Patent Publication Number: US-2022237566-A1

Title: Method and system for identifying emails and calendar events associated with projects of an enterprise entity

Description:
RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17/343,093, filed Jun. 9, 2021, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/585,124, filed May 2, 2017. The disclosure of the aforementioned applications is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. 
    
    
     FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to project management. More particularly, embodiments of the invention relate to identifying activities such as emails and calendar events associated with projects of an enterprise entity. 
     BACKGROUND 
     Emails and meeting activities between a project development team and a client of a project are mostly obscure and blind spots for a team manager. This makes it impossible for the team manager to know the exact state of the project and whether project development team needs any help in making progress on the project. 
     Currently, people try to solve this problem by asking individual team members whether they have been communicating with each other and whether they are having any meetings with other team members or the client. Such an approach is time consuming and often ineffective and inaccurate. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       Embodiments of the invention are illustrated by way of example and not limited to the figures of the accompanying drawings in which like references indicate similar elements. 
         FIGS. 1A and 1B  are block diagrams illustrating a network configuration according to certain embodiments of the invention. 
         FIG. 2  is a block diagram illustrating an example of a project management system according to one embodiment of the invention. 
         FIG. 3  is a block diagram illustrating an architecture of projects according to one embodiment of the invention. 
         FIG. 4  is a flow diagram illustrating a process of identifying activities associated with projects according to one embodiment of the invention. 
         FIG. 5  is a flow diagram illustrating a process of identifying activities associated with projects according to another embodiment of the invention. 
         FIG. 6  is a flow diagram illustrating a process of identifying activities associated with projects according to another embodiment of the invention. 
         FIGS. 7A and 7B  are screenshots illustrating an example of a graphical user interface for project management according to certain embodiments of the invention. 
         FIG. 8  is a flow diagram illustrating a process of identifying activities associated with projects according to another embodiment of the invention. 
         FIG. 9  is a block diagram illustrating a data processing system according to one embodiment. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Various embodiments and aspects of the inventions will be described with reference to details discussed below, and the accompanying drawings will illustrate the various embodiments. The following description and drawings are illustrative of the invention and are not to be construed as limiting the invention. Numerous specific details are described to provide a thorough understanding of various embodiments of the present invention. However, in certain instances, well-known or conventional details are not described in order to provide a concise discussion of embodiments of the present inventions. 
     Reference in the specification to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in conjunction with the embodiment can be included in at least one embodiment of the invention. The appearances of the phrase “in one embodiment” in various places in the specification do not necessarily all refer to the same embodiment. 
     According to some embodiments, a system for identifying activities of a project associated with a client communicates with a customer relationship management (CRM) system to determine target email addresses of the client, e.g., a prospect or customer. The system also determines source email addresses of team members of a project development team associated with the project that are involved in the project from the CRM system. For the source email addresses and target email addresses, the system automatically queries an email server to determine email and meeting activities associated with the project. The system automatically populates these activities accurately without time consuming meetings as soon as meetings have been scheduled and/or emails have been exchanged. Embodiments of the invention help the project management by providing team managers accurate state of the projects without time consuming phone calls/meetings with project development teams. The system enables one to determine activities of project development teams for projects in real time without manual data processing. Throughout this application, emails and calendar events (e.g., meetings) have been utilized as examples of project activities. However, it is not so limited, other types of activities associated with the projects may also be applicable. 
     According to one aspect of the invention, a CRM system is queried to obtain a project that is associated with an entity (e.g., a user, a group of users, a client). A first list of one or more contacts (e.g., contact persons, referred to herein target contacts) associated with the project from the CRM system. For each of the contacts in the first list, a domain name is determined based on contact information of the contacts (e.g., emails, Web addresses, name of an account associated with the contacts). A first set of email addresses, referred to as target email addresses, is determined based on the domain name and contacts using a set of email identification rules. An email server is queried to retrieve a list of one or more emails and/or calendar events based on the first set of email addresses. 
     In one embodiment, in determining a domain name, it is determined from the CRM whether there is any project contacts associated with the project. If there is a project contact associated with the project, the domain name is determined based on the project contact of the project. A project contact refers to a person of a client (e.g., an employee of a corporate client) who specifically handles a particular project. The domain name may be obtained from an email address of the project contact. If there is no project contact associated with the project, the domain name may be determined based on an account contact associated with an account to which the project belongs. An account may represent a client (e.g., an Enterprise entity) or a division of a client, which may include one or more projects. An account contact refers to a person who is associated with all projects of a particular account. The domain name may be obtained from an email address or name of the account contact. 
     According to another embodiment, if there is no account contact associated with the account of the project, the domain name may be determined based on a Web address of a Web site associated with the account. The Web address may also be obtained from the CRM system as a part of account contact information of the account associated with the project. If there is no Web address obtained from the CRM system, the domain name may be obtained from a domain name registry based on an account name of the account. Typically, if the account has been registered in the domain name registry, the registered domain name is typically registered under a particular name. Based on the account name, a registered domain name may be obtained from the domain name registry, where the domain name registry may be hosted by a third party. If there is no registered domain name based on the account name, a name-to-domain (name/domain) mapping table is utilized to obtain the domain name based on the account name. The name/domain mapping table includes a number of mapping entries, where each mapping entry maps a particular name to a domain name. Such a name/domain mapping table may be maintained and updated periodically to map a name to a domain name, especially when the name is not related to the domain name from its appearance. 
     According to another embodiment, in addition to obtaining the first set of email address as target email addresses, a second list of one or more contacts associated with the project is identified from the CRM system. The second list of contacts, referred to herein as source contacts, is associated with one or more team members of a project development team that is working with the target contacts on the project. A second set of email addresses associated with the contacts of the second list is determined, where the email addresses of the second list are referred to as source email addresses. The email server is queried based on the source email addresses and the target email addresses to obtain a list emails and/or calendar events. That is, only the emails or meetings exchanged between the source email addresses and the target email addresses (e.g., senders and recipients) are identified as they are related to the same project. 
     According to another aspect of the invention, a list of one or more projects is displayed on a first display area of a display, where the projects were obtained from a CRM system over a network. A first user input is received from a user selecting a first of the displayed projects. In response to the first user input, the CRM system is queried to determine a set of email addresses associated with the first project. An email server is accessed based on the first set of email addresses to obtain a list emails that have been exchanged and/or calendar events that have been scheduled. One or more graphical representations (e.g., icons) are displayed in a second display area. The graphical representations represent the list emails and/or calendar events. The graphical representations are displayed in a calendar view based on timing of the emails and/or calendar events, which represent the activities of the project. Each of the graphical representations further includes a number indicating a number of emails and/or events occurred at that particular point in time. 
     When a second user input is received selecting one of the graphical representations, the email server is queried to obtain information concerning one or more emails and/or events represented by the selected graphical representation. A brief description is displayed in a third display area summarizing the emails and/or events associated with the first graphical representation. A user can simply move a cursor within a predetermined proximity of or over a graphical representation for selecting the graphical representation. Such a cursor action is detected and a brief summary of the emails and/or events is then displayed, for example, in a pop-up window. 
       FIG. 1A  is a block diagram illustrating a network configuration according to one embodiment of the invention. Referring to  FIG. 1A , system  100  includes, but is not limited to, one or more client systems  101 - 102  communicatively coupled to servers  104 - 105  over network  103 . Clients  101 - 102  may be any type of clients such as a host or server, a personal computer (e.g., desktops, laptops, and tablets), a “thin” client, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a Web enabled appliance, or a mobile phone (e.g., Smartphone), etc. Network  103  may be any type of networks such as a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN) such as the Internet, or a combination thereof, wired or wireless. Servers  104 - 105  can be any kinds of servers or a cluster of servers, such as, for example, Web servers, application servers, cloud servers, backend servers, etc. 
     CRM system/server  105  provides CRM services to a variety of clients, which may be periodically or constantly accessed and updated by the clients for managing their CRM data or other project management data. CRM data includes any kinds of customer relationship management data, such as, for example, projects, tasks, deals, contracts, etc. The CRM services may be provided by a variety of CRM vendors, such as, for example Salesforce.com, SAP AG, Oracle, and Microsoft. CRM is a term that refers to practices, strategies and technologies that companies use to manage and analyze customer interactions and data throughout the customer lifecycle, with the goal of improving business relationships with customers, assisting in customer retention and driving sales growth. CRM systems are designed to compile information on customers across different channels or points of contact between the customer and the company, which could include the company&#39;s website, telephone, live chat, direct mail, marketing materials and social media. 
     In one embodiment, project management system or sever  104  (also referred to as a data analytics system or server) provides project management and/or data analytics services to clients  101 - 102  based on CRM data provided by CRM system  105  as a data source. Note that although there is only one CRM system shown, multiple CRM systems may also be implemented, where project management system  104  may be implemented as a multi-tenancy system that can access multiple CRM systems concurrently over network  103 . For example, a user of client device  101  may be associated with a first organization as a first corporate client to project management system  104 , while a user of client device  102  may be associated with a second organization as a second corporate client to data analytics system  104 . The first and second organizations may employ different ones of CRM systems  105 . Similarly, a CRM system may also be a multi-tenancy CRM systems hosting CRM data for a number of clients or Enterprise entities. Also note that a CRM system is utilized as an example of data sources, however, other types of data sources or systems can also be applied. 
     In one embodiment, project management system  104  includes, but is not limited to, project manager  110 , activity manager  120 , user interface module  125 , and data store  130 . Project manager  110  is configured to interact with CRM system  105  to access and manage projects hosted by CRM system  105 . Activity manager  120  is configured to determine any activities associated with a particular project such as emails and calendar events (e.g., meetings). The user interface module  125  provides a user interface, which can be any kind of user interface (e.g., Web, graphical user interface or GUI, or command line interface or CLI) that allows users of client devices  101 - 102  to access the services provided by project management system  104 . In one embodiment, such a service may include automatically identifying activities associated with projects. The determined activities may be presented by user interface module  125  on a graphical user interface (GUI) at a client that accesses project management system  104 . A project can be any kind of projects such as a sales project (also referred to as an opportunity). 
     Data store  130  stores or caches CRM data of a variety of projects, which may be periodically updated from the corresponding data source(s) or data provider(s), in this example, CRM system(s)  105 . Alternatively, project manager  110  and/or activity manager  120  may directly access CRM system(s)  105  to query and retrieve the CRM data. Data stored in data store  130  can be maintained in a variety of data structures, such as tables or databases. Project manager  110  and/or activity manager  120  can access data store  130  via a variety of application programming interfaces (APIs), database queries, or other suitable communication protocols (e.g., structured query language or SQL). 
     According to one embodiment, activity manager  120  is configured to identify activities of a project associated with a client by invoking project manager  110 , which communicates with CRM system  105  to determine target email addresses of the client, e.g., a prospect or customer. The activity manager  120  also determines source email addresses of team members of a project development team associated with the project that are involved in the project from CRM system  105 . For the source email addresses and target email addresses, activity manager  120  automatically queries email server  106  to determine email and meeting activities associated with the project. The activity manager  120  automatically populates these activities accurately without time consuming meetings as soon as meetings have been scheduled and/or emails have been exchanged at email server  106 . This helps the project management by providing team managers accurate state of the projects without time consuming phone calls/meetings with project development teams. This further enables one to determine activities of project development teams for projects in real time without manual data processing. 
     Although in this embodiment, data store  130  is maintained by project management system  104 , however, data store  130  can be maintained in a dedicated data server that is a separate server from project management server  104  as shown in  FIG. 1B . Referring now to  FIG. 1B , in this embodiment, project management server  104 A and data server  104 B are implemented as separate servers, which may be operated by the same or different organizations or entities. Data store  130  is now maintained by data server  104 B. Data server  104 B further includes data collector  135  configured to periodically or constantly collect or update CRM data from data sources  105 . Project management server  104 A communicates with data server  104 B using a variety of communication protocols to access task data stored in data store  130 . 
       FIG. 2  is a block diagram illustrating an example of a project management system according to one embodiment of the invention. System  200  may be implemented as part of project management system or server  104 . Referring to  FIG. 2 , system  200  includes project manager  110 , activity manager  120 , and user interface module  125  loaded in memory  201  (e.g., volatile memory such as random access memory or RAM) and executed by one or more processors  202  (e.g., microprocessors, central processing units or CPUs). Data store  130  is maintained in persistent storage device  203 , such as a hard disk, which may be maintained locally or remotely over a network. At least a portion of data stored in data store  130  may be cached in memory  201 . 
     Referring now to  FIGS. 1A-1B and 2 , according to one aspect of the invention, project manager  110  queries CRM system  105  obtain a list of projects that are associated with a particular entity (e.g., a user, a group of users, a client or customer). CRM system  105  may be a CRM system associated with or utilized by an Enterprise client that a user is working with as a customer representative or sales representative, or as a team manager of a project development team. For example, a team manager of a sales team having one or more team members can log into project management system  200  and retrieve a list of projects that members of his or her team are working with. In response to the request, project manager  110  communicates with CRM system  105  to query for a list of the projects. 
     In one embodiment, when project manager  110  queries CRM system  105 , it sends a query request to CRM system  105 , where the query request includes certain parameters to specify one or more attributes of the projects to be queried. In response, CRM system  105  searches based on the query request to identify and retrieve the list of projects that satisfy the query request. For example, project manager  110  can query CRM system  105  by specifying that only the account contacts of a particular account should be retrieved or only the project contacts of a particular project should be retrieved, etc. Alternatively, project manager  110  may perform filtering of accounts and/or projects to identify the projects. 
     A client or customer may be associated with an account maintained by CRM system  105 . Each account may include one or more projects as shown in  FIG. 3 . Referring to  FIG. 3 , account  301  may be associated with one or more projects  302 A- 302 C. For example, account  301  may belong to a client or customer that have potential projects  302 A- 302 C concurrently being processed. Account  301  may be managed by one or more persons at an account level, referred to as account contacts  304 . Each of projects  302 A- 302 C may be managed by one or more persons at a project level, referred to herein as project contacts, such as project contacts  303 A- 303 C. Different people may be associated with account contacts  304  and project contacts  303 A- 303 C. Alternatively, a single person can be a part of both account contacts  304  and any one or more of project contacts  303 A- 303 C. Each of account contacts  304  and project contacts  303 A- 303 C may include one or more email addresses of the contact (e.g., a source email address and/or a target email address) and/or a Web site associated with the account or project. These contact information may be stored in CRM system  105  and accessible via queries. 
     For each of the projects (e.g., projects  302 A- 302 C of  FIG. 3 ), referring back to  FIGS. 1A-1B and 2 , project manager  110  queries CRM system  105  to obtain a first list of one or more contacts associated with the project, which can be a target contact or a source contact. A target contact refers to a person of a client or customer as a point of contact for a particular project. A source contact refers to a person associated with a service provider or vendor that provide project development for a client (e.g., a member of a project development team). For each of the contacts in the first list, either being an account contact or a project contact, activity manager  120  determines a domain name based on contact information of the contacts (e.g., emails, Web addresses, name of an account associated with the contacts). A first set of email addresses, referred to as target email addresses, are determined based on the domain name and contacts using a set of email identification rules  220 . A target email address refers to an email address associated with a target contact. An email server is queried to retrieve a list of one or more emails and/or calendar events based on the first set of email addresses. 
     In one embodiment, if the contact information of a project includes the email addresses of the contacts, the email addresses may be directly used in identifying the activities. The domain name can be extracted from the email addresses, where the domain name can be used to identify other email addresses of the contacts. However, in some situation, the contact information stored in the CRM system may not include an email address of the contact. In such a scenario, the domain name has to be derived from other information (e.g., name, notes, Web address, phone number, social network such as Facebook®, Twitter®, LinkedIn®, etc.) associated with the contact. 
     The email identification rules  220  may specify a preference or priority order indicating which of the contact information should be used in order to identify a domain name. For example, email identification rules  220  may specify that project contact should be used to determine a domain name over the account contact, and the account contact will be used only if the project contact is unavailable, etc. Note that email identification rules  220  may be different for different clients, different accounts, and/or different projects. Email identification rules  220  may include a first set of rules for identifying source email addresses and a second set of rules for identifying target email addresses. Email identifying rules  220  may be configurable by an administrator via a configuration interface such as a CLI or Web interface. 
     In one embodiment, in determining a domain name associated with a client, an account, or a project, based on the data retrieved from the CRM by project manager  110  and dependent upon email identification rules  220 , activity manager  120  determines whether there is any project contact associated with the project. If there is a project contact associated with the project, activity manager  120  determines the domain name based on the project contact of the project. A project contact refers to a person of a client who specifically handles a particular project. The domain name may be derived from any contact information (e.g., name, notes, Web address, phone number, social network such as Facebook®, Twitter®, LinkedIn®, etc.) associated with the project contact. If there is no project contact associated with the project, activity manager  120  determines the domain name based on an account contact associated with an account to which the project belongs. The domain name may be obtained from an email address or other information of the account contact. In this example, email identification rules  220  associated with this project may specify that a project contact should be utilized over an account contact in determining a domain name. 
     In one embodiment, an account may belong to a client (e.g., an Enterprise entity, a customer) or a division of a client. A client may have one or more accounts. An account may include one or more projects. A client may have one or more client contacts (e.g., contacts associated with the client). A project development team may have one or more team contacts. An account may have one or more account contacts (e.g., client contacts associated with the client and team contacts associated with an entity of project development team). A project may have one or more project contacts (e.g., client contacts associated with the project and team contacts associated with an entity of project development team). A client contact refers to a person or persons who are associated with all accounts of a client. An account contact refers to a person or persons who are associated with all projects associated with a particular account. A project contact refers to a person or persons who are associate with a particular project. The contact information concerning a client, an account, and/or a project may be stored in the CRM system and searchable and retrievable by specifying appropriate attributes. Similarly, on the project development side, there may be team contacts (e.g., source contacts) at the client level, account level, and project level corresponding to the client contacts at those levels. 
     According to another embodiment, if there is no account contact associated with the account of the project, dependent upon email identification rules  220 , activity manager  120  may determine the domain name based on a Web address of a Web site associated with the account. The Web address may also be obtained from the CRM system as a part of account contact information of the account associated with the project. 
     According to one embodiment, if there is no Web address obtained from the CRM system, activity manager  120  determines the domain name from a domain name registry, such as domain name registry  107 , based on an account name of the account. Typically, if the account has been registered in the domain name registry (e.g., WHOIS™), the registered domain name is typically registered under a particular name. Based on the account name, a registered domain name may be obtained from domain name registry  107 . 
     If there is no registered domain name based on the account name, activity manager  120  utilizes a name-to-domain (name/domain) mapping table  225  to obtain the domain name based on the account name. In one embodiment, name/domain mapping table  225  includes a number of mapping entries, where each mapping entry maps a particular name to a domain name. Name/domain mapping table  225  may be maintained and updated over time to map a name to a domain name, especially when a name is not related to a domain name from its appearance. Name/domain mapping table  225  may be maintained by an organization associated with the project development team or by a third party. 
     The above process is to determine a domain name associated with a client (e.g., customer), an account, and/or a project. The domain name is then utilized to determine email addresses for the purpose of identifying activities of a project. Some of the above operations or the sequential order of the operations may be different dependent upon the specific situations, which may be specified as part of the email identification rules associated with the client, the account, and the project. 
     According to another embodiment, in addition to obtaining the first set of email address as target email addresses, activity manager  120  determines a second list of one or more contacts associated with the project via project manager  110  from the CRM system. The second list of contacts, referred to herein as source contacts, is associated with one or more team members of a project development team that are working with the target contacts on the project. A source contact can be an owner of the project, a solution engineer, a customer representative, and/or an account representative. A second set of email addresses associated with the contacts of the second list is determined by activity manager  120 , where the email addresses of the second list are referred to as source email addresses. The email server, such as email server  106 , is queried based on the source email addresses and the target email addresses to obtain a list emails and/or calendar events. 
     In one embodiment, only the emails or meetings that have been exchanged between the source email addresses and the target email addresses (e.g., senders and recipients) associated with the same project are identified. In some situations, a source contact may be handling multiple projects of different accounts and/or different clients. Similarly, a target contact may handle multiple projects of an account or multiple accounts. By matching the exact source email addresses and target email addresses, the truly relevant emails between the source contact(s) and target contact(s) of the same project may be identified. 
     In one embodiment, if some emails exchanged are prior to the creation of the project, such emails can be removed from the list because they are unlikely related to the project. Similarly, if certain calendar events were concluded or completed prior to the creation of the project, such calendar events may be removed. In addition, some of the contacts may be related to a broker or a product reseller or distributor, such contacts are not a part of the client or the project development team. Such contact information would not be utilized in determining the domain name for the purpose of identifying emails and calendar events of the project. In one embodiment, if a particular contact is associated with more than a predetermined number of accounts (e.g., five accounts), such a contact is deemed to be a broker or reseller/distributor and is deemed not to be a proper target contact. Similarly, if some of the projects have been closed, those projects will be removed and the activities of the closed projects would not be processed. 
       FIG. 4  is a flow diagram illustrating a process of identifying activities associated with projects according to one embodiment of the invention. Process  400  may be performed by processing logic which may include software, hardware, or a combination thereof. For example, process  400  may be performed by project manager  110  and/or activity manager  120 . Referring to  FIG. 4 , in operation  401 , processing logic queries a CRM system or a data server to identify a project associated with a user or an organization entity. The user may be an owner of the project, a team manager, a solution engineer, a customer representative, or an account representative from an organization of the project development (e.g., a source organization). 
     In operation  402 , processing logic obtains a list of one or more contacts (e.g., email addresses, Web addresses, names) associated with the project from the CRM system. The contacts may include one or more source contacts and/or target contacts. For each of the contacts in the list, in operation  403  processing logic determines a domain name associated with the contact. In operation  404 , processing logic determines a set of email addresses based on the domain name and the contacts using a set of email identification rules. Email addresses can be obtained by requesting the email server to obtain email addresses associated with a particular person&#39;s name under a particular domain name, etc. The email identification rules may specify a preference of email addresses (e.g., account contacts, project contacts) that should be utilized. In operation  405 , processing logic queries an email server to obtain a list of one or more emails and/or calendar entries or events that are associated with the contacts based on the domain name. 
       FIG. 5  is a flow diagram illustrating a process of identifying activities associated with projects according to another embodiment of the invention. Process  500  may be performed by processing logic which may include software, hardware, or a combination thereof. For example, process  500  may be performed by project manager  110  and/or activity manager  120  as a part of operations involved in operation  403  of  FIG. 4 . Referring to  FIG. 5 , in operation  501 , processing logic determines a domain name based on a project contact of a project. A project contact refers to contact information of a client or customer associated with the project. If the project does not have project contact or domain name information, in operation  502 , processing logic determines the domain name based on an account contact of an account to which the project belongs. An account contact refers to contact information of a client or customer associated with an account that includes the project. 
     If there is no account contact for the project, in operation  503 , processing logic determines the domain name based on a Web address of a Web site associated with the account. If there is no Web addresses associated with the account, in operation  504 , processing logic determines the domain name based on an account name of the account using a domain name registry. If the account name has not been registered in the domain name registry, in operation  505 , processing logic determines the domain name using a name/domain mapping table. The name/domain mapping table includes a number of mapping entries, each mapping entry mapping a particular name to a domain name. 
       FIG. 6  is a flow diagram illustrating a process of identifying activities associated with projects according to another embodiment of the invention. Process  600  may be performed by processing logic which may include software, hardware, or a combination thereof. For example, process  600  may be performed by project manager  110  and/or activity manager  120 . Referring to  FIG. 6 , in operation  601 , processing logic queries a CRM system to identify a project. In operation  602 , processing logic obtains a first set of one or more email addresses (e.g., target email addresses) based on client contacts associated with the project, for example, using at least some of the techniques described above. In operation  603 , processing logic obtains a second set of one or more addresses (e.g., source email addresses) of one or more team members (e.g., owner, engineer, sales representative) associated the project. In operation  604 , processing logic accesses an email server to obtain a list of emails and/or calendar events based on the first and second sets of email addresses. In operation  605 , processing logic optionally removes emails and/or calendar events that were sent or concluded prior to creation of the projects. 
       FIGS. 7A and 7B  are screenshots illustrating an example of a graphical user interface for project management according to certain embodiments of the invention. GUI  700  may be rendered and presented by user interface module  125  of  FIGS. 1A-1B . Referring to  FIG. 7A , GUI  700  includes a first display area  701  to display a list of projects retrieved from a CRM system. For example, a user can obtain from the CRM system for projects associated with a particular client, a particular owner, a particular project stage, size of the projects, closing dates, etc. In this example, the list of projects is associated with a particular user, such as, for example, a manager of a project development team. In this example, the first display area  701  includes a number of entries. Each entry lists a particular project, including project name  711 , owner name  712 , size of project  713 , closing date  714 , and current project stage  715 , etc. 
     When the user selects any one of the projects, in this example, “Americas Expansion,” a list of emails and/or calendar events are identified using at least some of the activity identification techniques described above. Graphical representations, in this example, round dots, representing emails and/or calendar events are presented in a second display area  702 . In this embodiment, the activities are presented in a calendar view or calendar grid  720  based on the timing of the activities. For example, if an email has been sent or received or a calendar event has been scheduled at a particular date, week, or month, a graphical representation representing that email or calendar event is then displayed in a calendar block corresponding to that particular date, week, or month. If there are multiple activities associated with a particular date, week, or month, the corresponding graphical representation further includes a number representing the number of activities. 
     In one embodiment, different colors and/or shapes of the graphical representations may represent different types of activities, such as, for example, emails, meetings, and files. In addition, the activities may be grouped into a first group  721  that is initiated by the project development team and a second group  722  initiated by the customer. In addition, a summary of the activities  723  is displayed within display area  702 , for example, including a number of emails sent, a number of emails received, and/or a number of meetings scheduled. The summary further includes the date of the last activity of each category and a total number of the activities in each category. Next meetings  724  that have been scheduled are also displayed. 
     A user can select any of the graphical representation from display area  702  to display further information of the associated activity. For example, referring now to  FIG. 7B , when a user moves a cursor within a predetermined proximity of a graphical representation or clicks on the graphical representation, a brief summary of the selected activity or activities is displayed in a third display area, in this example, as pop-up window  731 . 
       FIG. 8  is a flow diagram illustrating a process of identifying activities associated with projects according to another embodiment of the invention. Process  800  may be performed by processing logic which may include software, hardware, or a combination thereof. For example, process  800  may be performed by project manager  110 , activity manager  120 , and/or user interface module  125 . Referring to  FIG. 8 , in operation  801 , processing logic obtains a list of projects from a CRM system and displays the projects in a display area of a display. In response to a user input selecting a first of the projects, in operation  802 , processing logic queries the CRM system to determine a set of email addresses associated with the first project. The email addresses may be associated with the target contacts and/or source contacts of the first project. 
     In operation  803 , processing logic accesses an email server to identify and obtain a list of one or more activities (e.g., emails and/or calendar events) based on the email addresses. In operation  804 , processing logic displays in a second display area one or more graphical representations representing the activities. The activities may be displayed in a calendar view within the second display area based on timing of the activities. In operation  805 , in response to a second user input selecting a first of the graphical representations, processing logic displays a brief description of one or more activities represented by the first graphical representation. 
     Note that some or all of the components as shown and described above (e.g., project manager  110 , activity manager  120 , and user interface module  125  of  FIGS. 1A-1B and 2 ) may be implemented in software, hardware, or a combination thereof. For example, such components can be implemented as software installed and stored in a persistent storage device, which can be loaded and executed in a memory by a processor (not shown) to carry out the processes or operations described throughout this application. Alternatively, such components can be implemented as executable code programmed or embedded into dedicated hardware such as an integrated circuit (e.g., an application specific IC or ASIC), a digital signal processor (DSP), or a field programmable gate array (FPGA), which can be accessed via a corresponding driver and/or operating system from an application. Furthermore, such components can be implemented as specific hardware logic in a processor or processor core as part of an instruction set accessible by a software component via one or more specific instructions. 
       FIG. 9  is a block diagram illustrating an example of a data processing system which may be used with one embodiment of the invention. For example, system  1500  may represent any of data processing systems described above performing any of the processes or methods described above, such as, for example, client devices  101 - 102  and servers  104 - 107  of  FIGS. 1A and 1B . System  1500  can include many different components. These components can be implemented as integrated circuits (ICs), portions thereof, discrete electronic devices, or other modules adapted to a circuit board such as a motherboard or add-in card of the computer system, or as components otherwise incorporated within a chassis of the computer system. 
     Note also that system  1500  is intended to show a high level view of many components of the computer system. However, it is to be understood that additional components may be present in certain implementations and furthermore, different arrangement of the components shown may occur in other implementations. System  1500  may represent a desktop, a laptop, a tablet, a server, a mobile phone, a media player, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a Smartwatch, a personal communicator, a gaming device, a network router or hub, a wireless access point (AP) or repeater, a set-top box, or a combination thereof. Further, while only a single machine or system is illustrated, the term “machine” or “system” shall also be taken to include any collection of machines or systems that individually or jointly execute a set (or multiple sets) of instructions to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. 
     In one embodiment, system  1500  includes processor  1501 , memory  1503 , and devices  1505 - 1508  via a bus or an interconnect  1510 . Processor  1501  may represent a single processor or multiple processors with a single processor core or multiple processor cores included therein. Processor  1501  may represent one or more general-purpose processors such as a microprocessor, a central processing unit (CPU), or the like. More particularly, processor  1501  may be a complex instruction set computing (CISC) microprocessor, reduced instruction set computing (RISC) microprocessor, very long instruction word (VLIW) microprocessor, or processor implementing other instruction sets, or processors implementing a combination of instruction sets. Processor  1501  may also be one or more special-purpose processors such as an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a cellular or baseband processor, a field programmable gate array (FPGA), a digital signal processor (DSP), a network processor, a graphics processor, a network processor, a communications processor, a cryptographic processor, a co-processor, an embedded processor, or any other type of logic capable of processing instructions. 
     Processor  1501 , which may be a low power multi-core processor socket such as an ultra-low voltage processor, may act as a main processing unit and central hub for communication with the various components of the system. Such processor can be implemented as a system on chip (SoC). Processor  1501  is configured to execute instructions for performing the operations and steps discussed herein. System  1500  may further include a graphics interface that communicates with optional graphics subsystem  1504 , which may include a display controller, a graphics processor, and/or a display device. 
     Processor  1501  may communicate with memory  1503 , which in one embodiment can be implemented via multiple memory devices to provide for a given amount of system memory. Memory  1503  may include one or more volatile storage (or memory) devices such as random access memory (RAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), static RAM (SRAM), or other types of storage devices. Memory  1503  may store information including sequences of instructions that are executed by processor  1501 , or any other device. For example, executable code and/or data of a variety of operating systems, device drivers, firmware (e.g., input output basic system or BIOS), and/or applications can be loaded in memory  1503  and executed by processor  1501 . An operating system can be any kind of operating systems, such as, for example, Robot Operating System (ROS), Windows® operating system from Microsoft®, Mac OS®/iOS® from Apple, Android® from Google®, LINUX, UNIX, or other real-time or embedded operating systems. 
     System  1500  may further include IO devices such as devices  1505 - 1508 , including network interface device(s)  1505 , optional input device(s)  1506 , and other optional IO device(s)  1507 . Network interface device  1505  may include a wireless transceiver and/or a network interface card (NIC). The wireless transceiver may be a WiFi transceiver, an infrared transceiver, a Bluetooth transceiver, a WiMax transceiver, a wireless cellular telephony transceiver, a satellite transceiver (e.g., a global positioning system (GPS) transceiver), or other radio frequency (RF) transceivers, or a combination thereof. The NIC may be an Ethernet card. 
     Input device(s)  1506  may include a mouse, a touch pad, a touch sensitive screen (which may be integrated with display device  1504 ), a pointer device such as a stylus, and/or a keyboard (e.g., physical keyboard or a virtual keyboard displayed as part of a touch sensitive screen). For example, input device  1506  may include a touch screen controller coupled to a touch screen. The touch screen and touch screen controller can, for example, detect contact and movement or break thereof using any of a plurality of touch sensitivity technologies, including but not limited to capacitive, resistive, infrared, and surface acoustic wave technologies, as well as other proximity sensor arrays or other elements for determining one or more points of contact with the touch screen. 
     IO devices  1507  may include an audio device. An audio device may include a speaker and/or a microphone to facilitate voice-enabled functions, such as voice recognition, voice replication, digital recording, and/or telephony functions. Other IO devices  1507  may further include universal serial bus (USB) port(s), parallel port(s), serial port(s), a printer, a network interface, a bus bridge (e.g., a PCI-PCI bridge), sensor(s) (e.g., a motion sensor such as an accelerometer, gyroscope, a magnetometer, a light sensor, compass, a proximity sensor, etc.), or a combination thereof. Devices  1507  may further include an imaging processing subsystem (e.g., a camera), which may include an optical sensor, such as a charged coupled device (CCD) or a complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) optical sensor, utilized to facilitate camera functions, such as recording photographs and video clips. Certain sensors may be coupled to interconnect  1510  via a sensor hub (not shown), while other devices such as a keyboard or thermal sensor may be controlled by an embedded controller (not shown), dependent upon the specific configuration or design of system  1500 . 
     To provide for persistent storage of information such as data, applications, one or more operating systems and so forth, a mass storage (not shown) may also couple to processor  1501 . In various embodiments, to enable a thinner and lighter system design as well as to improve system responsiveness, this mass storage may be implemented via a solid state device (SSD). However in other embodiments, the mass storage may primarily be implemented using a hard disk drive (HDD) with a smaller amount of SSD storage to act as a SSD cache to enable non-volatile storage of context state and other such information during power down events so that a fast power up can occur on re-initiation of system activities. Also a flash device may be coupled to processor  1501 , e.g., via a serial peripheral interface (SPI). This flash device may provide for non-volatile storage of system software, including BIOS as well as other firmware of the system. 
     Storage device  1508  may include computer-accessible storage medium  1509  (also known as a machine-readable storage medium or a computer-readable medium) on which is stored one or more sets of instructions or software (e.g., module, unit, and/or logic  1528 ) embodying any one or more of the methodologies or functions described herein. Processing module/unit/logic  1528  may represent any of the components described above, such as, for example, project manager  110 , activity manager  120 , and/or user interface module  125 . Processing module/unit/logic  1528  may also reside, completely or at least partially, within memory  1503  and/or within processor  1501  during execution thereof by data processing system  1500 , memory  1503  and processor  1501  also constituting machine-accessible storage media. Processing module/unit/logic  1528  may further be transmitted or received over a network via network interface device  1505 . 
     Computer-readable storage medium  1509  may also be used to store the some software functionalities described above persistently. While computer-readable storage medium  1509  is shown in an exemplary embodiment to be a single medium, the term “computer-readable storage medium” should be taken to include a single medium or multiple media (e.g., a centralized or distributed database, and/or associated caches and servers) that store the one or more sets of instructions. The terms “computer-readable storage medium” shall also be taken to include any medium that is capable of storing or encoding a set of instructions for execution by the machine and that cause the machine to perform any one or more of the methodologies of the present invention. The term “computer-readable storage medium” shall accordingly be taken to include, but not be limited to, solid-state memories, and optical and magnetic media, or any other non-transitory machine-readable medium. 
     Processing module/unit/logic  1528 , components and other features described herein can be implemented as discrete hardware components or integrated in the functionality of hardware components such as ASICS, FPGAs, DSPs or similar devices. In addition, processing module/unit/logic  1528  can be implemented as firmware or functional circuitry within hardware devices. Further, processing module/unit/logic  1528  can be implemented in any combination hardware devices and software components. 
     Note that while system  1500  is illustrated with various components of a data processing system, it is not intended to represent any particular architecture or manner of interconnecting the components; as such details are not germane to embodiments of the present invention. It will also be appreciated that network computers, handheld computers, mobile phones, servers, and/or other data processing systems which have fewer components or perhaps more components may also be used with embodiments of the invention. 
     Some portions of the preceding detailed descriptions have been presented in terms of algorithms and symbolic representations of operations on data bits within a computer memory. These algorithmic descriptions and representations are the ways used by those skilled in the data processing arts to most effectively convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art. An algorithm is here, and generally, conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of operations leading to a desired result. The operations are those requiring physical manipulations of physical quantities. 
     It should be borne in mind, however, that all of these and similar terms are to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and are merely convenient labels applied to these quantities. Unless specifically stated otherwise as apparent from the above discussion, it is appreciated that throughout the description, discussions utilizing terms such as those set forth in the claims below, refer to the action and processes of a computer system, or similar electronic computing device, that manipulates and transforms data represented as physical (electronic) quantities within the computer system&#39;s registers and memories into other data similarly represented as physical quantities within the computer system memories or registers or other such information storage, transmission or display devices. 
     Embodiments of the invention also relate to an apparatus for performing the operations herein. Such a computer program is stored in a non-transitory computer readable medium. A machine-readable medium includes any mechanism for storing information in a form readable by a machine (e.g., a computer). For example, a machine-readable (e.g., computer-readable) medium includes a machine (e.g., a computer) readable storage medium (e.g., read only memory (“ROM”), random access memory (“RAM”), magnetic disk storage media, optical storage media, flash memory devices). 
     The processes or methods depicted in the preceding figures may be performed by processing logic that comprises hardware (e.g. circuitry, dedicated logic, etc.), software (e.g., embodied on a non-transitory computer readable medium), or a combination of both. Although the processes or methods are described above in terms of some sequential operations, it should be appreciated that some of the operations described may be performed in a different order. Moreover, some operations may be performed in parallel rather than sequentially. 
     Embodiments of the present invention are not described with reference to any particular programming language. It will be appreciated that a variety of programming languages may be used to implement the teachings of embodiments of the invention as described herein. 
     In the foregoing specification, embodiments of the invention have been described with reference to specific exemplary embodiments thereof. It will be evident that various modifications may be made thereto without departing from the broader spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the following claims. The specification and drawings are, accordingly, to be regarded in an illustrative sense rather than a restrictive sense.