Patent ID: 7401149

Claim:
A method for automatically providing temporary access for servicing a system resource, comprising the steps of: establishing a user account for a service provider according to criteria established by a user who is a customer of the service provider, wherein said establishing is performed by the user, wherein a user system of the user comprises the system resource, wherein the service provider is external to the user system and is coupled to a communication port of the user system, wherein the user account comprises provisions, wherein said establishing the user account comprises recording the provisions of the user account on a database comprised by the user system, wherein subsequent activation of the established user account after said establishing enables a service provider to use access control logic of the user system to access the system resource through the user account, and wherein the access control logic attempts to block access to the user account when the user account is not activated; after said establishing and while the established user account is not activated, monitoring the system resource by a monitoring tool of the user system for an occurrence of a trigger event associated with the system resource, wherein the trigger event comprises an opening of a trouble ticket by a trouble ticket system of the user system, wherein the trouble ticket denotes that the system resource has a problem that needs attention of the service provider and comprises information relevant to the problem; in automatic response to the occurrence of the trigger event as determined from said monitoring while the established user account is not activated, passing the trouble ticket from the user system to the service provider and activating the user account to authenticate the service provider to access the system resource to enable the service provider to provide one or more services relating to the system resource, wherein said activating the user account is performed by the trouble ticket system or the monitoring tool; following said activating and while the user account remains activated, awaiting an occurrence of a closure event associated with the trigger event; and in automatic response to the occurrence of the closure event, deactivating the user account to dormancy such that use of the user account is blocked, wherein said deactivating is performed by the trouble ticket system, the monitoring tool, or the access control logic.