Patent ID: 8209259

Claim:
A business platform, comprising: a computing device to access a network datastructure, comprising: a plurality of business entity representations, each representing a respective physical business entity and comprising a plurality of users, wherein each user is assigned a respective role within the respective business entity representation, and a plurality of configurable links, each link connecting two or more of the business entity representations in the network datastructure; wherein the computing device is programmed to provide a service framework shared by the plurality of physical business entities and to control access to information accessible through the service framework by the plurality of users using both the configurable links connecting the business entity representations in the network datastructure and the respective roles assigned to the users, wherein access to information of a first one of the plurality of business entity representations by a particular user of a second one of the plurality of business entity representations is based on whether the configurable links connect the first and the second business entity representations in the network datastructure and the role within the second business entity representation assigned to the particular user.