Patent ID: 9740675
Date: 2017-08-22
CPC Classifications: G06F,G06Q

Claim:
1. A non-transitory computer-readable storage article having computer-executable instructions stored thereon to configure one or more programmable processors of a computing device comprising a database adapted to store customer relationship management (CRM) records containing CRM data, wherein the instructions configure the one or more programmable processors to: execute a CRM software application and a spreadsheet software application; access, with a reporting module associated with the CRM software application, one or more report templates; access, with the reporting module associated with the CRM software application in response to a report generation request, a schema and data structures of the CRM database and access customized settings associated with the CRM software application; display, with the reporting module associated with the CRM software application, a list of the report templates; receive, with the reporting module associated with the CRM software application, a selection of one of the one or more report templates and, in response, present a set of database fields in accordance with the selected report template, receive a selection of one or more of the database fields, and generate a database query in accordance with the selected database fields; invoke, with the reporting module associated with the CRM software application, the spreadsheet software application using an application programming interface (API) of the spreadsheet software application to automatically generate an electronic worksheet viewable within the spreadsheet software application and to automatically generate a pivot table within the electronic worksheet to access the CRM data of the CRM database in accordance with the query; communicate report parameters from the CRM software application to the spreadsheet software application based on the schema and data structures of the CRM database and the customized settings associated with the CRM software application; and generate, with the spreadsheet software application, the pivot table within the electronic worksheet to present the CRM data in accordance with the report parameters.