Patent ID: 8015061

Claim:
An apparatus for conducting a media campaign, the apparatus comprising: a memory device storing business data relating to a plurality of business partners, the business data stored in a first file format, wherein the first file format is an encoded file format readable by an executable customer resource management (CRM) application and is a data dictionary (DDIC) format associated with an Advanced Business Application Programming (ABAP) encoding; an input device receiving a channel selection command; and a processing device operative to, in response to executable instructions: execute the CRM application having stored therein processes for a media campaign, the processes identifying communication channels including a file export channel to be used to communicate with business partners, the CRM application further storing contact data in the first file format for business partners to be communicated with pursuant to the media campaign; receive a communication channel request from the input device, wherein the communication channel request defines a communication medium for contacting business partners; receive a channel selection command which indicates the selection of one of communication channels; when the channel selection command indicates the media campaign is to be conducted external to the CRM application and the selected communication channel is the file export channel: receive a file export form request; retrieve the file export form from a form database, the file export form containing filtering criteria identifying a subset of contact data fields; extract the contact data for business partners, wherein one or more selected contact data fields are extracted from the contact data based upon the selected communication channel and the file export form; convert the extracted contact data from the first file format to a second file format, wherein the second file format is an open file format; write the converted extracted contact data to a tabular export file; transfer the tabular export file to a temporary storage buffer using a parallel data transfer by executing a plurality of parallel transfer commands; and transmit, using a serial data transfer, the export file from the temporary storage buffer to a storage device of a second party to undertake the media campaign, the second party external to the CRM application; and when the channel selection command indicates the media campaign is to be conducted internal to the CRM application: create automated communication messages for each business partner, receive the file export form request; retrieve the file export form from the form database; extract the contact data for business partners based upon the file export form to respective communication messages, and transmit the communication messages via the selected communication channel and the defined communication medium.