System and method for promoting enterprise adoption of a web-based collaboration environment

• US 9,965,745 B2
• Filed: 02/24/2012
• Issued: 05/08/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 02/24/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Box Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Box Incorporated
• Inventors: Savage, John Brandon, Evans-Pratt, Thomas
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, MINH CHAU
• Application Number:
  US13/405,164
• Publication Number:
  US 20130227007A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,265 Days
• Field of Search: 709203-207
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/101 Collaborative creation, e.g. joint development of products or services

Abstract

System and method for promoting enterprise adoption of a web-based collaboration environment are disclosed. In one aspect, embodiments of the present disclosure include a method, which may be implemented on a system, for detecting eligibility of a user having an account in the web-based collaboration environment, for the user to invite additional users to join the web-based collaboration environment, providing the user with a mechanism to invite the additional users to join the web-based collaboration environment to create accounts with enhanced features, and/or sending, to those of the additional users who qualify, an invitation to create new accounts in the web-based collaboration environment, those of the additional users who qualify are affiliated with the enterprise of the user having the account. The new accounts that are created include the enhanced features.

Claims

1. A method for promoting enterprise adoption of a collaboration platform accessible as a cloud-based service, the collaboration platform including a plurality of enterprise-specific deployments, the method, comprising:

determining that a current user is eligible to invite potential additional users to create accounts linked with a particular enterprise deployment of the collaboration platform if the current user has a collaboration platform account linked with the particular enterprise;

wherein the particular enterprise deployment of the collaboration platform includes a plurality of shared work items stored in a plurality of workspaces, the plurality of shared work items accessible to collaborators affiliated with the particular enterprise;

causing display to the current user, via an interface for accessing the plurality of shared work items stored in the particular enterprise deployment of the collaboration platform, an option to invite a group of potential additional users to create accounts linked with particular enterprise deployment of the collaboration platform, in response to determining the current user is eligible;

receiving identifying information for the group of potential additional users, the identifying information submitted by the current user via the displayed option;

identifying enterprise affiliations for the group of potential additional users based on domain information included in the received identifying information;

identifying one or more eligible potential users from the group of potential additional users that are affiliated with the same particular enterprise as the current user based on the identified enterprise affiliations;

transmitting, via a computer network, to each of the identified one or more eligible potential users, an invitation to create a new account with the collaboration platform; and

creating new accounts linked to the particular enterprise deployment of the collaboration platform for one or more new users, wherein the one or more new users are those of the identified one or more eligible potential users who accept the invitations.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the group of potential additional users are invited to create the accounts with enhanced features in the collaboration platform, and the new accounts in the collaboration platform that are created include the enhanced features.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the enhanced features include one or more of the additional storage or version history tracking.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein enhanced features include one or more of additional storage or an increased maximum file size upload or download capability.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein enhanced features include a feature to download multiple folders or to download the contents of an entire folder.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein, the eligibility of the current user to invite potential additional users is determined based on an eligibility flag associated with the collaboration platform account of the current user.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising setting the eligibility flag based on one or more criteria.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the eligibility of the current user to invite potential additional users is determined based on whether the current user is an employee of the particular enterprise.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the eligibility of the current user to invite additional users is determined based on an email address of the current user with which the collaboration platform account of the current user is registered.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the new users are eligible to invite other potential users to join the web-based collaboration environment with accounts that have the enhanced features.

11. A machine-readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions which, when executed by one or more processors of a collaboration platform including a plurality of enterprise-specific deployments, increase viral adoption within and across a particular enterprise deployment of the collaboration platform by:

determining that a current user is eligible to invite potential additional users to create accounts linked with the particular enterprise deployment of the collaboration platform if the current user has a collaboration platform account linked with the particular enterprise;

wherein the particular enterprise deployment of the collaboration platform includes a plurality of shared work items stored in a plurality of workspaces, the plurality of shared work items accessible to collaborators affiliated with the particular enterprise;

causing display to the current user, via an interface for accessing the plurality of shared work items stored in the particular enterprise deployment of the collaboration platform, an option to invite a group of potential additional users to create accounts linked with the particular enterprise deployment of the collaboration platform, in response to determining that the current user is eligible;

receiving identifying information for the group of potential additional users, the identifying information submitted by the current user via the displayed option;

identifying enterprise affiliations for the group of potential additional users based on domain information included in the received identifying information;

identifying one or more eligible potential users from the group of potential additional users that are affiliated with the same particular enterprise as the current user based on the identified enterprise affiliations;

transmitting, via a computer network, to each of the identified one or more eligible potential users, an invitation to create a new account with the collaboration platform; and

creating new accounts linked to the particular enterprise deployment of the collaboration platform for one or more new users, wherein the one or more new users are those of those of the identified one or more eligible potential users who accept the invitations.

12. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein, the identifying information includes an email address.

13. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein, the domain information includes a domain of the email address.

14. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein, the interface for accessing the plurality of shared work items stored in the particular enterprise deployment of the collaboration platform is a web-interface.

15. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein, the new accounts are created in the collaboration platform with enhanced features.

16. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein, the interface for accessing the plurality of shared work items stored in the particular enterprise deployment of the collaboration platform is accessible via a mobile device.

17. A system for enhancing viral adoption of a collaboration platform including a plurality of enterprise-specific deployments, the system, comprising:

a processing unit;

a memory unit having stored thereon instructions which when executed by the processing unit, cause the system to;

determine that a current user is eligible to invite potential additional users to create accounts linked with a particular enterprise deployment of the collaboration platform if the current user has a collaboration platform account linked with the particular enterprise;

wherein the particular enterprise deployment of the collaboration platform includes a plurality of shared work items stored in a plurality of workspaces, the plurality of shared work items accessible to collaborators affiliated with the particular enterprise;

cause display to the current user, via an interface for accessing the plurality of shared work items stored in the particular enterprise deployment of the collaboration platform, an option to invite a group of potential additional users to create accounts linked with particular enterprise deployment of the collaboration platform, in response to determining that the current user is eligible;

receive, identifying information for the group of potential additional users, the identifying information submitted by the current user via the displayed option;

identify enterprise affiliations for the group of potential additional users based on domain information included in the received identifying information;

identify those of the one or more users from the group of potential additional users that are affiliated with the same particular enterprise as the current user based on the identified enterprise affiliations;

transmit, via a computer network, to each of the identified one or more potential additional users, invitations to create new accounts with the collaboration platform; and

create the new accounts linked to the particular enterprise deployment of the collaboration platform for new users;

wherein, the new users are those of the identified one or more eligible potential users who accept the invitations;

wherein, the new users are eligible to invite other potential users to join the collaboration platform and create new accounts.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein, the identifying information includes an email address and the domain information includes a domain of the email address.