JP2001297042A - Mail management system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To release a specific requester who requests mail reception notice from mail monitoring operation by allowing the requester to only actuates his or her terminal and receive mail only when notified. SOLUTION: When a mail reception part 12 receives mail through a network 1, a notice transmission decision means 14 decides whether or not the mail received by the mail reception part 12 is addressed to the specific requester who requests mail reception notice. A voice calling part 17 and an automatic FAX control part 18 perform control over the transmission of a fixed-form message to the terminal of the specific requester.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a mail management system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art The use environment of a network such as the Internet has been improved, and electronic mail is widely used in various fields. For example, various information is provided on a homepage of the Internet, and an Internet business in which an advertisement is posted on the homepage and an order of a customer is received by e-mail is rapidly increasing.

[0003]

However, the above-mentioned prior art has the following problems to be solved. When placing an advertisement on a homepage and accepting customer inquiries and orders by e-mail, it is necessary to promptly arrange products based on the items described in the received e-mail. However, advertisers who do not have their own server and use a system that publishes a home page on the provider's server, unless they start their computers, access the provider's server, and frequently receive e-mail , Can not know the incoming mail. Therefore, there is a problem that an advertiser who does not have a habit of frequently accessing the server has a delay in responding to customers and cannot conduct a smooth business. In addition, if it is unclear whether the sender of the mail has opened the mail sent by the recipient, the Internet business cannot be facilitated. An object of the present invention is to provide a mail management system for solving the above points.

[0004]

Means for Solving the Problems <Configuration 1> A mail receiving unit that receives a mail through a network, and whether the mail received by the mail receiving unit is for a specific client who requests a mail reception notification Means for determining a notification, a storage unit for storing a fixed message for notifying that a mail has been received, a call controlled by controlling a communication network, and the fixed form to the terminal of the specific requester. A mail management system, comprising: a control unit that controls transmission of a message.

<Configuration 2> The mail management system according to configuration 1, wherein the communication network is a telephone network, and the terminal of a specific requester is a telephone terminal.

<Structure 3> The mail management system according to Structure 1, wherein the communication network is a telephone network, and the terminal of the specific client is a facsimile terminal.

<Structure 4> A mailbox for receiving a mail via a network and, when any mail received in the mailbox is transferred to a mail receiver, information for identifying the transferred mail is transmitted by mail. A mail management system comprising a mail opening notice reply means for transmitting to a user terminal.

<Structure 5> In the mail management system described in Structure 4, the mail box and the mail opening notice returning means are provided in a proxy server connected to the terminal of the mail receiver. system.

<Structure 6> In the mail management system described in Structure 4, the mail box and the mail opening notice reply means are provided in a router connected to the terminal of the mail receiver. .

[0010]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be described below using specific examples. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a network employing a mail management system of the present invention. An HP server 2 is connected to the network 1 in the figure, and provides, for example, an advertisement homepage to the network 1. The terminal 2 connected to the network is a personal computer of a customer who browses this homepage. .

As shown in the figure, the HP server 2 has, in addition to an HP storage unit 11 storing a homepage, a mail receiving unit 12, a mail reception notification requester list storage unit 13, a notification transmission determining unit 14, a telephone message storage. A unit 15, a FAX message storage unit 16, a voice calling unit 17, an automatic FAX control unit 18, and a modem 19 are provided. Although the HP server 10 is a computer including a processor and other peripheral devices, this figure shows only functional blocks for executing the mail management of the present invention.

The HP server 10 shown in the figure is, for example, a server of a provider to which an advertiser has an Internet connection contract. The advertiser makes the HP storage unit 1
It rents a certain area and publishes a homepage for advertising its own products. The mail receiving unit 12 has a function of receiving a mail from a customer who browses a homepage provided by the server in the figure. This email is for inquiries and orders regarding the content of the advertisement. Therefore,
The advertiser can read the mail received by the mail receiving unit 12 through the network 1.

[0013] However, if the advertiser does not use the network 1 except for posting a home page, his / her own terminal may be used several times a day only to check for any inquiries about the advertisement. You have to start and read the mail. This is a heavy burden for advertisers who do not plan to use email. Therefore, in the present invention, a notice is sent to an advertiser using a telephone or a facsimile when receiving an e-mail.

The mail reception notification requester list storage unit 13
This is a database in which the mail address and telephone number or FAX number of the advertiser who wants such notification are registered. The notification transmission determination means 14 obtains the mail address of the recipient of the mail received by the mail receiving unit 12, searches the mail reception notification requester list storage unit 13, and determines whether or not the mail address of the advertiser who wants to be notified It has a function to judge. The notification transmission determination unit 14 is configured by a computer program or the like that executes the above processing.

The telephone message storage section 15 is a section for storing a fixed voice message for notifying that a mail has been received, for example, "The mail has arrived, please connect to the provider and read the mail." The message data is stored. The FAX message storage unit 16 stores image data of a fixed message for notifying that a mail has been received, and has the same contents as the telephone message storage unit 15.

When the notification transmission determining means 14 determines that an e-mail to the e-mail address of the advertiser requesting the notification has been received, the telephone message storage section 15 or the FA
A fixed message is obtained from the X message storage unit 16,
It has a function of notifying the voice calling unit 17 or the automatic FAX control unit 18 of the telephone number or FAX number acquired from the mail reception notification requester list storage unit 13.

The voice calling unit 17 is a notification transmission determining unit 14
Upon receiving the notification of the telephone number from, the system automatically has a function of calling the corresponding advertiser and transmitting the standard message acquired from the telephone message storage unit 15 by telephone voice. The auto fax control unit 18 sends a fax
Upon receiving the notification of the number, it has a function of automatically faxing the fixed message acquired from the fax message storage unit 16. As shown in FIG. 1, the modem 19 of the HP server 10
Is the telephone terminal 4 of the advertiser through the telephone network 3. The facsimile terminal 5 is called.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the HP server according to the system of the present invention. In the figure, first, in step S1, through the network 1,
The mail receiving unit 12 of the HP server 10 receives the mail. In step S2, the notification transmission determining means 14 acquires the mail address of the recipient. In step S3, the mail reception notification requester list is searched using the mail address as a key.

In step S4, the notification transmission determining means 14
However, based on the search result, it is determined whether or not the destination mail address of the received mail is the mail address of the registrant of the mail reception notification requester list. If it is not a registrant, the process is terminated. If it is a registrant, the process proceeds to step S5 to determine whether it is a telephone notification or a facsimile notification. In the case of a telephone notification, a fixed message is retrieved from the telephone message storage unit 15 (step S
6) Acquire the telephone number (step S7) and activate the voice calling unit (step S8). On the other hand, in the case of the FAX notification, the standard message is retrieved from the FAX message storage unit 16 (Step S9), the FAX number is obtained (Step S10), and the automatic FAX control unit 18 is activated (Step S11).

As described above, when mail is received by the mail receiving unit through the network, a notification transmission is made as to whether or not the mail received by the mail receiving unit is for a specific client who requests the mail reception notification. The determination unit makes a determination, and a control unit such as a voice calling unit or an auto facsimile control unit performs control to transmit a fixed message to the terminal of the specific requester. Only when it is necessary to start up its own terminal to receive the mail, it is released from the mail monitoring business. In addition, the requester who requests the mail reception notification is not limited to the advertiser. The network is any network widely used for sending and receiving mails, such as the Internet and an intranet. The control unit may be any unit that performs call control for automatically transmitting a fixed message to a telephone terminal or a facsimile terminal using an arbitrary communication network such as a telephone network or a facsimile network.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of another network employing the mail management system of the present invention. The HP server 10 in the figure operates such that an advertisement fee is collected from an advertiser and a homepage for advertisement is provided. In this case, the management of the homepage is performed by the administrator of the HP server 10, and the HP server 10 receives an inquiry and an order mail for an advertisement. Upon receiving the inquiry or order e-mail, the administrator of the HP server 10 transfers the e-mail to the corresponding advertiser. At this time, due to responsibility, the administrator of the HP server 10 wants to confirm whether the mail has been opened by the advertiser. This example is a system that facilitates such confirmation.

The HP server shown in the figure is provided with an HP storage unit 11 for storing a homepage to be provided, a mail receiving unit 12 and a mail transfer unit 21. Also, HP server 1
0 is connected to the advertiser's proxy server 25 via the network 1. The proxy server 25 and the advertiser terminal 7 are connected by another network such as the telephone network 3. This proxy server 25
Is a mailbox 26 for receiving and storing mail,
Mail opening notification means 27.

When an inquiry about an advertisement or an order mail arrives at the HP server 10 shown in the figure, the mail receiving unit 12 receives them. Note that the mailbox of the HP server 10 is not shown here because it is inside the mail receiving unit 12. The mail transfer unit 21 stores a mail address list of the advertisers who have been requested to publish a home page and have an e-mail address.
Forwards the received email to the appropriate advertiser.

The forwarded mail is received by the proxy server 25 of the corresponding advertiser. The transferred mail is stored in the mailbox 26. Here, when the advertiser connects his terminal to the proxy server 25 and takes in the mail,
At that time, the mail opening notification reply means 27 of the proxy server 25 detects this operation.

The mail opening notice reply means 27 transmits the mail header of the corresponding mail as it is to the HP server 10 as a mail opening notice. There are various methods for processing the mail opening notification in the HP server 10. First, the mail opening notice is stored in a specific folder (not shown) in the form of mail or a file list. In this case, an appropriate viewer can check the mail opening notice to confirm whether the mail has been opened by the advertiser.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a method of processing a mail opening notification. As described above, when the mail opening notification is stored in a specific folder, the mail software of the HP server 10 can confirm the contents of the mail opening notification by referring to the folder. However,
It is preferable to clearly display which of the mails transferred by the mail transfer unit 21 of the HP server 10 has been opened by the advertiser. The window 30 in FIG. 4 realizes this, and the mail transfer unit 21 of the HP server 10
Displays a list of mails forwarded by. The mail opening notification (mail header) 31 received by the mail receiving unit 12 is shown on the right side of the drawing. Email opening notice 31
Is a group of mail headers as described above, and matches any one of the mail headers in the mail list in the window 30. When the mail software receives the mail opening notification 31 that matches any mail header in the mail list, the mail software turns on the check box 32 displayed on the right end of the list. Thus, the administrator can easily send the mail to the mail transfer unit 2.
1 can determine which of the emails forwarded by the advertiser has been opened.

In the above example, the mail opening notice returning means 2 is sent to the proxy server 25 to which the terminal of the advertiser is connected.
7 was provided. However, for example, when the advertiser connects his or her own server to the router, the router or the advertiser's server may be provided with a mail opening notification returning means. Also, in the above example, it has been described that the mail open notification is transmitted for all the mails. However, for example, the mail open notification is transmitted only for the mail including the flag for requesting the mail open notification. May be.

As described above, when a mail is received in a mailbox via a network, and when any of the mails received in the mailbox is transferred to a mail recipient, information for identifying the transferred mail is defined as: Since the mail opening notice reply means for transmitting to the terminal of the mail sender is provided, the mail sender can automatically and easily confirm the opening of the mail. Note that, in the above case, the mail header is used as an example of the information for identifying the transferred mail, but any other information may be used as long as the mail can be identified on the mail sending side. In all the above examples, the mail receiving unit that receives the mail may be a mail server or a web server. Any configuration is possible as long as it has a function of receiving mail.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram for explaining the advertisement fee collecting method of the HP server. The administrator who provides the advertisement posting service by the HP server 35 has to listen to the advertisement fee from the advertiser. Conventionally, for example, when a banner is provided, an advertisement fee is calculated based on the number of clicks on the banner. There is also a method of calculating the advertisement fee using the number of advertisement pages and the advertisement period as parameters. However, these methods are not necessarily methods of collecting advertising fees in consideration of the effectiveness of advertising.

Clicking on the banner does not guarantee that the customer has viewed the advertisement in detail. There are many cases where customers click on a banner to refer to an advertisement and simply look at the title and go directly to another homepage. Therefore, it is hard to say that the more banner clicks, the more effective the advertisement.

Even if an advertisement is made for a long advertisement period by using a large number of advertisement pages, the advertisement that is hardly browsed has no effect. This is often caused not only by the content of the advertisement, but also by the HP server providing the homepage. Therefore, there is a problem that it is difficult to collect a sufficient advertisement fee to the advertiser when the effectiveness is low.

Therefore, in the HP server shown in the figure, in addition to the HP storage unit 36 storing the homepage requested by the advertiser, an access log storage unit 37 and an advertisement charge calculation unit 38
Are provided. The access log storage unit 37 detects when a customer accesses the homepage of the advertiser and records the browsing time. Therefore, as shown in the figure, the access log storage unit 37 stores, for example, log data that records the advertiser name 39 and the browsing time 40 of the homepage.
The advertisement fee calculation unit 38 extracts and accumulates the data of the advertiser whose advertisement fee is to be calculated from the log data stored in the access log storage unit 37, and accumulates, for example, the one-month homepage browsing time. Calculate the value. By charging the advertisement fee in proportion to the accumulated value, the advertisement fee reflecting the effectiveness of the advertisement can be charged.

The HP server and the proxy server used in the above-described example include hardware having a known configuration in which a processor executes a program stored in a storage device, but the configuration is clear. The illustration mainly focuses on the functional blocks necessary for the description, and the detailed description of the hardware is omitted. Each functional block shown in the figure may be configured by an independent program module, or may be configured by an integrated program module. Further, all or a part of these functional blocks may be configured by hardware using a logic circuit. Further, each program module may be operated by being incorporated in an existing application program, or may be operated as an independent program.

The present invention can be implemented by installing each of the above-described program modules on a computer or the like as a server. All of these program modules can be recorded on a computer-readable recording medium such as a CD-ROM and installed on the computer, or can be downloaded to a computer memory via a network. Further, the program for carrying out the present invention may be executed by a single computer or may be executed by distributed processing of a plurality of computers.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a network employing a mail management system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the HP server according to the system of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of another network employing the mail management system of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of a processing method of a mail opening notification.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an advertisement fee collecting method of the HP server.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 network 2 HP server 11 HP storage unit 12 mail reception unit 13 mail reception notification requester list storage unit 14 notification transmission determination unit 15 telephone message storage unit 16 FAX message storage unit 17 voice call unit 18 auto FAX control unit 19 modem

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page F-term (reference) CF01 EE02 5K030 GA17 GA19 HA06 HC02 JA09 JT01 JT05 9A001 BB04 BB06 CC02 HH15 JJ25 JJ27 LL09

Claims (6)

[Claims] An e-mail receiving unit that receives an e-mail via a network; and a notification transmission determining unit that determines whether the e-mail received by the e-mail receiving unit is for a specific client who requests an e-mail reception notification. A storage unit for storing a fixed message for notifying that a mail has been received; and a control for controlling a communication network to make a call and to transmit the fixed message to the terminal of the specific requester. And a mail management system. 2. The mail management system according to claim 1, wherein the communication network is a telephone network, and the terminal of the specific client is a telephone terminal. 3. The mail management system according to claim 1, wherein the communication network is a telephone network, and the terminal of the specific requester is a facsimile terminal. 4. A mail box for receiving mail through a network, and, when any mail received in this mailbox is transferred to a mail recipient, information for identifying the transferred mail is transmitted to the mail sender. An e-mail management system comprising an e-mail opening notice reply means for transmitting to a terminal. 5. The mail management system according to claim 4, wherein the mail box and the mail opening notice reply means are provided in a proxy server connected to the terminal of the mail receiver. . 6. The mail management system according to claim 4, wherein the mail box and the mail opening notification return means are provided in a router connected to a terminal of the mail receiver.