Patent Publication Number: US-10776178-B2

Title: Cloud-based enterprise-customizable multi-tenant service interface

Description:
This application claims the benefit of priority in U.S. Provisional Patent Appl. Ser. No. 62/525,020 filed on Jun. 26, 2017, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. 
    
    
     TECHNICAL FIELD 
     The present disclosure relates to methods for delivering multi-tenant, cross-platform (mobile, web, etc.) applications to small businesses and enterprises using a multi-tenant architecture, whereby an end-user is presented with an app specific to a particular enterprise without awareness that she is using a multi-tenant application. 
     BACKGROUND 
     Enterprises looking to deliver mobile applications to their clients, customers, or other end-users face many obstacles. Often millions of dollars are spent either with in-house development teams or third-party contractors to develop and deliver native, mobile applications to the popular marketplaces (for example, Google® Play, iStore, and Apple Store®) often building separate versions for web and tablets. As an example, a particular type of cloud-hosted app may require tens or even hundreds of iterations to accommodate different operating systems (iOS, Android®, etc.). Further, because the organizations are not in the business of delivering technology products of this nature, they require substantial time and resources merely to get the apps to market. Once published in the existing marketplaces, the business further has the challenge of maintaining and updating the app both in response to operating system changes that create bugs or responding to user feedback and otherwise continuing to develop and deliver value to end-users in a timely manner. 
     In turn, “white label” app (i.e., multi-tenant app) providers offer enterprise-specific apps, for example multi-party mortgage applications to multiple separate businesses or entities. However, user experience and app quality suffer because of the inefficiencies inherent in maintaining multi-tenant apps or multiple business-specific apps. 
     The present disclosure seeks to remedy these and other problems by providing for a marketplace whereby enterprises or small/midsize businesses can select an app, such as the “Vault” described as an example below, provide the necessary information required to customize and brand a core application, and deliver it to their end-users on a service basis directly through a subdomain on their site, all without having to create a new instance of the core application. From there, the organization can expect to benefit from regular updates and improvements to the application by its developer(s), including the introduction of new features, that are automatically deployed with no downtime or need to involve IT, and with no updates or installs or other actions required by the end user of the application to utilize the new version. Further, by the methods described herein additional efficiencies are realized by app developers in that only one build of code must be supported, rather than multiple builds for multiple separate entities. 
     As a non-limiting example, online data storage and service provision, including cloud-based data storage and service hosting, is an important component of a variety of enterprises. In the specific context of enterprises such as estate planning, for example, secure cloud storage of important documents such as deeds, insurance policies, tax returns, estate planning documents, etc. provides a safe, reliable method of keeping such documents without requiring physical storage space, reducing risk of damage of physical copies of same. This need for secure, convenient cloud-based storage in virtual “safety deposit boxes” extends to innumerable other enterprise and indeed individual endeavors, for example photo storage, legal documents, banking statements and related documents, and others. 
     It is important to any enterprise to be able to provide a recognizable, “branded” look and feel to any and all of its goods and services, including cloud-hosted services. As with any service, such branding aids in ensuring customer recognition, loyalty, etc. That is, Enterprise X, when offering a service as a secure, cloud-based app (as non-limiting examples, an online storage system such as a virtual safety deposit box, a mortgage app, an online banking app, an employee intranet app, and others) wants to provide such a system that includes a user interface or other means that is instantly recognizable to a customer as being Enterprise X-specific, much as a customer would instantly know that she is accessing and using a physical safety deposit box provided by a brick and mortar enterprise. The enterprise could go to the trouble and expense of creating such a “branded” cloud-based storage system itself or commissioning a developer to create one. Smaller enterprises in particular may not be willing or able to incur the expense of developing and maintaining a dedicated, “one-off” online storage system for their enterprise. 
     Today, businesses creating cloud-based solutions typically also require a mobile app to supplement a web-based product. This requires, however, cost and support for additional mobile apps (for example, iStore &amp; Google Play) in addition to maintaining the web-based product. Even when upfront costs are manageable, the cost to maintain, fix bugs, improve, etc. is cost prohibitive for most small businesses. And even for larger businesses, the complexity and time delays of depending on third parties to approve and implement changes can be not only challenging but simply a roadblock too many companies aren&#39;t willing to maneuver around. 
     Another problem relates to new releases of mobile app technology releases, i.e. upgrades, by third parties such as Google and/or Apple, or white label app companies in the business of selling such apps. When upgrades occur, the third parties typically do not ask business owners with apps on their platform whether they have built in their apps the programming necessary to anticipate the updates. This means an update could leave a mobile app user of a business suddenly unable to effectively operate the business owner&#39;s mobile app. So, in addition to issues of time and cost, by use of mobile apps a business is subjecting its business reputation on technology that such business cannot dictate or otherwise control. 
     One potential solution is a Progressive Web App, which can address the above-summarized issues of cost and dependency of current mobile apps offered by third parties such as Google and Apple. The problem, however, is that if a business is dependent upon creating its own Web App, the cost is likely going to dictate that certain functionalities of a Web App may only be financially feasible to larger organizations that have the resources to develop and maintain their own native Web App. 
     For these and other reasons, there is a need for a cloud-based, enterprise-customizable (i.e. “branded”) multi-tenant service interface which can automatically provide the enterprise-branded look and feel of the user interface presented to a user of the system. The presently described cloud-based enterprise-customizable service interface satisfies this need in the art by providing a cross-platform application that functions in most respects like a native app on mobile devices but is also designed to deliver an optimized experience on desktop, tablet, and other computing devices, or for that matter any computing device having internet access. 
     Further, by use of a common platform which is automatically customizable according to the identity of an enterprise as will be detailed below, simultaneous availability to/use by multiple enterprises is advantageously made possible, while still presenting an individually enterprise-branded front to a user, all from a single build of code. By use of the system described below, enterprises are able to overcome the challenges described above by delivering cross-platform applications directly through their website to the end-users which are maintained by a third-party dedicated to supporting and improving that application and ultimately to use said application to promote customer loyalty, customer interactions with the enterprise, and marketing opportunities between the enterprise and the customer are improved and enhanced. 
     The methods described herein provide for compiling a user interface and enterprise-specific application after an enterprise is identified as set forth below in a manner specific to that enterprise, such as by providing enterprise-specified style and branding, all from a single build of the application and without requiring the end-user to install or otherwise download the application from a native app store. Further, the present disclosure details the cloud-based services utilized to deliver that enterprise-specific application to the enterprise&#39;s end-users (the enterprise or businesses clients, customers or employees) while requiring only nominal effort on the part of that organization&#39;s information technology (IT) group. Still more, unlike prior art methods for delivering a single app to multi-tenants each with their own end-users, the present disclosure describes methods providing for multi-tenancy without the end-user even being aware they are using a multi-tenant (also known as a “white label”) application. 
     SUMMARY 
     In accordance with the purposes and benefits described herein, in one aspect, in a cloud-hosted computing system environment, a method for transparently providing a customized enterprise-specific interface application is provided. The method comprises, at application runtime, selecting a core application defined for a group of enterprises requiring a same core application functionality and packaging the core application for deployment. Next, a specific enterprise is identified. According to the identified specific enterprise, one or more predefined stored functionalities are applied to the core application to provide an identified-enterprise-specific application. Optionally, the method may include applying a filtering step to determine a status of the identified specific enterprise. 
     The methods may include a step of pushing the identified-enterprise-specific application to the identified enterprise or to an individual authenticated to the identified enterprise. In embodiments, the specific enterprise may be identified by one or both of an enterprise-associated domain or subdomain identifier and a unique authentication code. 
     In embodiments, the one or more predefined stored functionalities may be provided as one or more stored files defining modules providing additional identified-enterprise-specific application functionalities, enterprise-specific templates, and enterprise-specific assets. Various modules are contemplated, including without intending any limitation a plurality of user interface views, a plurality of menu options, a plurality of menu layouts, and a plurality of attendant services such as one or more enterprise-specific encryption service. Other modules may include one or more tags identifying enterprise-customizable core application elements. The enterprise-customizable application elements may be selected from one or more of a plurality of cascading style sheet (CSS) properties, a plurality of shell colors, a plurality of button styles, a plurality of text font styles, and a plurality of image size and/or resolution definitions, among others. 
     In the following description, there are shown and described several preferred embodiments of the described methods and systems. As it should be realized, the methods and systems are capable of other, different embodiments and their several details are capable of modification in various, obvious aspects all without departing from the methods and systems as set forth and described in the following claims. Accordingly, the drawings and descriptions should be regarded as illustrative in nature and not as restrictive. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The accompanying drawing figures incorporated herein and forming a part of the specification, illustrate several aspects of the described methods for providing a cloud-based, enterprise-customizable multi-tenant application and service interface and together with the description serves to explain certain principles thereof. In the drawing figures: 
         FIG. 1  illustrates in flow chart form a front-end method for providing a cloud-based, enterprise-customizable multi-tenant application and service interface according to the present disclosure; 
         FIG. 2  illustrates in flow chart form a back-end method for providing a cloud-based, enterprise-customizable multi-tenant application and service interface according to the present disclosure; 
         FIG. 3  illustrates a non-limiting selection of objects for customizing a cloud-based, enterprise-customizable multi-tenant application and service interface according to the present disclosure; 
         FIG. 4  illustrates a representative coding scheme for authenticating a user; 
         FIG. 5  illustrates a representative tenant identification for use in the described methods; 
         FIG. 6  illustrates representative plan descriptions for use in the described methods; 
         FIG. 7  illustrates representative module iterations for use in the described methods; and 
         FIG. 8  illustrates a representative user interface generated by the methods according to the present disclosure. 
     
    
    
     Reference will now be made in detail to the present preferred embodiments of the described methods for providing a cloud-based, enterprise-customizable multi-tenant application and associated service interface, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawing figures. 
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Any citations or other references included or referred to in this application form a part of the disclosure and are incorporated herein in their entirety by reference. It will be appreciated that the embodiments described in this patent application are an illustration of one of the modes best suited to carry out the invention. The invention is capable of other different embodiments, and its several details are capable of modification in various, obvious aspects all without departing from the invention. For example, for convenience certain of the examples provided herein relate to a secure, cloud-based app providing an online storage system such as a virtual safety deposit box. However, the skilled artisan will readily realize that the described methods, and systems incorporating the methods, may define apps providing innumerable other types of services provided securely as cloud-hosted apps, for example a mortgage app, an online banking app, an employee intranet app, and many others. Accordingly, the descriptions provided herein will be regarded as illustrative in nature and not as restrictive. 
     At a high level, the present disclosure relates to developing a customized, enterprise-specific service interface app from a core application usable by a group of enterprises having some commonality, i.e. requiring a similar cloud-based service or functionality. Such core applications may be developed according to existing standards and frameworks for progressive web applications and packaged for deployment as a graphical user interface (GUI) for use by the enterprises. Then, by a package of predefined fetchable options, on identification of a particular enterprise or user-enterprise relationship or association, the GUI is customized to build an app that is recognizably associated with a particular enterprise, i.e. “branded” to the enterprise. That app may be pushed to the enterprise or directly to the customer for use in a manner that is transparent. That is, the customer or end-user is provided the appearance of using an enterprise-specific app but is unaware that she is in fact using a multi-tenant application. 
     In one embodiment, this may be implemented by identifying a specific domain or subdomain associated with a specific enterprise. In other embodiments, this may be implemented by a specific input provided by a user or the enterprise, the input associated with a specific enterprise. 
     As part of the system, a development kit is provided including various stored tools for providing/customizing the GUI/creating the app described above. The development kit allows packaging an application for publication or listing on a so-called “enterprise marketplace” or for direct sales (for example, B2B or by a single developer/company). Elements of the development kit may be stored locally or remotely. Without intending any limitation, these may comprise one or more proprietary config or manifest files providing a listing of available modules, enterprise-specific templates, and enterprise-specific assets. These proprietary config or manifest files would be applied as needed to assemble the app on identification of a participating enterprise. 
     The modules define particular functionalities, for example user interface (UI) views, menu options, layouts, and connections to backend services such as encryption services. The style templates can include tags to identify elements for which enterprise-specific customization is available. This can include modifying such elements as to CSS properties, i.e. shell color, button style, font style for text within the element, etc. Other tags may mark assets as customizable according to other features, for example by way of one or more image files uploaded with guidelines regarding image size/resolution. 
     This is illustrated in flow chart form in  FIG. 1 . As shown, on receipt of a front-end request from a user computing device  99  interacting with a cloud computing environment  101 , i.e. interacting directly with the application (step  100 ), a filtering step of identification of a participating enterprise is undertaken (step  102 ). As is known to the skilled artisan, a typical cloud computing architecture comprises a front end comprising a user computing device  99  which interacts with a back end, typically via a computer network such as the Internet. Cloud computing environment  101  is the back end and typically comprises a large number of computing devices and data storage systems hosting any necessary programs to allow an application to run on the front-end. The computing devices may be conventional computing devices, virtual machines and a virtual machine manager(s) controlling the virtual machines, or combinations. Once the participating enterprise is identified, predetermined enterprise customizations are fetched (step  104 ) for compiling with a core application (i.e. a common platform or template providing a desired functionality such as a cloud-hosted document storage service, a mortgage app, an online banking app, and others). Other steps may be undertaken. For example, an optional further filtering step may be applied (step  106 ) to identify a subscription status of the enterprise. This may be accomplished by reference to a separate database (step  108 ) that defines the plans and subscriptions available and returns the list of features, modules, etc. specific to that enterprise according to the enterprise subscription status, allowing generation of suitable billing or invoicing to the enterprise or identifying customization options available to the enterprise according to their subscription status. Thus, for example, an enterprise availing itself of a demo model or a base subscription package may be entitled to a base package of available customizations, modules, templates, etc. On the other hand, an enterprise availing itself of higher-level subscription packages would be entitled and provided access to additional available customizations, modules, templates, etc. 
     Next (step  110 ), the app is assembled by an assembly program  103  hosted by the cloud computing environment  101 . This requires variously fetching a shell or common template (step  110   a ), and determining a predetermined layout required by the enterprise (step  110   b ). A predetermined, enterprise-specific module or modules are fetched, defining as described above specific functionalities required by the enterprise. Application of further functional customization (step  110   d ) and/or enterprise-specific custom modules (step  110   e ) is contemplated. Finally, any graphical customization required by the enterprise is applied (step  110   f ). Thus, the app is assembled at runtime, i.e. on receipt of the front-end request and identification of the user. 
     After assembly, an optimization step may be undertaken (step  112 ). This may variously include detecting an enterprise or enterprise customer desiring to use the app (step  112   a ), checking for compatibility with the enterprise and/or customers&#39; computing system, including determinations of features such as operating systems, processor speeds, available memory, speed of internet or wi-fi connection, and others (step  112   b ), compiling the app for delivery (step  112   c ), and a step of compressing (step  112   d ) to reduce bandwidth required to deliver the app. The app may then be directly pushed to the enterprise or enterprise customer or may be cached for retrieval by the enterprise or enterprise customer (step  114 ), and then delivered (step  116 ). 
     Alternatively (see  FIG. 2 ), on receipt of a backend request (i.e., via a separate application or program, i.e. tenant service  201  hosted by cloud computing environment  101  serving indirectly with the front-end service) from a participating enterprise (step  200 ), the participating enterprise is verified (step  202 ). On verification, a specific pool of enterprise customizations is fetched (step  204 ), such as from a remotely or locally stored database (step  206 ) of enterprise-specific modules, templates, etc. As before, a further filtering step may be applied (step  208 ) to identify a subscription status of the enterprise such as by reference to a subscription service (step  210 ) of subscription levels according to enterprise. The process may include a module service code (step  212 ). Still more, the process may require a verification step (step  214 ), such as by a login service (step  216 ). On completion (step  218 ) as before the app may then be directly pushed to the enterprise or enterprise customer or may be cached for retrieval by the enterprise or enterprise customer, and then delivered. 
       FIG. 3  illustrates a non-limiting listing of objects  300  which may be associated with particular elements of a particular enterprise and with the described enterprise-customizable application, and which may be stored in one or more remote or local databases for subsequent fetching. As examples, a particular enterprise  302  (tenant T) may be associated with a unique identification code  304  and particular background information  306  (enterprise name, description, etc.), with specific domains/subdomains  308 , with a particular set of SSL certificates  310 , etc. The enterprise may further be linked to a particular grouping of custom modules  312  (CM 1  . . . x), a particular branding scheme  314  defined by app layout, styling codes ST 1  . . . x), and a listing of customizable assets A 1  . . . x). The stored database(s) of objects may further include specific predetermined plans  316  including predetermined sets of modules, features, availabilities, and pricing. Likewise, the stored database(s) of objects may include predetermined subscription levels  318  defining availability to an enterprise of plans, terms, pricing, etc. according to subscription level. Variously, pools of modules  312 , stylings  320 , assets  322  (images, sounds, video clips, text styles/fonts, html codes, CSS, etc.), features  324 , and configurations  324  may be stored and available for fetching in addition to or in lieu of customized modules, stylings, etc. according to predetermined enterprise requirements. 
     As described above, on identifying a domain/subdomain  308  associated with a specific enterprise (tenant  302 ) and thereby a particular user-enterprise relationship or association, the GUI is customized to build an application or app that is recognizably associated with a particular tenant  302  with whom the user is associated, i.e. that is “branded” to the enterprise. That app may be pushed to the customer for use. 
     In an alternative embodiment (see  FIG. 4  illustrating a representative, non-limiting coding scheme), the app build may be triggered by a unique authentication input provided by the enterprise or a user. This input may be provided according to a number of known technologies, including without intending any limitation unique QR codes, unique URLs, near field communication (NFC) or other wireless technology, passwords, biometric inputs, and others. The unique authentication input need only be capable of providing sufficient information to identify the enterprise or a user associated with the enterprise, after which the process of building the app is initiated as described above. As will be appreciated and as is illustrated in the representative coding scheme, the process is context-aware and not only identifies the tenant  302  but also according to the identified tenant  302  launches the predetermined modules  312 , assets  322 , and functionalities for the app. Thus, the app is built at runtime rather than requiring pre-building and storage, such as in a third-party app store. 
       FIG. 5  illustrates a representative embodiment of the above-described enterprise-customizable service interface. A tenant  502  (designated in the Figure as the enterprise “Bank of Earth” or “BOE”) desires to provide secure, cloud-based storage of monthly reports for its customers. BOE identifies a subdomain DNS record  504  (vault.bankofe.com) linking to the system of the present disclosure and maintains one or more SSL certificates  506  for that subdomain. BOE may also provide a listing or database of customers, updatable by BOE. 
     Then, a new enterprise or tenant specific definition or manifest file  508  is created defining the enterprise (BOE) specific modules, a description of the storage vault capabilities (optional encryption, syncing, external upload, etc.), the features (basic features, storage limits per user, etc.), configurations, and assets all providing a BOE-branded cloud-based document storage system as an app, created as described above and published to BOE, which BOE may then offer to its customers. Optionally, a subscription level  510  is set as described above, in the depicted example providing a cloud-hosted document storage “vault” plan  512  (BASIC_VAULT) allowing external uploads thereto by BOE for a period of 2 years. 
     As shown in  FIG. 6 , multiple plans may be defined including specific features and parameters. For example, a BASIC_VAULT plan  512   a  tagged with an id  600  of BASIC_VAULT includes a basic functionality module  610 , in the depicted example defining a secure cloud-based document storage service (VAULT). Particular features  620   a  may be defined for the module, including a particular storage size ( 10 G) and encryption. A different plan  512   b  may define different features  620   b , for example API access for document upload by a tenant  302 . 
     In turn, modules  312  having various functionality may be defined and stored. In the embodiment depicted in  FIG. 7 , again referring to the example of a cloud-based secure document storage service (VAULT), various versions including differing features  700  may be stored, for example a basic version  700   a  as described above, an intermediate version  700   b  providing encryption, and a high-end version  700   c  providing storage, encryption, and API access for document upload. Likewise, as described above various configurations  702  and assets  704  may be associated with the module  312 . 
     The result is when a customer loads the app, a user interface specific to the organization from which the user is identified as belonging is assembled in real-time, including the organizations branding, any custom modules, style and similar customizations. In turn, BOE is provided the benefits and advantages of a customized, BOE-branded app/cloud-based document storage service to offer to its customers, without having to devote time and expense to creating and maintaining a “one-off” service of that type. Still more, the assembly is transparent to the user. In other words, the user sees only the BOE-branded and customized app/cloud-based document storage service but is unaware that the specific BOE-branded and customized app was assembled at runtime on accessing the user interface, rather than being hosted and maintained by BOE. 
     This is illustrated in  FIG. 8 , showing a user interface  800  including various GUIs  810 ,  820 ,  830 , and  840 . As shown therein, each GUI is displayed with tenant  302 -specific branding. However, by the methods described above, accessing a particular GUI  810 ,  820 ,  830 , and  840 , once the access is authenticated as described above, will cause to be assembled at runtime a core application (cloud-based secure document storage service in the depicted embodiments) modified according to the steps described above to provide an enterprise specific application, in the depicted embodiments being a cloud-based secure document storage service customized according to enterprise requirements. 
     The foregoing description of a preferred embodiment of the invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise form disclosed. Obvious modifications or variations are possible in light of the above teachings. For example, the foregoing description describes implementation of an enterprise-customizable service interface configured for providing access to cloud-based data/document storage. However, the skilled artisan will readily appreciate that the described system is equally applicable to service interfaces for other types of services amenable to provision in or from a cloud-based environment, such as mortgage apps, online banking apps, enterprise intranet apps, and innumerable others cloud-hosted services. 
     The described embodiment was chosen and described to provide the best illustration of the principles of the invention and its practical application to thereby enable one of ordinary skill in the art to utilize the invention in various embodiments and with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated. All such modifications and variations are within the scope of the invention as determined by the appended claims when interpreted in accordance with the breadth to which they are fairly, legally and equitably entitled.