Tenant engagement signal acquisition and exposure

• US 10,223,174 B2
• Filed: 04/15/2016
• Issued: 03/05/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 12/10/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Johnson, Warren, Lopez, Matt J., Balarajan, Paul Sanjeev, Siow, Andy K J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Onat, Umut
• Application Number:
  US15/099,724
• Publication Number:
  US 20170168877A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,054 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/541 via adapters, e.g. between incompatible applications
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063112 Skill-based matching of a person or a group to a task

Abstract

Tenant engagement signals are exposed to third party systems through an application programming interface (API). The third parties acquire the signals through the API, surface them, and launch workflows based on the tenant engagement signals acquired, in order to assist the tenant in the on-boarding process.

Claims

1. A computing system, comprising:

a processor; and

memory storing instructions executable by the processor, wherein the instructions, when executed, configure the computing system to provide;

a service hosting component configured to host an on-line service for a tenant, wherein the hosted on-line service is accessible, over a computer network, by a plurality of users associated with the tenant;

a tenant engagement system configured to;

generate tenant usage information indicative of usage of the hosted on-line service by the plurality of users associated with the tenant; and

generate context information corresponding to a context of the usage of the hosted on-line service; and

a signal exposure system configured to;

expose a signal acquisition application programming interface (API) to a third party system, the signal acquisition API having a method configured to be called to acquire a tenant engagement signal indicative of the tenant usage information and the context information;

detect a method call from the third party system, wherein the method call calls the method of the signal acquisition API and requests the tenant engagement signal; and

in response to the method call, provide the tenant engagement signal to the third party system through the signal acquisition API.

2. The computing system of claim 1 wherein the signal exposure system comprises:

signal acquisition logic that is configured to interact with the tenant engagement system to obtain the requested tenant engagement signal that are returned by the signal exposure system, through the signal acquisition API in response to the method call.

3. The computing system of claim 2 wherein the tenant engagement system comprises:

client side engagement sensing logic configured generate a client engagement signal indicative of individual client engagement with the on-line service at a tenant organization, the signal exposure system being configured to expose the client engagement signal through the signal acquisition API as the tenant engagement signal.

4. The computing system of claim 3 wherein the service hosting component comprises a multi-tenant computing system.

5. The computing system of claim 4 wherein the tenant engagement system comprises:

a web server front end system configured to;

provide an interface between the multi-tenant computing system and the tenant; and

generate client interaction information indicative of individual client interaction with the on-line service,

wherein the context information includes the client interaction information.

6. The computing system of claim 2 wherein the tenant engagement system comprises:

a context-based routing system configured to generate the context information corresponding to a context of the tenant engaging with the on-line service.

7. The computing system of claim 6 wherein the context-based routing system comprises:

an on-boarding step identifier configured to;

automatically identify a step, of a plurality of steps, that a user has completed in a predefined on-boarding process that is used by a user to set up and configure the on-line service; and

generate a step identifier indicative of the identified step,

wherein the context information includes the step identifier.

8. The computing system of claim 7 wherein the instructions, when executed, configure the computing system to provide:

a workflow generation component configured to launch a workflow based on the obtained tenant engagement signal, the workflow being configured to assist the tenant in the on-boarding process.

9. The computing system of claim 7 wherein the context-based routing system comprises:

rate detection logic configured to;

detect a rate with which the user has completed steps in the on-boarding process; and

generate a rate indicator indicative of the detected rate,

wherein the context information includes the rate indicator; and

a problem identification system configured to;

access a set of context-to-problem mappings based on the step identifier and the rate indicator to identify the on-boarding issue,

wherein the context information includes the on-boarding issue.

10. The computing system of claim 3 wherein the client side engagement sensing logic comprises:

idle time detection logic configured to;

detect an idle time for which the user is idle on a given user interface display generated during the on-boarding process; and

generate a UT indicator indicative of the given user interface display and an idle time indicator indicative of the detected idle time,

wherein the context information includes the UI indicator and the idle time indicator.

11. A computer-implemented method comprising:

detecting tenant interaction with an on-line service hosted by a multi-tenant computing system, wherein the on-line service is accessible, over a computer network, by a plurality of users associated with a tenant associated with the multi-tenant computing system;

based on the detected tenant interaction, generating tenant usage information indicative of usage of the on-line service by the plurality of users associated with the tenant;

generating context information corresponding to a context of the usage of the on-line service;

exposing a signal acquisition application programming interface (API) to a third party system, the signal acquisition API having a method configured to be called to obtain a tenant engagement signal indicative of the tenant usage information and the context information;

detecting a method call from the third party system, wherein the method call calls the method of the signal acquisition API and requests the tenant engagement signal; and

in response to the method call, providing the tenant engagement signal to the third party system through the signal acquisition API.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11 and further comprising:

interacting with a tenant engagement system to obtain the requested tenant engagement signal.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 12 and further comprising:

generating a client engagement signal indicative of individual client engagement with the on-line service at a tenant organization; and

wherein the context information includes the client engagement signal.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 13 and further comprising:

automatically identifying a step, of a plurality of steps, that a user has completed in a predefined on-boarding process that is used by a user to set up and configure the on-line service; and

generating a step identifier indicative of the identified step; and

wherein the context information includes the step identifier.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 14 and further comprising:

detecting a rate with which the user has completed the steps in the on-boarding process; and

generating a rate indicator indicative of the detected rate; and

wherein the context information includes the rate indicator.

16. The computer implemented method of claim 15 and further comprising:

accessing a set of context-to-problem mappings based on the step identifier and the rate indicator; and

identifying an on-boarding issue; and

wherein the context information includes the on-boarding issue.

17. A computing system, comprising:

a processor; and

memory storing instructions executable by the processor, wherein the instructions, when executed configure the computing system to provide;

a service hosting component configured to host an on-line service for a tenant, wherein the hosted on-line service is accessible, over a computer network, by a client device associated with the tenant;

an on-boarding step identifier configured to;

automatically identify a step, of a plurality of steps, that a user has completed in a predefined on-boarding process that is used by to set up and configure the on-line service; and

generate a step identifier indicative of the identified step;

rate detection logic configured to;

detect a rate with which the user is completing the steps in the on-boarding process; and

generate a rate indicator indicative of the detected rate;

an engagement context system configured to;

based on the step identifier and the rate indicator, generate engagement context information, indicative of a context of the usage of the hosted on-line service by the tenant;

a problem identification system configured to;

access a set of context-to-problem mappings, that map context information to different on-boarding issues related to the on-line service; and

based on the set of context-to-problem mappings, identify a particular on-boarding issue that is mapped to the generated engagement context information; and

a signal exposure system configured to;

expose a signal acquisition application programming interface (API) to a third party system, the signal exposure API having a method that is called to obtain a tenant engagement signal indicative of the particular on-boarding issue.

18. The computing system of claim 17 wherein the service hosting component comprises a multi-tenant computing system configured to generate tenant usage information indicative of tenant use of the on-line service, and the instructions, when executed configure the computing system to provide:

client side engagement sensing logic configured to generate a client engagement signal indicative of individual client engagement with the on-line service at a tenant organization; and

a web server front end system configured to;

provide an interface between the multi-tenant computing system and the tenant; and

generate client interaction information indicative of individual client interaction with the on-line service,

the signal exposure system being configured to expose the client engagement signal, the tenant usage information and the client interaction information through the signal acquisition API as the tenant engagement signal.