Information processing device, information processing method, and information processing program

Abstract

An information processing device according to one embodiment of the present invention comprises: an acquisition unit that acquires a search request requesting a search for, from among a plurality of users belonging to an organization, an advisor user to serve as an advisor for a first user; a storage unit that stores text information handled by a user terminal owned by the first user and communication information among a plurality of users; a pairing process execution unit that extracts a plurality of candidate users to serve as an advisor on the basis of the text information, and calculates a recommendation degree for the plurality of candidate users; a search unit that searches for a transmission path from the first user to the plurality of candidate users; a transmission index calculation unit that calculates an information transmission index indicating the ease of communicating between users included in the transmission path, on the basis of the communication information; an evaluation value calculation unit that calculates an evaluation value for the transmission path, on the basis of the information transmission index; a recommendation degree updating unit that updates the recommendation degree on the basis of the evaluation value; and an output control unit that outputs the advisor user and a transmission path to the advisor user on the basis of the updated recommendation degree.

Description

Information processing device, information processing method, and information processing program

[0001] The present invention relates to an information processing device, an information processing method, and an information processing program.

[0002] Remote work makes it harder for employees to have casual conversations, such as casual conversations, compared to face-to-face work, and also eliminates the opportunity to see and hear about other employees' work. This makes it difficult to grasp who has what knowledge when a work-related problem arises. This can lead to a decline in work efficiency and quality.

[0003] To solve this problem, there is a growing need for business support technology that can smoothly pair (connect) the person seeking advice with a consultant who has knowledge of the problem, even in a remote environment, thereby enabling early resolution of the problem.

[0004] One pairing technique is to recommend a person to consult based on the frequency of appearance of a character string (word) in screen data on a terminal used by a person in charge (see, for example, Patent Document 1). When a candidate for consultation is selected by this technique, the person to consult and the candidate for consultation will attempt to solve the problem by starting communication (for example, by telephone, email, or chat tool) to exchange information about the problem situation or advice.

[0005] International Publication No. 2022 / 091281

[0006] However, the technology disclosed in Patent Document 1 calculates the suitability evaluation for a consultation candidate based solely on the employee's work experience, without taking into account characteristics such as the relationships between employees. As a result, a "psychological barrier" based on whether or not the person knows the candidate arises when communicating and exchanging information between the person seeking advice and the candidate. As a result, this psychological barrier can take time and effort to initiate communication aimed at resolving the problem. Alternatively, the psychological barrier can lead the person seeking advice to attempt to resolve the problem on their own without utilizing the technology disclosed in Patent Document 1, which can be time-consuming and laborious.

[0007] This invention was made with the above-mentioned circumstances in mind, and its purpose is to make it possible to more reliably start communication aimed at resolving problems between a person seeking advice and a potential counselor.

[0008] Furthermore, an object of the present invention is to establish a business support technology that can quickly resolve problems even in a remote environment or an environment where it is difficult for staff members to understand each other's skill sets.

[0009] In order to solve the above problem, an information processing device of one embodiment of the present invention includes an acquisition unit that acquires a search request to search for a consultation user who can be consulted by a first user from among a plurality of users belonging to an organization; a memory unit that stores text information handled on a user terminal held by the first user and communication information between the plurality of users; a pairing process execution unit that extracts a plurality of candidate users who can be consulted based on the text information and calculates recommendation levels of the plurality of candidate users; a search unit that searches for a transmission path from the first user to the plurality of candidate users; a transmission index calculation unit that calculates an information transmission index indicating the ease of contact between users included in the transmission path based on the communication information; an evaluation value calculation unit that calculates an evaluation value of the transmission path based on the information transmission index; a recommendation level update unit that updates the recommendation level based on the evaluation value; and an output control unit that outputs the consultation user and the transmission path to the consultation user based on the updated recommendation level.

[0010] According to one aspect of the present invention, it is possible to more reliably start communication aimed at resolving problems between a person seeking advice and a potential consultant. Furthermore, according to another aspect of the present invention, it is possible to establish a business support technology that can quickly resolve problems even in a remote environment or an environment where it is difficult to understand the skill sets of each person in charge.

[0011] FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of the overall configuration of a search system including an information processing device according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a case in which a seeker and a potential consultant are paired using conventional technology. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example in which multiple employees mediate between the seeker and the potential consultant. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a specific example of Hypothesis 1. FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating specific examples of Hypothesis 2 and Hypothesis 3. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of the hardware configuration of a search server. FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of the software configuration of a search server. FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating an example of information processing operations by the search server. FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an example of an information transmission index f(α→β) between employees and a penalty evaluation value g(α) for each employee. FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a transmission path searched by exhaustive search. FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of the evaluation value Score calculated for each path. FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating an example of a determined representative transmission path and a representative evaluation value. FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of a recommendation level W' obtained by updating the recommendation level W.

[0012] Hereinafter, an information processing method, an information processing device, and an information processing program will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. In the following embodiments, parts with the same numbers perform the same operations, and redundant description will be omitted. For example, when there are multiple identical or similar elements, a common symbol may be used to describe each element without distinguishing between them, or a subnumber may be used in addition to the common symbol to describe each element with distinction between them.

[0013] [Embodiment] (Search System) FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of the overall configuration of a search system 100 including an information processing device according to an embodiment of the present invention. The search system 100 includes a search server 1 and user terminals UT1, UT2, ... UTn (hereinafter, when there is no need to distinguish between them, they will be simply referred to as "user terminals UT") that can communicate with each other via a network NW. Note that while the example in FIG. 1 describes an example including a search server 1 and user terminals UT, this is not limiting. For example, only the user terminals UT may be connected via the network NW. In this case, the operation of the search server 1 described below may be performed by each user terminal UT.

[0014] The information processing device according to this embodiment is implemented as a search server 1. The search server 1 is, for example, a server computer or a personal computer managed by an organization such as a company, a school, an association, or a membership community.

[0015] The search server 1 receives requests from users who have encountered a problem (hereinafter referred to as "consultant" or "consultation user") by communicating with each user terminal UT, searches for candidate users to receive consultation (hereinafter referred to as "consultee" or "consultation recipient user"), and presents the search results to the consultation user. The search server 1 can also notify the consultation recipient user that another user has encountered a problem, that the user has been selected as a candidate for consultation with the problem, or information about the consultation user. In this way, the search server 1 recommends candidate consultation users to the consultation user and makes the candidate consultation users aware that a problem has occurred, thereby supporting the connection between the consultation user and the consultation recipient user (referred to here as "pairing").

[0016] The network NW may be, for example, the Internet, an intranet, a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), etc., and may include a wired or wireless network.

[0017] The user terminal UT is an information processing terminal used by a user, such as a personal computer, smartphone, tablet terminal, mobile phone, or wearable terminal. The user belongs to the above-mentioned organization that manages the search server 1, and uses the user terminal UT to perform tasks, etc., and can also communicate with other users via the user terminal UT. The user terminal UT may be a dedicated terminal for each user, or may be shared by multiple users. As described above, this invention can also be applied when there is no search server 1 and only the user terminal UT is connected via the network NW.

[0018] (Environment) The following description will explain the environment in which this embodiment is implemented. As an example, the following will explain a situation in which users who are business operators belonging to a company use the search system 100 using their own user terminals UT. Note that the search server 1 may be a device separate from the user terminals UT, or may be integrated with any of the user terminals UT.

[0019] As described above, in a remote environment, when a user encounters a work-related problem, it is difficult to know who has what knowledge. Therefore, when a problem arises that requires consulting with someone, the user who wants to consult needs to search for a consultant who has experience with the problem. The search server 1 in this embodiment aims to enable both the user and the consultant to find someone who can share, with minimal effort (including explanation) the "work situation at the time the problem occurred" and the "solution appropriate to that situation" when such a problem occurs.

[0020] For example, in a conventional method such as that disclosed in Patent Document 1, the frequency of appearance of character strings in screen data used by an employee is regarded as the employee's work experience, and a recommendation level as a consultation partner is calculated, and multiple employees with high recommendation levels are paired with the person seeking advice as potential consultation partners. In this case, there may be cases where the paired consultation partner poses a significant psychological barrier, making the person seeking advice hesitant to consult.

[0021] In the following example, a person seeking advice (employee A) encounters a problem and is unsure who to consult. The search server 1 then pairs the person seeking advice with a potential employee (employee X) using the conventional technology disclosed in Patent Document 1.

[0022] 2 is a diagram showing an example of a case where a person seeking advice and a potential counselor are paired using conventional technology. Conventional technology does not take into account characteristics such as the relationships between employees. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 2, for the person seeking advice, employee A, employee X, the potential counselor, may not be easy to talk to or contact, i.e., there may be a significant psychological barrier between them when selecting the potential counselor.

[0023] For example, employee A does not know employee X and feels uncomfortable contacting them suddenly because of a problem. And employee X, who is the person to seek advice from, does not know employee A either, so they may feel defensive or confused when contacted suddenly.

[0024] One way to solve the above problems is to have multiple employees act as intermediaries to encourage the potential consultant to help the person seeking advice (employee A and employee X in the example in Figure 2) before the person seeking advice and the potential consultant begin communication aimed at resolving the problem.

[0025] Figure 3 shows an example in which multiple employees mediate between the person seeking advice and potential consultants. In the example in Figure 3, there are two communication paths. The first communication path is a path from employee A to employee X, which is difficult to communicate with due to the large psychological barriers, as explained in Figure 2. The second communication path is employee A → employee B → employee C → employee X.

[0026] In the second route, the psychological barriers between employee A and employee B, between employee B and employee C, and between employee C and employee X are small. In other words, these employees are acquainted with each other or have easy contact with each other.

[0027] For example, employee A asks employee B to ask employee C to introduce employee X to employee X. Employee B has little psychological barrier because he interacts with employee C on a regular basis, and upon receiving the request, asks employee C to introduce employee A to employee X. Employee C has little psychological barrier because he interacts with employee X on a regular basis, and upon receiving the request, tells employee X that employee A is in trouble and asks if he can help. Employee X is willing to listen to employee C's advice since it is a request from employee C.

[0028] As described above, due to the large psychological barrier, it may be difficult for employee A to contact employee X directly using the first route. On the other hand, by using the second route, that is, by having employees B and C act as intermediaries between employee A and employee X, it becomes easier for employee A and employee X to start communication.

[0029] Alternatively, employee A may be able to initiate direct communication with employee Y because the psychological barrier between them is small.

[0030] In this embodiment, a method is proposed that makes it possible to select "an employee who has the work experience to solve the problem and with whom it is easier to communicate to start a consultation" by comprehensively evaluating the recommendation level based on the employee's work experience, calculated using conventional technology, and the evaluation value regarding the "ease of communication" when transmitting information to each candidate for consultation.

[0031] The method proposed in this embodiment can be divided into the following three stages. Stage (1): A stage of calculating an evaluation value for psychological barriers between employees. Stage (2): A stage of calculating an evaluation value for each communication path from the person seeking advice to the consultation candidate for each of the multiple consultation candidate candidates selected using conventional technology based on the evaluation value in Stage (1), and determining the optimal communication path (hereinafter, this communication path will be referred to as an intermediary path). Stage (3): A stage of combining the recommendation degree calculated based on the employee's work experience and the evaluation value of the communication path to the consultation candidate calculated in Stage (2) using conventional technology, selecting the optimal consultation candidate and the communication path to the consultation candidate, and presenting them to the person seeking advice.

[0032] It is expected that new problems (1) and (2) will arise in order to achieve each stage. Problem (1): In stage (1), an evaluation value will be required regarding the size of the psychological barriers between employees (i.e., the ease of requesting mediation). Problem (2): In stage (2), it will be necessary to evaluate the expected communication routes from the perspectives shown below.

[0033] In addition, in problem (1), considering the business situation assuming remote work, which is the background of this embodiment, it is desirable that the evaluation value be calculated based on data obtained from operation information in the user terminal UT, rather than data obtained from face-to-face business activities between employees.

[0034] <Perspective> Communication between the person seeking advice and the potential person seeking advice must start smoothly. The intermediaries between employees along the communication path must continue seamlessly, and communication must start between the person seeking advice and the potential person seeking advice in order to resolve the problem. In particular, as shown in Figure 3, it is necessary to reduce factors that hinder the start of communication between the person seeking advice and the potential person seeking advice, which occurs as the number of "intermediaries" involving employees increases.

[0035] Below, we will explain a method for presenting optimal candidates for consultation and optimal communication paths to those candidates while solving the problems described above.

[0036] (Method for Solving Problem (1)) A method for solving problem (1) in this embodiment will be described below.

[0037] In this embodiment, it is assumed that there are three assumptions as described below.

[0038] Assumption 1: Consultation candidates selected using conventional technology (e.g., Patent Document 1) are selected regardless of whether they are personally acquainted with the client or whether their departments are related. Assumption 2: The paired client and consultation candidate have a means of communication with each other. For example, they can communicate with each other using telephone, email software, business chat tools, etc. Assumption 3: In each transmission (including intermediation) along the transmission path from the client to the consultation candidate, the intermediation requester and the intermediation requestee have a means of communication with each other, similar to assumption 2. For example, in the second transmission path shown in Figure 3, employee A and employee B can communicate with each other by telephone, employee B and employee C can communicate with each other using a business chat tool, and employee C and employee X can communicate with each other using email software. Note that this explanation is merely an example, and the means of communication used in each transmission from the client to the consultation candidate may, of course, be any means.

[0039] Next, we will explain the hypotheses used to solve Problem 1 in this embodiment. Hypothesis 1: "Psychological barriers" between employees are reflected in the organizational relationships between the employees, as well as interactions, the amount of communication, and the quality of communication in their daily work.

[0040] Figure 4 shows a specific example of Hypothesis 1. As shown in Figure 4, the size of the psychological barrier between employee A and other employees (employees B and C in the example of Figure 4) is affected by the following factors.

[0041] - Frequency of communication or information transmission using information transmission means including business chat tools, email software, etc. - Number of mentions or positive reactions on business chat tools, etc. - Relevance between the work content that an employee is responsible for and the work content that other employees are responsible for Here, the relevance of work content is said to be higher when the employees are in the same job category, such as clerical or technical positions, or when they belong to parallel organizations in the organizational hierarchy.

[0042] As shown in Figure 4, psychological barriers between employees are smaller when they belong to organizations where communication is frequent, the number of mentions or positive reactions is large, or the work content is highly relevant. On the other hand, psychological barriers are larger when they belong to organizations where communication is infrequent, the number of mentions or positive reactions is small, or the work content is less relevant.

[0043] In the example of Figure 4, employee B belongs to a department that is highly related to employee A, while employee C belongs to a department that is less related to employee A. In such a case, it is thought that the psychological barrier between employee A and employee B will be smaller, while the psychological barrier between employee A and employee C will be larger.

[0044] In this embodiment, the evaluation value of psychological barriers between employees is quantified by analyzing the above-mentioned elements. For example, the search server 1 quantifies the evaluation value by analyzing the organizational relevance between employees and the content of communication between employees in the course of work using communication tools, etc.

[0045] Here, the method for calculating the quantification of psychological barriers may be, for example, a method of multiplying the frequency of use of information transmission means, the number of mentions or positive reactions, by a value indicating the organizational relatedness between employees, and using a value corrected using a general method, or a method of using a value quantified using a social graph between employees within an organization used in a general method, etc. Note that the method for calculating the value indicating the organizational relatedness between employees can be obtained using a general method, so detailed explanations of each method will be omitted.

[0046] (Method for Solving Problem (2)) Next, a method for solving problem (2) in this embodiment will be described.

[0047] First, we will explain the two hypotheses used to solve problem (2). Hypothesis 2: The evaluation value used to solve problem 1 above can be considered a "probabilistic index" that contributes to the difficulty of initiating information transmission between employees (mediation action or action of encouraging the potential consultant to help the client). (Hereinafter, "psychological barriers" will be referred to as "information transmission indexes.") According to Hypothesis 2, by regarding the psychological barriers between employees as a probabilistic index that indicates the difficulty of initiating information transmission between those employees, it becomes possible to evaluate whether the transmission from the client to the potential consultant is initiated (the transmission is successful).

[0048] Furthermore, it can be interpreted that it is more difficult to start information transmission between employees with a high information transmission index, which will be used in Hypothesis 2, whereas it is less difficult to start information transmission between employees with a low information transmission index.

[0049] Hypothesis 3: An increase in the number of mediations acts as an impediment to initiating communication between the solicitor and the potential solicitor.

[0050] In this embodiment, it is assumed that each employee requests mediation while performing their normal duties. Therefore, based on Assumption 3, the following obstacles have a significant impact on starting communication between the person seeking advice and the potential consultant.

[0051] Example 1: <From the perspective of the time required to start consultation> Mediation involves the following processes and the time corresponding to each process. Process (1): The time it takes for the intermediary to make a request to the intermediary. For example, this is the time it takes for employee A and employee B to request employee C to act as an intermediary. Process (2): The waiting time for the employee who received the mediation request to contact the next intermediary. For example, this is the waiting time until employee B, who accepted the mediation request, has finished his or her regular work and takes action to request employee C to act as an intermediary.

[0052] In other words, as the number of mediation sessions increases, the time required for each mediation session becomes an obstacle to initiating communication between the person seeking advice and the potential client.

[0053] Example 2: <Perspective of likelihood of cooperation in response to a mediation request based on the characteristics of the intermediary employee> In mediation, independent of the "information transmission index" described in Hypothesis 2, the likelihood of whether an employee who is requested to mediate will agree to act as a mediator (will cooperate) depends on the employee's characteristics or cooperativeness. As the number of mediations increases, the possibility increases that there will be employees with low likelihood of cooperation in the communication channel. As a result, this becomes an obstacle to starting communication between the person seeking advice and the potential consultant, causing the mediation to be interrupted midway through the communication channel.

[0054] Figure 5 is a diagram showing a specific example of Hypothesis 2 and Hypothesis 3. Figure 5 shows that the information transmission index (magnitude of psychological barrier) of the first transmission route (direct route from employee A to employee X) is 20, and the information transmission indexes of the second transmission route from employee A to employee B, employee B to employee C, and employee C to employee X are 7, 8, and 6, respectively.

[0055] In addition, the second communication route requires two intermediations, which is more than the first communication route. Therefore, in terms of the time required to start the consultation, it takes more time to communicate to the consultation candidate than the first communication route. Furthermore, in terms of cooperation possibility, if either employee B or employee C is unlikely to cooperate with the intermediation request, communication to the consultation candidate will be interrupted.

[0056] Therefore, in this embodiment, a penalty is set for the evaluation value according to the number of times of intermediation, so that a transfer route with a small number of times of intermediation is more likely to be selected as an intermediation route.

[0057] (Configuration) Next, the configuration of the search server 1 according to one embodiment will be described. Fig. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of the hardware configuration of the search server 1. As shown in Fig. 6, the search server 1 includes a processor 101, a RAM 102, a program memory 103, a storage device 104, and an input / output interface 105. The processor 101, RAM 102, program memory 103, storage device 104, and input / output interface 105 are connected to one another via a bus 106. The processor 101 controls the RAM 102, program memory 103, storage device 104, and input / output interface 105, and exchanges signals with them.

[0058] The processor 101 includes a general-purpose circuit such as a CPU. The RAM 102 is used by the processor 101 as a working memory. The RAM 102 includes a volatile memory such as an SDRAM. The program memory 103 stores programs executed by the processor 101, including an information generation program. The programs include computer-executable instructions. For example, a ROM is used as the program memory 103.

[0059] The processor 101 loads a program stored in the program memory 103 into the RAM 102, and interprets and executes the program.

[0060] The storage device 104 may function as a storage area. The storage device 104 may include a non-volatile memory such as a hard disk drive (HDD) or a solid state drive (SSD). A portion of the storage device 104 may be used as the program memory 103.

[0061] The input / output interface 105 includes a communication module for communicating with an external device and a plurality of terminals for connecting peripheral devices. The external device may be, for example, a user terminal UT. The communication module may include, for example, a wired module and / or a wireless module. Examples of peripheral devices include a display, a keyboard, and a mouse.

[0062] The processor 101 may include multiple processors. Furthermore, at least a portion of the processing functions may be implemented in various other forms, including integrated circuits such as an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) or an FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array). At least a portion of the storage area of ​​the storage device 104 may be provided in a device different from the search server 1.

[0063] 7 is a diagram showing an example of the software configuration of the search server 1. The search server 1 includes a pairing process execution unit 11, an inter-employee information transmission index calculation unit 31, an intermediary employee penalty calculation unit 32, a consultant-to-consultation candidate transmission path search unit 33, a transmission path evaluation value calculation unit 34, a representative path determination unit 35, a recommendation level update unit 36, a consultation candidate / recommendation level / transmission path output unit 41, and a pairing result presentation unit 42. These functional units are controlled by the processor 101 described above and are capable of performing various operations.

[0064] The search server 1 further includes a terminal handling content storage unit 21, a screen information database 22 (referred to as a screen information DB in FIG. 6), a problem word holding unit 23, a consultation candidate list storage unit 24, an employee communication information database 25 (referred to as an employee communication information DB in FIG. 6), an inter-organizational relevance index database 26 (referred to as an inter-organizational relevance index DB in FIG. 6), and an employee penalty evaluation source information database 27 (referred to as an employee penalty evaluation source information DB in FIG. 6). These functional units may be part of the storage device 104. That is, the storage device 104 functions as a storage area for these components.

[0065] For example, the terminal handling content storage unit 21, the screen information database 22, and the problem word storage unit 23 are functional units used when grasping the handling content of the business of the user terminal UT.

[0066] The pairing processing execution unit 11, the inter-employee information transmission index calculation unit 31, the intermediary employee penalty calculation unit 32, the consultant-consultation candidate communication path search unit 33, the transmission path evaluation value calculation unit 34, the representative path determination unit 35, the recommendation level update unit 36, the consultation candidate list storage unit 24, the inter-employee communication information database 25, the inter-organizational relevance index database 26, and the employee penalty evaluation source information database 27 are functional units used when executing the pairing processing.

[0067] Finally, the consultation candidate / recommendation level / transmission path output unit 41 and the pairing result presentation unit 42 are functional units used to notify the consultant and the consultation user of information including the pairing results and the like.

[0068] First, the functions of the terminal handling content storage unit 21, the screen information database 22, and the problem word storage unit 23, which are used to grasp the business handling content of the user terminal UT, will be described.

[0069] The terminal handling content storage unit 21 has the function of storing text information handled by the user terminal UT, acquired by the processor 101 operating as the terminal handling content acquisition unit, by distinguishing between business operators. The terminal handling content storage unit 21 may store the acquired text information in its original form, or may store it in a processed form, such as the appearance frequency distribution of words included in the text information. Optionally, the terminal handling content storage unit 21 may also store the entire screen or screen image of the window from which the text information was acquired, the document path, etc.

[0070] The screen information database 22 has a function of storing information including person in charge information, text information in the screen data handled by the user terminal UT, person in charge identification information (information that associates the person in charge who handled the screen data), and the like.

[0071] The problem word storage unit 23 has a function of storing words corresponding to problem information. The words corresponding to problem information are, for example, words extracted by the processor 101 as a result of comparing the text information stored in the terminal handling content storage unit 21 with the text information being handled by the user terminal UT when the problem occurred. Note that the details of the method for extracting words corresponding to problem information may be the same as, for example, the method described in Patent Document 1, and therefore detailed explanations thereof will be omitted.

[0072] Next, we will explain the functions of the pairing process execution unit 11, consultation candidate list storage unit 24, inter-employee communication information database 25, inter-organizational relevance index database 26, employee penalty evaluation source information database 27, inter-employee information transmission index calculation unit 31, intermediary employee penalty calculation unit 32, consultant-to-consultation candidate transmission path search unit 33, transmission path evaluation value calculation unit 34, representative path determination unit 35, and recommendation level update unit 36 ​​used in the pairing process.

[0073] The pairing process execution unit 11 extracts consultation candidate candidates using a consultant pairing technique and calculates the recommendation level of the consultation candidate. The pairing process execution unit 11 acquires text information, etc. corresponding to the user terminal UT from information stored in the terminal handling content accumulation unit 21. The pairing process execution unit 11 then extracts multiple candidate users who can become consultation candidates based on the acquired text information. Furthermore, the pairing process execution unit 11 calculates the recommendation level of each of the multiple candidate users based on the problem information and related information stored in the screen information database 22 and the problem word storage unit 23. Note that these processes may use, for example, the technology disclosed in Patent Document 1. Therefore, detailed description thereof will be omitted here. The pairing process execution unit 11 stores the extracted consultation candidate candidates (candidate users) and the calculated recommendation levels as a consultation candidate list in the consultation candidate list storage unit 24.

[0074] The consultation candidate list storage unit 24 is a storage unit used to store, as a consultation candidate list, candidate users who can become consultation candidates and the recommendation levels of the candidate users extracted by the pairing process execution unit 11. Furthermore, the consultation candidate list storage unit 24 is also used to store recommendation levels updated by a recommendation level update unit 36, which will be described later.

[0075] The inter-employee communication information database 25 is a database for storing communication information used by the inter-employee communication index calculation unit 31, which will be described later. For example, the communication information is information related to the communication between employees, including which employees communicated with each other, the communication tools used at the time, and the type of response during the communication (for example, whether a mention was made, whether it was a positive reaction, etc.). This information is collected on a daily basis and stored in the inter-employee communication information database 25.

[0076] The inter-organizational relevance index database 26 is a database for storing relevance indexes used by the inter-employee information transfer index calculation unit 31, which will be described later. For example, the relevance indexes include data indicating which departments each user (employee) belongs to has a high relevance to. This information is stored in advance in the inter-organizational relevance index database 26 by, for example, an administrator who manages the search server 1.

[0077] The employee penalty evaluation source information database 27 is a database for storing employee penalty evaluation source information including information related to the work performance status of each employee, employee characteristics, etc. For example, the work performance status of each employee is stored in the employee penalty evaluation source information database 27 on a daily basis, and information related to employee characteristics, etc. is stored in advance in the employee penalty evaluation source information database 27 by an administrator who manages the search server 1. Furthermore, if the penalty evaluation value described below is a fixed value, the employee penalty evaluation source information database 27 may store the fixed value.

[0078] The inter-employee information transmission index calculation unit 31 calculates the "information transmission index f." The inter-employee information transmission index calculation unit 31 calculates the information transmission index f by the above-described method based on at least one of the communication information between employees (i.e., communication information between multiple users belonging to an organization) stored in the inter-employee communication information database 25 and the relevance index stored in the inter-organization relevance index database 26.

[0079] The intermediary employee penalty calculation unit 32 calculates a penalty evaluation value g for each employee based on the employee penalty evaluation source information stored in the employee penalty evaluation source information database 27. The method for calculating the penalty evaluation value g will be described in detail later.

[0080] The consultee-candidate consultation path search unit 33 acquires the candidate consultation list stored in the candidate consultation list storage unit 24. Then, it selects an arbitrary candidate consultation from among the candidates that have not yet been selected in the list. Furthermore, the consultee-candidate consultation path search unit 33 performs a full search of the communication path from the consultee to the candidate consultation, including the intermediary employee (intermediary user).

[0081] The transfer path evaluation value calculation unit 34 calculates an information transfer index value and a transfer path evaluation value for each transfer path. The transfer path evaluation value calculation unit 34 calculates the sum of the information transfer index f and the penalty evaluation value g for each path, and calculates the evaluation value for each path by adding them up. The method for calculating the evaluation value will be described in detail later.

[0082] The representative route determination unit 35 determines the best transfer route among the candidate destinations as the representative transfer route, and further determines the evaluation value of the representative transfer route as the representative evaluation value.

[0083] The recommendation degree update unit 36 ​​updates the recommendation degree of each consultation candidate using the representative evaluation value. For example, the recommendation degree update unit 36 ​​updates the recommendation degree by multiplying each recommendation degree by the ratio of the largest representative evaluation value among the representative evaluation values ​​to the other representative evaluation values. Details of the update method will be described later.

[0084] Finally, the functions of the consultation candidate / recommendation level / transmission path output unit 41 and the pairing result presentation unit 42 used to output the pairing results will be described.

[0085] The consultation candidate / recommendation level / transmission path output unit 41 acquires presentation information in which the recommendation levels, consultation candidates, and transmission paths updated by the recommendation level update unit 36 ​​are sorted in descending order of recommendation level from the consultation candidate list storage unit 24. Then, the consultation candidate / recommendation level / transmission path output unit 41 outputs the acquired information to the pairing result presentation unit 42.

[0086] Furthermore, the consultation candidate / recommendation level / transmission path output unit 41 generates notification information to notify the consultation candidate with the highest updated recommendation level that the person seeking advice has encountered a problem, and transmits the generated notification information via the network NW.

[0087] The pairing result presentation unit 42 transmits the presentation information to the user terminal UT used by the client via the network NW. Upon receiving the presentation information, the user terminal UT of the client controls the display unit of the user terminal UT to display the presentation information.

[0088] (Operation) Next, an example of information processing operation performed by the search server 1 as the information processing apparatus according to the embodiment configured as above will be described.

[0089] 8 is a flowchart showing an example of an information processing operation by the search server 1. The processor 101 of the search server 1 reads out and executes a program stored in the program memory 103, thereby realizing the operation of this flowchart.

[0090] First, let us assume that an employee (first user) using a user terminal UT among a plurality of users belonging to a certain organization (a company in this embodiment) has encountered a problem. Then, this employee inputs a search request into the user terminal UT to search for an employee (consultation user) who can be consulted about the problem (i.e., the employee's consultation destination), and this flowchart begins.

[0091] In step ST101, the pairing process execution unit 11 extracts consultation candidates using the consultant pairing technology and calculates the recommendation level of the consultation candidates. First, the pairing process execution unit 11, operating as an acquisition unit, acquires a search request from the user terminal UT. Then, the pairing process execution unit 11 performs a content understanding process for the user terminal UT. In the content understanding process, in response to the search request input by the employee (consultant), text information corresponding to the user terminal UT is acquired from information stored in the terminal handling content storage unit 21. Then, the pairing process execution unit 11 extracts multiple candidate users who can become consultation candidates based on the acquired text information. Furthermore, the pairing process execution unit 11, operating as an acquisition unit, acquires problem information and related information from the screen information database 22 and the problem word storage unit 23. Then, the pairing process execution unit 11 calculates the recommendation level of each of the multiple candidate users based on the related information and problem information. The pairing process executing unit 11 stores the extracted consultation candidate candidates (candidate users) and the calculated recommendation degrees in the consultation candidate list storage unit 24 as a consultation candidate list.

[0092] In step ST102, the inter-employee information transmission index calculation unit 31 calculates an "information transmission index f." The inter-employee information transmission index calculation unit 31 acquires inter-employee communication information (i.e., communication information between multiple users belonging to the organization) from the inter-employee communication information database 25, and further acquires a relevance index indicating the organizational relevance between employees from the inter-organizational relevance index database 26. Then, based on at least one of the communication information or the relevance index, the inter-employee information transmission index calculation unit 31 calculates an information transmission index f (α→β) indicating the ease of communication between employees (users) using the method described above. Here, α and β represent employees who have means of information transmission with each other, and α≠β. In other words, the inter-employee information transmission index calculation unit 31 calculates the information transmission index f between all employees. The inter-employee information transmission index calculation unit 31 outputs the calculated information transmission index f to the client-candidate consultation communication path search unit 33.

[0093] In step ST103, the intermediary employee penalty calculation unit 32 calculates the "penalty evaluation value g." The intermediary employee penalty calculation unit 32 acquires employee penalty evaluation source information from the employee penalty evaluation source information database 27. The intermediary employee penalty calculation unit 32 then calculates the penalty evaluation value g(α) for each employee based on the employee penalty evaluation source information. For example, the intermediary employee penalty calculation unit 32 calculates the penalty evaluation value g based on an evaluation function that reflects the work performance status and employee characteristics of each employee included in the employee penalty evaluation source information. Alternatively, the penalty evaluation value g(α) may be an arbitrary fixed value set for each employee. The intermediary employee penalty calculation unit 32 outputs the calculated penalty evaluation value g(α) to the consultant-candidate consultation communication path search unit 33.

[0094] 9 is a diagram showing an example of the information transmission index f(α→β) between employees and the penalty evaluation value g(α) for each employee. In FIG. 9, the information transmission index f(α→β) between employees is shown as a value in a circle, and the penalty evaluation value g(α) for each employee is shown as a value in a triangle. In FIG. 9, the penalty evaluation value g(α) is set as a fixed value for each employee 3.

[0095] In step ST104, the consultation party-candidate communication path search unit 33 selects an arbitrary consultation candidate from the consultation candidate list. The consultation party-candidate communication path search unit 33 acquires the consultation candidate list stored in the consultation candidate list storage unit 24. Then, the consultation candidate is selected from the consultation candidate list that has not been selected. For example, in the example shown in FIG. 9, the consultation candidate CN Ａ Employee X is selected as the employee.

[0096] In step ST105, the communication path search unit 33 between the consultant and the candidate for consultation searches all communication paths from the consultant to the candidate for consultation, including the intermediary employee (intermediary user). ＡThe consultee-candidate consultation path search unit 33 outputs search information including information on the searched path, an information transmission index f(α→β) between employees related to the path, and a penalty evaluation value g(α) of employees in the path to the transmission path evaluation value calculation unit 34.

[0097] FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a communication path found by exhaustive search. As shown in FIG. 10, the communication path from the consultant (employee A) to the candidate for consultation CN Ａ Three routes are searched for as possible transmission routes for transmitting information to (Employee X). First transmission route pattern R １ Employee A → Employee CN Ａ and the second transfer path pattern R ２ Employee A → Employee B → Employee C → Employee CN Ａ and the third transfer path pattern R ３ Employee A → Employee D → Employee CN Ａ is.

[0098] Here, the processing of steps ST102 and ST103 may be performed after the processing of step ST105. In this case, for example, the inter-employee information transmission index calculation unit 31 only needs to calculate the information transmission index f between the employees included in the transmission path. Similarly, the intermediary employee penalty calculation unit 32 only needs to calculate the penalty evaluation value g of the intermediary employee in the transmission path. By processing in this manner, it is possible to calculate only the necessary inter-employee information transmission index f(α→β) and penalty evaluation value g(α).

[0099] In step ST106, the transfer path evaluation value calculation unit 34 calculates an information transfer index value and a transfer path evaluation value for each transfer path. The transfer path evaluation value calculation unit 34 calculates the sum of the information transfer index f(α→β) and the penalty evaluation value g(α) for each path, and calculates the evaluation value Score for each path by adding them up. Ｒ１ , Score Ｒ２ , .... The transfer path evaluation value calculation unit 34 outputs information about each path including the evaluation value Score of each path to the representative path determination unit 35.

[0100] 11 is a diagram showing an example of the calculated evaluation value Score for each path. As shown in FIG. 11, the first transfer path pattern R １ The evaluation formula in is f(A→CN Ａ ) Therefore, the evaluation value Score of the first transfer path Ｒ１ is 30. The second transfer path pattern R ２ The evaluation formula is f(A→B) + f(B→C) + f(C→CN Ａ ) + g(B) + g(C). Therefore, the evaluation value Score of the second transfer path Ｒ２ Similarly, the third transfer path pattern R ３ The evaluation formula is f(A → D) + f(D → CN Ａ ) + g(D). Therefore, the evaluation value Score of the third transfer path Ｒ３ becomes 28.

[0101] In step ST107, the representative route determination unit 35 determines a representative communication route and a representative evaluation value for the consultation candidate. The representative route determination unit 35 determines the communication route pattern R with the smallest evaluation value Score as the intermediate route, and determines the evaluation value Score as the representative evaluation value.

[0102] 12 is a diagram showing an example of the determined representative transfer path and the representative evaluation value. In the example of FIG. 12, the second transfer path pattern R ２ Since the evaluation value Score of the second transfer path is the smallest at 27, the second transfer path is the representative transfer path R ＣＮＡ The representative evaluation value Score ＣＮＡ becomes 27.

[0103] In step ST108, the representative route determination unit 35 adds the determined representative communication route and representative evaluation value to the information of the corresponding consultation candidate in the consultation candidate list. That is, the representative route determination unit 35 stores information on the best communication route and evaluation value among the corresponding candidates in the consultation candidate list storage unit 24 so that the information is added to the information of the corresponding consultation candidate.

[0104] In step ST109, the processor 101 operating as a determination unit determines whether there are any unselected consultation candidates in the consultation candidate list. If there are any unselected consultation candidates, the process returns to step ST104. On the other hand, if there are no unselected consultation candidates, the processor 101 determines that the representative communication paths and representative evaluation values ​​for all consultation candidates have been calculated. Then, the process proceeds to step ST110.

[0105] In step ST110, the recommendation level update unit 36 ​​updates the recommendation level of each consultation candidate using the representative evaluation value. The recommendation level update unit 36 ​​acquires the list stored in the consultation candidate list storage unit 24. Then, the recommendation level update unit 36 ​​updates the recommendation level of each consultation candidate CN obtained in step ST101, for example. Ａ , C.N. Ｂ , ... recommendation level W ＣＮＡ , W ＣＮＢ , ... is the representative evaluation value ScoreCN Ａ ,ScoreCN Ｂ , ..., and the updated recommendation level W' ＣＮＡ , W' ＣＮＢ , ... are calculated.

[0106] As a specific method of updating, for example, the recommendation level update unit 36 ​​updates the representative evaluation value ScoreCN determined in step ST107 as shown in the following formula: Ａ ,ScoreCN Ｂ , ... and the ratio of the maximum representative evaluation value to the other representative evaluation values ​​is the recommendation degree W ＣＮＡ , W ＣＮＢ , ... are multiplied by each other to calculate a new recommendation degree (i.e., the recommendation degree is updated). ＣＮＡ =W ＣＮＡ ×Max(Score) / Score ＣＮＡ , W' ＣＮＢ =W ＣＮＢ ×Max(Score) / Score ＣＮＢ ,... (Formula 1)

[0107] FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a recommendation level W′ obtained by updating the recommendation level W. In FIG. 13, employee X (consultation candidate CN Ａ ), Employee Y (Consultation candidate CNＢ ), Employee Z (Consultation candidate CN Ｃ 13 shows an example in which the recommendation levels W of the employees calculated in step ST101 are 30, 25, and 23, and the representative evaluation values ​​determined in step ST107 are 35, 25, and 30, respectively.

[0108] In this case, the updated recommendation levels W' become 30, 35, and 27, respectively, as shown in Fig. 13. As a result, while employee X was ranked 1 in the recommendation level W before the update, employee Y will be ranked in the recommendation level W' after the update.

[0109] In step ST111, the consultation candidate / recommendation level / transmission path output unit 41 outputs the consultation candidate, the corrected recommendation level, and the representative transmission path. The consultation candidate / recommendation level / transmission path output unit 41 acquires, from the consultation candidate list storage unit 24, the recommendation level W' updated by the recommendation level update unit 36, presentation information in which the consultation candidate, consultation candidate, and transmission path are sorted in descending order of recommendation level W'. The consultation candidate / recommendation level / transmission path output unit 41 then outputs the acquired information to the pairing result presentation unit 42. The pairing result presentation unit 42 transmits the presentation information to the user terminal UT used by the client via the network NW. Having received the presentation information, the user terminal UT of the client controls the display unit of the user terminal UT to display the presentation information. For example, in the example of Figure 12, the user terminal UT controls the display unit to display that the first candidate for consultation is employee Y and the communication route is XX, and the second candidate for consultation is employee X and the communication route is employee A → employee B → employee C → employee X.

[0110] As an option, when the selection operation of a consultation candidate by the seeker is accepted via the display screen of the user terminal UT, communication (by telephone, email, business chat, etc.) with the selected consultation candidate may be initiated from the seeker's user terminal UT. The communication between the seeker and the consultation candidate may be via the search server 1 or may not be via the search server 1.

[0111] The consultation candidate / recommendation level / transmission path output unit 41 generates notification information for notifying the consultation candidate with the highest updated recommendation level W' that the client has encountered a problem, and transmits the generated notification information via the network NW. When the user terminal UT of the consultation candidate receives this notification information, it controls the display unit to display that the candidate has been selected as a consultation candidate. The consultation candidate / recommendation level transmission path output unit 41 may also transmit notification information to the employee (user) who is the client's superior. For example, if the superior knows that the client has encountered a problem, it becomes possible to support the client in quickly resolving the problem even in a remote environment or an environment where it is difficult for the staff members to understand each other's skill sets.

[0112] As an option, when the user terminal UT accepts a consultation acceptance operation by the consultation candidate, communication (telephone, email, business chat, etc.) with the person seeking advice may be started from the user terminal UT of the consultation candidate. The communication between the consultation candidate and the person seeking advice may or may not be via the search server 1.

[0113] The processing of step ST105 described above may be omitted. That is, in this embodiment, it is not necessary to have another user (an intermediary user) act as an intermediary between the client and the multiple consultation candidates. Therefore, the processor 101 may update the recommendation level based on the direct information transmission index between the client and the multiple consultation candidates. In this case, the recommendation level of a consultation candidate with a low information transmission index between the client and the consultation candidate, i.e., a low psychological barrier, will be increased.

[0114] According to the present embodiment, the search server 1 determines a communication path between the person seeking advice and the candidate for consultation in consideration of psychological barriers (information communication indicators) between the person seeking advice and the candidate for consultation, thereby enabling the person seeking advice to more reliably start communication aimed at resolving their problem.

[0115] Furthermore, according to this embodiment, the search server 1 can present selectable evaluation indices for communication paths for resolving a problem. Therefore, based on the evaluation indices, a user other than the person seeking advice (e.g., the person's superior) can provide support for early resolution of the problem even in a remote environment or an environment where it is difficult to grasp the skill sets of the people involved.

[0116] Other Embodiments The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments. For example, in the above-described embodiments, the search server 1 is described as including the terminal handling content storage unit 21, the screen information database 22, the problem word storage unit 23, the consultation candidate list storage unit 24, the inter-employee communication information database 25, the inter-organizational relevance index database 26, and the employee penalty evaluation source information database 27. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, at least one of the terminal handling content storage unit 21, the screen information database 22, the problem word storage unit 23, the consultation candidate list storage unit 24, the inter-employee communication information database 25, the inter-organizational relevance index database 26, and the employee penalty evaluation source information database 27 may be provided in each user terminal UT or in an external device separate from the search server 1. The external device may be a database server separate from the search server 1 or a database provided via the cloud. Furthermore, the above devices may be provided separately in the external device or the user terminal UT.

[0117] Similarly, the pairing processing execution unit 11, the inter-employee information transmission index calculation unit 31, the intermediary employee penalty calculation unit 32, the consultant-consultation candidate transmission path search unit 33, the transmission path evaluation value calculation unit 34, the representative path determination unit 35, and the recommendation level update unit 36 ​​provided in the search server 1 may be distributed across multiple external devices, and these external devices may perform processing by coordinating with each other. Furthermore, each of these units may be realized using a circuit. The circuit may be a dedicated circuit that realizes a specific function, or a general-purpose circuit such as a processor.

[0118] Furthermore, the flow of each process described above is not limited to the procedures described, and the order of some steps may be changed, or some steps may be performed simultaneously in parallel. Furthermore, the series of processes described above do not need to be performed consecutively, and each step may be performed at any timing.

[0119] Furthermore, the techniques described in the above embodiments can be stored as a program (software means) that can be executed by a computer on a storage medium such as a magnetic disk (e.g., a floppy disk, a hard disk, etc.), an optical disk (e.g., a CD-ROM, a DVD, an MO, etc.), or a semiconductor memory (e.g., a ROM, a RAM, a flash memory, etc.), and can also be distributed by transmitting it via a communication medium. The program stored on the medium also includes a configuration program that configures the software means (including not only execution programs but also tables and data structures) that the computer executes. The computer that realizes this device loads the program stored on the storage medium and, in some cases, configures the software means using the configuration program, and executes the above-mentioned processing by controlling the operation of this software means. Note that the term "storage medium" as used herein is not limited to storage media for distribution, but also includes storage media such as magnetic disks and semiconductor memories installed inside the computer or in devices connected via a network.

[0120] In short, this invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications can be made in the implementation stage without departing from the spirit of the invention. Furthermore, the embodiments may be implemented in combination as appropriate as possible, and in such cases, the combined effects can be obtained. Furthermore, the above-described embodiments include inventions at various stages, and various inventions can be extracted by appropriately combining the disclosed multiple constituent elements.

[0121] 100...Search system 1...Search server 101...Processor 102...RAM 103...Program memory 104...Storage device 105...Input / output interface 106...Bus 11...Pairing processing execution unit 21...Terminal handling content storage unit 22...Screen information database 23...Problem word holding unit 24...Consultation candidate list storage unit 25...Inter-employee communication information database 26...Inter-organizational relevance index database 27...Employee penalty evaluation source information database 31...Inter-employee information transmission index calculation unit 32...Intermediary employee penalty calculation unit 33...Consultant-consultation candidate transmission route search unit 34...Transmission route evaluation value calculation unit 35...Representative route determination unit 36...Recommendation level update unit 41...Consultation candidate, recommendation level, transmission route output unit 42...Pairing result presentation unit UT...User terminal

Claims

1. An information processing device comprising: an acquisition unit that acquires a search request to search for a consultation user who a first user can consult with from among a plurality of users belonging to an organization; a memory unit that stores text information handled on a user terminal owned by the first user and communication information between the plurality of users; a pairing process execution unit that extracts a plurality of candidate users to be consulted based on the text information and calculates recommendation levels of the plurality of candidate users; a search unit that searches for a transmission path from the first user to the plurality of candidate users; a transmission index calculation unit that calculates an information transmission index indicating ease of contact between users included in the transmission path based on the communication information; an evaluation value calculation unit that calculates an evaluation value of the transmission path based on the information transmission index; a recommendation level update unit that updates the recommendation level based on the evaluation value; and an output control unit that outputs the consultation user and the transmission path to the consultation user based on the updated recommendation level.

2. The information processing device according to claim 1, wherein the memory unit further stores a relevance index indicating the relevance of the multiple users in the organization, and the transmission index calculation unit calculates the information transmission index further based on the relevance index.

3. The information processing device according to claim 1, wherein the recommendation degree update unit updates the recommendation degree by multiplying the recommendation degree by a ratio between a maximum evaluation value among the evaluation values ​​and the evaluation value.

4. The information processing device of claim 1, wherein the transmission path from the first user to the candidate user is a plurality of transmission paths including a path mediated by an intermediary user different from the first user and the candidate user, and the transmission index calculation unit calculates the information transmission index between users included in each of the plurality of transmission paths.

5. The information processing device according to claim 4, wherein the evaluation value calculation unit calculates the evaluation value further based on a penalty evaluation value that is an index of the likelihood of cooperation of the intermediary user.

6. The information processing device according to claim 5, further comprising: a penalty calculation unit that further stores an evaluation function reflecting the task execution status and user characteristics of the multiple users, and calculates the penalty evaluation value based on the task execution status and the evaluation function.

7. An information processing method executed by a processor of an information processing device, comprising: acquiring a search request for searching for a consultation user who a first user can consult with, from among a plurality of users belonging to an organization; storing text information handled on a user terminal owned by the first user and communication information between the plurality of users; extracting a plurality of candidate users who can be consulted based on the text information and calculating recommendation degrees of the plurality of candidate users; searching for a transmission path from the first user to the plurality of candidate users; calculating an information transmission index indicating the ease of contact between users included in the transmission path based on the communication information; an evaluation value calculation unit that calculates an evaluation value of the transmission path based on the information transmission index; updating the recommendation degree based on the evaluation value; and outputting the consultation user and the transmission path to the consultation user based on the updated recommendation degree.

8. An information processing program having instructions to be executed by a processor of an information processing device, the instructions comprising: acquiring a search request for searching for a consultation user who a first user can consult with, from among a plurality of users belonging to an organization; storing text information handled on a user terminal owned by the first user and communication information between the plurality of users; extracting a plurality of candidate users who can be consulted based on the text information and calculating recommendation degrees of the plurality of candidate users; searching for transmission paths from the first user to the plurality of candidate users; calculating an information transmission index indicating the ease of contact between users included in the transmission path based on the communication information; an evaluation value calculation unit that calculates an evaluation value of the transmission path based on the information transmission index; updating the recommendation degree based on the evaluation value; and outputting the consultation user and the transmission path to the consultation user based on the updated recommendation degree.