Patent ID: 7577744

Claim:
A method for preparing for implementation of a plurality of linked services, from among a plurality of available services, to be implemented for a data processing unit, comprising the steps of: establishing a communication session between a data processing unit and a data center remote from said data processing unit; in said communication session, making a request to the data center from the data processing unit for a requested service to be implemented for the data processing unit, and including in said communication session a specification associated with said data processing unit; upon receipt of said request and said specification at said data center, automatically electronically identifying said requested service and at least one further service, from among said plurality of available services, that is linked to said requested service according to predetermined linking criteria, said requested service and said at least one further service forming linked services, and automatically electronically selecting, dependent on said specification that is included in said communication session, a sequence, from among different possible sequences, that said linked services will be implemented for the data processing unit that made said request; and in said communication session, transmitting data from the data center to the data processing unit that cause said linked services to be implemented for said data processing unit in the selected sequence; wherein the step of determining said sequence of services at the data center comprises executing a test at said data center, using a determining rule, dependent on said specification, that affiliates said data processing unit with at least one service in said plurality of available services, and determining said sequence of services dependent on fulfillment of said determining rule; wherein before testing for fulfillment of said determining rule: executing a permissibility test at said data center that determines whether a candidate service, from among said plurality of available services, is permissible for inclusion in said sequence of services upon fulfillment of said determining rule or is not permissible for inclusion in said sequence of linked services upon fulfillment of said determining rule; and upon fulfillment of said determining rule, including or not including said candidate service in said sequence of linked services dependent on said permissibility test.