JPH10222565A - Help desk system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a help desk system in which an inquiring person and an answering person accurately, efficiently and also quickly communicate necessary information in an inquiry about a computer by an electronic mail. SOLUTION: A user's inquiry content is inputted from an inquiry mail content input interface 21. An inquiry mail is created in a prescribed format by an inquiry mail creating part 22. A mail processing part 23 collects computer state information from an information collection client 25 through a computer state information collecting part 24, converts it into a mail readable format and adds it after an inquiry content. A created inquiry mail is sent from a mail sending interface 26.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a help desk system for giving an appropriate answer to an inquiry about a computer by e-mail, and more particularly, to a help e-mail for providing information necessary for giving an appropriate answer. It relates to a help desk system that is automatically added.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In order to appropriately answer an inquiry from a computer user regarding a computer, status information of a device used by the user is often indispensable. Conventionally, at the time of an inquiry, a help desk person collects computer status information by an initial consultation using a telephone, a facsimile, an e-mail, or the like. In this case, it is necessary to exchange information between the user and the help desk staff at least once. In another method, the initial questionnaire items are notified to the user in advance in a list, and a method is used in which an inquiry is made in the form of answering this inquiry item at the time of inquiry, but in the case of a user with a low technical level, May have inaccurate answers to questions,
In many cases, the answer is not appropriate due to lack of a target.

[0003] Recently, electronic mail has become widespread and used for various purposes. For example, JP-A-01-93
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 947 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 04-307830 describe techniques for inquiring e-mails. These techniques relate to inquiring whether or not an e-mail has arrived and the number of e-mails. Inquiries are not considered at all.

[0004]

As is apparent from the above, in a conventional help desk system for responding to inquiries about computers, for example, inquiries about how to use the computer, whether the system uses a telephone, Even by e-mail using a computer network, there has been a problem that communication between the inquirer and the respondent is not performed accurately, efficiently, and quickly. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a help desk system capable of accurately and efficiently transmitting necessary information from an inquirer to a respondent in an e-mail inquiry regarding a computer.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a help desk system for receiving and responding to a computer user (inquiry client) about a computer using an electronic mail system. In particular, the status information of the computer in use is automatically collected and added to the body of the inquiry mail.

As a specific configuration, the inquiry client 2 collects status data collecting means (computer status information collecting unit 24 and information collecting client 25) for collecting status information of a computer in use, and the status data collecting means collects the status information. A means (mail processing unit 23) for adding the edited computer status information to the body of the inquiry e-mail and editing the same, and a transmission means (26) for transmitting the edited e-mail are provided. The computer status information includes at least one of CPU information, display information, hard disk information, and OS (operating system) information.

[0007]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS According to the present invention, information which can be automatically detected by hardware or software among computer status data required for giving an appropriate answer to an inquiry is automatically added to an inquiry mail text. I am trying to do it. This can reduce the time lag that occurs with the exchange of information between the user and the help desk staff, and allows the help desk staff to make correct decisions even if the user cannot correctly recognize the computer status. Information can be obtained.

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of an outline of an applied mail system according to the present invention. In this mail system, a user (inquirer) and a help desk staff exchange information via the mail server 1. Each has a mail client system. The client on the user side
The inquiry-only mail client 2 and the client on the help desk staff side is a normal mail client 3
(Help desk mail client).

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of the inquiry-only mail client 2 for realizing the present invention. The content of the user's inquiry is input from the inquiry mail content input interface 21. Next, the inquiry mail is sent to the inquiry mail creation unit 2
2 is created in a predetermined format.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of the format of an inquiry mail created by the inquiry mail creation section 22.
In this example, the inquiry mail includes a destination address (in this case, the mail address of the help desk mail client), a sender address (the mail address of the client itself), and a mail text. The mail text is composed of the content of the inquiry and the computer status information.

Next, the mail processing unit 23 adds the status information of the computer where the client exists to the mail. The mail processing unit 23 collects information from the information collection client 25 via the computer status information collection unit 24. The role of the computer status information collection unit 24 is to control data exchange with a plurality of clients and to convert and unify data formats. FIG. 4 shows an example of the flow of processing between the computer status information collection unit 24 and the information collection client 25.

In FIG. 4, when the computer status information collecting unit 24 receives a request from the mail processing unit 23,
An information acquisition request 41 is sent to the information collection client 25. This information collection client 25
There are a plurality of types according to the type of information to be acquired. For example,
CPU information, display information, hard disk information,
OS information and the like. In this case, the computer status information collection unit 24 sequentially executes the information collection request 41 for each information collection client 25. Upon receiving the information acquisition request 41, the information collection client 25 performs information acquisition. This information acquisition method is based on each peripheral device, OS
Although different for each (operating system), for example, the configuration information of the peripheral device can be performed by a method of reading information stored in a ROM in the device.

Next, the information collection client 25 performs a writing process 43 on the obtained information in a file (collection information storage file 44). The storage location of the file 44 is determined in advance between the computer status information collection unit 24 and the information collection client 25. When the writing to the collection information storage file 44 is completed, the information collection client 25 returns an information acquisition completion response 45 to the computer status information collection unit 24. Computer status information collection unit 24
Upon receiving the information acquisition completion response 45, performs the acquisition information reading process 46 from the file storage location 44 and performs the data format unification process 47. This result is returned to the mail processing unit 23.

Returning to FIG. After that, the mail processing unit 23 converts the collected information into a mail-readable format and adds it to the content of the inquiry. The format after the addition is like the mail format 32 shown in FIG. FIG. 3C shows a detailed example of the computer status information in the mail format 32. As the computer status information, as shown in FIG.
U type, frequency (operating frequency), actual memory capacity, memory utilization, OS (operating system) used,
There are an OS version, a display driver, and the like. After that, the mail transmission interface 26 transmits a mail to the help desk client (destination address).

The help desk mail client 3
FIG. 3B from the inquiry-dedicated mail client 2
By receiving the e-mail as shown in (c), the situation of the computer used by the inquirer can be accurately, efficiently and quickly grasped. As a result, it is possible to efficiently and promptly return an appropriate and accurate answer to the inquirer.

[0016]

According to the present invention, necessary information can be accurately, efficiently, and quickly transmitted from an inquirer to a respondent. That is, for the inquiry client, the information collection time required for answering the inquiry can be reduced. As a result, the turnaround time for inquiring and answering is also improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an example of an outline of an application system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of an inquiry-only mail client according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a format example of an inquiry mail in the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a flow of processing between a computer status information collecting unit 24 and an information collecting client 25 in an inquiry-only mail client according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1: E-mail server, 2: Inquiry dedicated mail client, 3: Help desk mail client, 21: Inquiry mail content input interface, 22: Inquiry mail creation unit, 23: Mail processing unit, 24: Computer status information collection unit, 25 : Information collection client, 26: mail transmission interface, 31: example of inquiry mail format, 32: example of inquiry mail format in which computer status information is added to inquiry mail, 33: detailed example of computer status information

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code FI H04L 12/58

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A help desk system for receiving an inquiry about a computer from an inquiry client by using an e-mail system in a computer network system, and responding to the inquiry, wherein the inquiry client uses a computer in use. A help desk system provided with means for automatically adding status information to the body of an inquiry e-mail. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the adding unit adds, to the inquiry e-mail text, the status data collecting unit that collects status information of the computer in use, and the status information of the computer collected by the status data collecting unit. 2. The help desk system according to claim 1, further comprising means for editing the electronic mail, and transmission means for transmitting the edited electronic mail. 3. The computer according to claim 1, wherein the status information of the computer is a CPU.
Information, display information, hard disk information, OS
3. The help desk system according to claim 2, comprising at least one of (operating system) information.