A system for facilitating marketing dialogues permits multiple instances
of multiple scripts to be active at the same time, where each of these
dialogues can be at a different place in its script. The dialogues permit
interactive communications between the user of the system (such as a
marketer) and the user's customers or other participants. Scripts are
created using a graphical user interface, in which shapes corresponding
to steps in a script are dragged and dropped into a script.
Communications can be over a network, by telephone, by mail, or by other
means. Overall data from the execution of the scripts can be monitored
using another graphical user interface, allowing results and trends to be
observed and corrections made to the marketing program. Information
regarding the scripts and variables used by the scripts is maintained in
a set of tables in one or more databases. A data dictionary provides an
interface for data stored in the databases.