Patent ID: 7437432

Claim:
A method for configuring a client device, the method comprising the steps of: requesting, by a user a configuration bundle for the client device from a Configuration Services Provider (CSP); receiving, by the CSP from the user, user provided configuration parameters for the client device wherein the user provided configuration parameters for the client device are stored in CSP database according to a user identifier; receiving, by the CSP automatically from a vendor, vendor provided configuration parameters for the client device wherein the vendor provided configuration parameters include a client device identifier; receiving, by the CSP from a manufacturer, a configuration bundle for a client device wherein the configuration bundle for the client device is stored in the CSP database, wherein the CSP database is indexed according to the client device identifier for the client device; associating, by the CSP, the vendor provided configuration parameters and the user provided configuration parameters with the configuration bundle for the client device wherein associating the vendor provided configuration parameters and the user provided configuration parameters with the configuration bundle for the client device comprises retrieving the configuration bundle from the CSP database in dependence upon the client device identifier and retrieving the user configuration parameters from the CSP database in dependence upon the user identifier, thereby producing an associated configuration bundle for the client device; detecting, by a services gateway, a client device and requesting an associated configuration bundle for the client device from the CSP; downloading, by the CSP to the services gateway, the associated configuration bundle for the user; and executing the associated configuration bundle on the services gateway to configure the client device.