JP2003044743A - System for preparing and distributing document, server, program and recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a document preparation and distribution system which can prepare a document, can distribute the prepared document to persons other than a preparer and facilitates an order work, and to provide a service, a program and a storage medium. SOLUTION: This document preparation and distribution system 1 mainly comprises a document preparing and distributing server 3, a business terminal 5, customer terminals 7-1, 7-2,..., and a merchandise ordering server 9, and the document preparing and distributing server 3, the business terminal 5, the customer terminals 7-1, 7-2,..., and the merchandise ordering server 9 are connected through a two-way communicable network 11. The document preparing and distributing server 3 has a function that mainly receives an instruction from the business terminal 5 to prepare a document and distributes the document to the customer terminals 7, and has a customer database 13, a business person database 15, a merchandise database 17, a document database 19, a document preparing means and a document distributing means. The business terminal 5 can distribute the prepared document to the customer terminals 7 without receiving the document.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a document creation / delivery system, a server, a program and a storage medium for creating and distributing a document.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When a document is created, a client terminal may instruct a server via a network to create a desired document. In this case, conventionally, the created document is received by the document creator himself / herself.

[0003]

However, since the recipient of the document is the creator, it is necessary for the creator to further perform the distribution work when the created document is to be distributed.
For example, when creating a product introduction book and distributing it to a large number of customers, the creator had to distribute it to each customer.

Conventionally, the order form has not always been attached to the product introduction form. Therefore, the customer must take an action such as obtaining a purchase order separately, and cannot place an order easily.

The present invention has been made in view of such a problem, and an object thereof is to enable the creation of a document and the distribution of the created document to a person other than the creator, and the ordering work is easy. Document providing and delivering system, server, program and storage medium.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, a first invention is a document creation and delivery system comprising a plurality of terminals and a server connected to the plurality of terminals via a network. The server includes a document creating unit that creates a document according to an instruction from the first terminal, and a delivering unit that delivers the document to the first terminal or a terminal other than the first terminal. It is a document creation and distribution system characterized by:

In the first invention, the first terminal sends an instruction for creating a document to the server via the network.
The server creates a document based on the instruction and distributes the document to the first terminal or a terminal other than the first terminal. Than this,
The document can be distributed to anyone other than the creator.

[0008] The terminal in this specification is generally a computer device having a communication function, but is not limited to this. The terminal may be a home appliance, a mobile terminal device, or a mobile phone device that can be connected to a network, and examples thereof include a web television, a game device with a communication function, a mobile phone, a PHS, and a PDA (Personal Digi).
tal Assistant) and the like.

A second invention is a server connected to a plurality of terminals having a communication function via a network,
A server comprising: a document creating unit that creates a document according to an instruction from the first terminal; and a delivering unit that delivers the document to the first terminal or a terminal other than the first terminal. Is.

In the second invention, the server creates a document based on an instruction from the first terminal, and the first terminal or the first terminal creates the document.
Deliver the document to terminals other than the above terminals. As a result, the document can be distributed to anyone other than the creator.

A third invention is a program for causing a computer to function as the server described above. This program can be distributed via a network.

[0012] A fourth invention is a computer-readable storage medium in which the above-mentioned program is stored.
This recording medium can be distributed.

[0013]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a document creation / delivery system 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention.
Here, an example of applying this system to product sales promotion activities and creating a product catalog as a document will be described.

The document creation and delivery system 1 includes a document creation and delivery server 3, a sales terminal 5, customer terminals 7-1 and 7-2,
... and the commodity ordering server 9 are mainly configured. These are connected via a network 11 capable of bidirectional communication as shown in FIG.

The document creation / delivery server 3 mainly has a function of receiving instructions from the sales terminal 5 and the customer terminal 7, creating a document, and delivering the document to a predetermined terminal. The document creation and distribution server 3 includes a customer database 13, a sales person database 15, a product database 17, and a document database 1.
9. It has a document creating means and a document delivering means.

The sales terminal 5 is a terminal which is generally operated by a sales staff member of a product sales company. The sales terminal 5 is connected to the transaction history database 21. The sales terminal 5 has a communication function, and has an input unit such as a keyboard, a mouse, and buttons, and a display unit such as a display. Note that, here, only one sales terminal is shown for the sake of simplicity. It is also possible for multiple companies and multiple sales terminals to participate in this system.

The customer terminals 7-1, 7-2, ... Are terminals operated by the customer. The customer terminal 7 has a communication function, and has an input unit such as a keyboard, a mouse, and buttons, and a display unit such as a display.

The commodity ordering server 9 mainly has a function of receiving ordering information from the customer terminal 7, processing the ordering information, and transmitting it to the sales terminal 5. The merchandise ordering server 9 has a customer database 13, a sales person database 15, a merchandise database 17, a processing means, and a transmitting / receiving means.

The contents of each database will be described. The customer database 13 is a database that holds customer information 30 that is personal information of the customer. FIG. 2 shows an example of items of the customer information 30. Customer information 30 includes name 31, reading 33, postal code 35, address 37, telephone number 39,
FAX 41, email address 43, ID 45, age 4
It has items such as 7, gender 49, family composition 51, and remarks 53.

The name 31 is the family name and surname. Phonetic 33
Is how to read the name, and it should be hiragana or katakana. Postal code 35, address 37, telephone number 39, FAX4
Reference numeral 1 is a customer's contact telephone number, address, telephone number, and fax number, respectively. Whether the contact is at home or at work depends on the customer's choice.

The mail address 43 is an address which is a destination when sending an electronic mail. The ID 45 is a character string assigned to each customer in order to identify each customer. Often used in combination with numbers and alphabets. The age 47 may be full age, or may be a general age, such as the number of generations. Gender 49 is either male or female. The family structure 51 means, for example, the structure of a family such as a couple and several children, and may include the age of each person. Remark 5
Reference numeral 3 is information about the customer other than the above-mentioned items, for example, the customer's hobbies, tastes, occupations, and the like.

The sales person database 15 is a database that holds the sales person information 60 about the sales person who sells the product. FIG. 3 shows an example of items of the business information 60. The sales person information 60 is a company name 61, a department name 63, a person in charge 6
5, telephone number 67, fax 69, email address 71,
It has items such as ID73.

The company name 61 and the department name 63 are the name of the company to which the business operator belongs and the name of the department, respectively. Person in charge 6
5 is the name of the sales person in charge. Phone number 67, FAX6
Reference numerals 9 are a telephone number and a FAX number, respectively, of the contact person of the business person. The mail address 71 is an address that is a destination of electronic mail. The ID 73 is a character string assigned to each business person to identify each business person. Often used in combination with numbers and alphabets.

The merchandise database 17 is a database that holds merchandise information 80 of merchandise for which sales promotion activities are performed. FIG. 4 shows an example of items of the product information 80. The product information 80 includes a company name 61, a classification 81, a product name 83, a color 85, and a size 8.
7, product ID 89, price 91, image data 93, description 9
5, the file name 97 and the like.

The company name 61 is the name of the company that sells the product. The category 81 is a category to which the product belongs. Category 8
1 can adopt various classifications depending on the case. Furniture,
It may be classified as OA goods, car goods, and the like. Also,
The classification may have a hierarchical structure in consideration of the type of product. For example, let's have items of large classification, middle classification, small classification,
You may classify furniture into large categories, desks, chairs, chests, etc. into medium categories, and armchairs, sofas, chairs, etc. into minor categories.

The product name 83 is the name of the product. The color 85 is a characteristic color of the product. For example, when there are a plurality of products having the same specifications but different colors, each product can be identified using the color 85. The size 87 is a size such as height, width, depth or the like of the product, or a size division such as S, M, L or the like. When there are a plurality of products having the same specifications but different sizes, each product can be specified using the size 87.

The product ID 89 is a character string assigned to each product. Often used in combination with numbers and alphabets. It is also possible to identify the color, size, etc. by utilizing the product ID. The price 91 is the selling price of the product. The image data 93 is image data of a product, and for example, GIF format, JPEG format or the like can be adopted.

An explanation 95 is an explanation regarding the specifications of the product, for example, the material, the main use, the feature and the like. The file name 97 is the name of an electronic file including the product specifications, the image data 93, the description 95, and the like. This file is created in advance for each product and is used when creating a catalog. As the file format, for example, the PDF format can be adopted.

The document database 19 is a database that holds the document information 100 used to create a document.
FIG. 5 shows an example of items of the document information 100. Document information 100
Is a cover sheet 101, a table of contents 103, a content 105, a purchase order 10
It has 7 items.

The document database 19 holds electronic data having a fixed format for each item. It is preferable that there are a plurality of standard formats. For example, various standard formats in which the arrangement of the character string, the size of the character, the decorative pattern on the page, the coloring, etc. are different can be considered.

The cover sheet 101 is a page serving as a cover sheet. The table of contents 103 is a page serving as a table of contents. The content 105 is the content of the catalog here, and is a page on which the product description is put. The purchase order 107 is a page serving as a purchase order.

The transaction history database 21 is a database that holds transaction history information 110 showing the history of merchandise sales up to now. FIG. 6 shows an example of items of the transaction history information 110. Here, information is collected for each customer. Transaction history information 110 includes name 31, ID 45, date 111,
It has items such as a product name 83 and a price 113.

Name 31, ID 45, product name 83 here
Is the name, ID, and product name of the customer who purchased the product. The date 111 is the date of purchase. The amount 113 is the purchase amount.

The items included in each of the above information are examples,
It is not limited to this. Not all of the above items are necessarily required, and items other than the above may be included. In addition, it is preferable that the information that each database has is updated at any time.

Here, both the document creation / delivery server 3 and the commodity ordering server 9 have a customer database 13, a salesperson database 15, and a commodity database 17. Therefore, it is preferable that data can be exchanged between the two servers at any time, and when the information in the database of one of the servers is updated, the database of the other server is also automatically updated.

The document creation / delivery server 3 and the commodity ordering server 9 do not necessarily have to have the same database, and may have databases of different configurations.

Next, the function of each means will be described. The document creating means causes the sales terminal 5 to display the information held in the customer database 13, the product database 17, and the document database 19 in a predetermined format. And the sales terminal 5
Automatically edit the information selected by to create a document.

The document delivery means delivers the created document to the customer designated by the sales terminal 5. In addition, here
The document distribution means also has a reception function.

The processing means processes the order information transmitted from the customer terminal 7. As the processing contents, for example, checking / compensation for incompleteness of the purchase order, totaling the ordering information for each product, collecting ordering information for each business operator, etc. can be considered.

The transmission / reception means receives the order information transmitted from the customer terminal 7, and transmits the information processed by the processing means to the business terminal 5.

Here, the operator of the document creation / delivery server 3 and the merchandise ordering server 9 can charge the business side.

Next, an example of the operation of the document creation / delivery system 1 will be described with reference to FIG.

The sales person uses the sales terminal 5 to access the document creation / delivery server 3 via the network 5. Then, the sales person designates the product information to be described in the catalog and the customer to whom the catalog is distributed, from the input section of the sales terminal 5 (step 701).

FIG. 8 shows an example of a screen displayed on the display unit of the sales terminal 5 at this time. On this screen, information such as chairs, desks, and lights held in the product database 17 is displayed as a list as information items. The information item to be described in the catalog is selected by checking the check box 801 on the left side of the item.

Further, the customers stored in the customer database 13 are listed in the box 803.
The delivery destination customer is selected by clicking the customer name.

Whether or not the order form is attached is selected by checking the check box 805.

After making the above selections, by clicking the confirmation screen button 807, the created document can be displayed on the screen for confirmation.

The screen of FIG. 8 is a simple example, and the product to be actually described, the image data and description of the product,
It is configured so that information such as a PDF file can be selected in more detail. In addition, a screen for selecting a document format is displayed.

When the sales person performs the selection work, the purchase history, taste, etc. of each customer can be referred from the transaction history database 21. From this, it is possible to select a product that suits the taste of each customer, a format that suits the taste, and the like.

Next, the document creation / delivery server 3 is the sales terminal 5
The specified contents are received, the document is created by the document creating means, and the document is delivered to each customer (step 702).

At this time, the document creating means inserts the information selected by the sales terminal 5 into each standard format of the document database 19 to perform editing work to create a document.

For example, FIG. 9A shows a standard format for a cover. The name 31 of the selected customer is automatically written in the upper left of the page. In addition, the company name of the sales person is 6 at the bottom right.
1, the department name 63, and the person in charge 65 are automatically written. This can be automatically described, for example, by identifying the sales person from the ID 73 used when the sales terminal 5 accesses the document creation / delivery server 3 and referring to the sales person database 15. That is, the sales person only needs to select a customer on the screen shown in FIG. 8, and does not need to input a customer name for creating a catalog.

In the table of contents, those product names are automatically listed from the product information specified in step 701.
The sales person does not have to enter the product name.

FIG. 9B shows a standard format of the product explanation page. In the drawing, a page for explanation is created by embedding the image data 93 of the selected product, a PDF file, or the like in the frame described as product 1, product 2, ... Similarly for the purchase order, a purchase order for the product designated in step 701 is automatically created. In this way, each page of the cover, the table of contents, the contents, and the purchase order is created, and these are combined to create the catalog.

The distribution of the created catalog to the customer is performed by the document distribution means. As a delivery method, for example,
The created document is attached to an electronic mail and delivered to the customer via the customer terminal 7. Alternatively, an e-mail in which the URL of the site where this created document can be viewed is written is delivered to the customer.

The customer receives the catalog at the customer terminal 7 (step 703). The customer looks at the catalog and decides whether to order the product (step 704). In order to place an order, the customer fills out the necessary items in the order form attached to the catalog and sends the order form from the customer terminal 7 to the product ordering server 9 (step 705). It is also possible to print an order form and place an order by means such as FAX.

FIG. 10 shows an example of a purchase order. In FIG. 10, the product name 83, the color 85, and the size 87 of the product specified in step 701 are displayed. The purchase is designated by checking the check box 1007.

The customer selects the product name 83, the color 85, and the size 87, checks them, and writes the desired number in the number column 1003. Then, the price column 91 and the total amount column 100
The amount of money corresponding to the customer's order contents is automatically displayed in 5. When a send button 1001 on the screen is clicked, an order is placed.

In the merchandise ordering server 9, the transmission / reception means receives the purchase order, and the processing means processes the order information entered in the purchase order. Then, the ordering information is transmitted to the sales terminal 5 by the transmitting / receiving means (step 706).

As the processing contents by the processing means, for example, the product ID 89 is determined by referring to the product database 17 from the product name, color and size entered in the order form.
It is conceivable to specify the sales person in charge of the customer from the purchase order and obtain the mail address from the sales person database 15.

The sales terminal 5 receives the product order information,
The business operator performs an ordering procedure (step 707). Also,
The business person updates the transaction history database 21 based on the received product order information.

The commodity ordering server 9 may also have the transaction history database 21, and the information in the transaction history database 21 may be automatically updated in step 706 of processing the purchase order.

According to this embodiment, the following effects can be obtained. The sales person just gives an instruction from the sales terminal 5,
It can be delivered to each customer without receiving the document. Therefore, it is possible to omit the conventional labor of distributing the created document with the address of each customer.

Further, by using the above-mentioned document creating means, the optimum document for each customer can be easily created. Further, it becomes possible to easily deliver a document to a large number of customers at one time. By distributing the document via the network, it can be distributed at low cost.

The customer can obtain the purchase order together with the catalog, and can easily carry out the ordering work by using the purchase order.

The document creating method is not limited to the above example, and various methods are conceivable. In the above example, the case where the file of the product database 17 is used when creating the product description page has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this.
For example, one product is posted for each page, and an electronic catalog in which all products are posted is created in advance in PDF format. The product description page may be created by designating the page of the electronic catalog.

In the present system, it is also possible for the terminal which has issued the document creation instruction to receive the created document. For example, it is possible to access the document creation / delivery server 3 from the customer terminal 7 to create a document with a purchase order, and the customer terminal 7 can receive the document.

[0068]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention, it is possible to create a document and distribute it to a person other than the creator of the document, and at the same time, a document creation / delivery system and a server which can easily place an order. , A program and a storage medium can be provided.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a document creation / delivery system.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of customer information items.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of items of sales person information.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of items of product information.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of items of document information.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of transaction history information items.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the operation of the document creation / delivery system.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a display example of an information designation screen.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of a created document.

FIG. 10 shows an example of a purchase order

[Explanation of symbols]

1 --------- Document creation and delivery system 3 --------- Document creation and distribution server 5 --------- Sales terminal 7 --------- Customer terminal 9 --------- Product ordering server 11 --------- Network 13 --------- Customer database 15 --------- Business database 17 --------- Product database 19 --------- Document database 21 --------- Transaction history database

Claims (9)

[Claims] 1. A document creation / delivery system comprising a plurality of terminals and a server connected to the plurality of terminals via a network, wherein the server creates a document according to an instruction from the first terminal. A document creating and delivering system comprising: a document creating unit for creating the document; and a delivering unit for delivering the document to the first terminal or a terminal other than the first terminal. 2. The server includes a product information storage unit that holds product information, and the document creation unit creates a document by editing the product information selected by the first terminal. The document creating and delivering system according to claim 1. 3. The document creation and delivery system according to claim 2, wherein the document includes an order document for the product. 4. The document creation / delivery system according to claim 3, further comprising a transmitting / receiving unit that receives the commodity ordering information transmitted from the terminal and transmits the commodity ordering information to the first terminal. 5. A server, which is connected to a plurality of terminals having a communication function via a network, and a document creating unit that creates a document according to an instruction from the first terminal, the document being created by the first terminal. Or a delivery means for delivering to a terminal other than the first terminal. 6. A product information storage unit for holding product information is further provided, wherein the document creating unit creates a document by editing the product information selected by the first terminal. The server according to claim 5. 7. The server according to claim 6, wherein the document includes an order document for the product. 8. A program causing a computer to function as the server according to claim 5. 9. A computer-readable recording medium in which the program according to claim 8 is stored.