Mobile provisioning tool system

• US 8,315,198 B2
• Filed: 05/23/2007
• Issued: 11/20/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/07/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Original Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Inventors: Corneille, Kevin R., Climenson, Ernie
• Primary Examiner(s): Mehrpour, Melody
• Assistant Examiner(s): STEPHEN, EMEM O
• Application Number:
  US11/752,747
• Publication Number:
  US 20080025243A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,008 Days
• Field of Search: 455/456.3, 455411-419, 709/246, 709/206, 370/313, 340/7.2
• US Class Current: 370/313
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation

Abstract

A mobile provisioning tool system including a software provisioning tool application. The mobile provisioning tool system includes mobile devices capable of conducting wireless communication with wireless access points. A carrier network is connected with the wireless access points and a customer network that includes at least one business application. A provisioning tool application is located on a provisioning server. The provisioning tool application includes a CRM Rep component and an IT Admin component. A software provisioning tool application allows the provisioning workstation to automatically install mobile business services and configure network configuration settings on the mobile device.

Claims

1. A mobile provisioning tool system, comprising:

a provisioning workstation;

a provisioning server coupled to a carrier network, the provisioning workstation, and a plurality of customer networks, wherein the carrier network comprises at least one wireless access point configured to operably communicate with a plurality of mobile devices, and where each of the customer networks comprise at least one business application accessible over the carrier network, the at least one business application comprising at least one of a user personal information management application and a customer specific database application;

a provisioning tool interface operable on the provisioning server, the provisioning tool interface comprising a customer representative interface and an information technology administrator interface, the customer representative interface configured to administer a plurality of customer accounts in each of the respective customer networks, add and remove from the customer accounts business services corresponding to the at least one business application, and assign an information technology administrator account for each of the respective customer accounts, the information technology administrator interface configured to manage a respective group of the mobile devices for each one of the customer accounts, and restrict access to each of the respective customer accounts via the information technology administrator interface to only the information technology administrator account assigned to the respective customer accounts; and

a software provisioning tool operable on the provisioning workstation, the software provisioning tool configured by a respective information technology administrator account to automatically install at least one mobile business service and configure at least one network configuration on the respective group of the mobile devices for one of the customer accounts to which the respective information technology administrator account has been assigned.

2. The mobile provisioning tool system of claim 1, wherein the customer representative interface is configured to receive data associated with each of the respective customer accounts that includes customer information, information technology administration information, and business services server information.

3. The mobile provisioning tool system of claim 2, wherein the customer information comprises customer specific data, the information technology administration information comprises information technology login information, and the business services server information includes a business service server entry, a domain entry and a port entry, and the provisioning server further comprises a customer database configured to store the customer information, the information technology administration information, and the business services server information for each of the customer accounts.

4. The mobile provisioning tool system of claim 1, wherein the customer representative interface is further configured to receive an add customer business service request to subscribe a plurality of customer accounts to the at least one mobile business service.

5. The mobile provisioning tool system of claim 4, wherein the add customer business service request includes a capability to add customer business service request information for each of the customers, the customer business service request information comprising a business service selection, a business service host entry, a host name entry, a port entry, a mean speed entry, a peak speed entry, a scheme entry, and a concurrent connection entry;

and the add customer business service request information is stored in a customer database in communication with the provisioning server.

6. The mobile provisioning tool system of claim 1, wherein the information technology administrator interface is further configured to enable subscription of the respective group of mobile devices of one of the customer accounts to the at least one mobile business service, the at least one mobile business service comprising a data synchronization application.

7. The mobile provisioning tool system of claim 1, wherein the customer representative interface is further configured to generate for display a list of active customer accounts and a list of inactive customer accounts.

8. The mobile provisioning tool system of claim 1, wherein the customer representative interface is further configured to receive a deactivate customer request, and in response to receipt of the deactivate customer request, the provisioning server is configured to deactivate a respective customer account.

9. The mobile provisioning tool system of claim 8, wherein the customer representative interface is further configured to receive are-activate customer request, and in response to receipt of the re-activate customer request, the provisioning server is further configured to re-activate the respective customer account.

10. The mobile provisioning tool system of claim 1, further comprising an authorization management interface operable on the provisioning server, the authorization management interface configured to receive and enable management of access rights information for each of the information technology administrator accounts assigned to respective customer accounts.

11. The mobile provisioning tool system of claim 10, wherein the provisioning server is configured create an authorized user account associated with a customer account in response to receipt by the authorization management interface of a user request to create the authorized user, and delete the authorized user account associated with the customer account in response to receipt by the authorization management interface of a user request to delete the authorized user.

12. The mobile provisioning tool system of claim 10, wherein the authorization management interface is further configured to enable blocking and unblocking of access to the mobile provisioning tool system by a previously authorized user account.

13. The mobile provisioning tool system of claim 1, wherein the customer representative interface is further configured to generate a list of mobile business services supported by the mobile provisioning tool system, where the list includes an indication of active and inactive mobile business services associated with a respective customer account, the customer representative interface further configured to receive a user input to at least one of activate a new mobile business service associated with the respective customer account, or deactivate an active mobile business service associated with the respective customer account.

14. The mobile provisioning tool system of claim 1, wherein the customer representative interface is further configured to receive a user input to add an additional business service, the received user input comprising a general service type selection, a service number, a service name, a gateway address and a description.

15. The mobile provisioning tool system of claim 14, where the gateway address points to a connector gateway for a mobile business service being added in response to receipt of the user request, the connector gateway configured to forward a synchronization request to a corresponding company IP address.

16. The mobile provisioning tool system of claim 1, wherein the information technology administrator interface is configured to receive an add new user indication for a respective customer account, the add new user indication comprising user information, customer information and a domain.

17. The mobile provisioning tool system of claim 16, wherein the domain includes an email mailbox identifier designating a mailbox associated with an added user, and an email domain identifier designating a domain of an email application associated with a customer account of the added user.

18. The mobile provisioning tool system of claim 1, wherein the information technology administrator interface is configured to enable activation and deactivation of a respective end user of one of the mobile devices in the respective group of mobile devices.

19. The mobile provisioning tool system of claim 1, wherein the software provisioning tool is further configured to enable selection of a type of mobile device, and in response to receipt of a user selection of the type of mobile device, the software provisioning tool is further configured to generate an indication of at least one supported device.

20. The mobile provisioning tool system of claim 19, where in response to receipt of the indication of the at least one supported device, the software provisioning tool is further configured to generate an application list including at least one user selectable mobile business application that is downloadable to the indicated at least one supported device.

21. The mobile provisioning tool system of claim 1, wherein the at least one mobile business service further comprises a synchronization application operable to synchronize data on one or more of the respective group of the mobile devices with the at least one business application located on the customer network.

22. A method of provisioning software on a plurality of mobile devices, comprising:

initiating an automatic provisioning process by selection of a configuration initiation icon generated on a provisioning workstation;

confirming the mobile devices are connected with the provisioning workstation;

determining a processor type used by each of the mobile devices by querying an end user database that contains information indicative of the processor type used by each of the mobile devices;

downloading a self-extracting installation file to the provisioning workstation;

copying the self-extracting installation file to the mobile devices;

triggering the self-extracting installation file to install at least one business service application on each of the mobile devices; and

updating a plurality of registries of the mobile devices with a plurality of registry entries, wherein said plurality of registry entries comprises at least one registry entry that is unique to a user of a particular mobile device of the mobile devices, and wherein said plurality of registry entries further comprises at least one static registry entry.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the self-extracting installation file is a processor-specific installation file associated with a respective processor type used by each of the mobile devices.

24. The method of claim 22, wherein the self-extracting installation file is a CAB file.

25. The method of claim 22, further comprising:

detecting that the mobile devices are not connected to the provisioning workstation; and

generating a message to instruct a provisioner to connect the mobile devices to the provisioning workstation.

26. The method of claim 22, further comprising:

downloading the self-extracting installation file from a mobile service bureau server connected with the provisioning workstation.

27. The method of claim 22, further comprising:

searching a storage medium on the provisioning workstation for the self-extracting installation file;

detecting the self-extracting installation file already exists on the provisioning workstation; and

the provisioning workstation initiating copying of the self-extracting installation file to each of the mobile devices upon detection that the self-extracting installation file already exists on the provisioning workstation.

28. The method of claim 22, further comprising:

copying the self-extracting installation file to each of the mobile devices using a remote application programming interface.

29. The method of claim 22, further comprising:

initiating installation of the self-extracting installation file on each of the mobile devices with a remote application programming interface.

30. The method of claim 22, wherein the registry on each of the mobile devices is updated to include a user mailbox setting, an email server domain setting, and an email server name setting.