WO2015094328A1

WO2015094328A1 - Message association with a case based on a case handle

Info

Publication number: WO2015094328A1
Application number: PCT/US2013/076873
Authority: WO
Inventors: Claudio Bartolini; Charles E. Bess; Sven Graupner
Original assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
Priority date: 2013-12-20
Filing date: 2013-12-20
Publication date: 2015-06-25

Abstract

An apparatus and method relate to parsing a message to identify a case handle embedded in the message. The message may be associated with a particular case in a case management system based on the identified case handle. Further, the message may be saved to the particular case in the case management system.

Description

MESSAGE ASSOCIATION WITH A CASE BASED ON A CASE HANDLE

BACKGROUND

[0001] Groups of people work together on common projects. Such working groups exchange information between all members of the group or between a subset of the group. Information exchange may be in the form of documents, emails, text messages, and the like. As a result, each such group member retains his or her own separate repository of communications and documents related to the project.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0002] For a detailed description of various implementations, reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings in which:

[0003] Figure 1 depicts users collaborating on a case in accordance with the principles of this disclosure;

[0004] Figure 2 illustrates an email message containing a case handle in accordance with the principles of this disclosure;

[0005] Figure 3 shows a case management system in accordance with the principles of this disclosure;

[0006] Figure 4 illustrates a data structure in which case handles are mapped to particular cases in accordance with the principles of this disclosure;

[0007] Figure 5 illustrates another implementation of the case management system described herein in accordance with the principles of this disclosure;

[0008] Figure 6 illustrates yet another implementation of the case management system described herein in accordance with the principles of this disclosure; and

[0009] Figure 7 shows a method in accordance with the principles of this disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0010] This disclosure is directed to a tool that facilitates management of collaboration between people working on a project. A project is referred to herein as a "case." Case management may be characterized as, for example, managing islands of disconnected information, people and processes. Case management may be a human centric activity, where social relationships among people and connectivity of information, processes and people play a large role in its success. While social networks may satisfactory for permitting the exchange of information and ideas between people, social networks generally are not tied to or used as productivity tools. This disclosure is directed to a technique by which people can use social networks (e.g., email, text messaging, instant messaging) to exchange ideas, information and/or documents have such exchanges automatically saved as part of case. The term "case" refers to a project and a set of information (e.g., emails, text messages, instant messages, documents) pertaining to the project.

[0011] Figure 1 illustrates a plurality of people collaborating on a case. Via the communication devices 10, the collaborators may work together on a case. A case can be created for virtually any purpose. For example, employees of a company may create a case related to a project being handled by an enterprise. By way of an additional example, students in a class may create a case related to a class project. The collaboration may occur by each person using a communication device 10 (e.g., a computer, smart phone, etc.). The various communication devices 10 may communicate via a network such as a wired or wireless network, local area network, broadband cellular phone communication network (3G, 4G, etc.), or any other type of network. The various communication devices 10 for the various collaborators may be the same or different from each other, and any number of collaborators and communication devices 10 are possible.

[0012] Each case is managed by a case management system 100 that is communicatively coupled to the communication devices 10 via the network 15. The case management system 100 enables collaborators on a case to exchange information about the case, save documents pertaining to the case, create and track deadlines useful to implement a schedule pertaining to the case, etc. The case management system 100 may manage multiple cases of any group of collaborators. For example, the collaborators depicted in Figure 1 may collaborate on multiple cases, or different groups of collaborators may work together on different cases.

[0013] In accordance with the disclosed principles, users (e.g., the collaborators depicted in Figure 1 ) of the case management system 100 may exchange information directly through the case management system 100 itself. In some implementations, the case management system 100 is accessible to the collaborators via a web interface. In some implementations, the case management system 10 may be implemented as web application to which the users logon and whose services thereby become directly usable by users through, for example, a web browser running on the user's communication device 10. A user may post a document directly to the case management system 100 (e.g., upload the document via the web interface) for other users with access to the case management system to view as desired about a given case. Further, a user may directly use the case management system to send a message to another user. For example, the case management system may have one or more communication capabilities such as email, instant messaging, etc.

[0014] A user, however, may exchange information with other users on a given case without directly accessing the case management system 100 (e.g., without logging on to the case management system. A user may use his or her own communication device 10 to cause a message to be sent to another user. Examples of such messages include email messages, text message, instant messages, etc. Each case may be assigned a globally unique identifier, referred to herein as a case handle. The case handle for a given case uniquely differentiates that case from all other cases. By including the case's case handle in the message and by causing the message to also be provided to the case management system 100, the case management system will parse the message to identify the case handle and will cause the message to be saved as part of the information pertaining to that particular case (a process referred to herein as saving "to the case").

[0015] In one example, the case handle may be identified by a predefined character such as the pound sign (#), although other characters may be used. The predefined character may precede or follow an alphanumeric character string unique to the case. The combination of the predefined character (e.g., #) and the corresponding unique alphanumeric character string is the case handle for the case. One example of a case handle is #jdjd84k9m. The alphanumeric character string in the case handle may be readily recognizable name or, as in the example above, an arbitrary series of letters, numbers, and/or other types of characters.

EMAIL MESSAGES

[0016] A user (an "originating" user) may send an email message to one or more other users ("receiving" users). The email message may pertain to a particular case for which the originating and receiving users are collaborating, and as explained above, has a unique case handle. The originating user types or otherwise causes the case's case handle to be included in the message, for example, in the subject field or in the body field of the email message. Figure 2 shows an example of an email message that includes a "to" field 92, a "cc" field 94, a "subject" field 96, and a body field 98. The case handle for the case may be included in the subject field 96 and/or the body field 98. In the example of Figure 2, a case handle (#jdjd84k9m) is shown in the body field 98 of the message. The case handle can be included anywhere in the body field 98 or the subject field 96 of the email message.

[0017] The originating user also causes the message to be sent to an email server included in or otherwise associated with the case management system 100. The case management system's email server is assigned a particular email address such as "casemanagement@email.com."

[0018] The email server of the case management system may be the only recipient of the message or may be one of multiple recipients. If a user simply desires to have some information saved to the case, the user may email the case management system's email address without also sending the email message to anyone else. The case management system 100 will save the email message and/or any attachments with the email message based on the case handle embedded in the message. However, the user may desire to (a) send a message to another user and (b) have the message saved to the case. By including the case management system's email address in either the "to" field 92 or "cc" field 94 and including the case handle in the subject field 96 or body field 98, the case message will not only be sent to the other intended user(s) but also saved to the particular case. [0019] Figure 3 shows one illustrative implementation of the case management system 100 (designed as 100a in Figure 3). The case management system 100a includes a receiving engine 102, a parsing engine 104, a message-case association engine 106, a saving engine 108, and a graphical user interface (GUI) engine 1 10. The saving engine 108 and GUI engine 1 10 couple to a storage device 1 12. The storage device includes a data structure 1 14 in which various cases are stored. For each case, a variety of information may be stored. Figure 4 illustrates an example of such a data structure 1 1 which includes storage for a plurality of cases. For each case, a case name 1 14a is provided along with a case handle 1 14b and additional case information 1 14c. The case name 1 14a may be a descriptive label for the case. The case handle 1 14b uniquely identifies the case as described above and may be embedded in the messages. The case information 1 14c can be any type of information to be included with the case. Such information 1 14c may include scheduling deadlines, documents, messages, and other types of information relevant to a particular case. The case information 1 14c for one case may be the same as or different than the case information for another case.

[0020] The case handle 1 14b for a given case may be created by an authorized user of the case management system 100. A user, for example, may choose as a case handle a name that is descriptive of the case, or otherwise deemed useful - and enforced by the system to be unique across the system. Additionally or alternatively, a case handle may be created automatically by the case management system 100 on demand to ensure the uniqueness of case handles.

[0021] Referring back to Figure 3, the GUI engine 1 10 permits a user to directly interact with the case management system 1 10 to perform any of a variety of actions related to the case. Examples of such actions include: creating or editing schedule deadlines for the case, notifying users of a change in status of a case and adding other information to the case such as documents. The case information 1 14c can be viewed through the GUI engine 1 10. The GUI engine 1 10 may be accessible to a user via his communication device 10 via the network 15. [0022] Using his or her own communication device 10 (which may include an email application), a user may send an email message to, perhaps among other recipients, a predefined email address associated with the case management system. The receiving engine 102 receives the email message which may contain a case handle, and then passes the received message to an email message parsing engine 104. The parsing engine 104 examines the various fields of the message to identify any of the case handles 1 14b. The parsing engine 104, for example, examines the subject field 96 and the body field 98 for case handles.

[0023] The message-case association engine 106 receives the case handle from the parsing engine 104. The message-case association engine 106 associates the message with the particular case based on the case handle identified to be included in the message. The message-case association engine 106 uses the data structure 1 14 to map the case handle to the corresponding case using the case name field 1 14a.

[0024] The saving engine 108 then saves the message to the particular case corresponding to the case handle. For example, the message may be saved as part of the case information 1 14c for the case. In some implementations, the email message is saved. In other implementations, only email attachments (if any) are saved to the case (e.g., to the case information 1 14c). Further still, both the email message and, if any, all attachments to the email message are saved to the case.

[0025] By sending the email message to the email address of the case management system, the originating user can cause the message to automatically be saved as part of the case's case information 1 14c without having to log on to the case management system.

[0026] Figure 5 shows an implementation of the case management system (designated as 1 10b in Figure 5). The case management system 1 10b of Figure 5 includes a processor 1 18 coupled to a non-transitory, computer-readable storage device 120. The storage device includes volatile storage (e.g., random access memory), non-volatile storage (e.g., hard disk drive, compact disc read only memory, flash storage, etc.), or combinations of both volatile and non-volatile storage.

[0027] The storage device 120 includes various modules 122-126. Each module includes code that is executable by processor 1 18. The functionality attributed herein to each module is implemented by the code upon being executed by the processor 1 18. The modules include a parsing module 122, a message-case association module 124, and a saving module 126. The combination of each module 122-126 and the processor 1 18 represents the implementation of the corresponding engine of Figure 3. For example, the parsing engine 104 is implemented by the processor 1 18 executing the parsing module 122.

[0028] For the case management system 1 10b of Figure 5, the parsing module 122 causes the processor 1 18 to parse an email message to identify a case handle embedded in the message. The message-case association engine 124 then causes the processor 1 18 associates the message with a particular case in the case management system based on the identified case handle. The saving module 126 causes the processor 1 18 to save the email message (fields 92-98) and/or attachments to the particular case corresponding to the case handle identified to be present in the email message.

[0029] Figure 6 provides another implementation of the case management system 100 (designated as 1 10c in Figure 6). The system 1 10c of Figure 6 is similar to the system 1 10b of Figure 5. As in Figure 5, Figure 6 includes a parsing module 122, a message-case association module 124, and a saving module 126. Figure 6, however, also includes a receiving module 128 which, upon being executed by processor 1 18, causes the processor to receive an email message to be parsed and saved as explained above. The receiving module 128 may be implemented in the form of, for example, an email server.

[0030] Figure 7 illustrates a method which may be performed by the apparatus described herein. At 150, the method includes receiving a message corresponding to a particular case. The message including a case handle that uniquely identifies the particular case. At 152, the method further includes parsing the received message to identify the case handle. Based on the case handle, the method includes associating the message with the particular case in the case management system. The method also includes saving the message to the case management system.

TEXT MESSAGES

[0031] The case management system may also apply to text messages. To cause a text message to be saved to a particular case, long (10 digit) or short (less than 10 digit) cell phone number is included when sending a text. That is, the originating user sends a text message to a predefined cell phone number corresponding to the case management system. The body of the text message should include the case handle of the particular case as described above. The case management system largely processes the text message in the same way as for email messages. The receiving engine 102 is configured to receive text messages and thus may comprise a short message service (SMS)-based component (e.g., a component capable of receiving text messages). The parsing engine 104 parses the text message to identify any case handles in the text message and, upon finding a case handle, the message-case association engine causes the text message to be associated with the particular case. The saving engine 108 saves the text message to the case (e.g., saved as part of case information 1 15c).

INSTANT MESSAGES

[0032] The case management system 100 may also be usable to cause instant messages, in which case handles are embedded, to be saved largely as described above. Similar for that described above for text messages, an originating user causes an instant message to be sent to a particular recipient address [] associated with the case management system. As described above, the case management system parses the instant message to find a case handle, associates the message with a particular case and saves the message to that case. [0033] The above discussion is meant to be illustrative of the principles and various embodiments of the present invention. Numerous variations and modifications will become apparent to those skilled in the art once the above disclosure is fully appreciated. It is intended that the following claims be interpreted to embrace all such variations and modifications.

Claims

CLAIMS What is claimed is:

1 . A method, comprising:

receiving a message corresponding to a particular case, the message including a case handle that uniquely identifies the particular case; parsing the received message to identify the case handle;

based on the case handle, associating the message with the particular case in a case management system; and

saving the message to the case management system.

2. The method of claim 1 wherien parsing the received message includes comparing the identified case handle to a plurality of case handles, each case handle corresponding to a different case.

3. The method of claim 2 wherien saving the message to the case management system includes saving the message to the case corresponding to the identified case handle.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the message includes at least one of an email, a text message and an instant message.

5. The method claim 1 wherien the message includes at least one of a subject field and a body field, both of which are viewable by a recipient of the message, and the method further comprises including the case handle in at least one of the subject and body fields.

6. A non-transitory, computer readable storage device containing software that, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to:

parse a message to identify a case handle embedded in the message; associate the message with a particular case in a case management system based on the identified case handle; and

save the message to the particular case in the case management system.

7. The non-transitory, computer readable storage device of claim 6 wherein the software causes the processor to parse the message by comparing the identified case handle to a plurality of case handles.

8. The non-transitory, computer readable storage device of claim 6 wherein the software causes the processor to parse the message to identify the case handle by examining the message for a predefined character corresponding to a unique alphanumeric character string.

9. The non-transitory, computer readable storage device of claim 6 wherein the message includes at least one of an email, a text message and an instant message.

10. The non-transitory, computer readable storage device claim 6 wherein the message includes at least one of a subject field and a body field, both of which are viewable by a recipient of the message, and the software causes the processor to parse the message by examining at least one of the subject and body fields.

1 1 . The non-transitory, computer readable storage device claim 6 wherein the message is an email message and the software causes the processor to parse the email message by examining a subject field and a body of the email message for predetermined case handles.

12. The non-transitory, computer readable storage device claim 6 wherein the message is a text or instant message and the software causes the processor examine a body of the text or instant message for predetermined case handles.

13. The non-transitory, computer readable storage device claim 6 wherein the message includes an attached document and wherein the software causes the processor save the attached document to the particular case in the case management system.

14. A system, comprising:

a storage device containing storage for a plurality of cases, each respective case having an assigned case handle unique to the respective case;

a graphical user interface (GUI) engine to permit a user to collaborate with other users on a particular case and to cause information about the particular case to be stored in the storage device;

a receiving engine to receive a message;

a parsing engine to parse the message to identify a case handle embedded in the message associated with the particular case; a message-case association engine to associate the message with the particular case; and

a saving engine to save the message in the storage device and associated with the information about the particular case.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein the storage device includes a data structure that stores an identity of each of the plurality of cases along with the case handle assigned to each respective case.