TECHNIQUES TO MANAGE ACCESS TO ORGANIZATIONAL INFORMATION OF AN ENTITY

• US 20130332891A1
• Filed: 08/12/2013
• Published: 12/12/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Schmitlin, Ben, Veeraravaghan, Venky, Antonoff, Lauren
• Granted Patent: US 9,804,747 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/853
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/245 Query processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/067 Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

Techniques to manage access to organization information for an entity are described. An apparatus may include a presentation component operative to present an organizational chart on a presentation area. The organizational chart may comprise multiple nodes associated with members of an organization, and connections between the nodes representing hierarchical relationships between the nodes. A security component may be communicatively coupled to the presentation component. The security component may be operative to receive a request to modify a characteristic of the organizational chart from an operator, access security settings for the operator, and authorize the operator to modify a characteristic of the organizational chart. Authorization may be granted, for example, when the operator is a delegate and a permission level for the delegate allows a modification operation associated with the modify request. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

displaying an organization view comprising;

a presentation area, a navigation control, a search control, an edit control and an input interface;

the presentation area to present an organizational chart comprising multiple nodes associated with members of an organization, and connections between the nodes representing hierarchical relationships between the nodes;

receiving a request to modify a characteristic of the organizational chart from an operator via the edit control;

determining whether the operator is a delegate of a member from the organization;

determining a permission level associated with the delegate based on a position of the node associated with the operator in the organizational chart and not based on the member associated with the node;

authorizing the operator to modify the characteristic of the organizational chart in response to the modify request when the operator is a delegate and the permission level allows a modification operation associated with the modify request; and

receiving a modification to the characteristic of the organizational chart via the input interface.

2. The method of claim 1, comprising:

storing a permission level as metadata associated with the organizational chart.

3. The method of claim 1, comprising:

receiving a search command via the search control;

searching organizational information associated with the organizational chart according to the search command; and

displaying a result of the search.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the request to modify comprises at least one of:

a move command, an edit command, a delete command, and an add command.

5. The method of claim 4, comprising changing metadata associated with a node in the organizational chart in response to an edit command.

6. The method of claim 1, comprising receiving a command to at least one of:

pan, rotate, center and zoom the organizational chart in the presentation area via the navigation control.

7. An apparatus, comprising:

a presentation component configured to present an organization view comprising;

a presentation area, a navigation control, a search control, an edit control and an input interface;

the presentation area to present an organizational chart comprising multiple nodes associated with members of an organization, and connections between the nodes representing hierarchical relationships between the nodes; and

a mashing component configured to receive custom code from an operator that defines additional information and specifies a source of the additional information for overlaying on the organizational chart, execute the custom code to retrieve the additional information from the specified sources, determine where to display the retrieved additional information on the organizational chart, and overlay additional information associated with members of the organization on the nodes of the organizational chart associated with the members, in accordance with the determining.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, comprising:

a search component configured to search organizational information associated with the organizational chart according to a command received via the search control to search data associated with the organizational chart, wherein the presentation component is configured to display a result of the search.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the organizational information comprises searchable metadata associated with each of the members of the organization.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the searchable metadata comprises at least one of:

a name of a position, a name of an employee occupying a position, an e-mail address of an employee occupying a position, a building that an employee occupying a position resides in, a general description of the position, a hierarchical relationship between a position and another position of the organization, information associated with an employee, information associated with a group, and information associated with a position.

11. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the search command is a complex search query to search in multiple types of searchable metadata.

12. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the edit control comprises at least one of:

a move command, an edit command, a delete command, and an add command.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the edit command allows an operator to change metadata associated with a node in the organizational chart.

14. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the navigation control allows an operator to pan, rotate, center and zoom the organizational chart in the presentation area.

15. An article comprising a storage medium containing instructions that when executed cause a system to:

display an organization view comprising;

a presentation area, a navigation control, a search control, an edit control and an input interface;

the presentation area to present an organizational chart comprising multiple nodes associated with members of an organization, and connections between the nodes representing hierarchical relationships between the nodes;

receive custom code from an operator that defines additional information and specifies a source of the additional information for overlaying on the organizational chart, execute the custom code to retrieve the additional information from the specified sources, determine where to display the retrieved additional information on the organizational chart, and overlay additional information associated with members of the organization on the nodes of the organizational chart associated with the members, in accordance with the determining;

receive a request to modify a characteristic of the organizational chart from an operator via the edit control;

determine whether the operator has explicitly defined security information;

determining an implicit security permission level when the operator does not have any explicitly defined security information; and

authorizing the operator to modify the characteristic of the organizational chart in response to the modify request when the implicit security permission level allows a modification operation associated with the modify request.

16. The article of claim 15, wherein the implicit security permission level is determined according to a trusted relationship of the operator with a member of the organization.

17. The article of claim 15, wherein the implicit security permission level is determined according to a position or role of the operator.

18. The article of claim 15, further comprising instructions that when executed cause the system to deny the modify request when the implicit security permission level does not allow the modification operation associated with the modify request.