JP2004157592A - Virtual joint business center system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an efficient business activity support system that uses an external organization for business activities of small- and medium-sized enterprises practically without business staff dispersed over regions. <P>SOLUTION: The business support system is a system including a business activity center, business activity requesting enterprises and business staff. The business activity center has enterprise-specific databases and an enterprise-shared database, and comprises a means for receiving a request for business activities from a business activity requesting enterprise, a means for receiving enterprise-related information about the business activity requesting enterprise, a means for selecting a business target customer at which business activities are targeted, a means for notifying the business activity requesting enterprise of the selected business target customer and of business activity content to the selected business target customer, a means for notifying business staff of business activity instructions, means for receiving a business activity report from the business staff, a means for notifying the business activity requesting enterprise of the business activity report, and a means for receiving guidelines for business activities from the business activity requesting enterprise. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention particularly relates to a sales support system for supporting business activities of small and medium-sized businesses.
[0002]
[Prior art]
Many small and medium-sized enterprises, especially small and medium-sized local and regional enterprises, concentrate on production activities, which are the original activities of the enterprise, and are unable to handle sales activities. The reason is that there are not enough staff members available for sales activities. It is desirable that even small or medium-sized enterprises of several to several tens of people independently carry out sales activities for companies in each region. However, for a company of this size, it is difficult to secure and manage sales staff, the cost of establishing and maintaining bases in various locations, the cost of preparing and maintaining systems and other infrastructure, and the In fact, there is no room to secure transportation and accommodation expenses for business activities.
[0003]
In view of the actual situation of business activities in such small and medium-sized enterprises, it is desired to introduce a sales support system for activating the business activities of small and medium-sized enterprises. In other words, small and medium-sized companies can easily obtain business information of other companies that can be business partners without having to collect information on their own, and based on that company information, can independently conduct sales activities to appropriate business partners in various places. A system that enables small and medium-sized companies to carry out their own sales activities by utilizing sales agents of sales agents resident in various parts of the country without securing their own sales employees. This is a system that enables sales employees to conduct sales activities as sales employees of small and medium-sized businesses, so that they can pull out company information, product information, and activity history of each company necessary for sales at any time and grasp them at any time.
[0004]
The problem in realizing the above system is that, first, small and medium-sized companies do not have means for sharing information such as company information and product information to be sold. It is prerequisite for sales activities to know in advance information such as company information, product information, sales process information, sales history, etc. performed by other bases and sales employees. Was not easily obtained, so that sales activities by sales representatives of sales agents were virtually impossible. Basically, without the company information and product information of each company, it is not possible to find the right customers for sales activities. Second, there is no way to direct sales activities. When many small and medium-sized businesses request sales activities from sales agents, it is necessary to constantly transmit sales information such as company information, product information, and sales performance of each company to sales employees. Is difficult and not realized. Third, there is no means to share the history of business activities. When dealing with a large number of small and medium enterprises and a large number of customers, there is a range that each company needs to know about the company information, sales activity information, and customer information of the business activity requesting company. Must be provided with the necessary and complete information.
[0005]
A large number of prior arts for supporting business activities in a company are known. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-109392 discloses that, when receiving a visit result to a customer from a sales management server to a terminal device of a sales person connected via a computer network, according to the degree of progress of the sales activity to the customer. A business support method for sequentially outputting business action instructions, which is configured to output a business content instruction including a question item of a customer capable of evaluating business activity to a terminal device, is described. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-99707 discloses that a salesperson can obtain detailed information on a product or a customer, a progress of the sales activity of the salesperson to the present, an analysis result of the sales activity of the salesperson, and the like at a sales activity site. It describes a sales activity support system that can report sales activities and can take quick action after visiting a customer. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-28289 discloses means for registering an attribute of a customer information recipient, means for targeting a customer information database in accordance with the attribute of the registered customer information recipient, and information including targeted customer information on a communication line. And a means for distributing, via a communication line, a terminal device of a customer information receiver via a communication line, a means for totalizing input information and distributing the total information to the customer information supplier.
[0006]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, sales to companies that have virtually no sales force, or at least those that cannot conduct nationwide and global sales activities, that is, small and medium-sized businesses that are dispersed in various places seeking sales support. No activity support system is known, and no system is known for efficiently supporting business activities by sharing information using external mechanisms in a closed business activity support system. . The present invention has been made in view of such a situation. In particular, an external mechanism called a sales activity center is provided for sales activities of small and medium-sized companies dispersed in various places, and information is utilized by utilizing the mechanism. It provides a system to support and implement sales activities efficiently by sharing.
[0007]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
The gist of the present invention is a sales support system that supports and implements business activities of small and medium-sized businesses. That is, the sales activity center, a sales activity requesting company distributed in each place, and a sales staff distributed in each place are systems configured via a network, and the sales activity center computer has an individual company database and a common company database. , Means for receiving sales activity requests from business activity requesting companies, means for receiving company-related information such as company information and product information about business activity requesting companies, and selection of sales target customers who conduct sales activities for business activity requesting companies. Means for performing, means for notifying the selected business target customer and the contents of the sales activity for the selected sales target customer to the sales activity requesting company, means for notifying the sales employee of the sales activity instruction, means for receiving the sales activity report from the sales employee Means for notifying the business activity requesting company of the business activity report and the business activity requesting company It is a sales support system provided with a means to receive the guidance that.
[0008]
Then, the sales activity center computer can include means for charging according to the number and contents of the sales activity guide received from the sales activity requesting company. In addition, the database of the sales activity center has access restrictions. That is, the salesperson and the sales activity requesting company can access the common company database, and the individual company database shows that the sales activity requesting company has only data on the business activity requesting company, and the salesperson is in charge of the salesperson. You can only access data about the company you are working on.
[0009]
Further, a program for operating this system, that is, a system in which a sales activity center, sales activity requesting companies distributed in various locations, and sales personnel distributed in various locations are configured via a network, the sales activity center computer Has an individual company database and a common company database, means for receiving sales activity requests from sales activity requesting companies, means for receiving company information related to business activity requesting companies, product information, etc., for business activity requesting companies Means for selecting a sales target customer who conducts business activities, means for notifying a selected sales target customer and the contents of sales activities for the selected sales target customer to a sales activity requesting company, and means for notifying sales staff of a sales activity instruction. Means for receiving a business activity report from the salesperson, and notifying the business activity requesting company of the business activity report. It means a program for functioning as means for charging according to the number and nature of business guidance received from the operating activities requesting means receives guidance on sales activities from companies and sales activities request companies.
[0010]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, the present invention will be described based on embodiments. FIG. 1 shows the configuration of the system network. This sales support system includes a sales activity center computer 10, a plurality of sales activity requesting company computers 11, a plurality of salesperson computers 12, and a call center computer 13, all of which are communicable with each other via the Internet 100. . FIG. 1 shows a configuration on the Internet, but the present invention can be applied not only to the configuration on the Internet but also to a configuration on a network.
[0011]
The sales activity center computer 10 is a computer used by the sales activity center that operates the sales support system. The sales activity requesting company computer 11 is a computer used by companies requesting sales activities distributed in various places, and there are a plurality of computers. The salesperson computer 12 is a computer used by salespersons living in various places. The call center computer 13 is a computer used by the call center. Each computer is configured to be able to communicate with each other via the Internet 100, and each of these computers is configured by a computer system having a communication function, and includes a storage device for storing programs and data, a keyboard, and the like. Input devices such as a computer and a mouse, display devices such as a CRT and an LCD, communication devices such as a modem that communicates with the outside, output devices such as a printer, and the like. It comprises a control device for controlling the operation. A call center can be provided as needed.
[0012]
The computer 10 of the sales activity center has, as storage devices, a company-related database of the business activity requesting company and an individual company database for recording business activities related to the company and a common company database for recording general information of various companies. The sales activity center has a database server and a web server. The database stores and accumulates business activity history and general company information, as well as company-related information of business activity requesting companies. The web server extracts the information and transmits the screen display information to the business activity requesting company or the salesperson. Then, the business activity requesting company or sales person can access the server to obtain the information, and can input a business activity report or the like on the server and transmit it to the database of the business activity center. . Here, the business activity requesting companies are small and medium-sized companies dispersed in various places.
[0013]
The computer 11 of the sales activity requesting company, the computer 12 of the salesperson, and the computer 13 of the call center basically have a function of displaying the display screen transmitted from the web server of the sales activity center via a web browser. Good. In other words, all the processing and screen creation are performed by the web server of the sales activity center, and the data necessary for that exists in the database server of the sales activity center. The display screen transmitted from the web server of the sales activity center is displayed on the web browser by the computer of the sales activity requesting company, the sales activity or the call center.
[0014]
The common company database is a database of company information provided and shared by the sales activity center. This database includes general company information such as company name, address, sales, capital, establishment year, and business type. For the company using this system, there is only one database in the system. The registration of the common company data is performed by the sales activity center, and the sales activity requesting company to use can refer to this database by searching. In principle, a system user requesting a sales activity can refer to all information registered here by searching. In addition to the individual company database, information necessary for the company can be appropriately referred to. However, the authority of this part of the data to be referenced and changed shall be set for each sales requesting company, each sales employee, and each data item, and reference and change may be made according to the contract form and the like.
[0015]
The individual company database is an information database individually owned by a company that has requested sales activities. The sales activity information such as the degree of progress of the sales activity promoted by the business activity requesting company, the activity history, and the information independently collected by the business activity requesting company, for example, the standard of the product to be handled are registered. Although there is only one common company database for one company in this system, an individual company database is appropriately provided for each business activity requesting company. For each case of company information in the common company database, there are as many individual company databases as there are all the business activity requesting companies that have conducted some kind of sales activity, conducted research, registered information, etc. with the business activity requesting company. Will be. Unlike the common company database, the individual company database can be freely registered and changed by the business activity requesting company.
[0016]
A feature of a sales activity requesting company is that it can be used for search, analysis, etc. based on both items, in a form that customer data in the common database and data for the company itself are combined. Basically, the individual company data can be referred only to the business activity requesting company to which the company belongs, and cannot refer to the information of other business activity requesting companies. Also, the salesperson can refer to the company data of the common company database and the company-related data of the company that has requested the sales activity only after receiving the sales activity request. The individual company database is composed of a text type, an option type, a numeric type, a date type, a text area type, a check type, a file type, and the like, like the common company database. The constituent items are set freely by the business activity requesting company, and the items can be added or deleted as needed.
[0017]
FIG. 3 shows the configuration of the sales support system of the present invention. A business activity requesting company who intends to use the sales support system of the present invention needs to enroll in the sales support system. Upon enrollment, the business activity requesting company provides company information, such as company information and product information, and applies to the business activity center. Applications for sales activity requests can be made at the time of enrollment, or can be made as needed after enrollment. Upon receiving the company-related information from the business activity requesting company, the business activity center selects a sales target customer who can be a customer of the business activity requesting company based on the information. In selecting a sales target customer, in addition to referring to the information provided by the sales activity requesting company, a search and selection are made from a common company database held independently. When a sales target is selected, the sales person in charge of the sales target and a call center are instructed on sales activities. The sales activity center receives the result of the sales activity based on the instruction from the sales representative and the call center. The sales activity result received in this way is notified from the sales activity center to the sales activity requesting company. Then, the sales activity center receives the next sales activity guideline from the sales activity requesting company. Sales activities will be conducted again based on these guidelines. This sales activity takes place until a contract is reached. Of course, if there is no prospect of a future contract, sales activities may be suspended.
[0018]
The business activity requesting company can access the site of the business activity center from the computer 11 of the business activity requesting company and input the intention of the business activity request on the site. Specifically, it fills in the enrollment format displayed on the site. Alternatively, it is also possible to request the sending of a membership application form on the site, fill out the necessary information in the application form and send it to the sales activity center to join. The contents entered in the sales support system enrollment format on the site are sent to the sales activity center computer 10 from the site.
[0019]
Items to be entered in the enrollment format or to fill in the application form include, for example, address, name, representative name, telephone number, fax number, e-mail address, business type, capital, annual sales, profit, number of employees, Product, description of the product, and the like. These company-related information is stored and accumulated in the individual company database of the sales activity center computer. The company-related information of the business activity requesting company can be taken out by a sales person or a call center person who lives in each place where the business activity request has been made as required.
[0020]
FIG. 2 shows an example of a process for executing a business activity. In the processing of S1 “Receive various information”, the business activity center receives basic information on business activity from the company that wants to request the business activity. This can be applied to a sales activity center by a sales activity requesting company via the Internet. The sales activity center receives company-related information such as company information, financial information, and product information from the business activity requesting company. In particular, it is important to have information about products that you want to have sales activities. The business activity requesting company fills in its own information and product information in accordance with the format and sends the company-related information to the business activity center. The information is registered in a fixed format. The fixed format is a text type (a character string of several characters to several tens of characters), a text area type (a sentence of several tens of characters or more), a choice type, a check type (ON / OFF check), a file type on the screen on the web browser. (Can send any file). Brochure and catalog information can be attached to the file format in a format that can be viewed electronically. The homepage address can be entered in a text format in a format similar to homepage information. As for the product information, a description of the product and related information such as a price, a sales unit, an upper limit thereof, and a discount rate are described.
[0021]
Further, the business activity requesting company can set the format of the business activity report to be received. That is, when the salesperson inputs a report, what to report is set on the setting screen. For example, a futon company that wants to sell bedding at an accommodation facility can provide information to be obtained after actually conducting business, and a column for entering information such as the number of customers and the number of beds. On the report screen, the entry fields set here are displayed for both the personal computer version and the mobile terminal version, and the sales staff will fill in each time the sales activity. Since the salesperson's activities are reported and tabulated by the sales report, it is necessary to select the required items and the items to be charged.
[0022]
Based on these company-related information, the sales activity center selects a sales activity target customer in S2 “Selection of sales target customer”. That is, the sales activity center searches the provided company-related information under conditions considered appropriate, and selects an appropriate sales target customer. Selection and extraction of sales target customers are performed by inputting conditions. The condition can be extracted with any information from the registered information. As conditions to be input, in addition to company basic information such as a sales amount and capital, information that a requesting company individually has for the company can also be set as a search condition. The extracted sales target customers are displayed on the list screen together with the name, address, telephone number, and postal code. From this list, a target customer who actually performs sales activities is selected. This selection is made by the sales activity center. The result of the selection is stored on the computer of the sales activity center. The actual sales activities are targeted to the selected sales dealing customers.
[0023]
The sales activity center specifies the activities and decides what activities to perform and what reporting format to use. Then, the amount is determined for each activity, and the unit price is multiplied by the number of activities to determine the charging amount. The sales activity center notifies the sales activity requesting company of the contents of these sales activities in the process “notification of the selection result of the sales target customer” in S3. The business activity requesting company that has received the business activity contents notifies the sales activity center of the intention of the business activity request. In other words, the business activity requesting company selects the business target customers notified by the sales activity center and the items to be actually executed for the set business activity contents, and notifies the sales activity center of the selected items. If both the marketing activity requesting company and the marketing activity center are agreed upon, the marketing activity will be ordered. That is, the process is “reception of a business activity request” in the process S4.
[0024]
In step S5, the sales activity center notifies the sales representatives and the call centers living in the various regions of the sales activity instruction in the process of “notifying the sales employee of the sales activity instruction” in S5. The instruction content is the one received in step S4. The sales activity center allocates sales staff according to the activity area and activity content. The salesperson can refer to the details of the sales activity on the screen of the sales center system of each person in charge. Then, it is possible to refer to the company-related and product information of the requesting company instructed, and also to refer to the information of the sales target customer. Automatic sending of e-mail can also be used as a notification aid.
[0025]
At this time, the salesperson does not necessarily need to belong to the business activity requesting company, and may be a temporary sales employee or the like employed by the business activity requesting company as appropriate. As a result, the salesperson handles products of a plurality of business activity requesting companies. However, the sales activities of the sales staff are not activities of other products, but activities as employees of the company to which the sales activities are requested. As a result, the sales person does not sell the product to a specific distributor but sells the product directly to the customer, which has the same effect as employing the sales person as a sales employee.
[0026]
Further, since the salesperson handles products of different companies, it is necessary to grasp in advance the company-related information of the company that is the manufacturer of the products to be handled and the product information. The salesperson can take out the necessary company-related information from the sales activity center. That is, the sales activity center holds company-related information in the individual company database, and the salesperson can appropriately refer to such information via the Internet. At the same time, it is possible to refer to a common company database that stores and stores general information on companies that can be targeted for sales activities. The salesperson can easily access these databases from a personal computer or a portable terminal such as a PDA or a mobile phone. At this time, the salesperson cannot access the data on the individual company database and the data on the sales activity requesting company that he is not in charge of. That is, it is possible to access data on the sales activity requesting company in charge of the company in the common company database and the individual company database.
[0027]
The sales activity results are reported from the sales staff and the call center to the sales activity center (see FIG. 4). That is, the sales activity center receives the sales activity report in S6 “Receive sales activity report from salesperson”. The salesperson always sends a sales report to the sales activity center via the Internet after performing the sales activity. In the business activity report input format, input fields for items set in advance by the business activity requesting company are displayed, and the salesperson registers according to this input format. In this input field, a similar screen is displayed on a personal computer or a mobile terminal such as imode, and information can be input at any time. Since the input fields are set for each requesting company, the items of this input format change depending on the requesting company.
[0028]
Sales activities are reported as report data. The report record is registered as many times as the number of sales reports (= the number of activities) by the salesperson for one piece of company information in the individual company database. This information can be referred to by the sales activity requesting company and the salesperson who has received the request for the relevant sales activity. This data is similarly composed of text type, choice type, numeric type, date type, text area type, check type, file type, and the like. The components are set by the business activity requesting company, and the salesperson registers the set information every time the business activity is performed.
[0029]
The business activity requesting company can refer to this business activity result, and can confirm the business activity status of its own product by himself. That is, in the process S7 “notify the sales activity requesting company of the sales activity report”, the sales activity report is notified to the sales activity requesting company. At least it can be viewed on the Internet at the site of the sales activity center. The business activity requesting company can check the business activity report. Also, if there is a contract or effective contact, information is sent to that effect, and the business activity requesting company can confirm it. Then, the business activity requesting company receives all reports on the request. By pressing the approval button on the screen, it is assumed that the activity for charging has been approved.
[0030]
Based on this, the sales activity requesting company can instruct the sales activity center on the next sales activity to be taken. That is, in the process S8 “Receiving the business activity guideline from the business activity requesting company”, the business activity center receives the business activity guideline transmitted from the business activity requesting company. The specific contents of the business activity guideline are introduction of business activity destinations, sales staff of a sales activity center and / or accompanying a sales person. In other words, the business activity requesting company requests the next business activity from the activity report for the next activity. In this way, the business negotiations are advanced, and when necessary, the employee of the client company accompanies the business operator as a type of business activity. Thus, the sales activity request can be repeated to an appropriate stage.
[0031]
Further, the business activity requesting company extracts any item from the information on the sales target customer, the customer, the project, and the business report, and displays the item on a graph such as a scatter diagram to refer to the next time when extracting the customer. The appropriate conditions can be considered. Also, item information and business report items can be appropriately changed and added. Further, the sales activity center can request the price in accordance with the number of sales activity instructions issued by the sales activity requesting company in the process S9 "Charge according to the number of sales activity guidelines".
[0032]
【The invention's effect】
Even small and medium-sized companies that cannot establish their own sales organizations can conduct sales activities nationwide and globally. In addition, each SME can find difficult customers and facilitate data mining. As described above, the sales support system of the present invention has an effect that the business activities of small and medium-sized enterprises whose business activities are substantially limited can be effectively performed.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of a network configuration of the present invention; FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a processing procedure of a system of the present invention; FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a system configuration of the present invention; 4] A diagram showing a transmission route of a business activity report

Claims (4)

A system in which a sales activity center, sales activity requesting companies dispersed in each region, and sales staff distributed in each region are configured via a network. The sales activity center computer has an individual company database and a common company database. Means for receiving sales activity requests from activity requesting companies, means for receiving company information related to business activity requesting companies, product information, etc., and means for selecting sales target customers for sales activities for business activity requesting companies Means for notifying the selected sales target customer and the sales activity contents to the selected sales target customer to the sales activity requesting company, means for notifying the sales employee of the sales activity instruction, means for receiving the sales activity report from the sales employee, Means for notifying the business activity requesting company of the activity report and instructions regarding the business activity from the business activity requesting company. Sales support system which includes a means for receiving. 2. The sales support system according to claim 1, wherein the sales activity center computer has means for charging according to the number and contents of the sales activity guideline received from the sales activity requesting company. The salesperson and the sales activity requesting company can access the common company database, and the individual company database shows that the sales activity requesting company has only data relating to the sales activity requesting company, and the salesperson is in charge of it. 3. The sales support system according to claim 1, wherein only the data relating to the company for which the sales activity has been requested can be accessed. A system in which a sales activity center, sales activity requesting companies dispersed in each region, and sales staff distributed in each region are configured via a network. The sales activity center computer has an individual company database and a common company database. Means for receiving sales activity requests from activity requesting companies, means for receiving company information related to business activity requesting companies, product information, etc., and means for selecting sales target customers for sales activities for business activity requesting companies Means for notifying the selected sales target customer and the sales activity contents to the selected sales target customer to the sales activity requesting company, means for notifying the sales employee of the sales activity instruction, means for receiving the sales activity report from the sales employee, Means for notifying the business activity requesting company of the activity report, guidelines on business activities from the business activity requesting company Program to function as a means to charge depending on the number and content of operating activities guidance received from the means and operating activities request companies receive.

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