Patent ID: 9621494
Date: 2017-04-11
CPC Classifications: H04L

Claim:
1. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable medium having a plurality of instructions stored thereon, which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations including: identifying one or more individuals associated with an opportunity included within a customer relationship management (CRM) system based upon, at least in part, records and information associated with the opportunity, the opportunity including one or more of an ongoing customer relationship, a past customer relationship, and a potential future customer relationship; creating an instant message buddy list group associated with the opportunity; populating the instant message buddy list group with at least a portion of the one or more individuals including extracting an instant messaging screen name for at least one of the one or more individuals from the records and information within the CRM system, wherein a portion of the one or more individuals associated with the opportunity is excluded from populating the instant message buddy list group based upon one or more exclusion rules; propagating the instant message buddy list group to at least one of the one or more individuals; propagating the instant message buddy list group to at least one person not identified as being associated with the opportunity based upon, at least in part, one or more of a group within an organization with which the person is associated, a seniority of the person, and a skill level of the person; identifying an opportunity change of the one or more individuals associated with the opportunity; determining a staleness of at least one individual with respect to the opportunity; and updating the population of the instant message buddy list group based on the opportunity change wherein the least one individual is removed from the instant message buddy list after a defined time period of staleness, and wherein an alert is generated based upon the determination of staleness.