CRM office document integration
The method and system claimed recognizes phrases or segments within an electronic document, where the phrase or segment acts to trigger a function call to a sever component that connects to a CRM system or a CRM database and retrieves relevant information relating to and based on the recognized phrase. Further, the relevant information is formatted and displayed based on the content of the information retrieved and the context and content of the identified phrase.
1. A computer system comprising:
a customer relationship management system having a customer relationship management database;
a database management system comprising a set of databases, wherein at least one of the databases is the customer relationship management database;
a web service component communicatively coupled to the customer relationship management system;
a document application associated with an electronic document;
a content and action service communicatively coupled to the web service component and the document application, that identifies a recognized phrase in the electronic document and calls a function of the web service component after identifying the recognized phrase, based on a recognized association between the web service component function and the recognized phrase;
an application integration and rendering module communicatively coupled to the context and action service and the document application, that collects data resulting from calling the web service component function and displays the data based on formatting instructions, wherein the data resulting from calling the web service component is displayed in a task pane simultaneously with the electronic document, and the formatting instructions are based on a context and content of the recognized phrase; and
a processor operable to implement one or more of the customer relationship management system, the database management system, the web service component, the document application, the content and action service, or the application integration and rendering module.
2. The computer system of claim 1 , wherein the content and action service identifies the recognized phrase based on an underlying XML markup schema.
3. The computer system of claim 1 , further comprising a network operating system, wherein the web service component function utilizes a security feature of the network operating system to authenticate a user of the document application, and further wherein the web service component function is based on a user ID.
4. The computer system of claim 1 , wherein the formatting instructions are based on the content of the data.
5. The computer system of claim 1 , wherein the web service component communicates directly with the database management system to retrieve information from the customer relationship management database.
6. The computer system of claim 1 , wherein the document application is one of a word processing application, a messaging and collaboration application, and a spreadsheet application.