JP2002169939A - Conference system, and server and operational terminal therefor, and control method and storage medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a server and operational terminals for a conference system that reduces the burden on a conference sponsor by simplifying the scheduling work required to set a series of conferences. SOLUTION: The conference system has the operational terminal 200 that accesses the conference server 100 and registers the open period and participants for the conference in the system. The system has the conference server 100 that extracts choices for conference rooms and the time periods of each day during a term to open the conference by retrieving schedules of employees from an employee schedule DB and sends to the prospective participants of the conference a mail by asking which date of the choices for the conference room and the time period is convenient for the participants via a mail server 300. The opening date ant hour of the conference is determined by analyzing returned mails from the prospective participants.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a conference system, a conference system server, an operation terminal, a control method, and a storage medium.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, in order to set up a meeting in a company, each employee who attends or wants to attend the meeting is inquired about the date and time of setting the meeting, and the answers are totaled. Is performed, and it is determined whether or not the set date and time of the conference are correct. If the adjustment is not successful, the adjustment is repeated at another date and time, and the finally determined date and time and the conference room are notified.

[0003] In recent years, it is not uncommon for each employee to use a terminal such as a personal computer connected to a network. In some cases, a schedule management system that centrally manages individual schedules by utilizing this network resource is introduced.

[0004] By utilizing such a system, there is a system in which a meeting organizer can write data (date and time) relating to a meeting reservation in the schedule of each person who will participate in the meeting.

[0005]

However, this type of system up to now has basically only filled data in a two-dimensional array of time and place.

Further, it is not always the case that each employee inputs his / her own schedule every day, and it is often the case that the presence of an employee who is inconvenient at the set date and time is found later.
This problem becomes more pronounced as the number of employees increases. Therefore, it becomes necessary to re-adjust the schedule by repeatedly exchanging telephone calls, e-mails, and the like, and the burden on the meeting organizer becomes considerable.

In general, there are also employees who must participate in the agenda. Although the meeting organizer understands the existence of such essential employees, it is difficult for a third party to understand. Therefore, if the organizer is absent, it will be difficult to identify who must attend.
Inheriting that task becomes virtually difficult.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the foregoing problems, and has been made in consideration of the above circumstances, and has made it possible to simplify a schedule operation for setting a series of meetings, thereby reducing the load on a meeting organizer. It is an object to provide a system, a conference system server, an operation terminal, a control method, and a storage medium.

[0009]

In order to solve this problem, for example, a conference system according to the present invention has the following configuration.

[0010] A conference system connected to a network for setting and managing a conference, a period setting means for setting a conference holding period, a registration means for registering prospective participants, and a schedule database for managing personnel schedules. And extracting means for extracting a plurality of holding candidates within the period set by the period setting means from the vacant time zone of the prospective participant registered by the registration means obtained by referring to.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention,
A conference system connected to a network and configured to manage conference settings, which refers to a period setting unit for setting a conference holding period, a registration unit for registering a prospective conference participant, and a schedule database for managing personnel schedules. Extracting means for extracting a plurality of holding candidates within the period set by the period setting means from the vacant time zone of the prospective participant registered by the registering means, and holding candidates extracted by the extracting means Notification means for inquiring the prospective participant via the network, receiving means for receiving a response notification from the prospective participant, and the extracting means based on the response notification received by the receiving means. And narrowing-down means for narrowing down the extracted holding candidates.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an overall system configuration diagram in the embodiment.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 100 denotes a conference server which is a center of the conference reservation system of the embodiment and manages various data related to the conference reservation. Reference numeral 200 denotes a conference operation terminal for performing various operations on the conference server 100. 30
Reference numeral 0 denotes a general mail server, and reference numerals 401 and 402 (only two are shown in the figure, but there are actually many) are terminals used by employees installed in the company. Reference numeral 500 denotes a network (intranet) connecting the above components. The conference server 100, the conference operation terminal 200,
All or a part of the terminals 401 and 402 and the mail server 300 may be a general-purpose information processing device such as a personal computer, that is, there may be no difference in hardware configuration. What differs is the difference between the OS and the programs that operate on each device.

In the above configuration, the mail server 300 is a general mail server as described above,
It has a notification data storage area for storing data for storing and delivering mail from each terminal to the terminal, and a distribution list for storing mail addresses.

On the other hand, the conference server 100 in the embodiment
Has a configuration as shown in the figure.

In the figure, reference numeral 10 denotes a CPU for controlling the entire apparatus.
Reference numeral 11 denotes a ROM that stores a BIOS and a boot program. Reference numeral 12 denotes a RAM used as a work area of the CPU 10, in which an OS and a program functioning as a conference server are loaded and executed. Reference numeral 13 denotes an external storage device such as a hard disk device, which stores and holds an OS and a program that functions as a conference server (for example, a program that realizes functions illustrated in the procedures illustrated in FIGS. 7 to 10). Various databases used when functioning as a conference server are also stored in the hard disk 13 (details will be described later). 1
Reference numeral 4 denotes a network interface for connecting to the network 500, reference numeral 15 denotes a keyboard, and reference numeral 16 denotes a pointing device such as a mouse. Reference numeral 17 denotes a video memory (V) for expanding data to be displayed on a display device.
RAM), and 18 is a display device.

The database managed by the conference server 100 is as follows.・ Conference room table: A table (database) that manages the room number and capacity of conference rooms installed in the company
It is. Meeting property DB: In the case of a certain kind of regular meeting, members participating in the meeting are often fixed.
This database automates the registration of members such as participants by a single operation when such a regular meeting is set. When a new regular meeting is provided, the operation related to the next meeting setting can be simplified by adding it to this DB. In addition, since it is troublesome to input the name of the conference one by one in the same case as the previous time, the conference name and the like are also stored in this database. A meeting schedule DB: a DB for managing a reservation status of a meeting room date. A conference DB: a database of a main part of the present embodiment, which is used for managing a conference from reservation to determination (details will be described later). -Employee schedule DB: A database in which the schedule of each employee is managed. It should be noted that this employee schedule DB is designed to function by itself, so that employees can browse their own schedules using their own terminals (401 and the like), and can use the hard disk 1 of the conference server 100.
3 can be registered as a database.

Therefore, a general network terminal (40
1, 402, etc.), a program that functions as a client of the employee schedule DB is already installed. In addition, a client program (meeting operation program) for operating the meeting room table and the meeting DB is installed in the meeting operation terminal 200.

On the other hand, the conference operation terminal 200 has a configuration shown in FIG. In the illustration, 130 to 138
1 correspond to 10 to 18 in FIG. 1, and therefore the description of each configuration is omitted. However, the external storage device 133 has access to the OS and the conference server 100 whose details will be described below ( Login)
A conference operation program for performing various operations is stored. When activated, the OS and the conference operation program are loaded into the RAM 132 and executed by the CPU.

The terminals 401, 402, etc. (which are employees' terminals) have different installed programs, but are similar in hardware to the conference server 100 or the conference operation terminal 200 as described above. Therefore, description of these hardware components will be omitted. In terms of software, not only the OS but also a mail program and a schedule setting program are provided. In addition, the conference operation terminal 200 and the terminal 401 are merely expressed differently for convenience.
May function as the conference operation terminal 200.

Now, at the conference operation terminal 200, the organizer (including an operator who inputs data in accordance with instructions from the organizer) executes a conference operation program to perform a new conference setting operation. This means that after logging in, “New conference setting registration” in an initial menu (not shown) displayed on the display device 138 of the conference operation terminal 200 is selected by the keyboard 135 or the pointing device 136 of the conference operation terminal 200. Can be done with Screens of the conference operation terminal 200 described below, including the registration screen, are displayed according to information transmitted from the conference server 100. That is, the conference operation terminal 200 has a function (program) for receiving and displaying such information. For example, it is easy to understand if a Web browser is assumed.

FIG. 7 shows the procedure for registering a new conference setting. Hereinafter, the rough operation will be described with reference to FIG.

First, when a procedure for setting up a new conference is performed from the conference operation terminal 200, in step S1, the conference server 100 sends a unique number (hereinafter, referred to as a unique number) to the conference.
Conference code). This is a key when the conference system manages the data.

Next, in step S2, a conference data input screen (see FIG. 2) is displayed on the display unit 138 of the conference operation terminal 200, and the operator operates on the screen or
The user inputs and sets necessary data using the keyboard or the pointing device of the conference operation terminal 200 while performing an operation such as displaying a separate screen described later (the input information is notified to the server; the same applies hereinafter). The attendee registration / modification screen (see FIG. 3) of the conference data input screen is displayed, and the operator inputs necessary data while performing the operation of displaying the screen or displaying another screen described later. And input using a keyboard or pointing device.

Next, the process proceeds to step S3, where the above various data are input from the keyboard and the pointing device, and a tentative reservation of the conference room is made (the server is instructed to make a tentative reservation, and the server makes a tentative reservation). In the provisional reservation, a plurality of settings can be made on the database on the hard disk 13 of the conference server 100.

When the provisional reservation is completed, step S
Proceeding to 4, the meeting server 100 starts the procedure for sending the attendance invitation e-mail to the attendees.

Hereinafter, the above procedures will be described in order.

The conference operation terminal 200 executes the conference operation program and logs in to the conference server 100. Upon login, an initial menu (not shown) is displayed on the conference operation terminal 2.
00, the registration and management of data relating to the new conference are started by selecting “Register New Conference Setting” from the pointing device by using the pointing device. Sent by the server and displayed). FIG. 2 shows an example of the initial screen at this time.

In the figure, reference numeral 20 denotes a combo box for selecting a conference property.
A desired one of the devices already registered in B can be selected by moving a cursor using a pointing device and a keyboard of the conference operation terminal 200. The default is "none", but the figure shows that "monthly project progress" is selected. When one is selected from the conference property DB,
Each item in the illustrated frame 21 is read from the same DB and filled. In other words, the quorum shown in the figure (minimum number of participants for a successful meeting), the deadline for notification of the meeting (the deadline for notifying the final decision notice by how many days in advance), the name of the meeting secretariat (name of the organizer), and the time zone request (In the embodiment, four choices can be selected from “none,” “first in the morning,” “first in the afternoon,” and “evening.”) The time interval for checking whether or not to attend, the attendance reminder interval (reminder email sending interval to non-responders), and the deadline for determining the date (the result of subtracting the number of days set and registered from the date are displayed) Filled as default information. When the conference property is selected, the member of the previous conference with the same title is read out and registered in the database of the conference server as an initial value.

On the other hand, items such as a conference code and a column of a conference name are displayed on the left side of the screen. As described above, the conference code is such that the system automatically assigns a unique number to this conference (such as adding +1 to the previous conference code). It is managed in the conference server database. The conference name is a combo box, which can be selected from among the conference names registered in the conference properties, and can be freely input and edited from the keyboard and the pointing device of the conference operation terminal 200. ing.

The holding period (start) and the holding period (end)
Declaring that a meeting will be held during this time,
The system (conference server 100) is used to search for an optimal empty conference room during this period. The required time sets the time required for the conference. In the embodiment, the minimum unit can be selected to be 0.5 hours, that is, 30 minutes. The number of attendees is the number of people who call for participation in the conference, and the “current status” displays the current status of the conference. The situation includes
"Temporary reservation", "Determinable" indicating that the conditions for setting up the meeting have been set, "Determined" indicating that the date of the meeting decision and the meeting room have been settled in the event of abandoning the set meeting There is "abandoning". In the case shown in the figure, since new conference data is registered, "temporary reservation has not been made".

On the illustrated screen displayed on the display unit of the conference operation terminal 200, when the "Attendant registration / correction" button displayed at the bottom is clicked with a pointing device, the members participating in this conference are clicked. Registration /
You can make corrections. When the setting is made in the conference property in FIG. 2, the conference participant set in the previous conference property with the same name is automatically registered in the database of the conference server 100.

FIG. 3 shows a display screen for performing attendee registration / correction.

In the figure, information (in this embodiment, a person name) for specifying a person who wants to attend this meeting is entered by using the keyboard and the pointing device of the meeting operation terminal 200 in the field of the attendee name on the left. The person name to be input may be input using a keyboard, but is also a destination to which an e-mail to be described later is sent. Therefore, in the embodiment, the search is performed by searching from all the employees registered in the employee schedule DB. You can select from the display contents of the result with a pointing device. Before and after explanation, employee schedule DB
In this example, not only the schedule of each employee but also the name of the employee and the mail address are stored in association with each other. Therefore, inputting the name on this screen and setting the mail address have the same meaning.

In the center of the screen, information indicating the attendance class of each employee is displayed, and the information is designated by the pointing device of the conference operation terminal 200. In the present embodiment, the attendance class is selected from three types: mandatory, semi-essential, and arbitrary. "Mandatory" means that the person calling for attendance must be present at the meeting; semi-essential is not mandatory, but some of those who have been designated as semi-essential are required to attend. Means what you have to do. Therefore, a column for setting the minimum number of semi-essential persons is provided in the upper right column in the figure. In the case of the illustration, one of the semi-essential persons indicates that it is essential,
It shows that at least one of "Tadashi Ueda" and "Shinji Hashimoto" must attend. “Any” in the attendance category indicates that it is not necessary to attend. However, since "6" is set in the quorum column on the screen of FIG. 2, it is necessary that the number of persons who are notified that they can attend is greater than this number.

On the right hand side of the screen shown in FIG. 3, a column for inputting a substitute attendee is provided and displayed. This is a field for inputting a proxy for each attendee of the attendee (left hand of the screen). In addition,
In the illustrated case, the number of lines for inputting the name is eight, but any number can be additionally registered and corrected by operating a scroll bar displayed on the right side of the screen.

When the above settings are made and "OK" is clicked, the input of the participant information for the newly registered conference is completed, and the processing contents are stored in the conference DB on the hard disk of the conference server 100. (By issuing a storage instruction, the server performs a process of storing the input information in the database). When the “previous screen” is clicked with the pointing device of the conference operation terminal 200, the screen returns to the screen of FIG.

Returning to the description of the screen in FIG. In the figure,
When "meeting room reservation" is clicked on the pointing device of the conference operation terminal 200, a meeting room reservation screen shown in FIG. 4 is displayed.

As shown in the figure, the current reservation status of the conference room is read from the database of the conference server, and can be received and listed. As shown in the figure, the room number and the number of persons that can be accommodated are indicated for each conference room, and the reservation status (time zone) of each conference room can be browsed. Also, as a period for setting a conference on the screen of FIG.
Since the month 15 to May 19 is set, a tab is provided so that the availability of the meeting room can be displayed on a date basis. That is, when the operator clicks “5/16”, the user may click “May 16”.
It is possible to know the availability of each meeting room on the day.

The operator (organizer) operates the pointing device and clicks on the desired free time of the conference room, and the time of the click + 2 hours (FIG. 2)
Is set as a tentative reservation. Click this on each date tab to make a temporary reservation. Of course, it cannot be set to a conference room having a time zone already determined or reserved as another conference.

When the tentative reservation is made, the conference code is displayed on the reservation time zone, so that the reservation can be confirmed (the reservation status of other conferences can be known). Note that the time zone is displayed in different colors so that the conference that has just been set and the conference that has been set separately can be distinguished. Furthermore, since each conference room has a limited capacity, the conference room numbers below the number of participants (see Fig. 2) are distinguished from those that can be accommodated (color-coded) to call attention. ) And display it.

On the other hand, in the embodiment, the illustrated "automatic setting"
Is clicked on the pointing device of the conference operation terminal 200, the instruction information to that effect is notified to the conference server, so that the manual setting described above can be automated. That is, for each day by the manual operation described above, the automatic selection of a suitable conference room and the securing of the time zone are processed by the conference server 100, so that the conference operation terminal 200
This is to automate the work on the side.

More specifically, on the screen shown in FIG. 2, the number of attendees, the holding period (start and end), the required time, and the desired time zone are set. Automatically determine the meeting room and time zone by comparing with the schedule.

The operation procedure of the conference server 100 when the "automatic setting" is instructed will be described below with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, in step S11, from May 15
In each day of May 19, the afternoon first (1:00 pm + α-
At 3 o'clock + α; α = 1 hour), the conference room schedule DB is searched to extract a conference room (and time zone) with a capacity of 10 or more as the first candidate group. There may be multiple candidates in one day.

That is, on May 15, 14 of the conference room 101
Time (~ 2 hours), 13:00 of conference room 102, conference room 103
At 1 pm, ..., candidates are extracted. Similarly, May 16
Process each day after the date and search for candidates that can be found. The candidate group obtained by the above processing is defined as a primary candidate group.

Next, the process proceeds to step S12, where the first candidate group extracted in step S11, that is, each candidate on each day, is matched with the vacancy status of each attendee's own schedule. In the screen of FIG. 3, there are three mandatory attendees and three substitute attendees. Is searched from the candidate group on May 15 for any of the free time zones of “”, and the candidates are narrowed down. Hereinafter, similarly, on May 19
Go for each day until the day. Next, for the narrowed candidates, the second mandatory attendee "Takeo Iwaki" or "Takashi Hasegawa" is similarly performed. And 3
The same goes for the first mandatory attendee, "Ichiro Takahashi" or his deputy, "Tsujio Ota". As a result, from the primary candidate group, those that match the vacant time zone of the schedule of the essential attendees are narrowed down.
The result of this narrowing down is a secondary candidate group.

Next, the process proceeds to step S13, in which narrowing down is performed according to the schedule of the semi-essential attendees. In the setting of FIG. 3, since the minimum number of semi-essential attendees is set to "1", none of the semi-essential attendees and their spare time in the second candidate group match. Exclude candidates. As a result, the remaining candidates become a tertiary candidate group.

As described above, the tertiary candidate group is narrowed down, and it is determined whether or not the number of candidates for a certain day is only one (step S14). Here, if there is only one candidate for all days, it is determined as the final candidate. It is possible that there is no candidate for a certain day. In this case, it is assumed that there is no candidate for the day.

On the other hand, for example, when two or more candidates occur during the day, the schedule of the employee whose attendance class is “arbitrary” is checked, and the candidate indicating the largest number is determined on that day. Is determined as the final candidate. This process is performed for all cases where there are multiple candidates in one day (step S15). When there are a plurality of candidates satisfying the same condition within the same day, the earliest meeting room and its time zone are determined.

When one candidate (meeting room and its time zone) for each day is determined in this way, the process proceeds to step S16, and the resulting data is transferred to the operation terminal 200. In the determined time zone of the conference room, as shown in FIG.
Display on the display of.

When "OK" in FIG. 4 is clicked on the pointing device of the conference operation terminal 200, the content is determined based on the above contents and the screen returns to the screen in FIG. At this time, since the provisional reservation of the conference room has been established as described above, the “current status” column in FIG.
"Temporary reserved" is displayed.

When the user clicks “OK” on the screen of FIG. 2 with the pointing device of the conference operation terminal 200, the contents set so far are stored in the conference DB of the conference server 100, and the operation of the conference reservation is monitored. Processing will be started.

After the initial data registration of the conference data is performed in the database of the conference server 100, the operation of the conference server 100 shifts to the transmission and reception of mail. This is described below.

First, the mail delivery process will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

The conference server 100 performs the mail delivery process at the time interval of the attendance prompt for unattended respondents set in FIG. 2 with the time when the registration of the conference data is completed as described above as the reference time.

For this reason, in step S21, the CPU of the conference server 100 determines whether or not there is an unanswered person based on the presence or absence of the mail. Immediately after the registration of the conference data, since all the attendees have not responded, the process proceeds to step S22 to automatically create a conference mail body (text) as shown in FIG. From the meeting room schedule determined in step 2), and start sending to all unanswered persons (including the proxy). The mail system uses the existing mail server 300.

In this processing, the conference server checks and starts the time set in the conference server at intervals of the time (1 day = 24 hours in the figure) set on the screen of FIG.

On the other hand, the above-mentioned e-mail is sent to the recipient (the attendee).
Sees this mail and replies from each terminal, leaving either "go out" or "missing" for each candidate date. When replying with a normal mail system, the reply destination is the sender of the received mail, that is, `` kaigi_server@abc.co.
jp ". This is the mail address of the conference server 100.

The conference server 100 checks the time interval set for itself at the time interval set in the “attendance response status notification interval” on the screen of FIG. Check the email and take action.

The processing contents of this conference server will be described with reference to FIG.

First, in step S31, the mail server 300 is connected, and it is read from the mail server whether or not there is an unread mail addressed to itself (conference server 100). If there is no unread mail, the process ends. If unread mails exist, all unread mails are downloaded to the conference server in step S32.

When the download is performed, step S3
Proceeding to step 3, the name is determined from the e-mail address of the sender (scheduled attendee) of each e-mail. Also, "Subjec
The "t" item should contain the meeting number,
From the conference number, it is determined which conference the response to the received e-mail is for the conference. When the conference number is determined, the process extracts the character located at the end of each of the candidate dates in the text, and determines whether or not the character is "".

When the above analysis is performed, step S34
Proceed to For each prospective attendee in the conference data specified by the conference code, the data of the conference data in the database is updated, for example, by setting a flag (not shown) with a response on the corresponding database (described later).

In this way, the answer mail is received and the answer is totaled and accumulated. When the process proceeds to step S35, conditions for determining the date and time of the meeting and the meeting room are set based on the answer results so far. Judge whether or not
The status of the conference data (see FIG. 2) is set to “decidable”.

The above operation is performed at set time intervals.
0 delivers a meeting number, a meeting name, and a mail indicating that the due date has passed to the organizer ("Ichiro Takahashi" in FIG. 2) to call attention.

The organizer can log in to the conference server, enter the conference number, and refer to the status of the target conference at any time.
Work at least to decide on a meeting room.

When "response status" is clicked on the screen of FIG. 2 with the pointing device of the conference operation terminal 200, the attendance response result window shown in FIG. 6 is displayed on the display of the terminal. As shown in the figure, the total result of the reply mails from the current attendees is displayed.

In the figure, reference numeral 61 denotes a column for displaying the result of the answer of the required attendee, and a vertical scroll bar is displayed on the right hand. Numeral 62 is a column for semi-essential attendees, and numeral 63 is a column for optional attendees. Also, the result of the response from each attendee
It is displayed in the form of ○, × for each conference holding reservation date. Anyone whose name is enclosed in parentheses indicates that it is an agent.

In this case, for example, both the required attendee "Ichiro Takahashi" and his proxy "Tsujio Ota" are not allowed to attend on May 15. Similarly, on May 16, neither "Ryutaro Yamaoka" nor his agent "Toshio Maejima" was allowed to attend.

Therefore, as can be seen from this stage, the conference cannot be held on May 15 and 16, and the remaining May 1
On the 7th and 19th, at least one of the mandatory attendees and their delegates are available to attend, so they are candidates to be held.

Next, focusing on the quasi-essential person (and his / her agent), since the attendance is possible on both May 17 and 19, it can be maintained as a candidate to be held.
After that, the attendees are arbitrarily attended, but as shown in the figure, since at least two persons answered that they could attend, the quorum "6"
(See FIG. 2), the status column 64 shows 5
Both days of the month 17 and 19 are shown as OK (can be held).

The operator looks at the screen shown in FIG.
When one of the “OK” buttons on the date and May 19 is clicked with the pointing device of the conference operation terminal 200, the reservation for this conference is processed as a final rule and registered in the database of the conference server. May 15
The “Enter” button for days 16 cannot be pressed, or the following processing cannot be performed if pressed. For this reason, on the display screen, the display characters are displayed thinly.

Now, in the situation shown in FIG.
If you click the "OK" button for "Day", this day and time zone will be finally determined as the date for setting up the meeting,
Registered in the database.

FIG. 11 shows a processing procedure when the "OK" button is clicked, and will be described below.

First, in step S41, the time zone of the non-selected temporarily reserved conference room is canceled. For example, when the user clicks on the decision button for May 17 on the display screen of FIG. 6, data from the time zone of the provisionally reserved conference room held on May 15, 16, and 19 is displayed. Delete from the database and open for the next provisional meeting reservation.

Then, the process proceeds to a step S42, wherein the time zone of the selected conference room in the provisional reservation state is registered in the database in order to update it to the formal reservation state (main reservation).

When the process proceeds to step S43, it is notified to the members and unanswered persons who can participate in the conference in the reserved state (full reservation state) that the conference has been finally decided (meeting room number and time zone). An e-mail is transmitted, and the status of the conference data of interest is set to "determined" in step S44, and registered in the database. As a result, the current status of the initial screen (FIG. 2) when browsing the data of this conference is displayed on the display of the conference operation terminal 200 as “determined”. In addition, the conference server 100 terminates the reminder email to the unanswered respondents thereafter.

Next, the process proceeds to step S45, where the employees who have replied that they can attend and the employees who have not replied write the fact that there is a meeting on the corresponding day and time zone of the employee schedule DB, and update the database.

The data structure of the conference DB in the embodiment has a structure shown in FIG. 12, for example.

Reference numeral 120 denotes a data structure serving as a basis of the conference data, which includes a conference code, a status (corresponding to the “current status” in FIG. 2), and finally determined conference data (the finally determined conference room number, Day and time),
Basic meeting data (data such as a conference name and a holding period in the left hand in FIG. 2), conference properties (data such as quorum in the right hand in FIG. 2), an address pointer to the attendee data 121, and an address to the tentative reservation data 122a Consists of pointers.

The final decision meeting data is blank at the initial stage, and is stored in the database when the decision button is clicked in FIG.

One record of the attendee data 121 is
It is composed of the attendee name, e-mail address, presence / absence of answer, agent name, e-mail address, presence / absence of answer, and attendance level (essential, semi-essential, optional). This record will continue for the attendees. The conference server determines whether or not the record is the last record because the name column is blank.

On the other hand, the tentative reservation data 122a stores the conference room data (the tentative reservation conference room, the scheduled date of the meeting, the time zone) and the attendance response result of each attendee (including the proxy) for the meeting. The data area includes a pointer to the subsequent provisional reservation data 122b. By leaving blank in the pointer column of the final provisional reservation data 122c, it is indicated that there is no data connected thereafter.

In the above data structure, if the provisional reservation data 122b is formally finalized, the conference room data of the provisional reservation data is stored in the "finally determined conference room data" in the main conference data. Will be.

According to the present embodiment as described above,
By simply inputting data on the period and the time period of the day when the conference is to be provided, and furthermore, the data of the expected attendees can be temporarily reserved for the period and the time period. Until the date and time of the meeting are actually determined, the mail is automatically managed by the delivery and reception of the mail by the meeting server 100, so that the burden on the organizer can be dramatically reduced.
In addition, since the required, semi-essential, and optional levels can be set for the attendees, it is possible to flexibly cope with the condition that, for example, a certain person must attend.

In the above embodiment, the mail server,
Although the conference servers have been described as separate servers, they may be managed by one server, or the conference server, the mail server, and the employee schedule server may be managed by different servers. Absent. Furthermore,
In the embodiment, only one conference operation terminal 200 has been described. However, a plurality of conference operation terminals 200 may be provided.

Further, in the embodiment, the explanation has been made only for the in-house network, but the invention may be applied to a WAN or the Internet, and is not limited by the form of the network.

The object of the present invention is to supply a storage medium (or a recording medium) on which a program code of software for realizing the functions of the above-described embodiments is recorded to a system or an apparatus, and to provide a computer (a computer) of the system or the apparatus. Or a CPU or MPU) reads out and executes the program code stored in the storage medium,
It goes without saying that this is achieved. In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium implements the functions of the above-described embodiment, and the storage medium storing the program code constitutes the present invention.
In addition, by executing the program code read by the computer, not only the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized, but also based on the instructions of the program code,
The operating system (OS) running on the computer performs part or all of the actual processing,
It goes without saying that a case where the function of the above-described embodiment is realized by the processing is also included.

Further, after the program code read from the storage medium is written into the memory provided in the function expansion card inserted into the computer or the function expansion unit connected to the computer, the program code is read based on the instruction of the program code. , The CPU provided in the function expansion card or the function expansion unit performs part or all of the actual processing,
It goes without saying that a case where the function of the above-described embodiment is realized by the processing is also included.

Further, in the embodiment, the example in which the conference server and the conference operation terminal are realized by different devices has been described, but these may be realized by one device.

[0093]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to simplify the schedule work for setting a series of conferences, thereby reducing the load on the conference organizer.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a network configuration in a conference system according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a conference data input screen according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an input screen of an attendee in the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a conference room reservation screen according to the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of a mail according to the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a tally result screen of answer results from prospective participants in the embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing an overall procedure of conference data registration processing in the embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure for automatically searching for a suitable free time slot in a conference room.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure of a prompting process to an unanswered person.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing a mail receiving process.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure when an operation of determining a conference room is performed.

FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating a data structure of one meeting data in a meeting database in the embodiment.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram of a conference operation terminal.

Claims (33)

[Claims] 1. A conference system connected to a network and configured to manage conference settings, a period setting unit for setting a conference holding period, a registration unit for registering a prospective conference participant, and managing a schedule of personnel. And extracting means for extracting a plurality of holding candidates within a period set by the period setting means from an available time zone of the participant registered by the registration means obtained by referring to a schedule database. A unique conference system. 2. The conference system according to claim 1, further comprising notification means for notifying the prospective participant of the holding candidate extracted by the extraction means to the prospective participant via the network. . 3. The system according to claim 2, wherein the notifying unit notifies a candidate list of the scheduled date, information specifying a candidate conference room, and information indicating a time zone. Conference system described in 1. 4. The apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising receiving means for receiving a response notice from said prospective participant.
The conference system according to any one of the paragraphs or the third paragraph. 5. The conference system according to claim 4, wherein the notifying unit notifies the prospective participant who has not received the answer from the receiving unit at predetermined intervals. 6. The apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising: a narrowing-down unit that narrows down the holding candidates extracted by the extracting unit on the basis of the answer notification received by the receiving unit. The conference system according to claim 1. 7. The conference according to claim 1, wherein said registering means registers the prospective participants of the conference together with the level of each prospective person who wants to attend. system. 8. The level according to claim 7, wherein the levels are three levels: attendance is mandatory, semi-essential is required to satisfy a set number of people, and attendance is not required. Conference system. 9. The conference system according to claim 7, wherein said registration means is capable of setting a proxy corresponding to a prospective participant. 10. The system according to claim 7, wherein said narrowing means narrows down the date and time of the meeting by giving priority to a schedule of a person having a high attendance level of a prospective conference participant registered by said registration means. 9. The conference system according to claim 8. 11. A conference room management unit for managing the number of persons accommodated in each conference room and a use schedule of the conference room, wherein the extraction unit can accommodate the number of prospective participants registered by the registration unit. The conference system according to any one of claims 1 to 10, wherein a candidate is extracted from a vacant time zone of the conference room. 12. A tentative reservation means for tentatively reserving the time zone of each of the candidate conference rooms notified by the notification means to the conference room management means. Conference system described in 1. 13. A selecting means for selecting one desired candidate from the candidates narrowed down by the narrowing means, and a non-selected candidate when the selection is made by the selecting means. 13. The conference system according to claim 12, further comprising: a unit that releases a time zone of the conference room in the provisionally reserved state from the conference room management unit. 14. A method for controlling a conference system which is connected to a network and performs conference setting management, comprising: a period setting step of setting a conference holding period; a registration step of registering a prospective conference participant; An extraction step of extracting a plurality of holding candidates within the period set in the period setting step from the vacant time zone of the prospective participant registered by the registration means obtained by referring to the schedule database managing the A method for controlling a conference system, comprising: 15. A storage medium for storing a program code which is read and executed by a computer to be connected to a network and which functions as a conference system for performing conference setting management. From the program code, the program code of the registration step of registering the prospective meeting participant, and the vacant time zone of the prospective participant registered by the registration means obtained by referring to the schedule database for managing the schedule of personnel, A storage medium for storing a program code of an extraction step of extracting a plurality of holding candidates within a period set in the period setting step. 16. A conference system server which is connected to a network and performs conference setting management in response to request information from a predetermined operation terminal, comprising: first input means for inputting request information relating to a conference holding period; A second input means for inputting request information relating to a prospective conference participant; and a vacancy of the prospective conference participant input by the second input means, obtained by referring to a schedule database for managing personnel schedules. A server for a conference system, comprising: extraction means for extracting a plurality of holding candidates within a period input by the first input means from a time zone. 17. The conference system according to claim 16, further comprising notification means for notifying the prospective participant of the holding candidate extracted by the extraction means to the prospective participant via the network. Server. 18. The system according to claim 17, wherein the notifying unit notifies a candidate list of the scheduled date, information specifying a candidate conference room, and information indicating a time zone. 2. The conference system server according to 1. 19. The conference system server according to claim 17, further comprising receiving means for receiving a response notification from said prospective participant. 20. The conference system server according to claim 19, wherein the notifying unit notifies the prospective participant who has not received the answer from the receiving unit at predetermined intervals. . 21. The apparatus according to claim 19, further comprising: a narrowing-down unit for narrowing down the holding candidates extracted by said extracting unit based on the answer notification received by said receiving unit. A server for a conference system according to any one of the preceding claims. 22. The registration means, comprising:
The conference system according to any one of claims 16 to 21, wherein the registration is performed together with the level of each prospective person who wants to attend. 23. The level according to claim 22, wherein attendance is indispensable, semi-essential is required to satisfy a set number of people, and attendance is not asked.
Conferencing system according to paragraph. 24. The apparatus according to claim 22, wherein the second input means is capable of inputting setting information of a proxy corresponding to a prospective participant. Conference system server. 25. The system according to claim 22, wherein said narrowing-down means narrows down the date and time to be held by giving priority to a schedule of a person having a high attendance level of a prospective conference participant registered by said registration means. 24. The conference system server according to any one of paragraphs 23 to 23. 26. A conference room management unit for managing the number of persons accommodated in each conference room and the use schedule of the conference room, wherein the extraction unit can accommodate the number of prospective participants registered by the registration unit. The server for a conference system according to any one of claims 16 to 25, wherein a candidate is extracted from a vacant time zone of a specific conference room. 27. A tentative reservation means for tentatively reserving the time zone of each of the candidate conference rooms notified by the notification means to the conference room management means. The conferencing system described in 1. 28. Third input means for inputting selection request information of one of desired candidates selected from the candidates narrowed down by the narrowing down means, and a selection request is made by the third input means. 27. A server for a conference system according to claim 26, further comprising: means for releasing a time slot of a temporarily reserved conference room which is a non-selection candidate from said conference room management means. . 29. A method for controlling a server for a conference system, which is connected to a network and performs setting management of a conference in response to request information from a predetermined operation terminal, comprising: An input step, a second input step of inputting request information regarding a prospective conference participant, and a conference participation schedule input in the second input step, obtained by referring to a schedule database for managing personnel schedules An extraction step of extracting a plurality of holding candidates within a period input in the first input step from a vacant time zone of the user. 30. A storage medium which is connected to a network by being read and executed by a computer, and which stores a program code which functions as a conference system server which performs conference setting management according to request information from a predetermined operation terminal. A program code of a first input step for inputting request information relating to a conference holding period, a program code of a second input step for inputting request information relating to a prospective conference participant, and a schedule database for managing personnel schedules In the extraction step of extracting a plurality of holding candidates within the period input in the first input step from the free time slots of prospective conference participants input in the second input step obtained by referring to A storage medium for storing a program code. 31. A predetermined conference server operation terminal for requesting a conference server connected to a network and displaying information sent from the conference server, wherein a conference is held for the conference server. A first input unit for inputting the conference holding period for transmitting information on a period; and a second input unit for inputting information on the prospective conference participants for transmitting information on the prospective conference participants to the conference server. And the result of the first and second input means, the conference server refers to a schedule database that manages the schedule of personnel, and the conference attendees input by the second input means are referred to. Display means for receiving and displaying a result of extracting a plurality of holding candidates within the period input by the first input means from the free time slot, and displaying the result. Operation terminal for conference system. 32. A method for controlling a predetermined conference server operation terminal for requesting a conference server connected to a network and displaying information sent from the server, comprising: A first input step of inputting the conference holding period to transmit information about a period; and a second inputting step of inputting the information of the prospective conference participants to transmit information about the prospective conference participants to the conference server. 2 and the result of the first and second input steps, the conference server refers to a schedule database that manages the schedule of personnel, so that the conference attendees entered in the second input step A display step of receiving and displaying a result of extracting a plurality of holding candidates within the period input in the first input step from the idle time slot and displaying the result. Operation terminal for the conference system. 33. A program code that functions as a predetermined conference server operation terminal that, when read and executed by a computer, requests a conference server connected to a network and displays information sent from the server. A program code of a first input step of inputting the conference holding period for transmitting information about the conference holding period to the conference server; and participating in the conference with the conference server. A program code of a second input step for inputting information on the prospective participant in order to transmit information on the prospective person; and as a result of the first and second input steps, the conference server manages a schedule of personnel. By referring to the schedule database to be executed, the vacant time period of the prospective meeting participant input in the second input step is A storage medium for storing a program code of a display step of receiving and displaying a result of extracting a plurality of holding candidates within a period input in one input step.