Method and apparatus for creating an activity record in a business management system from an email message

1. A method comprising:

responsive to a request entered at an email application program while managing a private email account, exporting from the email application program content of an email message identified by the request to a business management system, wherein the business management system manages activity records for a plurality of business partner accounts;

creating a first activity record in the business management system storing content of the identified email message therein;

displaying email addresses of a sender and one or more recipients of the email message as a list;

receiving a selection from the displayed list of email addresses;

identifying a business partner account from the selected email address;

storing the first activity record in a database of the business management system identified as pertaining to the identified business partner account;

creating a second activity record identified as a follow up activity of the first activity record; and

storing the second activity record in the database of the business management system.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the business management system database includes records for a plurality of contact persons associated with the business partner account, and wherein creating a first activity record comprises:

matching the address of the sender with an address in a contact record in the business management system database; and

associating the first activity record with the contact record that matched the address of the sender.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises displaying a list of business partners and receiving a selection from that list, and wherein the first activity record is associated in the database with the selected business partner.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the business partners listed are those business partners that have records in the business management system database indicating an email address with the same domain name as the selected email address.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises displaying a list of contacts and receiving a selection from that list, and wherein the first activity record is associated in the business management system database with the selected contact.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the contacts listed are those contacts that have records in the business management system database indicating an email address with the same domain name as the selected email address.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises:

displaying a list of names of persons identified in the business management system database that have an email address with the same domain name as the selected email address;

receiving a selection of a person from the displayed list; and

associating the first activity record with the selected person.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the email message is stored in an email format as an attachment to the first activity record.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the email message includes an attachment, and wherein the email attachment is stored as an attachment to the first activity record.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises creating a new contact record in the business management system database that is based on the email message.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises adding a new contact name to an existing business partner record in the business management system database based on the email message.

12. A non-transitory machine readable medium having embodied thereon a computer program, said computer program being executable by a computer system to perform a method comprising:

responsive to a request entered at an email application program while managing a private email account, exporting from the email application program content of an email message identified by the request to a business management system, wherein the business management system manages activity records for a plurality of business partner accounts;

creating a first activity record in the business management system storing content of the identified email message therein;

displaying email addresses of a sender and one or more recipients of the email message as a list;

receiving a selection from the displayed list of email addresses;

identifying a business partner account from the selected email address;

storing the first activity record in a database of the business management system identified as pertaining to the identified business partner account;

creating a second activity record identified as a follow up activity of the first activity record; and

storing the second activity record in the database of the business management system.

13. The machine readable medium of claim 12 , wherein the business management system database includes records for a plurality of contact persons associated with the business partner account, and wherein creating a first activity record comprises:

matching the address of the sender with an address in a contact record in the business management system database; and

associating the first activity record with the contact record that matched the address of the sender.

14. The machine readable medium of claim 12 , wherein the method further comprises displaying a list of business partners and receiving a selection from that list, and wherein the first activity record is associated in the database with the selected business partner.

15. The machine readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the business partners listed are those business partners that have records in the business management system database indicating an email address with the same domain name as the selected email address.

16. The machine readable medium of claim 12 , wherein the method further comprises displaying a list of contacts and receiving a selection from that list, and wherein the first activity record is associated in the business management system database with the selected contact.

17. The machine readable medium of claim 16 , wherein the contacts listed are those contacts that have records in the business management system database indicating an email address with the same domain name as the selected email address.

18. The machine readable medium of claim 12 , wherein the method further comprises:

displaying a list of names of persons identified in the business management system database that have an email address with the same domain name as the selected email address;

receiving a selection of a person from the displayed list; and

associating the first activity record with the selected person.

19. The machine readable medium of claim 12 , wherein the email message is stored in an email format as an attachment to the first activity record.

20. The machine readable medium of claim 12 , wherein the email message includes an attachment, and wherein the email attachment is stored as an attachment to the first activity record.

21. The machine readable medium of claim 12 , wherein the method further comprises creating a new contact record in the business management system database that is based on the email message.

22. The machine readable medium of claim 12 , wherein the method further comprises adding a new contact name to an existing business partner record in the business management system database based on the email message.

23. An enterprise computer system, comprising:

a processor;

an email system providing email services for a plurality of enterprise system members via private member accounts;

a business management system, managing activity records for business partner accounts of the enterprise system; and

software, executing on the computer system, to export content of an email received at a private member account to the business management system according to a process that comprises:

identifying, from address information in the received email, a business partner account to which the received email pertains;

storing a first new activity record in the business management system that contains content of the received email; and

storing a second new activity record in the business management system identified as a follow up activity for the first new activity record.