System and method for providing on-line services for multiple entities

• US 20040003347A1
• Filed: 06/28/2002
• Published: 01/01/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: UBS Business Solutions AG (UBS Ag)
• Original Assignee: UBS PaineWebber, Inc. (UBS Ag)
• Inventors: Saidenberg, Steven D., Marsh, John C., Messano, Dominick, Park, Andrew K., Petersen, John D.
• Granted Patent: US 7,343,550 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/511
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2117 User registration
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions

Abstract

A system and method for determining a set of applications that can be accessed by a group or constituency of entitled users from among the applications associated with a server system. The system may provide a common look and feel for the applications accessed by a particular group or constituency based on an identification subentity code. Applications are informed of the constituency group associated with the user to cause application of particular business logic in conjunction with the entitled applications.

Claims

1. A system for providing Internet service to multiple constituencies, the system comprising:

a server system supporting a plurality of applications, the server system being coupled to a network that communicates with at least one terminal;

a database coupled to the server system, the database configured to store at least one of an entity code and one or more subentity codes, and a user identifier associated with a particular user, each user identifier being associated with a constituency, and each constituency being associated with one subentity code;

wherein the server system is configured to determine a particular set of entitled applications and a set of business rules based upon the subentity code, configured to provide user access only to an entitled set of applications, and configured to output interactive pages associated with the entitled set of applications to a user at a terminal.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the server system further comprises:

a customization module configured to determine a style for the interactive pages based upon the entity code and the subentity code associated with the constituency to which a requesting user belongs; and

a user interface module configured to generate interactive pages according to a style indicated by the customization module.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the customization module is configured to determine a common portion of the style based on the entity code associated with the user, and is further configured to determine a subentity unique portion of the style based on the subentity code.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the customization module is further configured to modify the style in response to user unique page parameters based on a user identifier.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the customization module is configured to generate a default set of entitled applications if the database is unavailable.

6. The system of claim 2, wherein the user interface module is capable of accepting user modifications to the page parameters and storing the updated parameters in the database.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the interactive pages include at least shared pages and subentity pages.

8. A method for serving multiple entities on-line, the method comprising:

storing, using a database, at least one of an entity code and one or more subentity codes, each subentity code being associated with one entity code;

associating each user with at least one subentity code;

selecting a set of applications to which a user is entitled based on a subentity code associated with the user;

propagating the subentity code among the entitled applications;

determining a set of business rules to be applied in conjunction with the entitled applications based on subentity code;

generating one or more interactive pages associated with the entitled applications and in accordance with the determined set of business rules; and

outputting the interactive pages to the user at a terminal.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

associating a user identifier with each user;

associating each user identifier with a constituency; and

associating each constituency with a subentity code.

10. The method of claim 8, the server system further comprising:

determining a style for the interactive pages based upon the entity code and the subentity code associated with the constituency to which the requesting user belongs; and

generating the interactive pages according to the style thus determined.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the determining a style further includes:

determining a common portion of the style based on the entity code; and

determining a subentity unique portion of the style based on the subentity code.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising modifying the style in response to user unique page parameters based on a user identifier.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein the selecting further includes generating a default set of entitled applications if the database is unavailable.

14. The method of claim 8, further comprising accepting user modifications to the page parameters and storing the updated parameters in the database.

15. The method of claim 8, wherein the interactive pages include at least shared pages and subentity pages.

16. A computer-readable medium upon which is embodied a set of programmable instructions that when executed cause a processor to:

store, using a database, at least one of an entity code and one or more subentity codes, each subentity code being associated with one entity code, and associate each user with at least one subentity code;

select a set of applications to which the user is entitled based on subentity code;

propagate the subentity code among the entitled applications;

determine a set of business rules to be applied in conjunction with the entitled applications based on subentity code;

generate one or more interactive pages associated with the entitled applications and in accordance with the determined set of business rules, and output the interactive pages to a user at a terminal.

17. A system for providing proxy Internet service to multiple constituencies, the system comprising:

a server system supporting a plurality of applications, the server system being coupled to a network that communicates with at least one terminal;

a database coupled to the server system, the database configured to store at least one of an entity code and one or more subentity codes, and a user identifier associated with a particular user, each user identifier being associated with a constituency, each constituency being associated with one subentity code that identifies a service, and each entity being associated with a third party service provider;

the server system being configured to output interactive pages associated with the entitled set of applications to a user at a terminal;

a customization module configured to determine a style for interactive pages based upon the entity code and the subentity code associated with the constituency to which the requesting user belongs, the pages having a look and feel associated with the third party service provider, and configured to determine a particular set of entitled applications and a set of business rules based upon the subentity code, the server system being configured to provide user access only to the entitled set of applications; and

a user interface module configured to generate the interactive pages according to the style indicated by the customization module.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the customization module is further configured to determine a common portion of the style based on the entity code, and to determine a subentity unique portion of the style based on the subentity code.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the customization module is further configured to modify the style in response to user unique page parameters based on a user identifier.

20. A method for providing proxy Internet service to multiple entities on-line, the method comprising:

storing, using a database, at least one of a user identifier, an entity code, and one or more subentity codes, each user identifier being associated with at least one subentity code, each subentity code identifying a constituency and being associated with one entity code, each entity code being associated with a third party service provider;

selecting a set of applications to which a user is entitled based on subentity code;

propagating the subentity code among the entitled applications;

determining a set of business rules to be applied in conjunction with the entitled applications based on subentity code;

determining a style for one or more interactive pages based upon the entity code and the subentity code associated with the constituency to which the requesting user belongs, the page style for a particular entity code having a common look and feel; and

generating the interactive pages associated with the entitled applications and in accordance with the determined set of business rules and the determined style such that the pages for a particular entity code have a common look and feel, and outputting the pages to the user at a terminal.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the determining a style further includes:

determining a common portion of the style based on the entity code; and

determining a subentity unique portion of the style based on the subentity code.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising modifying the style in response to user unique page parameters based on a user identifier.

23. The method of claim 20, wherein the selecting further includes generating a default set of entitled applications if the database is unavailable.

24. The method of claim 20, further comprising accepting user modifications to the page parameters and storing the updated parameters in the database.

25. The method of claim 20, wherein the interactive pages include at least shared pages and subentity pages.