COLLABORATIVE CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT METHODS AND SYSTEMS

1 . A method comprising:

generating, in a computing system comprising a customer relationship management (CRM) database and a server that hosts an electronic forum, a case study based on contents of said CRM database; and

posting said case study to said electronic forum, wherein:

said case study is generated in response to a change in contents of one or more first selected fields of one or more records of said CRM database;

said generating said case study comprises retrieving contents of one or more second fields of said one or more records of said CRM database in accordance with a case study content rule; and

a resulting post of said case study in said electronic forum comprises one or more user interface elements corresponding to said contents of said one or more second selected fields of said one or more records of said CRM database.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said case study content rule is a user-defined rules stored in memory of said computing system.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said one or more first selected fields are selected based on one or more user-defined rules stored in memory of said computing system.

4 . The method of claim 2 , comprising generating, by said computing system, a graphical user interface for creation of said case study content rules.

5 . The method of claim 1 , comprising automatically performing by said computing system:

determining which one or more of a plurality of tags to associate with said case study based on one or more user-defined tagging-rules stored in memory of said computing system;

associating, in memory of said computing system, said determined one or more tags with said case study; and

inserting one or more user interface elements corresponding to said determined one or more of said plurality of tags in said post.

6 . The method of claim 5 , comprising:

in response to said associating of said determined one or more tags with said case study, sending a notification of said case study to users of said electronic forum who have indicated an interest in said determined tags.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said case study is posted as the first post in a new thread of said electronic forum.

8 . A method comprising:

in a computing system comprising a customer relationship management (CRM) database and a server that hosts an electronic forum:

storing one or more first user-defined rules for generating a case study based on contents of said CRM database;

storing one or more second user-defined rules for determining when to post a case study to said electronic forum;

automatically generating and posting a case study to said electronic forum in response to a change in contents of one or more first fields of one or more records of said CRM database, wherein:

said generating said case study comprises retrieving contents of one or more second fields of said one or more records of said CRM database in accordance with a case study content rule; and

a resulting post of said case study in said electronic forum comprises one or more user interface elements corresponding to said contents of said one or more second fields of said one or more records of said CRM database.

9 . The method of claim 8 comprising generating, by said computing system, a graphical user interface for creation of said one or more first user-defined rules, wherein said graphical user interface comprises interface elements for selecting which fields of said CRM are to have their contents placed in said case study.

10 . The method of claim 8 comprising generating, by said computing system, a graphical user interface for creation of said one or more second user-defined rules, wherein said graphical user interface comprises interface elements for selecting one or more conditions and one or more fields of said CRM such that said automatic posting occurs in response to said one or more fields meeting said one or more conditions.

11 . The method of claim 8 , comprising:

determining which one or more of a plurality of tags to associate with said case study based on one or more third user-defined rules stored in memory of said computing system; and

associating, in memory of said computing system, said determined one or more tags with said case study.

12 . The method of claim 11 , comprising:

in response to said associating of said determined one or more tags with said case study, sending a notification of said case study to users of said electronic forum who have indicated an interest in said determined tags.

13 . The method of claim 8 , wherein said case study is posted as the first post in a new thread of said electronic forum.

14 . A system comprising:

a computing system comprising a customer relationship management (CRM) database and a server that hosts an electronic forum, the computing system being configured to:

generate a case study based on contents of said CRM database; and

post said case study to said electronic forum, wherein:

said case study is generated in response to a change in contents of one or more first selected fields of one or more records of said CRM database;

said generation of said case study comprises retrieval of contents of one or more second fields of said one or more records of said CRM database in accordance with a case study content rule; and

a resulting post of said case study in said electronic forum comprises one or more user interface elements corresponding to said contents of said one or more second selected fields of said one or more records of said CRM database.

15 . The system of claim 14 , wherein said case study content rule is a user-defined rules stored in memory of said computing system.

16 . The system of claim 14 , wherein said one or more first selected fields are selected based on one or more user-defined rules stored in memory of said computing system.

17 . The system of claim 14 , wherein said computing system is configured to generate a graphical user interface for creation of said case study content rule.

18 . The system of claim 14 , wherein said computing system is configured to automatically:

determine which one or more of a plurality of tags to associate with said case study based on one or more user-defined tagging rules stored in memory of said computing system;

associate, in memory of said computing system, said determined one or more tags with said case study; and

inserting one or more user interface elements corresponding to said determined one or more of said plurality of tags in said post.

19 . The system of claim 18 , wherein said computing system is configured to:

in response to said association of said determined one or more tags with said case study, send a notification of said case study to users of said electronic forum who have indicated an interest in said determined tags.

20 . The system of claim 14 , wherein said case study is posted as the first post in a new thread of said electronic forum.