JP2003196443A - Plan sanction processing system for electronic document - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a plan sanction processing system for an electronic document, capable of smoothing the plan sanction processing. <P>SOLUTION: This plan sanction system for an electronic document is formed by client PCs 1, 2,...,n and group servers 11, 12 including the Internet mail connected on LAN or WAN. An electronic document formed by bibliography information created by group ware including the Internet mail and an electronic document entity is circulated electronically by the group ware to perform electronic plan sanction processing. For the electronic document created by an implementor, when the implementor designates electronic circulation processing, an operator performing the plan sanction processing determines whether it is in the environment for the document processing business or not, thereby discriminating whether the operator performing the plan sanction processing is skipped or not. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic document approval / decision processing method, and more particularly, to a group including Internet mail, which is composed of a client PC connected to a LAN or WAN and a group server including Internet mail. TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a system for approval / decision processing of electronic documents that electronically circulates electronic documents composed of bibliographic information created by ware and electronic document entities attached to the electronic documents using groupware.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, the approval decision processing method for electronic documents is as follows.
For example, it is applied to the approval process of electronic documents. In such an electronic document approval process, a document creator creates an electronic document by a word processing application or the like, outputs it on paper from a printer, circulates the output paper, and performs a approval decision process.

With the recent spread of groupware environments including Internet mail, electronic documents created by document creators have been electronically circulated and electronic approval processing has been performed.

Prior invention example 1 similar in technical field to the present invention
There is "Workflow definition method, workflow system, and storage medium storing workflow definition program" in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-125997. In the first prior invention example 1, the attribute information of a plurality of participants is acquired, and the circulation order of the plurality of participants is generated based on the acquired attribute information. As a result, the flow definition time of the user or administrator is shortened.

[0005]

However, in the above-mentioned prior art, since the electronic document created by the creator is electronically circulated, the worker who requests the approval approval processing by the creator can perform the approval approval processing. The work notification is sent only to the mailbox on the server of the worker who is the requester of the approval decision processing managed by the groupware without knowing whether it is in the environment. For this reason, the approval process may be delayed, which is not convenient.

An object of the present invention is to provide an approval decision processing method for electronic documents, which facilitates approval approval processing.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, the approval decision processing method for an electronic document according to the present invention comprises a client PC connected to a LAN or WAN and a group server including an Internet mail. An electronic document that electronically circulates using a groupware an electronic document composed of bibliographic information created by groupware including an email and an electronic document entity attached to the bibliographic information to perform electronic approval processing This is a system for approval process of approval, and when the creator gives an electronic circulation process to the electronic document created by the creator, an environment where the worker who performs the approval approval process next can process the document It is characterized in that whether or not there is an approval decision process is next determined by deciding whether or not to skip a worker who performs the approval decision process.

The determination as to whether to skip or not includes the operator's selection as to whether or not there is an environment in which the document processing operation cannot be performed and whether or not to request the approval decision processing, and the creator executes the approval decision processing. When processing is performed assuming that it is not the next worker, the creator will determine the worker who will perform the next approval process by the bibliographic information such as the document type and storage period of the electronic document that is the object of the approval approval process request. The feature is that it is possible to prohibit flying.

The above-mentioned document types are general documents, circulation documents, approval decision documents, and secret documents, and storage deadlines are bibliographic information of less than one year, one year, three years, five years, and ten years. When a worker who does not perform document processing work and performs approval processing is skipped, the approval processing worker is automatically added to the end of the approval processing route. .

[0010]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Next, an embodiment of an electronic document approval decision processing system according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Referring to FIGS. 1 to 20, there is shown an embodiment of an electronic document approval decision processing method according to the present invention.

FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram applied to an embodiment of an electronic document approval decision processing system of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram showing an example of circulation processing of an electronic document. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a database configuration on the groupware server.

The system applied to this embodiment is shown in FIG.
As shown in, the mail server 11 and the groupware server 12 are the client 1, the client 2 ,.
., Online connection with the personal computer of client n.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart of the circulation of an electronic document. The circulation processing 21 is a paper document and the circulation processing 22 is an electronic document.
Is conceptually illustrated and shown. In FIG. 2, a circulation process 21 using a paper document represents the Push process of the creator in the form of handing the document from the creator to the reader. In addition, the circulation processing 22 using the electronic document represents the Push + Pull processing of the circulation person in a mode in which the circulation person goes to the circulation person, instead of handing it to the circulation person.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a configuration example of the client management database. FIG. 14 is a diagram showing an example of the update trigger of the client management DB. The creator of the electronic document and the worker who receives the approval decision processing request for the electronic document use the groupware to enable the document processing operation (including the creation of the electronic document and the approval approval processing operation) in the client in FIG. Log on. As a result, the state of whether the creator and the worker can perform the document processing work is registered in the client management database shown in FIGS. You can work by logging on to the groupware. By not logging on or logging out, the work is disabled. In the update trigger of the client management DB in FIG. 14, the server updates the record in which the work is possible and the update date and time has passed a certain period to the work impossible.

(Application Example 1) FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an example of the processing procedure of Application Example 1. In the application example 1 shown in FIG. 4, the creator of the electronic document logs on to the groupware and creates the electronic document entity using the business application. Next, in order to receive the electronic approval decision processing by electronic circulation, bibliographic information is created using groupware, the created electronic document entity is attached, and an electronic document is created.

In FIG. 4, an electronic document is created (step S1), a circulation route is selected (step S2), a circulation history is registered (step S3), and circulation processing is started (step S4). If the next reader is obtained from the circulation history (step S5) and there is a response (step S6 /
Yes), the circulation person is acquired from the client management DB (step S7), and if not present (step S8 / N)
o), the mail is sent to the reader (step S9), the mail of the reader is received (step S10), the circulation processing of the reader is performed (step S11), and the circulation history is updated to "circulated" (step S12). ), If all have been circulated (step S13 / Yes), a completion mail is sent to the worker (step S14), and the circulation history is updated (step S1).
5) and end.

FIG. 7 shows a configuration example of the circulation history DB before the mail transmission applied to the application example 1. Further, FIG. 8 shows an example of a procedure of constructing the circulation history DB after mail transmission applied to the application example 1. After the completion of the electronic document creation, by instructing the start processing of the electronic circulation, the electronic document circulation processing shown in the flowchart of FIG. 4 is executed. As a result, FIG. 7 and FIG.
The electronic circulation processing shown in (1) is performed, and an e-mail requesting approval for approval is sent to the next worker who can perform document processing.

(Effect) In the application example 1, when the creator instructs the electronic circulation processing for the electronic document created by the creator, the worker who performs the approval decision processing next can perform the document processing work. In a non-environment, it is possible to automatically skip a worker who next makes a approval decision, and prevent a delay in the approval decision process.

(Application Example 2) FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an example of the processing procedure of Application Example 2. FIG. 9 shows a configuration example of the circulation history DB before email transmission applied to the application example 2.
FIG. 10 shows an example of the configuration procedure of the circulation history DB after mail transmission which is applied to the application example 2.

In the application example 2, as in the application example 1, the creator of the electronic document creates the electronic document and instructs the start processing of the electronic circulation. As a result, the electronic document circulation process shown in the flowchart of FIG. 5 is executed. As a result, the electronic circulation processing shown in the application example shown in FIGS. 9 and 10 is performed, and when the worker who receives the request for the approval decision processing is in a state where the document processing operation is impossible, the creator is asked to A dialog for "Send to or to send to next" is displayed, and an e-mail requesting approval for approval is sent to the worker selected by the creator.

(Effect) In the application example 2, when the creator gives an electronic circulation processing to the electronic document created by the creator, the worker who performs the approval decision processing next can perform the document processing work. In a non-environment, the creator can prevent a delay in the approval decision processing without changing the approval decision processing path of the electronic document.

(Application Example 3) FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an example of the processing procedure of Application Example 3. FIG. 11 shows a configuration example of the circulation history DB before email transmission applied to the application example 3. FIG. 12 shows an example of the configuration procedure of the circulation history DB after mail transmission, which is applied to the application example 3.

In the application example 3, as in the application example 2, the creator of the electronic document creates the electronic document and instructs the start processing of the electronic circulation. As a result, the electronic document circulation process shown in the flowchart of FIG. 6 is executed. As a result, FIG.
When the electronic circulation processing shown in the application example shown in FIG. 12 is performed and the worker who receives the approval request for approval next time is in a state in which the document processing cannot be performed, the creator is asked to "send next or The "Send next" dialog is displayed.
Therefore, when the creator selects "Send next", the importance of the document to be processed is checked. If it is important, "Send next" causes an error and the "Next" An e-mail requesting approval for approval is sent to the worker.

(Effect) In the application example 3, when the creator gives an electronic circulation processing to the electronic document created by the creator, the creator approves the worker who next performs the approval decision processing. When processing is performed without making the request for approval processing to the next worker, the approval approval can be surely realized by the bibliographic information included in the electronic document subject to approval approval processing.

(Example of Change) FIGS. 15 to 20 are diagrams showing an example of change, and FIGS. 4, 5, and 6 show other operation examples in the absence of a reader corresponding to the embodiment. . 15 shows a modification 1 corresponding to FIG. 4, FIG. 16 shows a modification 2 corresponding to FIG. 5, and FIG. 17 shows a modification 3 corresponding to FIG. FIG. 18 is shown in FIG. 15, FIG. 19 is shown in FIG.
FIG. 20 is a diagram accompanying FIG. 17, respectively.

In the first modified example, when the creator gives an electronic circulation processing to the electronic document created by the creator, the operator who next executes the approval decision processing cannot perform the document processing work. In some cases, the worker who makes the approval request next time can send a message to the worker who has skipped the approval process, so that the fact that the approval decision has been skipped can be recorded as a history, and the worker is recognized. can do.

In the second modification, when the creator gives an electronic circulation processing to the electronic document created by the creator, an operator who performs the approval decision processing next can perform the document processing work. It is possible to judge whether or not it is in an environment where it is not possible to perform document processing work, if the approval process is skipped, the worker who is skipped the approval process is automatically added to the end of the approval process path. By doing so, it is possible to reliably carry out the approval process.

In the third modification, when the creator gives an electronic circulation processing to the electronic document created by the creator, an operator who performs the approval decision processing next can perform the document processing work. You can judge whether. In this judgment, if the environment is such that the document processing work cannot be performed, and if the worker who performs the approval decision process next is skipped the approval decision process, the history indicating that the approval decision process was skipped should be saved as a circulation history. As a result, the fact that the approval process has been skipped can be left as a history and can be recognized by the creator.

[0029]

As is apparent from the above description, the approval decision processing method for electronic documents according to the present invention is based on bibliographic information created by groupware including Internet mail and electronic document entities attached to this bibliographic information. Electronic documents that are composed are circulated electronically using groupware, and electronic approval processing is performed. In the approval decision processing method of this electronic document, when the creator instructs the electronic circulation processing for the electronic document created by the creator, the worker who performs the approval approval process next can perform the document processing work. It is judged whether or not it is in the environment, and then it is judged whether or not the worker who will carry out the approval process is skipped. As a result, the approval process can be facilitated.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram applied to an embodiment of an electronic document approval decision processing method of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram showing an example of circulation processing of an electronic document.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a database configuration on a groupware server.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a processing procedure of application example 1.

5 is a flowchart showing an example of a processing procedure of application example 2. FIG.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure example of application example 3;

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a circulation history DB before email transmission applied to application example 1;

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of a configuration procedure of a circulation history DB after mail transmission applied to application example 1;

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a circulation history DB before email transmission applied to application example 2;

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a configuration procedure of a circulation history DB after mail transmission applied to application example 2;

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a circulation history DB before mail transmission applied to application example 3;

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing an example of a configuration procedure of a circulation history DB after mail transmission applied to application example 3;

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a client management database.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing an example of a client management DB update trigger.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a processing procedure of modification example 1.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a processing procedure of modification example 2.

FIG. 17 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a processing procedure of modification example 3.

FIG. 18 is a diagram accompanying Modification Example 1.

FIG. 19 is a diagram accompanying a second modification.

FIG. 20 is a diagram accompanying a third modification.

[Explanation of symbols]

11 mail server 12 groupware server 21 Circulation process using paper documents 22 Circulation processing by electronic document

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. Bibliographic information composed of a client PC connected to a LAN or WAN and a group server including Internet mail, created by groupware including the Internet mail, and an electronic document attached to the bibliographic information. An electronic document composed of entities,
In the approval decision processing method of an electronic document that electronically circulates using the groupware and performs electronic approval processing, the creator instructed the electronic circulation processing for the electronic document created by the creator. At this time, it is determined whether the worker who will perform the approval process next is in an environment where the document processing work can be performed, and whether or not the worker who will perform the approval process is skipped is determined. Approval processing method for electronic documents, characterized by facilitating processing. 2. The determination as to whether to skip or not includes the selection of the worker as to whether or not the environment is such that the document processing operation cannot be performed, and whether or not the approval decision processing request is made. The approval decision processing method for an electronic document according to claim 1. 3. The bibliographic information, such as the document type and the storage deadline, included in the electronic document that is the target of the approval decision processing when the creator performs the approval decision processing as the next worker 3. The approval decision processing method for an electronic document according to claim 2, wherein it is possible to prohibit the creator from skipping a worker who performs the approval decision process. 4. The document type includes general documents, circulation documents,
4. The approval decision process for an electronic document according to claim 3, wherein the approval decision document is a secret document, and the storage period is bibliographic information of less than one year, one year, three years, five years, and ten years. method. 5. When the worker who cannot perform the document processing work and performs the approval process is skipped, the worker of the approval process is automatically moved to the end of the approval process path. The approval decision processing method for an electronic document according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the approval method is added.