Patent ID: 8495620

Claim:
A method of application configuration comparison and re-use comprising the steps of: scanning an application system using a surveyor; wherein the scanning comprises: creating an asset that will hold data; followed by selecting a system that contains data; followed by authenticating with the system; followed by selecting a type of extracted data and extraction parameters, followed by downloading and saving the data into the asset; followed by saving the asset into a repository; and wherein the application system that is scanned in the scanning step is a business application that is an Enterprise Resource Planning system that requires continuous access; extracting application configuration elements which are customizations performed on an application that are identified in the application system during said scanning step; providing extracted application configuration elements to a workbench; comparing in the workbench the extracted application configuration elements with a reference system; computing differences between the extracted application configuration elements and the reference system; prompting a user to select one or more configuration elements from said extracted application configuration elements for re-use; and uploading and installing selected configuration elements of an instance of the application system.