary system, it is possible to quickly and inexpensively process many of the matters that require intellectual support without relying on the specialist, and the knowledge of the specialist. By asking the expert only for intellectual support matters that truly require experience, appropriate and reliable processing by the expert becomes possible.

Further, by accumulating the data from the members, it becomes possible to carry out the evaluation of the expert, which was almost impossible in the past, in the intellectual support section, and as a result, the member who is the user can be evaluated. It is expected that specialists will be able to provide higher quality services, and that professionals will also work hard to improve themselves.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration state of an intelligent support system showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an example of an implementation state of the system shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart connected to the flow shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Intellectual Support Department 2 members 3 experts 4 processing section 5 Intellectual support item diagnosis database 6 standard answer database 7 Cost database 8 expert introduction database

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A system for providing a predetermined intellectual support to a person who needs the intellectual support by using an information communication means such as the Internet, which is registered in the intellectual support section and the intellectual support section. The members of the intellectual support department and the experts who have a specific field of expertise and are registered with the relevant intellectual support department, and the intellectual support department evaluates the intellectual support matters from the members, and Memorizing means for judging whether or not it is possible to make a fixed answer to the intellectual support item by the evaluation means, and storing the fixed answer output when it is judged that the fixed answer is possible by the judging means. And a means for storing expert data for selecting a specific expert when it is judged that the fixed answer is difficult or impossible by the means for judging whether or not the fixed answer is possible. An intellectual support system characterized by that. 2. The data relating to each expert is composed of information declared by the expert, such as the field of expertise, address, sex, age, etc. of each expert. Intelligent support system. 3. The intellectual support section has means for collecting the satisfaction level of the members with respect to the introduced experts, and the satisfaction level of each expert collected by this means is specialized as one of the expert data. The intelligent support system according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the intelligent support system is configured to be stored in the house data storage means. 4. When selecting a specific expert to introduce to a member, the means for selecting an expert is configured to use the satisfaction data output from the member as one of the expert selection data. The intellectual support system according to claim 3, wherein