Document lifecycle tracking system and method for use with a document production process

Abstract

A method for monitoring the status of documents created by a large scale document production and management processes. The production and management process may be comprised of a plurality of different stages including: utilizing a print stream to generate the documents, printing documents on a printer in accordance with the print stream, and forming completed mail pieces on an inserter from the printed documents in accordance with mail piece creation data files. A monitoring system receives information regarding the status of individual documents within these production and management process stages. A user may then select one of the stages for closer inspection of the status of documents. For the selected stage, status of individual documents is displayed

1 . A method for monitoring the status of documents created by a large scale document production and management process, the production and management process including a plurality of stages selected from the following group: utilizing a print stream to generate the documents, printing documents on a printer in accordance with the print stream, forming completed mail pieces on an inserter from the printed documents in accordance with mail piece creation data files, sorting the completed mail pieces on an outgoing sorter in accordance with carrier service specifications, delivering the completed mail pieces to a recipient by a carrier service, delivering a response mail piece from the recipient by the carrier service, and sorting the response mail piece at an incoming sorter, each document within the production and management process having a unique identifier; the method comprising:
 specifying the unique identifier of a particular document, the unique identifier applicable to the particular document across all of the plurality of stages; and   displaying the current stage and status of the specified particular document, as identified by the unique identifier.   
     
     
         2 . A method for monitoring the status of documents created by a large scale document production and management process, the production and management process including a plurality of stages selected from the following group: utilizing a print stream to generate the documents, printing documents on a printer in accordance with the print stream, forming completed mail pieces on an inserter from the printed documents in accordance with mail piece creation data files, sorting the completed mail pieces on an outgoing sorter in accordance with carrier service specifications, delivering the completed mail pieces to a recipient by a carrier service, delivering a response mail piece from the recipient by the carrier service, and sorting the response mail piece at an incoming sorter, the method comprising:
 storing records relating to individual documents processed by the document production and management process, each record being identified by a non-recurring identifier;   monitoring the status of the individual documents during a plurality of stages in the document production and management process;   relating the monitored status of individual documents to the non-recurring identifier;   updating the stored records to indicate the monitored status of individual documents throughout the document production and management process; and   displaying the status of one or more individual documents during the document production and management process based on the updated stored records that are related to the non-recurring identifier.