Hitachi, Ltd.

Hisashi Ono

Hiroshi Majima

Tetsuji Toge

Kazuhiro Suga

Takashi Horiuchi

Shunsuke Akifuji

Kazuyasu Tsuiki

Ariko Kawasaki

An electronic document circulating system utilizing a network, to attain simplification of the operation procedure by a transmitting person and facilitation of the temporary circulation of a document, a circulation control unit circulates the circular document indicated by document management information stored in a document management information store unit based on circulation control information indicative of a circular route of the circular document stored in a circulation control information store unit and role definition information for relating a plurality of users to a role shared among equal users stored in a role definition information store unit. The circular document is transmitted to a user selected based on a predetermined criterion, of users in the role designated by the transmitting person. When the document is transmitted for consultation, temporary circulation control information is set and the exact document is returned.

Electronic document circulating system

A work flow management system has circulation control functions for carrying out branching, queuing, dividing, broadcasting, recovering, holding and substitute of a circulation material in the work flow system that carries out at automatic sequential circulation of electronic information. Thus, a work requiring a complex circulation control can be done by an electronic system. The work flow management system includes a circulation material sending and receiving unit which has functions of entering, sending, receiving, referencing and updating a circulation material for the users who are the subscribers of the work flow system, the circulation material defining unit which defines a circulation destination and the circulation control for the users who manage the work flow, and the circulation material control unit which circulates a circulation material in accordance with circulation definitions defined by the circulation material defining unit.

Work flow management system

In an electronic document circulating system utilizing a network, in order to attain simplification of the operation procedure by a transmitting person and facilitation of the temporary circulation of a document, a circulation control unit circulates the circular document indicated by document management information stored in a document management information store unit on the basis of circulation control information indicative of a circular route of the circular document stored in a circulation control information store unit and role definition information for relating a plurality of users to a role shared among equal users stored in a role definition information store unit. In the circulation, the circular document is transmitted to a user selected by the system on the basis of a predetermined criterion, of users in the role designated by the transmitting person. When the document is transmitted temporarily for consultation, temporary circulation control information is set and the document is returned to a consulting user exactly.

A work flow management system has circulation control functions for carrying out branching, queuing, dividing, broadcasting, recovering, holding and substitute of a circulation material in the work flow system that carries out an automatic sequential circulation of electronic information. Thus, a work requiring a complex circulation control can be done by an electronic system. The work flow management system includes a circulation material sending and receiving unit which has functions of entering, sending, receiving, referencing and updating a circulation material for the users who are the subscribers of the work flow system, the circulation material defining unit which defines a circulation destination and the circulation control for the users who manage the work flow, and the circulation material control unit which circulates a circulation material in accordance with circulation definitions defined by the circulation material defining unit.

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Yokohama, Japan

Hisashi Ono