Patent ID: 8296161

Claim:
A method of obtaining information from a multi-tenant database residing at a host system, the host system including one or more machines having a processor and memory, the method comprising: receiving at the host system, by a machine of the host, a request from a user machine associated with a user of a tenant of the multi-tenant database for monetary information about a customer of the tenant; and in response, associating, by a machine of the host system, the customer with a group, the group including at least one other customer of the tenant, retrieving, by a machine of the host system, from the multi-tenant database the monetary information about the customer; retrieving, by a machine of the host system, from the multi-tenant database monetary information about the group that is not included in the monetary information about the customer; sending, from the host system, by a machine of the host system, the monetary information about the customer to the user of the tenant; and sending, from the host system, by a machine of the host system, the monetary information about the group that is not included in the information about the customer to the user of the tenant.