WO2004046890A2

WO2004046890A2 - Method and system for processing sales process information, for sales process configuration, for sales process integration, and for modeling sales processes

Info

Publication number: WO2004046890A2
Application number: PCT/US2003/037129
Authority: WO
Inventors: Prasad Boppana
Original assignee: Radiant Real-Time
Priority date: 2002-11-19
Filing date: 2003-11-19
Publication date: 2004-06-03
Also published as: WO2004046890A3; AU2003295712A8; US20040102996A1; AU2003295712A1; US20040102995A1; US20040102994A1

Abstract

Certain embodiments of the invention may be found in a method and system for processing sales process related information to create a sales process. In an embodiment of the invention, the processing of sales process information may include acquiring sales process information from at least one of a plurality of information resources and creating a historical information store using the acquired sales process information. Accordingly, rules may be created based on the acquired sales process information in the historical information store and a resultant sales process may be generated based on at least a portion of the created rules. Other embodiments may be found in a method and system for sales process configuration, for sales process integration and for modeling sales process.

Description

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROCESSING SALES PROCESS INFORMATION,

FOR SALES PROCESS CONFIGURATION, FOR SALES PROCESS INTEGRATION,

AND FOR MODELING SALES PROCESSES.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS/INCORPORATION BY

REFERENCE

[01] This application makes reference to, claims priority to and claims the benefit of:

United States Provisional Application Serial No. 60/427588 filed on November 19, 2002;

United States Provisional Application Serial No. 60/427602 filed on November 19, 2002;

United States Provisional Application Serial No. 60/427397 filed on November 19, 2002; and

United States Provisional Application Serial No. 60/427582 filed on November 19, 2002.

[02] This application also makes reference to:

United States Provisional Application Serial No. (Attorney Docket No.

14132US02) filed on November 18, 2003;

United States Provisional Application Serial No. (Attorney Docket No.

14136US02) filed on November 18, 2003;

United States Provisional Application Serial No. (Attorney Docket No.

14133US02) filed on November 18, 2003; and

United States Provisional Application Serial No. (Attorney Docket No.

14137US02) filed on November 18, 2003. [03] The above stated applications are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[04] Certain embodiments of the invention relate to sales automation in a business environment. More specifically, certain embodiments of the invention relate to a method and system for processing sales process information, for sales process configuration, for sales process integration and for modeling sales process.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[05] The pervasiveness of information technologies along with data transfer media such as the Internet, have provided an excellent opportunity for customers to tap into a diverse range of services and products and for businesses to provide the necessary products and services to meet customer demands. In this regard, e-business and e- commerce solutions have revolutionized business practices over the past few decades. Notwithstanding, the advantages provided by e-business, e-commerce and various other related information methodologies and technologies, there is a general lack of consolidated sales process information. In general, sales process information may encompass any information and/or tasks that are required to identify customer needs, up to and including any information and/or tasks necessary to consummate a sale. For example, sales process information may include information such as customer needs, customer requirements, customer business and financial data, and past and present customer practices. Current sales paradigms require sellers to access a myriad of systems in order to acquire necessary sales process information to satisfy their business requirements.

[06] A "seller" may refer to an entity sourcing goods and/or services, while a "buyer" may be any entity that receives good and/or services from, for example, a "seller." Accordingly, depending on which entity is sourcing goods or services in a particular transaction, an entity may be a "seller" in one transaction but be a "buyer" in a subsequent transaction. Similarly, depending on which entity is receiving goods and/or services in a particular transaction, an entity may be "buyer" in a particular transaction, and a "seller" in a subsequent transaction. Additionally, a similar definition may apply to a customer depending on whether a customer is receiving goods and/or services, or sourcing goods and/or services.

[07] The general lack of consolidated information means that sellers typically have to access, for example, a plurality of databases, which may be hosted by a plurality of disparate systems, often requiring various access interfaces and/or methodologies. In this regard, depending on information complexity, location and volume, a seller may require specialized knowledge and training to access multiple systems in order to acquire relevant sales process information necessary to sell its products and/or services. In many instances, a large portion of the acquired sales process information may be irrelevant to the context of the seller's requirements, and hence unusable. Additionally, since sales process information may be stored in various disparate repositories, integration of information may be difficult and in certain cases, may not be readily accessible. Accordingly, not only is the accessibility of information difficult, but general availability and discovery of information may also be severely impacted. The current sales paradigm is not only inefficient, but may often prove to be quite costly since vast amounts of time may be spent searching for pertinent sales process information.

[08] Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such systems with some aspects of the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[09] Certain embodiments of the invention may be found in a method and system for processing sales information to create a sales process. The processing of sales information may include acquiring sales process information from at least one of a plurality of information resources and creating a historical information store using the acquired sales process information. Rules may be created based on the acquired sales process information in the historical information store and at least one sales process may be generated based on at least a portion of the created rules. In response to a request to create a sales process, a determination may be made as to whether matching sales process information corresponding to the request is located within the historical information store. If matching sales process information corresponding to the request is located in the historical information store, at least a portion of the matching sales process information may be utilized to generate the sales process.

[10] In instances where no matching sales process information corresponding to the request is located in the historical information store, new rules corresponding to the request to create the sales process may be generated. In an aspect of the invention, the new rules may be dynamically generated. Notwithstanding, sales processing steps and/or sales processing activities corresponding to the newly generated rules may be defined. At least one of the sales processing activities and/or the sales processing steps may be selected for generating the sales process. In instances where no matching sales process information corresponding to the request is located in the historical information store, an analogy may be generated based on at least similar sales process information, similar sales processing activities or similar sales processing steps that may be located in the historical information store, in order to generate the sales process. Furthermore, if no matching sales process information corresponding to the request is located in the historical information store, a hypothesis may be created based on sales process information located in the historical information store, in order to generate the sales process. [11] Another embodiment of the invention may provide a machine-readable storage, having stored thereon, a computer program having at least one code section for processing sales process information. The at least one code section may be executable by a machine, thereby causing the machine to perform the steps as described above for processing sales process information.

[12] Other embodiments of the invention may be found in a system for processing sales process information. The system for processing sales processing information may comprise, a sales integration engine that may be configured to acquire the sales process information from at least one of a plurality of information resources and create a historical information store using the acquired sales process information. The sales integration engine may create rules based on the acquired sales process information in the historical information store and may generate a sales process from at least a portion of the created rules. The sales integration engine may comprise at least one of a data synchronizer, a service scheduler, a service notifier and an integration configurator.

[13] In response to a request to create a sales process, the sales integration engine may be adapted to determine whether matching sales process information corresponding to the request is located in the historical information store. The sales integration engine utilizes at least a portion of the matching sales process information for the generating of the sales process if matching sales process information corresponding to the request is located in the historical information store. The sales integration engine may generate new rules corresponding to the request to create the sales process if no matching sales process information corresponding to the request is located in the historical information store. In this regard, the sales integration engine may dynamically generate the new rules corresponding to the request to create the sales process. Notwithstanding, the sales integration engine may define sales processing steps and/or sales processing activities corresponding to the newly generated rules. [14] In another aspect of the invention, the sales integration engine may be configured to select at least one of the sales processing activities and/or the sales processing steps for generating the sales process. In instances where no matching sales process information corresponding to the request is located in the historical information store, the sales integration engine may analogize based on at least similar sales process information, similar sales processing activities or similar sales processing steps that may be located in the historical information store, in order to generate the sales process. If no matching sales process information corresponding to the request is located in the historical information store, the sales integration engine may be adapted to hypothesize based on sales process information located in the historical information store, in order to generate the sales process.

[15] Certain embodiments of the invention may be found in a method and system for sales process configuration. In accordance with an aspect of the invention, in response to an opportunity to create a sales process, a sales process configurator may be adapted to determine at least one context associated with the opportunity. At least one step may be discovered based on the least one context and at least one sales activity may be discovered based on the context. The sales process configurator may be adapted to combine one or more of the discovered steps and/or one or more discovered sales activities to create the sales process. The discovery of one or more steps and/or the discovery of one or more activities may be achieved dynamically by the sales process configurator.

[16] In accordance with an embodiment of the invention, at least one rule may be selected which may be utilized to create the sales process. Sales process information for the sales opportunity may be processed according to a seller entity level, a business unit entity level and/or a corporation entity level based on the selected rule. The context may comprise an offer, vertical, customer, channel and/or geography. Notwithstanding, the method may further comprise combining any two or more of an offer, vertical, customer, channel and geography for the opportunity. At least one input may be received comprising an offer, vertical, customer, channel and/or geography. A confidence score may be generated for the created sales process. Another aspect of the method may comprise generating at least one rule that may be utilized to create the sales process or some other subsequent sales process.

[17] Aspects of the system for sales process configuration may comprise a sales process configurator that, in response to an opportunity to create a sales process, determines at least one context associated with the opportunity. The context may be an offer, vertical, customer, channel and/or geography. Notwithstanding, the sales process configurator may be adapted to discover at least one step for creating the sales process. At least one sales activity associated with the step may be discovered by the sales process configurator and utilized for creating the sales process. Accordingly, the sales process configurator may combine the one or more discovered steps and/or one or more discovered sales activities to create the sales process. The sales process configurator may select at least one rule that may be utilized to create the sales process. The sales process configurator may be adapted to process sales process information for the opportunity according to a seller entity level, a business unit entity level and/or a corporation entity level based on the selected rule. The sales process configurator may also be configured to dynamically discover the step and/or activity.

[18] Various contexts may be combined by the sales process configurator and in this regard, any combination of offer, vertical, customer, channel and geography may be combined to generate the sales process. The sales process configurator may receive at least one input comprising at least one of an offer, vertical, customer, channel and geography. In another aspect of the invention, confidence scores may be generated by the sales processes configurator for the created sales process. The sales process configurator may generate at least one rule which is utilized to create the sales process or some other subsequent sales process. The sales process configurator may comprise a database server, a sales process server, a sales process rules engine, a sales process discoverer and/or a sales process modeler.

[19] Certain embodiments of the invention may be found in a method and system for sales process integration. Aspects of the method may comprise communicating data representative of at least one sales process having at least one of a plurality of contexts to one or more external processing resources. The context may comprise offer, channel, vertical, geography, and customer. Notwithstanding, the sales process related information may be acquired from one or more of the external processing resources and the acquired sales process related information may be processed. The sales process related information that has been processed may then be communicated to one or more of the sales processes. The acquiring of sales process related information may be adapted to occur in real-time or at a time subsequent to connecting one or more of the sales processes. Communication between one or more sales processes and/or one or more external processing resources may also be managed.

[20] The processing of sales process related information may further comprise synchronizing sales process related information transfer between one or more sales processes and one or more external processing resources. The synchronizing may further include translating sales process related information from a first non-native format to a second native format, and vice versa, and validating the translated sales process related information. The validated sales processing related information may be staged and referenced to determine any appropriate sales process related information associations.

[21] The method for sales process integration may further include scheduling the processing of acquired sales process related information. The scheduling step may further include controlling at least a frequency of acquiring sales process related information from one or more of the external processing resources. The processing step may also include detecting operational errors, notifying one or more sub-systems and/or one or more system operators of any detected operational error. In one aspect of the invention, the operational errors may be configured so that they may have a plurality of severity levels.

[22] The method for sales process integration may further include configuring operations of the connecting, acquiring, processing, and communicating steps. In this regard, the sales process integration may be tailored to operate in one of a plurality of operational modes and/or under a plurality of conditions using various parameters. The external processing resource may comprise SAP, order management system (ODM), customer relationship management (CRM), document management system (DMS), learning management system (LMS) and lightweight directory access (LDAP) system.

[23] Another aspect of the invention also provides a machine readable storage, having stored thereon a computer program having at least one code section for sales process integration. The at least one code section may be executable by a machine for causing the machine to perform the steps as described above for sales process integration.

[24] Aspects of the system for sales process integration may comprise a sales process integration engine which may include, for example, an integration configurator, a data synchronizer coupled to the integration configurator, a service scheduler coupled to the integration configurator and a service notifier coupled to the integration configurator. The data synchronizer may further include an integration communication interface, a data mapper coupled to the integration communication interface, a data validator coupled to the integration communication interface and a data stager coupled to the integration communication interface.

[25] Certain embodiments of the invention may be found in a method and system for modeling sales processes. In an embodiment of the invention, a sales process may be modeled by acquiring sales process information related to at least one existing business model. At least one parameter that characterizes at least one best practice related to one or more existing or hypothetical business models may be defined. At least one rule may be created based on one or more defined parameters identifying one or more best practices. Accordingly, one or more of the created rules may be utilized to model a new sales process.

[26] The modeling of a sales process may further comprise adaptively combining rules from a plurality of best practices with one or more manual inputs. In accordance with an aspect of the invention, a created rule may be generic and therefore, applicable to a plurality of contexts. In an alternative aspect of the invention, a created rule may be applicable to a specific context. Notwithstanding, at least one generic rule and/or at least one specific rule may be combined and the combined rule may be utilized to model a sales process. At least one real-time update may be received from at least one information source and utilized to modify at least one of the created rules. The modification of the rule by the real-time update may be adapted to occur dynamically.

[27] The method may further comprise, generating by analogy, at least one option or suggestion which may be utilized for creating the rule. At least one fragment of sales process information may be identified and/or selected to be utilized for generating the rule by analogy. The fragment of sales process information may be identified and/or selected based upon a context associated with the fragment of sales process information. In another aspect of the invention, at least one input received context may be utilized for identifying and/or selecting the fragment of sales process information.

[28] Another aspect of the invention may also provide a machine readable storage, having stored thereon a computer program having at least one code section for modeling sales processes. The at least one code section may be executable by a machine for causing the machine to perform the steps as described above for modeling sales processes.

[29] Aspects of the system for modeling sales processes may comprise a sales process server that acquires sales process information from at least one existing business model and defines at least one parameter that characterizes at least one best practice related to at least one existing business model. A sales process rules engine may create at least one rule based on the defined parameter which identifies the best practice. A sales process modeler may model a new sales process utilizing the created rule. A sales process discoverer may adaptively combine rules from a plurality of best practices and/or at least one manual input to execute modeling of the new sales process. The created rule may be a generic rule that may be applicable to a plurality of contexts or a specific rule that may be applicable to a particular context. [30] The sales process server may be adapted to receive at least one real-time update from at least one information source and a sales process rules engine may modify the at least one created rule based on at least a portion of the real-time update. The sales process rules engine may dynamically modify at least one of the created rules in real-time. In another aspect of the invention, the sales process rules engine may generate by analogy, at least one option or suggestion which may be utilized for creating the rule. A sales process discoverer may identify and/or select at least one fragment of sales process information to be utilized for generating the rule analogy. The sales process discoverer and/or the sales process engine may identify and/or select at least one fragment of sales process information based on a context associated with the fragment of sales process information. The sales process server may receive at least one input received context that may be utilized to identify and select the fragment of sales process information.

[31] These and other advantages, aspects and novel features of the present invention, as well as details of an illustrated embodiment thereof, will be more fully understood from the following description and drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

[32] FIG. 1a is a block diagram of a sales processing system having an exemplary sales integration engine in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

[33] FIG. 1b is a block diagram of an exemplary data synchronization block in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

[34] FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an exemplary sales process in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

[35] FIG. 3a is a flow chart of exemplary steps for processing sales processing information in accordance with an aspect of the invention.

[36] FIG. 3b is a flow chart of exemplary steps for generating the sales process of FIG. 3a in accordance with an aspect of the invention.

[37] FIG. 4a is a block diagram of a sales processing system having an exemplary sales integration engine in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

[38] FIG. 4b is a block diagram of an exemplary data synchronization block in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

[39] FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an exemplary sales process in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

[40] FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an exemplary sales process configurator that may be utilized for sales process configuration in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

[41] FIG. 7 is a block diagram of an exemplary system that may be utilized for sales process configuration system in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

[42] FIG. 8 is a block diagram of a sales processing system having an exemplary sales integration engine in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. [43] FIG. 8a is a block diagram of an exemplary data synchronization block in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

[44] FIG. 9 is a block diagram of an exemplary sales process in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

[45] FIG. 10 is a block diagram illustrating exemplary steps for sales process integration in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

[46] FIG. 11 is a block diagram of a sales processing system having an exemplary sales integration engine in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

[47] FIG. 11a is a block diagram of an exemplary data synchronization block in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

[48] FIG. 12 is a block diagram of an exemplary sales process in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

[49] FIG. 13 is a block diagram of an exemplary sales process configurator that may be utilized for sales process configuration in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. .

[50] FIG. 14 is a block diagram of an exemplary system that may be utilized for sales process configuration system in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

[51] FIG. 15 is a flow chart illustrating exemplary steps outlining the operations of a sales process modeler in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

[52] FIG. 16 is an exemplary GUI illustrating manual copying of activities and steps for sales process modeling in accordance with an aspect of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[53] Certain aspects of the invention may be found in a method and system for processing sales information in order to generate a sales process. Sales process information may be gathered from a plurality of information stores and utilized to create models based on various contexts. Various rules may be defined regarding certain sales processing activities. In response to a request to generate a sales process, the rules may be utilized to provide guidance when creating the sales process. Other aspects of the invention may relate to a method and system for a sales integration engine that may be adapted to generate a sales process.

[54] An aspect of the invention may provide a single consolidated location where a seller may access and acquire sales data and information pertaining to working opportunities required to sell its products offerings. Products may comprise, but are not limited to, goods, whether tangible or intangible, and/or services. An aspect of the invention may also provide real time links between any number of sales processes and external systems which receive and/or distribute sales process information. The sales process information may provide business opportunities and may comprise any information that may be pertinent to creating and maintaining a relationship between a customer or potential customer and a business. Sales processes information may be classified into a plurality of categories or contexts, which may include, but are not limited to, product offering data, channel data, vertical data, geographical data and customer data. An embodiment of the invention provides a sales integration engine which may eliminate, for example, many of the complexities and time required for connecting and interfacing with myriad external systems.

[55] Sales processes may form the backbone for a seller's activities while working on opportunities to sell product offering. Sales processes may be modeled to simulate various phases of a sales process selling cycle. These phases may include, but are not limited to, customer needs identification, decision making identification, product and/or service demonstration and return on investment. Each phase may comprise a series of activities that may have to be completed in order to progress through the sales process selling cycle. In some instances, one or more of the activities in a sales process selling cycle may require that certain pre-conditions or contents be fulfilled before an activity may be completed. Information needed to complete an activity or to satisfy a precondition may vary depending on a number of parameters. In an exemplary case where a return on investment (ROI) analysis task is required, some of these parameters may include, but are not limited to, one or more base documents that may be required to create the ROI and the revenue generated over the last fiscal year and/or last quarter. Similarly, exemplary activities may include, but are not limited to, collection of revenue information, illustration of earnings growth and determination of investment growth. Accordingly, aspects of the invention may also provide a system and method for efficiently fulfilling pre-conditions and activities that may be necessary for completing a sales process selling cycle.

[56] FIG. 1a is a block diagram of sales processing system 100 having an exemplary sales integration engine block 102 in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. Referring to FIG. 1a, there is shown a sales integration engine or block 102, customer opportunities and data blocks collectively referred to as 104, and information resources block 106.

[57] The sales integration engine 102 may comprise suitable software and/or hardware that may be adapted to connect the activities from any number of processes in any context, to any external system, and to send, receive and process sales process information in real time and/or or at some time subsequent to the acquisition of the sales process information. The sales integration engine 102 may be based on a sales integration framework, which may contain a plurality of sub-components, which may be adapted to provide one or more services necessary to connect to and manage data exchange between one or more sales processes and one or more external systems. Since sales process information required by sellers to access working opportunities in order to sell product offerings may be made available or accessible in one consolidated location, the sales integration engine 102 may remove the complexities and time required for connecting and interfacing with the external systems. The hardware may comprise a computer platform, for example, a personal computer, a server, a mainframe computer and/or other specialized computer system that may be configured to handle connection of the activities for processes in any context to any external system. The software may comprise application software, scripts and/or code that may be adapted to run on or within the hardware.

[58] The sales integration engine or block 102 may comprise a plurality of functional blocks, each of which may be adapted to perform specialized data processing tasks. The exemplary sales integration engine or block 102 of FIG. 1a may comprise any one or more of a data synchronization block or engine 118, a service scheduler block 120, a service notification block 122, and an integration configurator block 124. In accordance with an embodiment of the invention, the data synchronization block 118 may be adapted to comprise at least one or more of a data mapping function, a data validation function, a data staging function, a key cross referencing and mapping function, and an integration communication interface that may permit communication with external systems.

[59] FIG. 1 b is a block diagram of an exemplary data synchronization block 118 in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. Referring to FIG. 1b, there is shown a data mapping function 182, a data validation function 184, a data staging function 186, a key cross referencing and mapping function 188, and an integration communication interface 190.

[60] The data mapping function 182 of the data synchronization block 118 may be adapted to translate information from a first non-native format to a second format, the latter of which may be interpreted by the sales processing system. In this regard, the data mapping function 182 may comprise one or more mappers or translators that may be configured to convert information from various non-native formats to a format native to the sales processing system. For example, the data mapping function 182 may be adapted to convert hypertext markup language (HTML) formatted information into extensible markup language (XML) formatted information. [61] The data validation function 184 of the data synchronization block 118 may be adapted to validate information that has been processed or translated by the mapping function. The data validation function 184 may verify the integrity of the translated information to ensure its accuracy and consistency.

[62] The data staging function 186 of the data synchronization block 118 may comprise one or more quality approval processes. In one embodiment of the invention, a quality approval process may be adapted to determine whether the information meets certain criteria and/or guidelines. The criteria and/or guidelines may be company based, standards based, industry based, de facto, and/or government based. For example, the quality approval process may ensure that company guidelines have been followed and that standardized processes and procedures such as ISO 9001 have been satisfied.

[63] The key cross referencing and mapping function 188 of the data synchronization block 118 may be adapted to maintain a unique key cross-referencing between external systems and an internal sales processing system. In this regard, subsequent to the synchronization of information by the data synchronization block 118, the key cross referencing and mapping function 188 may be adapted to evaluate the data and determine possible associations that may inter-relate at least portions of the synchronized information.

[64] The integration communication interface 190 of the data synchronization block 118 may be adapted to facilitate communication with one or more of a plurality of disparate and/or external systems. In this regard, the integration communication interface 190 may be adapted to communicate with, for example, an enterprise application integration (EAI) system or server. In accordance with an aspect of the invention, middleware may be utilized to integrate various application programs to ensure that information may be readily interchanged between, for example, databases, legacy systems and disparate systems that my contain relevant sales process data or information. [65] In an illustrative embodiment of the invention, in a case where it may be necessary to determine whether a particular candidate may be qualified for a particular job, the data mapping function 184 may be adapted to select an appropriate candidate from a plurality of candidates. The data validation function 184 may determine whether the candidate has the required qualifications, which may comprise academic and/or employment experience. The data staging function 186 may determine whether the credentials stated by the candidate are in fact genuine. Subsequent to synchronization of the information, the key cross referencing and mapping function 188 may be adapted to determine how the credentials of the candidate compares to other candidates that might have been hired in the past. In another example, the key mapping and cross referencing 188 function may be adapted to determine how the credentials of the candidate compares to other similar candidates hired by external companies.

[66] The sales integration engine 102 may also comprise a service scheduler block 120. Since the sales integration engine 102 may communicate with a plurality of other information systems, the service scheduler block 120 may be adapted to control a frequency at which the sales integration engine 102 my acquire and/or update information. Notwithstanding, the sales integration engine 102 may also be adapted to control a duration allotted for acquiring and updating information for a particular system. For example, the service scheduler 120 may be adapted to query a particular customer information database at intervals, which may include, but are not limited to, every microsecond, every minute, every hour, once per day, once per week or at the end of every month. In an embodiment of the invention, a frequency at which the service integration engine 102 may acquire updates may be adaptively altered by the service scheduler 120. Accordingly, the service scheduler 120 may be adaptively configured to instruct the sales integration engine 102 to obtain updates from certain databases or information systems in real time. For example, the CRM block 130 in the information resources block 106 may be known to continually update its customer database throughout the day while customers call into a CRM call center. With this knowledge, the service scheduler 120 may be adapted to schedule the sales integration engine 102 to acquire information from the CRM block 130 at a frequency of, for example, every ten (10) minutes. In a case where the CRM block 130 may be known to update its customer database only at the close of business during the week, then the service scheduler 120 may be adapted to schedule the sales integration engine 102 to acquire information at midnight every day during the week.

[67] The sales integration engine 102 may also comprise a service notifier block 122. Since the sales integration engine 102 communicates with a plurality of other systems, the service notifier 122 may oversee the operations of the sales integration engine to determine whether any errors occur in the operations of the sales integration engine 102. The service notifier 122 may be adapted to detect errors in the operations of the sales integration engine 102 without a need for manual intervention. However, the invention may not be limited in this regard and the service notifier block 122 may require manual intervention in certain circumstances. Depending on the type of business entity, various levels of severity of the errors may be defined. The type of business entity may include, but is not limited to, customer information, opportunity information and content related information. A content related business entity may have, for example, ten (10) severity levels, namely severity level one (1) through severity level ten (10). In this regard, severity level ten (1) may be the least severe error and severity level ten (10) may refer to the most severe error. In one embodiment of the invention, depending on the level of severity specific, notifications may be dispatched to selected sub- subsystems and/or persons.

[68] The sales integration engine 102 may also comprise an integration configurator 124. In general, the sales integration engine 102 may be designed to be highly configurable. In this regard, the integration configurator 124 may facilitate speedy configuration of the sales integration engine 102 to meet the requirements of a particular business application. The integration configurator 124 may comprise one or more graphical user interfaces (GUIs) that may run on a terminal directly or remotely coupled to the sales processing system. The GUI may comprise selectable options that facilitate the selection of various parameters that may permit one or more of a plurality of operational modes for the sales integration engine 102. The GUI may also permit input of certain parameters that may affect the operation of the sales integration engine 102.

[69] The integration configurator 124 may be configured to permit the sales integration engine 102 to interact with a plurality of systems without the need to engage in software modification. Once new parameters are entered into the integration configurator 124, the data synchronizer 118 may accordingly change the operations of the sales integration engine 102 to operate with the new parameters. Notably, whenever it may be desirable to make changes to the operations of the sales integration engine 102, these changes may be made to via the integration configurator 124. For example, in a case where specialized data may be received from specific ones of a plurality of information systems, the integration configurator 124 may instruct the sales integration engine 102 to acquire information from only those specified information systems.

[70] In certain instances, it may be necessary to orchestrate the sequencing of data from a plurality of information systems. In a case where it may be appropriate to receive data from particular ones of the plurality of information systems prior to receiving data from other ones of the information systems, the integration configurator 124 may be configured to provide the appropriate sequence in which the data should be received. In another aspect of the invention, the integration configurator 124 configure how data may be received and processed. In this case, the integration configurator 124 may configure the sales integration engine 102 to receive incremental changes to a customer record or receive the complete customer record whenever a change has occurred in a customer record.

[71] The integration configurator 124 may also be adapted to facilitate load balancing of the sales processing system. This may permit changes that dictate where and how particular sales process information may be processed within the system. In another aspect of the invention, in order to balance system load, the integration configurator 124 may also be configured to prioritize the execution of certain sales processes. Accordingly, to maintain a balanced load, the execution of certain sales processes may be pre-empted or temporarily suspended to facilitate execution of a less resource consuming sales process.

[72] The integration configurator 124 may also be programmed to determine a number of subscribers to which data may be sent and also a number of systems from which data may be received. Furthermore, in another aspect of the invention, metadata required for the data synchronizer to execute its data mapping or translation function may also be stipulated by the integration configurator 124. In this regard, the integration configurator 124 may specify what languages may be necessary for proper translation and mapping.

[73] The customer opportunities and data block 104 may comprise a sales process configurator 140 and any one or more of a product offerings data block 108, a verticals data block 110, a channels data block 112, a geographical data block 114 and a customers data block 116. The customer opportunities and data block 104 may further comprise a plurality of sales process or task 142a, 142b, 142c, collectively illustrated as 142. Each of the tasks may have a plurality of steps. For example, sales process or task 142a may comprise five (5) steps, namely S1, S2, S3, S4, S5. Each of the steps may also comprise a plurality of activities collectively illustrated as 144. For example, step S1 has activities A1, A2 and A3. At least some of the activities may have prerequisites or required contents 146, 148.

[74] The information resources block 106 may include, for example, one or more of a SAP block 126, an order management system (ODM) block 128, a customer relationship management (CRM) block 130, a document management system (DMS) block 132, a learning management system (LMS) block 134 and/or other resource block 136.

[75] The SAP block 126 may be an information database that may be adapted to store and process SAP database related information. The order management system block 128 may be adapted to store product order information. The CRM block 130 may comprise a suite of products that may be integrated to provide the necessary infrastructure for implementing a channel for supporting sales process related activities. The CRM block 130 may be adapted to acquire, identify and retain customers. The document management system block 132 may be adapted to store and process sales documents. The learning management system block 134 may be adapted to function as a library system that may contain archived and historical information related to previous sales process transactions.

[76] In the embodiment of the FIG. 1a, the sales integration engine or block 102 may comprise a plurality of interfaces, at least one which may be coupled to the customer opportunities and data block 104 and another of which may be coupled to the information resources block 106. The sales integration engine or block 102 may be configured to potentially connect any number of sales processes to any one or more of a plurality of external systems, which may contain information required by sellers. Information acquired from the external systems may be relevant to at least one or more of the various data contexts which may be included in the customer opportunities and data block 104, for example product offerings data block 108, verticals data block 110, channels data block 112, geographical data block 114 and customer data block 116. The external systems, may be for example, one or more external servers and/or databases which may store and/or distribute information. The sales integration engine or block 102 may be configured to connect with a plurality of external information systems. In one embodiment of the invention, the information exchange may occur in real time as changes to data occur.

[77] The offers block 108, verticals block 110, channels block 112, geographical block 114 and customers block 116 may be classified as contexts within the customer opportunities and data block 104. The product offering data block 108 may include, but is not limited to, information such as product and/or service descriptions. A channel may be a particular communication medium or a logical medium that may be used to offer one or more sales activities. The channel context block 112 may define a manner in which a business caters to its customers. This may include, but is not limited to, a telephone based channel, a web based channel, a kiosk based channel, a field based channel, a storefront channel and/or mail order based channel.

[78] In general, the verticals block 110 may refer to the different types of businesses and/or industries to which a particular business may cater. For example, an equipment manufacturer may cater to verticals including, finance, manufacturing, resellers, legal, and retail. The customer context block 116 may define the spectrum of actual and potential customers. The geographical context may include information pertaining to the location of a customer. Additionally, the geographical context may also include information pertaining to customer demographics.

[79] The customer opportunities and data block 104 may comprise various sales processes or tasks 144, each of which may have a number of steps. For example, sales process or task 142a is shown having five steps, namely S1, S2, S3, S4, S5. Step S1 of sales process 142a has three (3) activities, namely A1 , A2, A3. Step S2 of sales process 142a has four (4) activities, namely A1 , A2, A3, A4. Step S3 of sales process 142a has two (2) activities, namely A1, A2. Step S4 of sales process 142a has three (3) activities, namely A1, A2, A3. Finally, step S5 of sales process 142a has four (4) activities, namely A1, A2, A3, A4. Activity A3 of step S2 requires prerequisite data or content 148 and activity A2 of step S5 requires prerequisite data 146. Accordingly, the prerequisite data or content 148 may be required for the completion of activity A3. Similarly, the prerequisite data or content 146 may be required for the completion of activity A2. Each of the activities for a particular task may require information from an external information system. The required information may be external to the sales integration system 102. In accordance with the invention, a collection of steps and activities and any perquisite data or content may form a sales process.

[80] FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an exemplary sales process in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. Referring to FIG. 2, there is shown a plurality of steps, namely plan step 202, approach step 204, assess step 206, propose step 208 and commit step 210. Each of steps 202, 204, 206, 208, 210 may comprise one or more activities. [81] The plan step 202 may have five (5) activities, collectively referenced as 212. These activities 212 may comprise a review opportunity activity, prioritize opportunity activity, prepare contact plan activity, research customer and history activity, and develop account approach strategy. The review opportunity activity may include a review of some or all the relevant issues related to the sales opportunity. The prioritize opportunity activity may include prioritizing the relevant issues and tasks involved with the sales opportunity. The prepare contact plan activity may include preparing a list of possible contacts and the roles and extent to which each contact might be involved. The research customer and history activity may include doing various searches in order to acquire information that may provide a synopsis of the company, including its history and performance. Varying levels searching may be done depending on the depth and breadth of the information required. The develop account approach strategy activity may include developing a feasible account approach strategy.

[82] The approach step 204 may have, for example, five (5) activities, collectively referenced as 214. These activities 214 may include a develop value activity, a conduct approach activity, a clarify decision criteria activity, a develop a customer sponsor activity and finally, a create multiple contacts within customer activity. The develop value activity may include creating a strategy on how best to approach a customer and how best to deliver a plan to the customer. The conduct approach activity may include strategizing how best to build customer awareness and stimulate a customer's interest. The develop customer sponsor activity may include the development of a sponsor efforts within a customer's environment to support sales related activities. The create multiple contacts within customer activity may include ascertaining which contacts within, for example a company, may be beneficial to the sales opportunity.

[83] The assess step 206 may have six (6) activities, collectively referenced as 216. These activities 216 may comprise a gain agreement on discovery activity, a create discovery activity, a perform discovery activity, a validate discovery activity, an assess data and identify need to address activity and finally, a gain agreement to consider recommendation activity. The gain agreement on discovery activity may include determining the scope and nature of the agreement and the parties and/or entities that may be involved in any agreement effort. The create discovery activity may include, for example, the creation of a questionnaire. The validate discovery data activity may include the step of validating and verifying the content of any material discovered. Since the perform discovery activity may be a critical activity to the assess step 206, the perform discovery activity may be denoted as a mandatory activity. The assess data and identify need to address activity may include identifying customer needs and formulating how best to satisfy those needs. The gain agreement to consider recommendation activity may include gaining agreement on acceptance of any recommendations that may be made.

[84] The propose step 208 may have three (3) activities, collectively referenced as 218. These activities 218 may comprise a create proposal activity, a perform credit check activity, and finally, a present recommendations activity. The create proposal activity may include the creation of various proposals and recommendations pertinent to the sales strategy. Since the perform credit check activity may be a critical activity to the propose step 208, the perform credit check activity may be denoted as a mandatory activity. The present recommendations activity may include the presentation of recommendations to key decision makers and players related to the sales opportunity and/or activity.

[85] The commit step 210 may include, for example, six (6) activities, collectively referenced as 220. These activities 220 may comprise an address recommendations, issues and roadblocks activity, gain agreement and commitment activity, secure customer order activity, discuss recommendations, road blocks and delivery schedule activity, provide overview of calendar events activity, and follow-up call to customer activity. The address recommendations, issues and roadblocks activity may include deciding how best to handle roadblocks that have been encountered or may be encountered. The gain agreement on discovery activity may include finalizing the scope and nature of the agreement with the parties and/or entities involved in the agreement effort. The secure customer order activity may include acquiring an order for certain products and/or services from the customer. The discuss recommendations, road blocks and delivery schedule my include discussing any roadblocks that may be encountered or will be encountered during delivery of the product and/or service. The provide overview of calendar events activity may include creating a timeline of the events related to the sales process. For example, a timeline may be created to track the deliverables. Since the follow-up call activity may be a critical activity to the commit step 210, the follow-up call to customer activity may be denoted as a mandatory activity.

[86] In operation, the sales integration engine 102 may be adapted to acquire pertinent information from a resource in the information resources block 106 in real time. In this regard, the sales integration engine 102 may acquire the information within the contexts of the offers 108, verticals 110, channels 112, geographical 114 and customers 116, for a specific sales process, and for a particular activity within the sales process. Once the information is acquired, the sales integration engine 102 may processes the acquired information.

[87] In accordance with an embodiment of the invention, the sales integration engine 102 of FIG. 2 may be configured to acquire the sales process information from at least one of a plurality of information resources and create a historical information store using the acquired sales process information. The sales integration engine 102 may create rules based on the acquired sales process information in the historical information store and may generate a sales process from at least a portion of the created rules. The historical information store may comprise a database or other data storage entity that may be adapted to store a history of related sales processes, sales process rules and/or sales process activities.

[88] The sales integration engine 102 may comprise at least one of a data synchronizer 118, a service scheduler 120, a service notifier 122 and an integration configurator 124. In response to a request to create a sales process, the sales integration engine 102 may determine whether matching sales process information corresponding to the request is located in the historical information store. The sales integration engine 102 may be adapted to utilize at least a portion of the matching sales process information to generate the sales process if matching sales process information corresponding to the request is located in the historical information store.

[89] In instances where no matching sales process information corresponding to the request is found or located within the historical information store, the sales integration engine 102 may generate new rules corresponding to the request to create the sales process. In this regard, the sales integration engine 102 may be configured to dynamically generate the new rules which may correspond to the request to create the sales process. Notwithstanding, the sales integration engine 102 may define sales processing steps and/or sales processing activities corresponding to the newly generated rules.

[90] In another aspect of the invention, the sales integration engine 102 may be configured to select at least one of the sales processing activities and/or the sales processing steps for generating the sales process. In instances where no matching sales process information corresponding to the request is located in the historical information store, the sales integration engine 102 may analogize based on at least similar sales process information, similar sales processing activities or similar sales processing steps that may be located in the historical information store, in order to generate the sales process engine. If no matching sales process information corresponding to the request is located in the historical information store, the sales integration engine 102 may be adapted to hypothesize based on sales process information located in the historical information store, in order to generate the sales process.

[91] FIG. 3a is a flow chart 300 of exemplary steps for processing sales processing information in accordance with an aspect of the invention. Referring to FIG. 3a, the exemplary steps may start at step 302. In step 304, sales process information may be acquired from one more of a plurality of information resources. In step 306, a historical information store of the sales process information may be created and used to model various sales processes. In step 308, rules may be created based on attributes derived from the sales process information, which may be used to create the sales process model. In step 310, in response to a request to create a sales process, a decision may be made as to whether there is any matching and/or pertinent historical information in the information store. If there is matching historical information, then in step 320, a sales process may be generated. In step 310, if there is no matching historical information, then in step 312, new rules may be dynamically generated. In one aspect of the invention, an iterative process may be used the dynamically generate new rules. Subsequently, in step 314, various sales processing steps and activities may be defined. In step 316, a sales process may be created by analogy and/or hypothesis. Subsequent to execution of steps 320 or step 316, execution may end at step 318.

[92] FIG. 3b is a flow chart 340 of exemplary steps for generating the sales process in step 320 of FIG. 3a in accordance with an aspect of the invention. Referring to FIG. 3b, the exemplary steps may start at step 342. In step 344, historical information may be accessed. In step 346, similar sales process information may be located. In step 348, appropriate steps and/or activities may be identified. In step 350, the identified steps and/or activities that are most appropriate or which provide a fit, may be selected. In step 352, the selected sales processing steps may be used to generate the sales process. Execution may end at step 354. Although historical information may be generated by the sales integration engine, the invention is not limited in this regard. Accordingly, historical information may also be imported from one or more external sources, and/or manually generated and/or inputted by a user.

[93] Certain aspects of the invention may be found in a method and system for a sales integration engine. An aspect of the invention may provide a single consolidated location where sellers may access and acquire sales data and information pertaining to working opportunities required to sell its products offerings. Products may include, but is not limited to, goods, whether tangible or intangible, and services. An aspect of the invention may also provide real time links between any number of sales processes and external systems which receive and/or distribute sales process information. The sales process information may provide business opportunities and may include any information that may be pertinent to creating and maintaining a relationship between a customer or potential customer and a business.

[94] Sales processes information may be classified into a plurality of categories or contexts, which may include, but are not limited to, product offering data, channel data, vertical data, geographical data and customer data. An embodiment of the invention provides a sales integration engine which may eliminate, for example, many of the complexities and time required for connecting and interfacing with a myriad of external systems. Another aspect of the invention may provide a sales process configuration system, which may be adapted to utilize the sales process information provided by the sales integration engine.

[95] Sales processes may form the backbone for a seller's activities while working on opportunities to sell product and/or service offerings. Sales processes may be modeled to simulate various phases of a sales process selling cycle. These phases may include, but are not limited to, customer needs identification, decision making identification, product and/or service demonstration and return on investment. Each phase may include a series of activities that may have to be completed in order to progress through the sales process selling cycle. In some instances, one or more of the activities in a sales process selling cycle may require that certain pre-conditions or contents be fulfilled before an activity may be completed. Information needed to complete an activity or to satisfy a pre-condition may vary depending on a number of parameters.

[96] In an exemplary case where a return on investment (ROI) analysis task is required, some of these parameters may include, but are not limited to, one or more base documents that may be required to create the ROI and the revenue generated over the last fiscal year and/or last quarter. Similarly, exemplary activities may include, but are not limited to, collection of revenue information, illustration of earnings growth and determination of investment growth. Accordingly, aspects of the invention provide a system and method for efficiently fulfilling pre-conditions and activities that may be necessary for completing a sales process selling cycle. [97] Fig. 4a is a block diagram of sales processing system 400 having an exemplary sales integration engine block 402 in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. Referring to Fig. 4a, there is shown a sales integration engine or block 402, customer opportunities and data blocks collectively referred to as 404, and an information resources block 406.

[98] The sales integration engine 402 may comprise suitable software and/or hardware that may be adapted to connect the activities from any number of processes in any context, to any external system, and to send, receive and process sales process information in real time and/or or at some time subsequent to the acquisition of the sales process information. The sales integration engine 402 may be based on a sales integration framework, which may contain a plurality of sub-components, which may be adapted to provide one or more services necessary to connect to and manage data exchange between one or more sales processes and one or more external systems. Since sales process information required by sellers to access working opportunities in order to sell product offerings may be made available or accessible in one consolidated location, the sales integration engine 402 may remove the complexities and time required for connecting and interfacing with the external systems. The hardware may comprise a computer platform, for example, a personal computer, a server, a mainframe computer and/or other specialized computer system that may be configured to handle connection of the activities for processes in any context to any external system. The software may comprise application software, scripts and/or code that may be adapted to run on or within the hardware.

[99] The sales integration engine or block 402 may comprise a plurality of functional blocks, each of which may be adapted to perform specialized data processing tasks. The exemplary sales integration engine or block 402 of Fig. 4a may comprise any one or more of a data synchronization block or engine 418, a service scheduler block 420, a service notification block 422, and an integration configurator block 424. In accordance with an embodiment of the invention, the data synchronization block 418 may be adapted to comprise at least one or more of a data mapping function, a data validation function, a data staging function, a key cross referencing and mapping function, and an integration communication interface that may permit communication with external systems.

[100] Fig. 4b is a block diagram of an exemplary data synchronization block 480 in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. Referring to Fig. 4b, there is shown a data mapping function 482, a data validation function 484, a data staging function 486, a key cross referencing and mapping function 488, and an integration communication interface 490.

[101] The data mapping function 482 of the data synchronization block 480 may be adapted to translate information from a first non-native format to a second format, the latter of which may be interpreted by the sales processing system. In this regard, the data mapping function 482 may comprise one or more mappers or translators that may be configured to convert information from various non-native formats to a format native to the sales processing system. For example, the data mapping function 482 may be adapted to convert hypertext markup language (HTML) formatted information into extensible markup language (XML) formatted information.

[102] The data validation function 484 of the data synchronization block 480 may be adapted to validate information that has been processed or translated by the mapping function. The data validation function 484 may verify the integrity of the translated information to ensure its accuracy and consistency.

[103] The data staging function 486 of the data synchronization block 480 may comprise one or more quality approval processes. In one embodiment of the invention, a quality approval process may be adapted to determine whether the information meets certain criteria and/or guidelines. The criteria and/or guidelines may be company based, standards based, industry based, de facto, and/or government based. For example, the quality approval process may ensure that company guidelines have been followed and that standardized processes and procedures such as ISO 9001 have been satisfied. [104] The key cross referencing and mapping function 488 of the data synchronization block 480 may be adapted to maintain a unique key cross-referencing between external systems and an internal sales processing system. In this regard, subsequent to the synchronization of information by the data synchronization block 480, the key cross referencing and mapping function 488 may be adapted to evaluate the data and determine possible associations that may inter-relate at least portions of the synchronized information.

[105] The integration communication interface 490 of the data synchronization block 480 may be adapted to facilitate communication with one or more of a plurality of disparate and/or external systems. In this regard, the integration communication interface 490 may be adapted to communicate with, for example, an enterprise application integration (EAI) system or server. In accordance with an aspect of the invention, middleware may be utilized to integrate various application programs to ensure that information may be readily interchanged between, for example, databases, legacy systems and disparate systems that my contain relevant sales process data or information.

[106] In an illustrative embodiment of the invention, in a case where it may be necessary to determine whether a particular candidate may be qualified for a particular job, the data mapping function 484 may be adapted to select an appropriate candidate from a plurality of candidates. The data validation function 484 may determine whether the candidate has the required qualifications, which may comprise academic and/or employment experience. The data staging function 486 may determine whether the credentials stated by the candidate are in fact genuine. Subsequent to synchronization of the information, the key cross referencing and mapping function 488 may be adapted to determine how the credentials of the candidate compares to other candidates that might have been hired in the past. In another example, the key mapping and cross referencing 488 function may be adapted to determine how the credentials of the candidate compares to other similar candidates hired by external companies. [107] The sales integration engine 402 may also comprise a service scheduler block 420. Since the sales integration engine 402 may communicate with a plurality of other information systems, the service scheduler block 420 may be adapted to control a frequency at which the sales integration engine 402 my acquire and/or update information. Notwithstanding, the sales integration engine 402 may also be adapted to control a duration allotted for acquiring and updating information for a particular system. For example, the service scheduler 420 may be adapted to query a particular customer information database at intervals, which may include, but are not limited to, every microsecond, every minute, every hour, once per day, once per week or at the end of every month. In an embodiment of the invention, a frequency at which the service integration engine 402 may acquire updates may be adaptively altered by the service scheduler 420. Accordingly, the service scheduler 420 may be adaptively configured to instruct the sales integration engine 402 to obtain updates from certain databases or information systems in real time. For example, the CRM block 430 in the information resources block 406 may be known to continually update its customer database throughout the day while customers call into a CRM call center. With this knowledge, the service scheduler 420 may be adapted to schedule the sales integration engine 402 to acquire information from the CRM block 430 at a frequency of, for example, every ten (10) minutes. In a case where the CRM block 430 may be known to update its customer database only at the close of business during the week, then the service scheduler 420 may be adapted to schedule the sales integration engine 402 to acquire information at midnight every day during the week.

[108] The sales integration engine 402 may also comprise a service notifier block 422. Since the sales integration engine 402 communicates with a plurality of other systems, the service notifier 422 may oversee the operations of the sales integration engine to determine whether any errors occur in the operations of the sales integration engine 402. The service notifier 422 may be adapted to detect errors in the operations of the sales integration engine 402 without a need for manual intervention. However, the invention may not be limited in this regard and the service notifier block 422 may require manual intervention in certain circumstances. Depending on the type of business entity, various levels of severity of the errors may be defined. The type of business entity may include, but is not limited to, customer information, opportunity information and content related information. A content related business entity may have, for example, ten (10) severity levels, namely severity level one (1) through severity level ten (10). In this regard, severity level ten (1) may be the least severe error and severity level ten (10) may refer to the most severe error. In one embodiment of the invention, depending on the level of severity specific, notifications may be dispatched to selected sub- subsystems and/or persons.

[109] The sales integration engine 402 may also comprise an integration configurator 424. In general, the sales integration engine 402 may be designed to be highly configurable. In this regard, the integration configurator 424 may facilitate speedy configuration of the sales integration engine 402 to meet the requirements of a particular business application. The integration configurator 424 may comprise one or more graphical user interfaces (GUIs) that may run on a terminal directly or remotely coupled to the sales processing system. The GUI may comprise selectable options that facilitate the selection of various parameters that may permit one or more of a plurality of operational modes for the sales integration engine 402. The GUI may also permit input of certain parameters that may affect the operation of the sales integration engine 402.

[110] The integration configurator 424 may be configured to permit the sales integration engine 402 to interact with a plurality of systems without the need to engage in software modification. Once new parameters are entered into the integration configurator 424, the data synchronizer 418 may accordingly change the operations of the sales integration engine 402 to operate with the new parameters. Notably, whenever it may be desirable to make changes to the operations of the sales integration engine 402, these changes may be made to via the integration configurator 424. For example, in a case where specialized data may be received from specific ones of a plurality of information systems, the integration configurator 424 may instruct the sales integration engine 402 to acquire information from only those specified information systems.

[111] In certain instances, it may be necessary to orchestrate the sequencing of data from a plurality of information systems. In a case where it may be appropriate to receive data from particular ones of the plurality of information systems prior to receiving data from other ones of the information systems, the integration configurator 424 may be configured to provide the appropriate sequence in which the data should be received. In another aspect of the invention, the integration configurator 424 configure how data may be received and processed. In this case, the integration configurator 424 may configure the sales integration engine 402 to receive incremental changes to a customer record or receive the complete customer record whenever a change has occurred in a customer record.

[112] The integration configurator 424 may also be adapted to facilitate load balancing of the sales processing system. This may permit changes that dictate where and how particular sales process information may be processed within the system. In another aspect of the invention, in order to balance system load, the integration configurator 424 may also be configured to prioritize the execution of certain sales processes. Accordingly, to maintain a balanced load, the execution of certain sales processes may be pre-empted or temporarily suspended to facilitate execution of a less resource consuming sales process.

[113] The integration configurator 424 may also be programmed to determine a number of subscribers to which data may be sent and also a number of systems from which data may be received. Furthermore, in another aspect of the invention, metadata required for the data synchronizer to execute its data mapping or translation function may also be stipulated by the integration configurator 424. In this regard, the integration configurator 424 may specify what languages may be necessary for proper translation and mapping. [114] The customer opportunities and data block 404 may comprise a sales process configurator 440 and any one or more of a product offerings data block 408, a verticals data block 410, a channels data block 412, a geographical data block 414 and a customers data block 416. The customer opportunities and data block 404 may further comprise a plurality of sales process or task 442a, 442b, 442c, collectively illustrated as 442. Each of the tasks may have a plurality of steps. For example, sales process or task 442a may comprise five (5) steps, namely S1 , S2, S3, S4, S5. Each of the steps may also comprise a plurality of activities collectively illustrated as 444. For example, step S1 has activities A1, A2 and A3. At least some of the activities may have prerequisites or required contents 446, 448.

[115] The information resources block 406 may include, for example, one or more of a SAP block 426, an order management system (ODM) block 428, a customer relationship management (CRM) block 430, a document management system (DMS) block 432, a learning management system (LMS) block 434 and/or other resource block 436.

[116] The SAP block 426 may be an information database that may be adapted to store and process SAP database related information. The order management system block 428 may be adapted to store product order information. The CRM block 430 may comprise a suite of products that may be integrated to provide the necessary infrastructure for implementing a channel for supporting sales process related activities. The CRM block 430 may be adapted to acquire, identify and retain customers. The document management system block 432 may be adapted to store and process sales documents. The learning management system block 434 may be adapted to function as a library system that may contain archived and historical information related to previous sales process transactions.

[117] In the embodiment of the Fig. 4a, the sales integration engine or block 402 may comprise a plurality of interfaces, at least one which may be coupled to the customer opportunities and data block 404 and another of which may be coupled to the information resources block 406. The sales integration engine or block 402 may be configured to potentially connect any number of sales processes to any one or more of a plurality of external systems, which may contain information required by sellers. Information acquired from the external systems may be relevant to at least one or more of the various data contexts which may be included in the customer opportunities and data block 404, for example product offerings data block 408, verticals data block 410, channels data block 412, geographical data block 414 and customer data block 416. The external systems, may be for example, one or more external servers and/or databases which may store and/or distribute information. The sales integration engine or block 402 may be configured to connect with a plurality of external information systems. In one embodiment of the invention, the information exchange may occur in real time as changes to data occur.

[118] The offers block 408, verticals block 410, channels block 412, geographical block 414 and customers block 416 may be classified as contexts within the customer opportunities and data block 404. The product offering data block 408 may include, but is not limited to, information such as product and/or service descriptions. A channel may be a particular communication medium or a logical medium that may be used to offer one or more sales activities. The channel context block 412 may define a manner in which a business caters to its customers. This may include, but is not limited to, a telephone based channel, a web based channel, a kiosk based channel, a field based channel, a storefront channel and/or mail order based channel.

[119] In general, the verticals block 410 may refer to the different types of businesses and/or industries to which a particular business may cater. For example, an equipment manufacturer may cater to verticals including, finance, manufacturing, resellers, legal, and retail. The customer context block 416 may define the spectrum of actual and potential customers. The geographical context may include information pertaining to the location of a customer. Additionally, the geographical context may also include information pertaining to customer demographics.

[120] The customer opportunities and data block 404 may comprise various sales processes or tasks 444, each of which may have a number of steps. For example, sales process or task 442a is shown having five steps, namely S1, S2, S3, S4, S5. Step S1 of sales process 442a has three (3) activities, namely A1 , A2, A3. Step S2 of sales process 442a has four (4) activities, namely A1, A2, A3, A4. Step S3 of sales process 442a has two (2) activities, namely A1, A2. Step S4 of sales process 442a has three (3) activities, namely A1, A2, A3. Finally, step S5 of sales process 442a has four (4) activities, namely A1, A2, A3, A4. Activity A3 of step S2 requires prerequisite data or content 448 and activity A2 of step S5 requires prerequisite data 446. Accordingly, the prerequisite data or content 448 may be required for the completion of activity A3. Similarly, the prerequisite data or content 446 may be required for the completion of activity A2. Each of the activities for a particular task may require information from an external information system. The required information may be external to the sales integration system 402. In accordance with the invention, a collection of steps and activities and any perquisite data or content may form a sales process.

[121] FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an exemplary sales process in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. Referring to FIG. 5, there is shown a plurality of steps , namely plan step 502, approach step 504, assess step 506, propose step 508 and commit step 510. Each of steps 502, 504, 506, 508, 510 may comprise one or more activities.

[122] The plan step 502 may have five (5) activities, collectively referenced as 512. These activities 512 may comprise a review opportunity activity, prioritize opportunity activity, prepare contact plan activity, research customer and history activity, and develop account approach strategy. The review opportunity activity may include a review of some or all the relevant issues related to the sales opportunity. The prioritize opportunity activity may include prioritizing the relevant issues and task involved with the sales opportunity. The prepare contact plan activity may include preparing a list of possible contacts and the roles and extent to which each contact might be involved. The research customer and history activity may include doing various searches in order to acquire information that may provide a synopsis of the company, including its history and performance. Varying levels searching may be done depending on the depth and breadth of the information required. The develop account approach strategy activity may include developing a feasible account approach strategy.

[123] The approach step 504 may have, for example, five (5) activities, collectively referenced as 514. These activities 514 may include a develop value activity, a conduct approach activity, a clarify decision criteria activity, a develop a customer sponsor activity and finally, a create multiple contacts within customer activity. The develop value activity may include creating a strategy on how best to approach a customer and how best to deliver a plan to the customer. The conduct approach activity may include strategizing how best to build customer awareness and stimulate a customer's interest. The develop customer sponsor activity may include the development of a sponsor efforts within a customer's environment to support sales related activities. The create multiple contacts within customer activity may include ascertaining which contacts within, for example a company, may be beneficial to the sales opportunity.

[124] The assess step 506 may have six (6) activities, collectively referenced as 516. These activities 516 may comprise a gain agreement on discovery activity, a create discovery activity, a perform discovery activity, a validate discovery activity, an assess data and identify need to address activity and finally, a gain agreement to consider recommendation activity. The gain agreement on discovery activity may include determining the scope and nature of the agreement and the parties and/or entities that may be involved in any agreement effort. The create discovery activity may include, for example, the creation of a questionnaire. The validate discovery data activity may include the step of validating and verifying the content of any material discovered. Since the perform discovery activity may be a critical activity to the assess step 506, the perform discovery activity may be denoted as a mandatory activity. The assess data and identify need to address activity may include identifying customer needs and formulating how best to satisfy those needs. The gain agreement to consider recommendation activity may include gaining agreement on acceptance of any recommendations that may be made. [125] The propose step 508 may have three (3) activities, collectively referenced as 518. These activities 518 may comprise a create proposal activity, a perform credit check activity, and finally, a present recommendations activity. The create proposal activity may include the creation of various proposals and recommendations pertinent to the sales strategy. Since the perform credit check activity may be a critical activity to the propose step 508, the perform credit check activity may be denoted as a mandatory activity. The present recommendations activity may include the presentation of recommendations to key decision makers and players related to the sales opportunity and/or activity.

[126] The commit step 510 may include, for example, six (6) activities, collectively referenced as 520. These activities 520 may comprise an address recommendations, issues and roadblocks activity, gain agreement and commitment activity, secure customer order activity, discuss recommendations, road blocks and delivery schedule activity, provide overview of calendar events activity, and follow-up call to customer activity. The address recommendations, issues and roadblocks activity may include deciding how best to handle roadblocks that have been encountered or may be encountered. The gain agreement on discovery activity may include finalizing the scope and nature of the agreement with the parties and/or entities involved in the agreement effort. The secure customer order activity may include acquiring an order for certain products and/or services from the customer. The discuss recommendations, road blocks and delivery schedule my include discussing any roadblocks that may be encountered or will be encountered during delivery of the product and/or service. The provide overview of calendar events activity may include creating a timeline of the events related to the sales process. For example, a timeline may be created to track the deliverables. Since the follow-up call activity may be a critical activity to the commit step 510, the follow-up call to customer activity may be denoted as a mandatory activity.

[127] In operation, the sales integration engine 402 may be adapted to acquire pertinent information from a resource in the information resources block 406 in real time. In this regard, the sales integration engine 402 may acquire the information within the contexts of the offers 408, verticals 410, channels 412, geographical 414 and customers 416, for a specific sales process, and for a particular activity within the sales process. Once the information is acquired, the sales integration engine 402 may processes the acquired information.

[128] FIG. 6 is a block diagram 600 of an exemplary sales process configurator that may be utilized for sales process configuration in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. Referring to FIG. 6, there is shown a database server 602, a sales process server 604, a sales process rules engine 606, a sales process discoverer 608 and a sales process modeler 610.

[129] The database server 602 may be any conventional database server that may be utilized for storing information. In this regard, the database server 602 may be adapted to store sales process information. For example, the database server 602 may comprise a computer system having, for example, a hard disk that may be configured to store information. Accordingly, the stored information may be retrieved from the hard disk.

[130] The sales process server 604 may be a server having specialized sales processing software that may be adapted for sales process configuration. The sales process server 604 may be coupled through a suitable interface to the database server 602.

[131] The sales process rules engine 606 may be coupled to the sales process server 604. The sales process rules engine 606 may include one or more applications that may be adapted to run on the same host as the sales process server 604. However, the invention is not limited in this regard and the sales process rules engine 606 may be adapted to run on a host machine externally coupled to the sales process server 604.

[132] The sales process discoverer 608 may be coupled to the sales process server 604. The sales process discoverer 608 may include one or more applications that may be adapted to run on the same host as the sales process server 604. However, the invention is not limited in this regard and the sales process discoverer 608 may also be adapted to run on a host machine externally coupled to the sales process server 604.

[133] The sales process modeler 610 may be coupled to the sales process server 604. The sales process modeler 610 may include one or more applications that may be adapted to run on the same host as the sales process server 604. However, the invention is not limited in this regard and the sales process modeler 610 may be adapted to run on a host machine externally coupled to the sales process server 604.

[134] In operation, the sales process server 604 may be adapted to receive various sales process information pertaining to a sales opportunity from a sale person. In this regard, a GUI may be provided by the sales process server 604, which may be adapted to permit the salesperson to select and/or enter the sales process information. In an alternate embodiment of the invention, the sales process server 604 may be adapted to process certain scripts that may contain information related to the sales process information. The information contained in the sales process information may relate to the various sales contexts, for example. These sales contexts may include, but are not limited to, offer, vertical, customer, channel, and geography. Based on a content of the sales process information inputted by the salesperson and/or a sales process script, the sales process rules engine 606 may select appropriate rules that best fits the sales process information for particular contexts.

[135] In general, requirements for various stages of sales processing may vary depending on, for example, the sales contexts, the type of business and the experience of the salesperson. Accordingly, the sales process discoverer 608 may be adapted to discover and establish relevant information and rules related to, for example, the sales context, type of business and the experience of the salesperson. The sales process discoverer 608 may be required to determine a best fit for the sales process information entered by the salesperson and/or sales process script. The sales process discoverer 608 may, in certain circumstances, require inputted sales process information in order to generate a sales process. [136] The sales process modeler 610 may be configured to ascertain pertinent information related to the inputted sales process information required to generate a sales process for the salesperson. If, based on the input provided by the salesperson and/or sales process script, there are adequate rules to provide a best fit for the sales process information, the sales process server 604 may generate an appropriate sales process. The sales process generated by the sales process server 604 may be adapted to have certain confidence scores and/or levels based on a fit between the sales process information and the sales process rules provided or generated by the sales process rules engine 606. For example, if there is a direct fit between the inputted or selected sales process information and the rules provided by the sales process rules engine 606, then the confidence score may be about 400%. However, in a case where there may be no fit between the entered sales process information and the rules provided by the sales process rules engine 606, then the confidence score may be about 0%. In accordance with an aspect of the invention, there may be varying levels of confidence scores ranging between 0% and 400% depending on the fit between the inputted or selected sales process information and the rules provided by the sales process rules engine.

[137] Although there may be pertinent information stored in the database server 602, there may be cases where there is no pertinent information or sales process rules available. In this case, the sales process modeler 610 may be adapted to generate appropriate information by analogy. Once the information is generated by the sales process modeler 610, the sales process rules engine may use the information generated by the sales process modeler 610 to generate appropriate rules. In this manner, the sales process server may utilize the rules from the sales processing engine to generate an appropriate sales process based on the input provided by the salesperson and/or the sales process script. Additionally, the sales process modeler 610 may be adapted to generate suggestions and/or what-if scenarios in order to create an appropriate fit. In this regard, the sales process modeler 610 may be adapted to hypothesize in order to generate a sales process. [138] FIG. 7 is a block diagram 700 of an exemplary sales process configurator that may be utilized for sales process configuration system in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. Referring to FIG. 7 there is shown a sales process 708, a sales opportunity 710, a seller entity level 702, a business unit entity level 700 and a corporation entity level 704.

[139] In operation, referring to the opportunity block 710, a salesperson may use any one or more of the contexts, for example, offer, customer, vertical, channel and geography that may be associated with an opportunity. In the sales process block 708, the sales process configuration system may be adapted to utilize any one or more of the various contexts, for example, offer, customer, vertical, channel and geography, inputted by a salesperson or sales process script, to generate a sales process. Any combination of contexts for any particular sales process may be classified as a rule. For example, a rule may be defined for a particular sales process having a particular vertical and a particular offer. In another example, a rule may be defined for a particular channel and a particular geography. Additionally, defined rules may be interrelated so that portions of the contexts used to create a rule may be utilized by another rule. In other words, a particular rule may therefore be dependent on at least one other rule. Accordingly, a specific rule may be utilized by one or more similar sales processes or for different sales processes. For example, a first rule may be defined using a particular channel and geography. A second rule may be defined using the same particular channel but with a particular vertical. A third rule may be defined using the same particular channel as the first rule, the same particular vertical as the second rule and with a new customer.

[140] The block diagram 700 illustrates an embodiment of the invention wherein a sales process configuration system may be adapted to process sales process information on a hierarchical level. Accordingly, various rules defined by a sales process rules engine may be categorized according to, for example, a seller entity level 702, a business unit entity level 704 and a corporation entity level 706. In this regard, the seller entity level 702, the business unit entity level 704 and the corporation entity level 706 may be viewed as contexts. Hence, rules may be defined at the seller entity level 702, at the business unit entity level 704 and at the corporation entity level 706.

[141] In an embodiment of the invention, there may be various sub-levels within a particular level. For example, various skills levels may be included within the business unit level 704. A salesperson having a particular set of skills may be given a particular sales process, but if the same person wishes to utilize a different set of skills, then the sales process configuration system may assign a totally different sales process. For example, a salesperson highly skilled in selling widgets may be assigned a particular sales process. However, if the same salesperson now chooses to sell bricks, then the sales process configuration system may be adapted to provide a different sales process since the salesperson has had no experience selling bricks. In another aspect of the invention, the sales process configuration system may be further adapted to determine similarities between selling widgets and blocks, and/or the salespersons experience and accordingly provide a suitable sales process.

[142] Certain aspects of the invention relate to a method and system for a sales integration engine. An aspect of the invention provides a single consolidated location where sellers may access and acquire sales data and information pertaining to working opportunities initialized to sell its product offerings. Products may include, but are not limited to, goods, whether tangible or intangible, and services. An aspect of the invention may also provide real time links between any number of sales processes and external systems which receive and/or distribute sales process information. The sales process information may provide business opportunities and may include any information that may be pertinent to creating and maintaining a relationship between a customer or potential customer and a business. Sales processes information may be classified into a plurality of categories or contexts, which may include, but are not limited to, product offering data, channel data, vertical data, geographical data and customer data. An embodiment of the invention provides a sales integration engine which may eliminate, for example, many of the complexities and time required for connecting and interfacing with myriad external systems. [143] Sales processes may form the backbone for a seller's activities while working on opportunities to sell product offerings. Sales processes may be modeled to simulate various phases of a sales process selling cycle. These phases may include, but are not limited to, customer needs identification, decision making identification, product and/or service demonstration and return on investment. Each phase may include a series of activities that may have to be completed in order to progress through the sales process selling cycle. In some instances, one or more of the activities in a sales process selling cycle may require certain pre-conditions or contents be fulfilled before an activity may be completed. Information needed to complete an activity or to satisfy a pre-condition may vary depending on a number of parameters. In an exemplary case where an return on investment (ROI) analysis task is required, some of these parameters may include, but are not limited to, one or more base documents that may be required to create the ROI and the revenue generated over the last fiscal year and/or last quarter. Similarly, exemplary activities may include, but are not limited to, collection of revenue information, illustration of earnings growth and determination of investment growth. Accordingly, aspects of the invention provide a system and method for efficiently fulfilling pre-conditions and activities that may be necessary for completing a sales process selling cycle.

[144] FIG. 8 is a block diagram of sales processing system 800 having an exemplary sales integration engine block 802 in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. Referring to FIG. 8, there is shown a sales integration engine or block 802, customer opportunities and data blocks collectively referred to as 804, and an information resources block 806.

[145] The sales integration engine 802 may be adapted to connect the activities from any number of processes in any context, to any external system, and to send, receive and process sales process information in real time and/or or at some time subsequent to the acquisition of the sales process information. The sales integration engine 802 may be based on a sales integration framework, which may contain a plurality of subcomponents, which may be adapted to provide one or more services necessary to connect to and manage data exchange between one or more sales processes and one or more external systems. Since sales process information required by sellers to access working opportunities in order to sell product offerings may be made available or accessible in one consolidated location, the sales integration engine 802 may remove the complexities and time required for connecting and interfacing with the external systems.

[146] The sales integration engine or block 802 may include a plurality of functional blocks, each of which may be adapted to perform specialized data processing tasks. The exemplary sales integration engine or block 802 of FIG. 8 may include any one or more of a data synchronization block or engine 818, a service scheduler block 820, a service notification block 822, and an integration configurator block 824. In accordance with an embodiment of the invention, the data synchronization block 818 may be adapted to include at least one or more of a data mapping function, a data validation function, a data staging function, a key cross referencing and mapping function, and an integration communication interface that may permit communication with external systems.

[147] FIG. 8a is a block diagram of an exemplary data synchronization block 818 in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. Referring to FIG. 8a, there is shown a data mapping function 882, a data validation function 884, a data staging function 886, a key cross referencing and mapping function 888, and an integration communication interface 890.

[148] The data mapping function 882 of the data synchronization block 818 may be adapted to translate information from a first non-native format to a second format, the latter of which may be interpreted by the sales processing system. In this regard, the data mapping function 882 may include one or more mappers or translators that may be configured to convert information from various non-native formats to a format native to the sales processing system. For example, the data mapping function 882 may be adapted to convert hypertext markup language (HTML) formatted information into extensible markup language (XML) formatted information. [149] The data validation function 884 of the data synchronization block 818 may be adapted to validate information that has been processed or translated by the mapping function. The data validation function 884 may verify the integrity of the translated information to ensure its accuracy and consistency.

[150] The data staging function 886 of the data synchronization block 818 may include one or more quality approval processes. In one embodiment of the invention, a quality approval process may be adapted to determine whether the information meets certain criteria and/or guidelines. The criteria and/or guidelines may be company based, standards based, industry based, de facto, and/or government based. For example, the quality approval process may ensure that company guidelines have been followed and that standardized processes and procedures such as ISO 9001 have been satisfied.

[151] The key cross referencing and mapping function 888 of the data synchronization block 818 may be adapted to maintain a unique key cross-referencing between external systems and an internal sales processing system. In this regard, subsequent to the synchronization of information by the data synchronization block 818, the key cross referencing and mapping function 888 may be adapted to evaluate the data and determine possible associations that may inter-relate at least portions of the synchronized information.

[152] The integration communication interface 890 of the data synchronization block 818 may be adapted to facilitate communication with one or more of a plurality of disparate and/or external systems. In this regard, the integration communication interface 890 may be adapted to communicate with, for example, an enterprise application integration (EAI) system or server. In a accordance with an aspect of the invention, middleware may be utilized to integrate various application programs to ensure that information may be readily interchanged between, for example, databases, legacy systems and disparate systems that my contain relevant sales process data or information. [153] In a case where it may be necessary to determine whether a particular candidate may be qualified for particular job, the data mapping function 884 may be adapted to select an appropriate candidate from a plurality of candidates. The data validation function 884 may determine whether the candidate has the required qualifications, which may include academic and/or employment experience. The data staging function 886 may determine whether the credentials stated by the candidate are in fact genuine. Subsequent to synchronization of the information, the key cross referencing and mapping function 888 may be adapted to determine how the credentials of the candidate compares to other candidates that might have been hired in the past. In another example, the key mapping and cross referencing 888 function may be adapted to determine how the credentials of the candidate compares to other similar candidates hired by external companies.

[154] The sales integration engine 802 may also include a service scheduler block 820. Since the sales integration engine 802 may communicate with a plurality of other information systems, the service scheduler block 820 may be adapted to control a frequency at which the sales integration engine 802 my acquire and/or update information. For example, the service scheduler 820 may be adapted to query a particular customer information database at intervals, which may include, but are not limited to, every microsecond, every minute, every hour, once per day, once per week or at the end of every month.

[155] In an embodiment of the invention, a frequency at which the service integration engine 802 may acquire updates may be adaptively altered by the service scheduler 820. Accordingly, the service scheduler 820 may be adaptively configured to instruct the sales integration engine 802 to obtain updates from certain databases or information systems in real time. For example, the CRM block 830 in the information resources block 806 may be known to continually update its customer database throughout the day while customers call into a CRM call center. With this knowledge, the service scheduler 820 may be adapted to schedule the sales integration engine 802 to acquire information from the CRM block 830 at a frequency of, for example, every ten (10) minutes. In a case where the CRM block 830 may be known to update its customer database only at the close of business during the week, then the service scheduler 820 may be adapted to schedule the sales integration engine 802 to acquire information at midnight every day during the week.

[156] The sales integration engine 802 may also include a service notifier block 822. Since the sales integration engine 802 communicates with a plurality of other systems, the service notifier 822 may oversee the operations of the sales integration engine to determine whether any errors occur in the operations of the sales integration engine 802. The service notifier 822 may be adapted to detect errors in the operations of the sales integration engine 802 without a need for manual intervention. However, the invention may not be limited in this regard and the service notifier block 822 may require manual intervention in certain circumstances.

[157] In one aspect of the invention depending on the type of business entity, various levels of severity of the errors may be defined. The type of business entity may include, but is not limited to, customer information, opportunity information and content related information. A content related business entity may have, for example, ten (10) severity levels, namely severity level one (1) through severity level ten (10). In this regard, severity level one (1) may be the least severe error and severity level ten (10) may refer to the most severe error. In one embodiment of the invention, depending on the level of severity specific, notifications may be dispatched to selected sub-subsystems and/or persons.

[158] The sales integration engine 802 may also include an integration configurator 824. In general, the sales integration engine 802 may be designed to be highly configurable. In this regard, the integration configurator 824 facilitates speedy configuration of the sales integration engine 802 to meet the requirements of a particular business application. The integration configurator 824 may include one or more graphical user interfaces (GUIs) that may run on a terminal directly or remotely coupled to the sales processing system. The GUI may provide selectable options that permit the selection of various parameters that may permit one or more of a plurality of operational modes for the sales integration engine 802. The GUI may also permit input of certain parameters that may affect the operation of the sales integration engine 802.

[159] The integration configurator 824 may be configured to permit the sales integration engine 802 to interact with a plurality of systems without the need to engage in software modification. Once new parameters are entered into the integration configurator 824, the data synchronizer 818 may accordingly change the operations of the sales integration engine 802 to operate with the new parameters. Notably, whenever it may be desirable to make changes to the operations of the sales integration engine 802, these changes may be made via the integration configurator 824. For example, in a case where specialized data may be received from specific ones of a plurality of information systems, the integration configurator 824 may instruct the sales integration engine 802 to acquire information from only those specified information systems.

[160] In certain instances, it may be necessary to orchestrate the sequencing of data from a plurality of information systems. In a case where it may be appropriate to receive data from particular ones of the plurality of information systems prior to receiving data from other ones of the information systems, the integration configurator 824 may be configured to provide the appropriate sequence in which the data should be received. In another aspect of the invention, the integration configurator 824 configures how data may be received and processed. In this case, the integration configurator 824 may configure the sale integration engine 802 to receive incremental changes to a customer record or receive the complete customer record whenever a change has occurred in a customer record. The integration configurator 824 may also be adapted for load balancing of the sales processing system. This may permit changes that dictate where and how particular sales process information may be processed within the system. In order to balance system load, the integration configurator 824 may also be configured to prioritize the execution of certain sales processes. The integration configurator 824 may also be programmed to determine a number of subscribers to which data may be sent and also a number of systems from which data may be received. Furthermore, in another aspect of the invention, metadata required for the data synchronizer to execute its data mapping or translation function may also be stipulated by the integration configurator 824. In this regard, the integration configurator 824 may specify what languages may be necessary for proper translation and mapping.

[161] The customer opportunities and data block 804 may include a sales process configurator 840 and any one or more of a product offerings data block 808, a verticals data block 810, a channels data block 812, a geographical data block 814 and a customers data block 116. The customer opportunities and data block 804 may further include a plurality of sales processes or tasks 842a, 842b, 842c, collectively illustrated as 842. Each of the tasks may have a plurality of steps. For example, sales process or task 842a may include five (5) steps, namely S1 , S2, S3, S4, S5. Each of the steps may also include a plurality of activities collectively illustrated as 844. For example, step S1 has activities A1, A2 and A3. At least some of the activities may have prerequisites or required contents 846, 848.

[162] The information resources block 806 may include, for example, one or more of a SAP block 826, an order management system (ODM) block 828, a customer relationship management (CRM) block 830, a document management system (DMS) block 832, a learning management system (LMS) block 834 and/or other resource block 836. For example, the other resource block 836 may be a lightweight directory access (LDAP) database.

[163] The SAP block 826 may be an information database that may be adapted to store and process SAP database related information. The order management system block 828 may be adapted to store product order information. The CRM block 830 may include a suite of products that may be integrated to provide the necessary infrastructure for implementing a channel for supporting sales process related activities. The CRM block 830 may be adapted to acquire, identify and retain customers. The document management system block 832 may be adapted to store and process sales documents. The learning management system block 834 may be adapted to function as a library system that may contain archived and historical information related to previous sales process transactions.

[164] In the embodiment of the FIG. 8, the sales integration engine or block 802 may include a plurality of interfaces, at least one which may be coupled to the customer opportunities and data block 804 and another of which may be coupled to the information resources block 806. The sales integration engine or block 802 may be configured to potentially connect any number of sales processes to any one or more of a plurality of external systems, which may contain information required by sellers. Information acquired from the external systems may be relevant to at least one or more of the various data contexts which may be included in the customer opportunities and data block 804, for example product offerings data block 808, verticals data block 810, channels data block 812, geographical data block 814 and customer data block 816. The external systems, may be for example, one or more external servers and/or databases which may store and/or distribute information. The sales integration engine or block 802 may be configured to connect with a plurality of external information systems. In one embodiment of the invention, the information exchange may occur in real time as changes to data occur.

[165] The offers block 808, verticals block 810, channels block 812, geographical block 814 and customers block 816 may be classified as contexts within the customer opportunities and data block 804. The product offering data block 808 may include, but is not limited to, information such as product and/or service descriptions. A channel may be a particular communication medium or a logical medium that may be used to offer one or more sales activities. The channel context block 812 may define a manner in which a business caters to its customers. This may include, but is not limited to, a telephone based channel, a web based channel, a kiosk based channel, a field based channel, a storefront channel and/or mail order based channel.

[166] In general, the verticals block 810 may refer to the different types of businesses and/or industries to which a particular business may cater. For example, an equipment manufacturer may cater to verticals including, finance, manufacturing, resellers, legal, and retail. The customer context block 816 may define the spectrum of actual and potential customers. The geographical context may include information pertaining to the location of a customer. Additionally, the geographical context may also include information pertaining to customer demographics.

[167] The customer opportunities and data block 804 may include various sales processes or tasks 844, each of which may have a number of steps. For example, sales process or task 842a is shown having five steps, namely S1 , S2, S3, S4, S5. Step S1 of sales process 842a has three (3) activities, namely A1 , A2, A3. Step S2 of sales process 842a has four (4) activities, namely A1, A2, A3, A4. Step S3 of sales process 842a has two (2) activities, namely A1, A2. Step S4 of sales process 842a has three (3) activities, namely A1, A2, A3. Finally, step S5 of sales process 842a has four (4) activities, namely A1, A2, A3, A4. Activity A3 of step S2 requires prerequisite data or content 848 and activity A2 of step S5 requires prerequisite data 846. Accordingly, the prerequisite data or content 848 may be required for the completion of activity A3. Similarly, the prerequisite data or content 846 may be required for the completion of activity A2. Each of the activities for a particular task may require information from an external information system. The required information may be external to the sales integration system 802. In accordance with the invention, a collection of steps and activities and any perquisite data or content may form a sales process.

[168] FIG. 9 is a block diagram of an exemplary sales process in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. Referring to FIG. 9, there is shown a plurality of steps, namely plan step 902, approach step 904, assess step 906, propose step 908 and commit step 910. Each of steps 902, 904, 906, 908, 910 may include one or more activities.

[169] The plan step 902 may have five (5) activities, collectively referenced as 912. These activities 912 may include a review opportunity activity, prioritize opportunity activity, a prepare contact plan activity, a research customer and history activity and finally, a develop account approach strategy. The review opportunity activity may include a review of some or all the relevant issues related to the sales opportunity. The prioritize opportunity activity may include prioritizing the relevant issues and task involved with the sales opportunity. The prepare contact plan activity may include preparing a list of possible contacts and the roles and extent to which each contact might be involved. The research customer and history activity may include doing various searches in order to acquire information that may provide a synopsis of the company, including its history and performance. Varying levels of searching may be done depending on the depth and breadth of the information required. The develop account approach strategy activity may include developing a feasible account approach strategy.

[170] The approach step 904 may have five (5) activities, collectively referenced as 914. These activities 914 may include a develop value activity, a conduct approach activity, a clarify decision criteria activity, a develop a customer sponsor activity and finally, a create multiple contacts within customer activity. The develop value activity may include creating a strategy on how best to approach a customer and how best to deliver a plan to the customer. The conduct approach activity may include strategizing how best to build customer awareness and stimulate a customer's interest. The develop customer sponsor activity may include the development of a sponsor's efforts within a customer's environment to support sales related activities. The create multiple contacts within customer activity may include ascertaining which contacts within, for example a company, may be beneficial to the sales opportunity.

[171] The assess step 906 may have six (6) activities, collectively referenced as 916. These activities 916 may include a gain agreement on discovery activity, a create discovery activity, a perform discovery activity, a validate discovery activity, an assess data and identify need to address activity and finally, a gain agreement to consider recommendation activity. The gain agreement on discovery activity may include determining the scope and nature of the agreement and the parties and/or entities that may be involved in any agreement effort. The create discovery activity may include, for example, the creation of a questionnaire. The validate discovery data activity may include the step of validating and verifying the content of any material discovered. Since the perform discovery activity may be a critical activity to the assess step 906, the perform discovery activity may be denoted as a mandatory activity. The assess data and identify need to address activity may include identifying customer needs and formulating how best to satisfy those needs. The gain agreement to consider recommendation activity may include gaining agreement on acceptance of any recommendations that may be made.

[172] The propose step 908 may have three (3) activities, collectively referenced as 918. These activities 918 may include a create proposal activity, a perform credit check activity, and finally, a present recommendations activity. The create proposal activity may include the creation of various proposals and recommendations pertinent to the sales strategy. Since the perform credit check activity may be a critical activity to the propose step 908, the perform credit check activity may be denoted as a mandatory activity. The present recommendations activity may include the presentation of recommendations to key decision makers and players related to the sales opportunity and/or activity.

[173] The commit step 910 may have six (6) activities, collectively referenced as 920. These activities 920 may include an address recommendations, issues and roadblocks activity, a gain agreement and commitment activity, a secure customer order activity, a discuss recommendations, road blocks and delivery schedule activity, a provide overview of calendar events activity and finally, a follow-up call to customer activity. The address recommendations, issues and roadblocks activity may include deciding how best to handle roadblocks that have been encountered or may be encountered. The gain agreement on discovery activity may include finalizing the scope and nature of the agreement with the parties and/or entities involved in the agreement effort. The secure customer order activity may include acquiring an order for certain products and/or services from the customer. The discuss recommendations, road blocks and delivery schedule my include discussing any roadblocks that may be encountered or will be encountered during delivery of the product and/or service. The provide overview of calendar events activity may include creating a timeline of the events related to the sales process. For example, a timeline may be created to track the deliverables. Since the follow-up call activity may be a critical activity to the commit step 910, the follow-up call to customer activity may be denoted as a mandatory activity.

[174] In Operation, the sales integration engine 902 may, within the contexts of offers 908, verticals 910, channels 912, geographical 914 and customers 916, for a specific sales process, and/or for a particular activity within the sales process, acquire pertinent information from a resource in the information resources block 906 in real time.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram illustrating exemplary steps for sales process integration in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. Referring to FIG. 10, the exemplary steps may start with step 1002. Subsequently, in step 1004, a sales process may be linked to an external processing resource based on, for example, a context associated with the sales process. In step 1006, sales process related information may be acquired from the external processing resource. In step 1008, the acquired sales process information may be processed. In step 1010, the processed sales process related information may be communicated back to the sales process. Subsequent to step 1010, the exemplary steps may end with step 1014. Notwithstanding, subsequent to step 1014, in step 1012, based upon a determined frequency, updated sales process related information may be acquired from the external processing resource. Accordingly, step 1006 may be executed after step 1012.

[175] Certain embodiments of the invention may be found in a method and system for modeling sales processes. Aspects of the method may include acquiring sales process information related to at least one existing business model and defining one or more parameters that may be utilized to characterize a practice related to one or more existing or hypothetical business models. Accordingly, rules may be created based on one or more defined parameters which identifies one or more of the best practices. The created rules may then be utilized to model a new sales process. Rules from best practices may be adaptively combined with one or more received manual inputs. A created rule may be generic and therefore, applicable to a plurality of contexts. A created rule may be specific and applicable to a particular context. Generic and/or specific rules may be combined and utilized to model a sales process. Real-time updates may be received from at least one information source and utilized to modify the created rules. This modification of the rules may be adapted to occur dynamically.

[176] One or more options or suggestions may be generated by analogy and may be utilized to create the rules. In this regard, fragments of sales process information may be identified and/or selected to be utilized for generating the rule by analogy. The fragments of sales process information may be identified and/or selected based upon a context associated with the fragment of sales process information. A context such as one inputted by a salesperson may be received and utilized for identifying and/or selecting the fragment of sales process information.

[177] Aspect of the invention for modeling a sales process may be utilized in connection with providing a single consolidated location where sellers may access and acquire sales data and information pertaining to working opportunities required to sell its products offerings. Products may include, but is not limited to, goods, whether tangible or intangible, and services. Real-time links may be provided between any number of sales processes and external systems which may receive and/or distribute sales process information.

[178] Since sales process information may provide business opportunities and may include any information that may be pertinent to creating and maintaining a relationship between a customer or potential customer and a business, it is important to provide a system the may adequately model sales processes. Sales processes information may be classified into a plurality of categories or contexts, which may include, but are hot limited to, product offering data, channel data, vertical data, geographical data and customer data. A sales integration engine may eliminate, for example, many of the complexities and time required for connecting and interfacing with myriad of external systems. A sales process configuration system may be adapted to utilize the sales process information provided by the sales integration engine. In order to utilize the sales process information to create a sales process, certain criteria and guidelines are necessary that may dictate how the sales process configuration system operates. In accordance with an embodiment of the invention, a sales process modeling method and system is provided.

[179] Sales processes may form the backbone for a seller's activities while working on opportunities to sell product offering. Sales processes may be modeled to simulate various phases of a sales process selling cycle. These phases may include, but are not limited to, customer needs identification, decision making identification, product and/or service demonstration and return on investment. Each phase may include a series of activities that may have to be completed in order to progress through the sales process selling cycle. In some instances, one or more of the activities in a sales process selling cycle may require certain pre-conditions or contexts be fulfilled before an activity may be completed. Information needed to complete an activity or to satisfy a pre-condition may vary depending on a number of parameters. In an exemplary case where an return on investment (ROI) analysis task is required, some of these parameters may include, but are not limited to, one or more base documents that may be required to create the ROI and the revenue generated over the last fiscal year and/or last quarter. Similarly, exemplary activities may include, but are not limited to, collection of revenue information, illustration of earnings growth and determination of investment growth. Accordingly, aspects of the invention provide a system and method for efficiently fulfilling pre-conditions and activities that may be necessary for completing a sales process selling cycle.

[180] FIG. 11 is a block diagram of sales processing system 1100 having an exemplary sales integration engine block 1102 in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. Referring to FIG. 11 , there is shown a sales integration engine or block 1102, customer opportunities and data blocks collectively referred to as 1104, and an information resources block 1106.

[181] The sales integration engine 1102 may be adapted to connect the activities from any number of processes in any context, to any external system, and to send, receive and process sales process information in real-time and/or or at some time subsequent to the acquisition of the sales process information. The sales integration engine 1102 may be based on a sales integration framework, which may contain a plurality of subcomponents, which may be adapted to provide one or more services necessary to connect to and manage data exchange between one or more sales processes and one or more external systems. Since sales process information required by sellers to access working opportunities in order to sell product offerings may be made available or accessible in one consolidated location, the sales integration engine 1102 may remove the complexities and time required for connecting and interfacing with the external systems.

[182] The sales integration engine or block 1102 may include a plurality of functional blocks, each of which may be adapted to perform specialized data processing tasks. The exemplary sales integration engine or block 1102 of FIG. 11 may include any one or more of a data synchronization block or engine 1118, a service scheduler block 1120, a service notification block 1122, and an integration configurator block 1124. In accordance with an embodiment of the invention, the data synchronization block 1118 may be adapted to include at least one or more of a data mapping function, a data validation function, a data staging function, a key cross referencing and mapping function, and an integration communication interface that may permit communication with external systems.

[183] FIG. 11a is a block diagram of an exemplary data synchronization block 1118 in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. Referring to FIG. 11a, there is shown a data mapping function 1182, a data validation function 1184, a data staging function 1186, a key cross referencing and mapping function 1188, and an integration communication interface 1190.

[184] The data mapping function 1182 of the data synchronization block 1118 may be adapted to translate information from a first non-native format to a second format, the latter of which may be interpreted by the sales processing system. In this regard, the data mapping function 1182 may include one or more mappers or translators that may be configured to convert information from various non-native formats to a format native to the sales processing system. For example, the data mapping function 1182 may be adapted to convert hypertext markup language (HTML) formatted information into extensible markup language (XML) formatted information.

[185] The data validation function 1184 of the data synchronization block 1118 may be adapted to validate information that has been processed or translated by the mapping function. The data validation function 1184 may verify the integrity of the translated information to ensure its accuracy and consistency.

[186] The data staging function 1186 of the data synchronization block 1118 may include one or more quality approval processes. In one embodiment of the invention, a quality approval process may be adapted to determine whether the information meets certain criteria and/or guidelines. The criteria and/or guidelines may be company based, standards based, industry based, de facto, and/or government based. For example, the quality approval process may ensure that company guidelines have been followed and that standardized processes and procedures such as ISO 9001 have been satisfied.

[187] The key cross referencing and mapping function 1188 of the data synchronization block 1118 may be adapted to maintain a unique key cross-referencing between external systems and an internal sales processing system. In this regard, subsequent to the synchronization of information by the data synchronization block 1118, the key cross referencing and mapping function 1188 may be adapted to evaluate the data and determine possible associations that may inter-relate at least portions of the synchronized information.

[188] The integration communication interface 1190 of the data synchronization block 1118 may be adapted to facilitate communication with one or more of a plurality of disparate and/or external systems. In this regard, the integration communication interface 1190 may be adapted to communicate with, for example, an enterprise application integration (EAI) system or server. In accordance with an aspect of the invention, middleware may be utilized to integrate various application programs to ensure that information may be readily interchanged between, for example, databases, legacy systems and disparate systems that my contain relevant sales process data or information.

[189] In a case where it may be necessary to determine whether a particular candidate may be qualified for particular job, the data mapping function 1184 may be adapted to select an appropriate candidate from a plurality of candidates. The data validation function 1184 may determine whether the candidate has the required qualifications, which may include academic and/or employment experience. The data staging function 186 may determine whether the credentials stated by the candidate are in fact genuine. Subsequent to synchronization of the information, the key cross referencing and mapping function 1188 may be adapted to determine how the credentials of the candidate compares to other candidates that might have been hired in the past. In another example, the key mapping and cross referencing 1188 function may be adapted to determine how the credentials of the candidate compares to other similar candidates hired by other companies.

[190] The sales integration engine 1102 may also include a service scheduler block 1120. Since the sales integration engine 1102 may communicate with a plurality of other information systems, the service scheduler block 1120 may be adapted to control a frequency at which the sales integration engine 1102 my acquire and/or update information. For example, the service scheduler 1120 may be adapted to query a particular customer information database at intervals, which may include, but are not limited to, every microsecond, every minute, every hour, once per day, once per week or at the end of every month.

[191] A frequency at which the service integration engine 1102 may acquire updates may be adaptively altered by the service scheduler 1120. Accordingly, the service scheduler 1120 may be adaptively configured to instruct the sales integration engine 1102 to obtain updates from certain databases or information systems in real-time. For example, the CRM block 1130 in the information resources block 1106 may be known to continually update its customer database throughout the day while customers call into a CRM call center. With this knowledge, the service scheduler 1120 may be adapted to schedule the sales integration engine 1102 to acquire information from the CRM block 1130 at a frequency of, for example, every ten (10) minutes. In a case where the CRM block 1130 may be known to update its customer database only at the close of business during the week, then the service scheduler 1120 may be adapted to schedule the sales integration engine 1102 to acquire information at midnight every day during the week.

[192] The sales integration engine 1102 may also include a service notifier block 1122. Since the sales integration engine 1102 communicates with a plurality of other systems, the service notifier 1122 may oversee the operations of the sales integration engine to determine whether any errors occur in the operations of the sales integration engine 1102. The service notifier 1122 may be adapted to detect errors in the operations of the sales integration engine 1102 without a need for manual intervention. However, the invention may not be limited in this regard and the service notifier block 1122 may require manual intervention certain circumstances.

[193] Depending on the type of business entity, various levels of severity of the errors may be defined. The type of business entity may include, but is not limited to, customer information, opportunity information and content related information. A content related business entity may have, for example, ten (10) severity levels, namely severity level one (1) through severity level ten (10). In this regard, severity level one (1) may be the least severe error and severity level ten (10) may refer to the most severe error. Furthermore, depending on the level of severity, notifications may be dispatched to selected sub-subsystems and/or persons.

[194] The sales integration engine 1102 may also include an integration configurator 1124. In general, the sales integration engine 1102 may be designed to be highly configurable. In this regard, the integration configurator 1124 facilitates speedy configuration of the sales integration engine 1102 to meet the requirements of a particular business application. The integration configurator 1124 may include one or more graphical user interfaces (GUIs) that may run on a terminal directly or remotely coupled to the sales processing system. The GUI may provide selectable options that permit the selection of various parameters that may permit one or more of a plurality of operational modes for the sales integration engine 1102. The GUI may also permit input of certain parameters that may affect the operation of the sales integration engine 1102.

[195] The integration configurator 1124 may be configured to permit the sales integration engine 1102 to interact with a plurality of systems without the need to engage in software modification. Once new parameters are entered into the integration configurator 1124, the data synchronizer 1118 may accordingly change the operations of the sales integration engine 1102 to operate with the new parameters. Notably, whenever it may be desirable to make changes to the operations of the sales integration engine 1102, these changes may be made to via the integration configurator 1124. For example, in a case where specialized data may be received from specific ones of a plurality of information systems, the integration configurator 1124 may instruct the sales integration engine 1102 to acquire information from only those specified information systems.

[196] In certain instances, it may be necessary to orchestrate the sequencing of data from a plurality of information systems. In a case where it may be appropriate to receive data from particular ones of the plurality of information systems prior to receiving data from other ones of the information systems, the integration configurator 1124 may be configured to provide the appropriate sequence in which the data should be received. In another aspect of the invention, the integration configurator 1124 configures how data may be received and processed. In this case, the integration configurator 1124 may configure the sales integration engine 1102 to receive incremental changes to a customer record or receive the complete customer record whenever a change has occurred in a customer record. The integration configurator 1124 may also be adapted for load balancing of the sales processing system. This may permit changes that dictate where and how particular sales process information may be processed within the system. In order to balance system load, the integration configurator 1124 may also be configured to prioritize the execution of certain sales processes. The integration configurator 1124 may also be programmed to determine a number of subscribers to which data may be sent and also a number of systems from which data may be received. Furthermore, in another aspect of the invention, metadata required for the data synchronizer to execute its data mapping or translation function may also be stipulated by the integration configurator 1124. In this regard, the integration configurator 1124 may specify what languages may be necessary for proper translation and mapping.

[197] The customer opportunities and data block 1104 may include a sales process configurator 1140 and any one or more of a product offerings data block 1108, a verticals data block 1110, a channels data block 1112, a geographical data block 1114 and a customers data block 1116. The customer opportunities and data block 1104 may further include a plurality of sales process or task 1142a, 1142b, 1142c, collectively illustrated as 1142. Each of the tasks may have a plurality of steps. For example, sales process or task 1142a may include five (5) steps, namely S1, S2, S3, S4, S5. Each of the steps may also include a plurality of activities collectively illustrated as 1144. For example, step S1 has activities A1, A2 and A3. At least some of the activities may have pre-requisites or required contents 1146, 1148.

[198] The information resources block 1106 may include, for example, one or more of a SAP block 1126, an order management system (ODM) block 1128, a customer relationship management (CRM) block 1130, a document management system (DMS) block 1132, a learning management system (LMS) block 1134 and/or other resource block 1136.

[199] The SAP block 1126 may be an information database that may be adapted to store and process SAP database related information. The order management system block 1128 may be adapted to store product order information. The CRM block 1130 may include a suite of products that may be integrated to provide the necessary infrastructure for implementing channel for supporting sales process related activities. The CRM block 1130 may be adapted to acquire, identify and retain customers. The document management system block 1132 may be adapted to store and process sales documents. The learning management system block 1134 may be adapted to function as a library system that may contain archived and historical information related to previous sales process transactions.

[200] In the embodiment of the FIG. 11, the sales integration engine or block 1102 may include a plurality of interfaces, at least one of which may be coupled to the customer opportunities and data block 1104 and another of which may be coupled to the information resources block 1106. The sales integration engine or block 1102 may be configured to potentially connect any number of sales processes to any one or more of a plurality of external systems, which may contain information required by sellers. Information acquired from the external systems may be relevant to at least one or more of the various data contexts which may be included in the customer opportunities and data block 1104, for example product offerings data block 1108, verticals data block 1110, channels data block 1112, geographical data block 1114 and customer data block 1116. The external systems, may be for example, one or more external servers and/or databases which may store and/or distribute information. The sales integration engine or block 1102 may be configured to connect with a plurality of external information systems. In one embodiment of the invention, the information exchange may occur in real-time as changes to data occur.

[201] The offers block 1108, verticals block 1110, channels block 1112, geographical block 1114 and customers block 1116 may be classified as contexts within the customer opportunities and data block 1104. The product offering data block 1108 may include, but is not limited to, information such as product and/or service descriptions. A channel may be a particular communication medium or a logical medium that may be used to offer one or more sales activities. The channel context block 1112 may define a manner in which a business caters to its customers. This may include, but is not limited to, a telephone based channel, a web based channel, a kiosk based channel, a field based channel, a storefront channel and/or mail order based channel.

[202] In general, the verticals block 1110 may refer to the different types of businesses and/or industries to which a particular business may cater. For example, an equipment manufacturer may cater to verticals including, finance, manufacturing, resellers, legal, and retail. The customer context block 1116 may define the spectrum of actual and potential customers. The geographical context may include information pertaining to the location of a customer. Additionally, the geographical context may also include information pertaining to customer demographics.

[203] The customer opportunities and data block 1104 may include various sales processes or tasks 1144, each of which may have a number of steps. For example, sales process or task 1142a is shown having five steps, namely S1 , S2, S3, S4, S5. Step S1 of sales process 1142a has three (3) activities, namely A1, A2, A3. Step S2 of sales process 1142a has four (4) activities, namely A1 , A2, A3, A4. Step S3 of sales process 1142a has two (2) activities, namely A1, A2. Step S4 of sales process 1142a has three (3) activities, namely A1 , A2, A3. Finally, step S5 of sales process 1142a has four (4) activities, namely A1, A2, A3, A4. Activity A3 of step S2 requires prerequisite data or content 1148 and activity A2 of step S5 requires prerequisite data 1146. Accordingly, the prerequisite data or content 1148 may be required for the completion of activity A3. Similarly, the prerequisite data or content 1146 may be required for the completion of activity A2. Each of the activities for a particular task may require information from an external information system. The required information may be external to the sales integration system 1102. In accordance with the invention, a collection of steps and activities and any perquisite data or content may form a sales process.

[204] FIG. 12 is a block diagram of an exemplary sales process in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. Referring to FIG. 12, there is shown a plurality of steps , namely plan step 1202, approach step 1204, assess step 1206, propose step 1208 and commit step 1210. Each of steps 1202, 1204, 1206, 1208, 1210 may include one or more activities.

[205] The plan step 1202 may have five (5) activities, collectively referenced as 1212. These activities 1212 may include a review opportunity activity, prioritize opportunity activity, a prepare contact plan activity, a research customer and history activity and finally, a develop account approach strategy. The review opportunity activity may include a review of some or all the relevant issues related to the sales opportunity. The prioritize opportunity activity may include prioritizing the relevant issues and tasks involved with the sales opportunity. The prepare contact plan activity may include preparing a list of possible contacts and the roles and extent to which each contact might be involved. The research customer and history activity may include doing various searches in order to acquire information that may provide a synopsis of the company, including its history and performance. Varying levels searching may be done depending on the depth and breadth of the information required. The develop account approach strategy activity may include developing a feasible account approach strategy.

[206] The approach step 1204 may have five (5) activities, collectively referenced as 1214. These activities 1214 may include a develop value activity, a conduct approach activity, a clarify decision criteria activity, a develop a customer sponsor activity and finally, a create multiple contacts within customer activity. The develop value activity may include creating a strategy on how best to approach a customer and how best to deliver a plan to the customer. The conduct approach activity may include strategizing how best to build customer awareness and stimulate a customer's interest. The develop customer sponsor activity may include the development of a sponsor efforts within a customer's environment to support sales related activities. The create multiple contacts within customer activity may include ascertaining which contacts within, for example a company, may be beneficial to the sales opportunity.

[207] The assess step 1206 may have six (6) activities, collectively referenced as 1216. These activities 1216 may include a gain agreement on discovery activity, a create discovery activity, a perform discovery activity, a validate discovery activity, an assess data and identify need to address activity and finally, a gain agreement to consider recommendation activity. The gain agreement on discovery activity may include determining the scope and nature of the agreement and the parties and/or entities that may be involved in any agreement effort. The create discovery activity may include, for example, the creation of a questionnaire. The validate discovery data activity may include the step of validating and verifying the content of any material discovered. Since the perform discovery activity may be a critical activity to the assess step 1206, the perform discovery activity may be denoted as a mandatory activity. The assess data and identify need to address acfivity may include identifying customer needs and formulating how best to satisfy those needs. The gain agreement to consider recommendation activity may include gaining agreement on acceptance on any recommendations that may be made.

[208] The propose step 1208 may have three (3) activities, collectively referenced as 1218. These activities 1218 may include a create proposal activity, a perform credit check activity, and finally, a present recommendations activity. The create proposal activity may include the creation of various proposals and recommendation pertinent to the sales strategy. Since the perform credit check activity may be a critical activity to the propose step 1208, the perform credit check activity may be denoted as a mandatory activity. The present recommendations activity may include the presentation of recommendations to key decision makers and players related to the sales opportunity and/or activity.

[209] The commit step 1210 may have six (6) activities, collectively referenced as 1220. These activities 1220 may include an address recommendations, issues and roadblocks activity, a gain agreement and commitment activity, a secure customer order activity, a discuss recommendations, road blocks and delivery schedule activity, a provide overview of calendar events activity and finally, a follow-up call to customer activity. The address recommendations, issues and roadblocks activity may include deciding how best to handle roadblocks that have been encountered or may be encountered. The gain agreement on discovery activity may include finalizing the scope and nature of the agreement with the parties and/or entities involved in the agreement effort. The secure customer order activity may include acquiring an order for certain products and/or services from the customer. The discuss recommendations, road blocks and delivery schedule may include discussing any roadblocks that may be encountered or will be encountered during delivery of the product and/or service. The provide overview of calendar events activity may include creating a timeline of the events related to the sales process. For example, a timeline may be created to track the deliverables. Since the follow-up call activity may be a critical activity to the commit step 1210, the follow-up call to customer activity may be denoted as a mandatory activity.

[210] In operation, the sales integration engine 1102 may, within the contexts of offers 1108, verticals 1110, channels 1112, geographical 1114 and customers 1116, for a specific sales process, for a particular activity within the sales process, acquire pertinent information from a resource in the information resources block 1106 in real-time.

[211] FIG. 13 is a block diagram 1300 of an exemplary sales process configurator that may be utilized for sales process configuration in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. Referring to FIG. 13, there is shown a database server 1302, a sales prices server 1304, a sales process rules engine 1306, a sales process discoverer 1308 and a sales process modeler 1310.

[212] The database server 1302 may be any conventional database server that may be utilized for storing information. In this regard, the database server 1302 may be adapted to store sales process information.

[213] The sales process server 1304 may be a server having specialized sales processing software that may be adapted for sales process configuration. The sales process server 1304 may be coupled through a suitable interface to the database server 1302.

[214] The sales process rules engine 1306 may be coupled to the sales process server 1304. The sales process rules engine 1306 may include one or more applications that may be adapted to run on the same host as the sales process server 1304. However, the invention is not limited in this regard and the sales process rules engine 1306 may be adapted to run on a host machine externally coupled to the sales process server 1304.

[215] The sales process discoverer 1308 may be coupled to the sales process server 1304. The sales process discovereM 1308 may include one or more applications that may be adapted to run on the same host as the sales process server 1304. However, the invention is not limited in this regard and the sales process discoverer 1308 may be adapted to run on a host machine externally coupled to the sales process server 1304.

[216] The sales process modeler 1310 may be coupled to the sales process server 1304. The sales process modeler 1310 may include one or more applications that may be adapted to run on the same host as the sales process server 1304. However, the invention is not limited in this regard and the sales process modeler 1310 may be adapted to run on a host machine externally coupled to the sales process server 1304.

[217] In operation, the sales process server 1304 may be adapted to receive certain sales process information pertaining to a sales opportunity from a salesperson. In this regard, a GUI may be provided by the sales process server 1304, which may be adapted to permit the salesperson to select and/or enter the sales process information. In an alternate embodiment, the sales process server 1304 may be adapted to process certain scripts that may contain information related to the sales process information. The information contained in the sales process information may relate to the various sales contexts. These sales contexts may include, but are not limited to, offer, vertical, customer, channel, and geography. Based on a content of the sales process information inputted by the salesperson and/or a sales process script, the sales process rules engine 1306 may select appropriate rules that best fits the sales process information for particular contexts.

[218] In general, requirements for various stages of sales processing may vary depending on, for example, the sales contexts, the type of business and the experience of the salesperson. Accordingly, the sales process discoverer 1308 may be adapted to discover and establish relevant information and rules related to, for example, the sales context, type of business and the experience of the salesperson. The sales process discoverer 1308 may be required to determine a best fit for the sales process information entered by the salesperson and/or sales process script. The sales process discoverer 1308 may, in certain circumstances, be required inputted sales process information a generated sales process. [219] The sales process modeler 1310 may be configured to ascertain pertinent information related to the inputted sales process information required to generate a sales process for the salesperson. If, based on the input provided by the salesperson and/or sales process script, there are adequate rules to provide a best fit for the sales process information, the sales process server 1304 may generate an appropriate sales process. The sales process generated by the sales process server 1304 may be adapted to have certain confidence scores and/or levels based on a fit between the sales process information and the sales process rules provided or generated by the sales process rules engine 1306. For example, if there is a direct fit between the inputted or selected sales process information and the rules provided by the sales process rules engine 1306, then the confidence score may be about 100%. However, in a case where there may be no fit between the entered sales process information and the rules provided by the sales process rules engine 1306, then the confidence score may be about 0%. In accordance with an aspect of the invention, there may be varying levels of confidence scores ranging between 0% and 100% depending on the fit between the inputted or selected sales process information and the rules provided by the sales process rules engine.

[220] Although there may be pertinent information stored in the database server 1302, there may be cases where there is no pertinent information or sales process rules available. In this case, the sales process modeler 1310 may be adapted to generate appropriate information by analogy. Once the information is generated by the sales process modeler 1310, the sales process rules engine may use the information generated by the sales process modeler 1310 to generate appropriate rules. In this manner, the sales process server may utilize the rules from the sales processing engine to generate an appropriate sales process based on the input provided by the salesperson and/or the sales process script. Additionally, the sales process modeler 1310 may be adapted to generate suggestions and/or what-if scenarios in order to create an appropriate fit. [221] FIG. 14 is a block diagram 1400 of an exemplary sales process configurator that may be utilized for sales process configuration system in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. Referring to FIG. 14 there is shown a sales process1408, a sales opportunity 1410, a seller entity level 1402, a business unit entity level 1400 and a corporation entity level 1404.

[222] In operation, referring to the opportunity block 1410, a salesperson may use any one or more of the contexts, for example, offer, customer, vertical, channel and geography to create an opportunity. In the sales process block 1408, the sales process configuration system may be adapted to use any one or more of the various contexts, for example, offer, customer, vertical, channel and geography, inputted by a salesperson or sales process script, to generate a sales process. Any combination of contexts for any particular sales process may be classified as a rule. For example, a rule may be defined for a particular sales process having a particular vertical and a particular offer. In another example, a rule may be defined for a particular channel and a particular geography. Additionally, defined rules may be interrelated so that portions of the contexts used to create a rule may be utilized by another rule. Accordingly, a specific rule may be utilized by one or more similar sales processes or for different sales processes. For example, a first rule may be defined using a particular channel and geography. A second rule may be defined using the same particular channel but with a particular vertical. A third rule may be defined using the same particular channel as the first rule, the same particular vertical as the second rule and with a new customer.

[223] The block diagram 1400 illustrates an embodiment of the invention wherein a sales process configuration system may be adapted to process sales process information on a hierarchical level. Accordingly, various rules defined by a sales process rules engine may be categorized according to, for example, a seller entity level 1402, a business unit entity level 1404 and a corporation entity level 1406. In this regard, the seller entity level 1402, the business unit entity level 1404 and the corporation entity level 1406 may be viewed as contexts. Hence, rules may be defined at the seller entity level 1402, at the business unit entity level 1404 and at the corporation entity level 1406.

[224] In an embodiment of the invention, there may be various sub-levels within a particular level. For example, various skills levels may be included within the business unit level 1404. A salesperson having a particular set of skills may be given a particular sales process, but if the same person wishes to utilize a different set of skills, then the sales process configuration system may assign a totally different sales process. For example, a salesperson highly skilled in selling widgets may be assigned a particular sales process. However, if the same salesperson now chooses to sell bricks, then the sales process configuration system may be adapted to provide a different sales process since the salesperson has had no experience selling bricks. In another aspect of the invention, the sales process configuration system may be further adapted to determine similarities between selling widgets and blocks, and/or the salespersons experience and accordingly provide a suitable sales process.

[225] The sales process configuration system may be adapted to model sales processes based on various parameters that may be used to define a sales opportunity. Notwithstanding, the sales process configuration system may be adapted to rely on various models that may dictate the selection and best fit for a sales process. In this regard, the sales process modeler 1310 may be adapted to generate various sales models and related sales information and data that may facilitate the creation of an appropriate sales process. The use of sales process modeling may remove the complexity of creating and strategizing sales efforts from the salesperson. Accordingly, those eighty percent (80%) of salespersons that contribute to twenty percent (20%) of the profits may now have the capability to perform like those salespersons in the top twenty percent tier.

[226] FIG. 15 is a flow chart illustrating exemplary steps outlining the operations of a sales process modeler in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. Referring to FIG. 15, the steps may be initiated at start step 1502. In step 1504, the type of customer may be determined. In step 1506, the type of industry may be determined. In step 1508, the products and/or services offered may be determined. In step 1510, existing sales levels may be determined. In step 1512, the channels utilized may be determined. In step 1514, the level of expertise utilized may be determined. In step 516, the level of resources utilized may be determined. In step 1518, the information gathered from at least some of steps 1504, 1506, 1508, 1510, 1512, 1514 and 1516 may be utilized to define various parameters, Accordingly, based on the information gathered in any one or more of steps 1504, 1506, 1508, 1510, 1512, 1514 and 1516, values may be assigned to the defined parameters. In step 1520, the defined parameters along with their values may be used to define rules. In step 1522, one or more of the created rules may be used to model a new sales process. The steps end with step 1524.

[227] In accordance with an embodiment of the invention, the sales process modeler 1310 of FIG. 13 may be configured to dynamically collect parameters for various sales process information and adaptively create rules that may be utilized to create a sales process. For example, in a case where there may be no historical information available to create a sales process, the sales process modeler 1310 may be adapted to query a salesperson for additional information and accordingly generate rules based on the query. The rules may subsequently be utilized to create or generate various activities and/or steps during the creation of a sales process.

[228] In an embodiment of the invention, the sales process modeler 1310 may be adapted to provide or generate one or more options and/or suggestions by analogy, which may be utilized to create rules related to various contexts. In this regard, the sales process modeler 1310 may look for fragments of sales process information that may have some relation to inputted sales process information. For example, the sales process modeler 1310 may be adapted to utilize a fuzzy logic algorithm to identify fragments of rules that may be applicable to at least portions of the sales process information. Although rules may be dependent on a given contexts, certain rules may be designated as being universal and may be adapted to be generic to a plurality of contexts. Hence, a created rule may be generic or it may be specific. [229] FIG. 16 is an exemplary GUI 1600 illustrating manual copying of activities and steps for sales process modeling in accordance with an aspect of the invention. Referring to FIG. 16, there is shown a source sales process 1602 and a target or destination sales process 1604. The source sales process 1602 may comprise a plurality of steps collectively illustrated as 1606. In this regard, the source sales process 1602 may comprise the following exemplary steps: plan A, contact B, assess C, propose D and close E. The source sales process 1602 may also include a plurality of activities collectively illustrated as 1608.

[230] The destination sales process 1604 may also comprise a plurality of steps collectively illustrated as 1610. In this regard, the destination sales process 1604 may comprise the following exemplary steps: qualify V, engage W, align X, bid Y and win Z. The destination sales process 1604 may also include a plurality of activities collectively illustrated as 1612. In operation, anyone or more of the source steps 1606 and/or activities 1608 may be copied from the source process 1602 to the target process 1604. In this regard, a salesperson may copy or cut appropriate steps and/or activities from one or more opportunities that match certain criteria and paste them in a destination sales process for another opportunity. It should be recognized that FIG. 16 is intended to illustrate only one aspect of the invention and does not limit the invention to the manual generation of sale activities and steps by copying and pasting.

[231] The GUI 1600 additionally illustrates a plurality of processing options that may be utilized to generate a sales process. For example, for the source processes 1602, there is illustrated a load process option, a clone process option and a clear process option. For the destination or target process 1604, there is illustrated a load process option, an edit process option, an add activity option, an add step option, an add process option and a clear process option. Each of the options corresponding to the source process 1602 and the destination or target process 1604 may comprise one or more sub- options. For example, the edit process option may comprise a process sub-option and a methodology option sub-option. [232] During copying of activities and/or step from the sources process 1604 to the target process 1604, intelligence in the GUI 1600 may prevent copying and/or pasting of rules that may conflict or are in some manner inappropriate. Notwithstanding, the GUI 1600 may also allow various rules to be created in order to model, for example, what-if scenarios.

[233] Accordingly, the present invention may be realized in hardware, software, or a combination of hardware and software. The present invention may be realized in a centralized fashion in one computer system, or in a distributed fashion where different elements are spread across several interconnected computer systems. Any kind of computer system or other apparatus adapted for carrying out the methods described herein is suited. A typical combination of hardware and software may be a general- purpose computer system with a computer program that, when being loaded and executed, controls the computer system such that it carries out the methods described herein.

[234] The present invention also may be embedded in a computer program product, which comprises all the features enabling the implementation of the methods described herein, and which when loaded in a computer system is able to carry out these methods. Computer program in the present context means any expression, in any language, code or notation, of a set of instructions intended to cause a system having an information processing capability to perform a particular function either directly or after either or both of the following: a) conversion to another language, code or notation; b) reproduction in a different material form.

While the present invention has been described with reference to certain embodiments, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes may be made and equivalents may be substituted without departing from the scope of the present invention. In addition, many modifications may be made to adapt a particular situation or material to the teachings of the present invention without departing from its scope. Therefore, it is intended that the present invention not be limited to the particular embodiment disclosed, but that the present invention will include all embodiments falling within the scope of the appended claims.

Claims

CLAIMSWhat is claimed is:

1. A method for processing sales process information, the method comprising: acquiring the sales process information from at least one of a plurality of information resources; creating historical information store using said acquired sales process information; creating rules based on said acquired sales process information in said historical information store; and generating a sales process from at least a portion of said created rules.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising in response to a request to create a sales process, determining whether matching sales process information corresponding to said request is located in said historical information store.

3. The method according to claim 2, further comprising if matching sales process information corresponding to said request is located in said historical information store, utilizing at least a portion of said matching sales process information for said generating of said sales process.

4. The method according to claim 2, further comprising if no matching sales process information corresponding to said request is located in said historical information store, generating new rules corresponding to said request to create said sales process.

5. The method according to claim 4, further comprising dynamically generating said new rules corresponding to said request to create said sales process.

6. The method according to claim 4, further comprising defining sales processing steps corresponding to said generated new rules.

7. The method according to claim 4, further comprising defining at least one of sales processing activities and sales processing steps corresponding to said generated new rules.

8. The method according to claim 7, further comprising selecting said at least one of said sales processing activities and said sales processing steps for said generating of said sales process.

9. The method according to claim 4, further comprising if no matching sales process information corresponding to said request is located in said historical information store, analogizing based on at least similar sales process information, similar sales processing activities or similar sales processing steps located in said historical information store, in order to generate said sales process.

10. The method according to claim 4, further comprising if no matching sales process information corresponding to said request is located in said historical information store, hypothesizing based on sales process information located in said historical information store, in order to generate said sales process.

11. A machine-readable storage having stored thereon, a computer program having at least one code section for processing sales process information, the at least one code section being executable by a machine for causing the machine to perform steps comprising: acquiring the sales process information from at least one of a plurality of information resources; creating a historical information store using said acquired sales process information; creating rules based on said acquired sales process information in said historical information store; and generating a sales process from at least a portion of said created rules.

12. The machine-readable storage according to claim 11, further comprising code for determining whether matching sales process information corresponding to said request is located in said historical information store, in response to a request to create a sales process.

13. The machine-readable storage according to claim 12, further comprising code for utilizing at least a portion of said matching sales process information for said generating of said sales process, if matching sales process information corresponding to said request is located in said historical information store.

14. The machine-readable storage according to claim 12, further comprising code for generating new rules corresponding to said request to create said sales process, if no matching sales process information corresponding to said request is located in said historical information store.

15. The machine-readable storage according to claim 14, further comprising code for dynamically generating said new rules corresponding to said request to create said sales process.

16. The machine-readable storage according to claim 14, further comprising code for defining sales processing steps corresponding to said generated new rules.

17. The machine-readable storage according to claim 14, further comprising code for defining at least one of sales processing activities and sales processing steps corresponding to said generated new rules.

18. The machine-readable storage according to claim 17, further comprising code for selecting said at least one of said sales processing activities and said sales processing steps for said generating of said sales process.

19. The machine-readable storage according to claim 14, further comprising code for analogizing based on at least similar sales process information, similar sales processing activities or similar sales processing steps located in said historical information store, in order to generate said sales process, if no matching sales process information corresponding to said request is located in said historical information store.

20. The machine-readable storage according to claim 14, further comprising code for hypothesizing based on sales process information located in said historical information store, in order to generate said sales process, if no matching sales process information corresponding to said request is located in said historical information store.

21. A system for processing sales process information, the system comprising: a sales integration engine that acquires the sales process information from at least one of a plurality of information resources; said sales integration engine creates a historical information store using said acquired sales process information; said sales integration engine creates rules based on said acquired sales process information in said historical information store; and said sales integration engine generates a sales process from at least a portion of said created rules.

22. The system according to claim 21 , wherein said sales integration engine determines whether matching sales process information corresponding to said request is located in said historical information store in response to a request to create a sales process.

23. The system according to claim 22, wherein said sales integration engine utilizes at least a portion of said matching sales process information for said generating of said sales process if matching sales process information corresponding to said request is located in said historical information store.

24. The system according to claim 22, wherein said sales integration engine generates new rules corresponding to said request to create said sales process if no matching sales process information corresponding to said request is located in said historical information store.

25. The system according to claim 24, wherein said sales integration engine dynamically generates said new rules corresponding to said request to create said sales process.

26. The system according to claim 24, wherein said sales integration engine defines sales processing steps corresponding to said generated new rules.

27. The system according to claim 24, wherein said sales integration engine defines at least one of sales processing activities and sales processing steps corresponding to said generated new rules.

28. The system according to claim 27, wherein said sales integration engine selects said at least one of said sales processing activities and said sales processing steps for said generating of said sales process.

29. The system according to claim 24, wherein said sales integration engine analogizes based on at least similar sales process information, similar sales processing activities or similar sales processing steps located in said historical information store, in order to generate said sales process engine if no matching sales process informafion corresponding to said request is located in said historical information store.

30. The system according to claim 24, wherein said sales integration engine hypothesizes based on sales process information located in said historical information store, in order to generate said sales process if no matching sales process information corresponding to said request is located in said historical information store.

31. The system according to claim 30, wherein said sales integration engine comprises at least one of a data synchronizer, a service scheduler, a service notifier and an integration configurator.

32. A method for sales process configuration, the method comprising: responsive to an opportunity to create a sales process, determining at least one context associated with said opportunity; discovering at least one step for creating said sales process; discovering at least one sales activity associated with said at least one step for creating said sales process; and combining said discovered at least one step and said discovered at least one sales activity to create said sales process.

33. The method according to claim 32, further comprising selecting at least one rule which is utilized to create said sales process.

34. The method according to claim 33, further comprising processing sales process information for said opportunity based on at least one of a seller entity level, a business unit entity level and a corporation entity level based on said selected at least one rule.

35. The method according to claim 32, wherein said discovering said at least one step is done dynamically.

36. The method according to claim 32, wherein said discovering said at least one activity is done dynamically.

37. The method according to claim 32, wherein said at least one context comprises at least one of offer, vertical, customer, channel and geography.

38. The method according to claim 37, further comprising combining a plurality of said at least one of offer, vertical, customer, channel and geography for said opportunity.

39. The method according to claim 32, further comprising receiving at least one input comprising at least one of offer, vertical, customer, channel and geography.

40. The method according to claim 32, further comprising generating a confidence score for said created sales process.

41. The method according to claim 62, further comprising generating at least one rule which is utilized to create said sales process.

42. A machine-readable storage having stored thereon, a computer program having at least one code section for sales process configuration, the at least one code section being executable by a machine for causing the machine to perform steps comprising: responsive to an opportunity to create a sales process, determining at least one context associated with said opportunity; discovering at least one step for creating said sales process; discovering at least one sales activity associated with said at least one step for creating said sales process; and combining said discovered at least one step and said discovered at least one sales activity to create said sales process.

43. The machine-readable storage according to claim 42, further comprising code for selecting at least one rule which is utilized to create said sales process.

44. The machine-readable storage according to claim 43, further comprising code for processing sales process information for said opportunity based on at least one of a seller entity level, a business unit entity level and a corporation entity level based on said selected at least one rule.

45. The machine-readable storage according to claim 42, wherein said discovering said at least one step is done dynamically by said at least one code section.

46. The machine-readable storage according to claim 42, wherein said discovering said at least one acfivity is done dynamically by said at least one code section.

47. The machine-readable storage according to claim 42, wherein said at least one context comprises at least one of offer, vertical, customer, channel and geography.

48. The machine-readable storage according to claim 47, further comprising code for combining a plurality of said at least one of offer, vertical, customer, channel and geography for said opportunity.

49. The machine-readable storage according to claim 42, further comprising code for receiving at least one input comprising at least one of offer, vertical, customer, channel and geography.

50. The machine-readable storage according to claim 42, further comprising code for generating a confidence score for said created sales process or a subsequently created sale process.

51. The machine-readable storage according to claim 42, further comprising code for generating at least one rule which is utilized to create said sales process.

52. A system for sales process configuration, the system comprising: a sales process configurator that determines at least one context associated with said opportunity in response to an opportunity to create a sales process; said sales process configurator discovers at least one step for creating said sales process; said sales process configurator discovers at least one sales activity associated with said at least one step for creating said sales process; and said sales process configurator combines said discovered at least one step and said discovered at least one sales activity to create said sales process.

53. The system according to claim 52, wherein said sales process configurator selects at least one rule which is utilized to create said sales process.

54. The system according to claim 53, wherein said sales process configurator processes sales process information for said opportunity based on at least one of a seller entity level, a business unit entity level and a corporation entity level based on said selected at least one rule.

55. The system according to claim 52, wherein said sales process configurator discovers said at least one step is done dynamically.

56. The system according to claim 52, wherein said sales process configurator discovers said at least one activity is done dynamically.

57. The system according to claim 52, wherein said at least one context comprises at least one of offer, vertical, customer, channel and geography.

58. The system according to claim 57, wherein said sales process configurator combines a plurality of said at least one of offer, vertical, customer, channel and geography for said opportunity.

59. The system according to claim 52, wherein said sales process configurator receives at least one input comprising at least one of offer, vertical, customer, channel and geography.

60. The system according to claim 52, wherein said sales process configurator generates a confidence score for said created sales process or a subsequently created sale process.

61. The system according to claim 52, wherein said sales process configurator generates at least one rule which is utilized to create said sales process.

62. The system according to claim 52, wherein said sales process configurator comprises at least one of a database server, a sale process server, a sales process rules engine, a sales process discoverer and a sales process modeler.

63. A method for sales process integration, the method comprising: communicating data representative of at least one sales process having at least one of a plurality of contexts to at least one external processing resource; acquiring sales process related information from said at least one external processing resource; processing said acquired sales process related information; and communicating said processed sales process related information to said at least one sales process.

64. The method according to claim 63, wherein said acquiring sales process related information occurs in one of real-time and at a time subsequent to said connecting at least one sales process.

65. The method according to claim 63, further comprising managing communication between said at least one sales process and said at least one external processing resource.

66. The method according to claim 63, wherein said processing further comprises synchronizing said sales process related information transfer between said at least one sales process and said at least one external processing resource.

67. The method according to claim 66, wherein said synchronizing further comprises: translating sales process related information from a first non-native format to a second native format; validating said translated sales process related information; staging said validated sales process related information; and referencing said validated sales process related information to determine associations.

68. The method according to claim 63, further comprising scheduling said processing of said acquired sales process related information.

69. The method according to claim 68, wherein said scheduling further comprises controlling at least a frequency of said acquiring sales process related information from said at least one external processing resource.

70. The method according to claim 63, wherein said processing of said acquired sales process related information further comprises: detecting operational errors; and notifying at least one of a sub-system and a system operator of said detected error.

71. The method according to claim 70, wherein said detected operational errors comprises a plurality of severity levels.

72. The method according to claim 73, further comprising configuring operations of at least one of said connecting, acquiring, processing, and said communicating steps.

73. The method according to claim 73, wherein said external processing resource comprises at least one of SAP, order management system (ODM), customer relationship management (CRM), document management system (DMS), learning management system (LMS) and lightweight directory access (LDAP) system.

74. A machine readable storage, having stored thereon a computer program having at least one code section for sales process integration, the at least one code section executable by a machine for causing the machine to perform the steps comprising: communicating data representative of at least one sales process having at least one of a plurality of contexts to at least one external processing resource; acquiring sales process related information from said at least one external processing resource; processing said acquired sales process related information; and communicating said processed sales process related informafion to said at least one sales process.

75. The machine readable storage according to claim 74, wherein said acquiring sales process related information occurs in one of real-time and at a time subsequent to said connecting at least one sales process.

76. The machine readable storage according to claim 74, further comprising managing communication between said at least one sales process and said at least one external processing resource.

77. The machine readable storage according to claim 72, wherein said processing further comprises synchronizing said sales process related information transfer between said at least one sales process and said at least one external processing resource.

78. The machine readable storage according to claim 77, wherein said synchronizing further comprises: translating sales process related information from a first non-native format to a second native format; validating said translated sales process related information; staging said validated sales process related information; and referencing said validated sales process related information to determine associations.

79. The machine readable storage according to claim 74, further comprising scheduling said processing of said acquired sales process related information.

80. The machine readable storage according to claim 79, wherein said scheduling further comprises controlling at least a frequency of said acquiring sales process related information from said at least one external processing resource.

81. The machine readable storage according to claim 74, wherein said processing of said acquired sales process related information further comprises: detecting operational errors; and notifying at least one of a sub-system and a system operator of said detected error.

82. The machine readable storage according to claim 81 , wherein said detected operational errors comprises a plurality of severity levels.

83. The machine readable storage according to claim 74, further comprising configuring operations of at least one of said connecting, acquiring, processing, and said communicating steps.

84. The machine readable storage according to claim 74, wherein said at least one external processing resource comprises at least one of SAP, order management system (ODM), customer relationship management (CRM), document management system (DMS), learning management system (LMS) and lightweight directory access (LDAP) database.

85. A system for sales process integration, the system comprising: a sales process integration engine, said sales process integration engine comprising: an integration configurator; a data synchronizer coupled to said integration configurator; a service scheduler coupled to said integration configurator; and a service notifier coupled to said integration configurator.

86. The system according to claim 85, wherein said data synchronizer further comprises: an integration communication interface; a data mapper coupled to said integration communication interface; a data validator coupled to said integration communication interface; and a data stager coupled to said integration communication interface.

87. A method for modeling sales processes, the method comprising: acquiring sales process information from at least one existing business model; defining at least one parameter that characterizes at least one best practice related to said at least one existing business model; creating at least one rule based on said at least one defined parameter identifying said at least one best practice; and modeling a new sales process using said at least one created rule.

88. The method according to claim 87, wherein said modeling further comprises adaptively combining rules from a plurality of best practices and at least one manual input to execute said modeling of said new sales process.

89. The method according to claim 87, wherein said at least one created rule is a generic rule applicable to a plurality of contexts.

90. The method according to claim 87, wherein said at least one created rule is applicable to a particular context.

91. The method according to claim 87, further comprising: receiving at least one real-time update from at least one information source; and modifying at least of one said created rule based on at least a portion of said real-time update.

92. The method according to claim 91, further comprising dynamically modifying said at least one of said created rule in real-time.

93. The method according to claim 87, further comprising generating by analogy, at least one option or suggestion which may be utilized for said creating of said at least one rule.

94. The method according to claim 93, further comprising identifying and selecting at least one fragment of sales process information to be utilized for said generating by said analogy.

95. The method according to claim 94, further comprising identifying and selecting said at least one fragment of sales process information based on a context associated with said at least one fragment of sales process information.

96. The method according to claim 94, further comprising receiving at least one input received context for said identifying and selecting of said at least one fragment of sales process information.

97. A machine readable storage, having stored thereon a computer program having at least one code section for modeling sales processes, the at least one code section executable by a machine for causing the machine to perform the steps comprising: acquiring sales process information from at least one existing business model; defining at least one parameter that characterizes at least one best practice related to said at least one existing business model; creating at least one rule based on said at least one defined parameter identifying said at least one best practice; and modeling a new sales process using said at least one created rule.

98. The machine readable storage according to claim 97, further comprising code for adaptively combining rules from a plurality of best practices and at least one manual input to execute said modeling of said new sales process.

99. The machine readable storage according to claim 97, wherein said at least one created rule is a generic rule applicable to a plurality of contexts.

100. The machine readable storage according to claim 97, wherein said at least one created rule is applicable to a particular context.

101. The machine readable storage according to claim 97, further comprising code for: receiving at least one real-time update from at least one information source; and modifying at least of one said created rule based on at least a portion of said real-time update.

102. The machine readable storage according to claim 101, further comprises code for dynamically modifying said at least one of said created rule in real-time.

103. The machine readable storage according to claim 97, further comprising code for generating by analogy, at least one option or suggestion which may be utilized for said creating of said at least one rule.

104. The machine readable storage according to claim 103, further comprising code for identifying and selecting at least one fragment of sales process information to be utilized for said generating by said analogy.

105. The machine readable storage according to claim 104, further comprising code for identifying and selecting said at least one fragment of sales process information based on a context associated with said at least one fragment of sales process information.

106. The machine readable storage according to claim 104, further comprising code for receiving at least one input received context for said identifying and selecting of said at least one fragment of sales process information.

107. A system for modeling sales processes, the system comprising: a sales process server that acquires sales process information from at least one existing business model; said sales process server defines at least one parameter that characterizes at least one best practice related to said at least one existing business model; a sales process rules engine that creates at least one rule based on said at least one defined parameter identifying said at least one best practice; and a sales process modeler that models a new sales process using said at least one created rule.

108. The system according to claim 107, further comprising a sales process discoverer that adaptively combines rules from a plurality of best practices and at least one manual input to execute said modeling of said new sales process.

109. The system according to claim 107, wherein said at least one created rule is a generic rule applicable to a plurality of contexts.

110. The system according to claim 107, wherein said at least one created rule is applicable to a particular context.

111. The system according to claim 107, wherein said sales process server: receives at least one real-time update from at least one information source; and a sales process rules engine modifies at least of one said created rule based on at least a portion of said real-time update.

112. The system according to claim 111, wherein said sales process rules engine dynamically modifies said at least one of said created rule in real-time.

113. The system according to claim 107, wherein a sales process rules engine generates by analogy, at least one option or suggestion which may be utilized for said creating of said at least one rule.

114. The system according to claim 113, wherein a sales process discoverer identifies and selects at least one fragment of sales process information to be utilized for said generating by analogy.

115. The system according to claim 114, wherein at least one of said sales process discoverer and said sales process engine identifies and selects said at least one fragment of sales process information based on a context associated with said at least one fragment of sales process information.

116. The system according to claim 114, wherein said sale process server receives at least one input received context for said identifying and selecting of said at least one fragment of sales process information.