Patent ID: 6985955

Claim:
A method for provisioning users with resources, the method comprising the steps of: establishing a set of attributes, organizational information, and user roles; defining a plurality of resource provisioning policies based on selected attributes, organizational information, and user roles; receiving attribute information, organizational information, and user role information for a particular user, resource, or database; determining which resource provisioning policies are applicable to the user based on the received user role information, organizational information, and attribute information; seeking additional information or authorizations from third parties in accordance with the applicable resource provisioning policies; and provisioning the user with the resources specified by the applicable resource provisioning policies if all necessary additional information or authorizations have been received from the third parties, the provisioning of the resources being determined at least in part by the additional information or authorizations; wherein the step of seeking additional information or authorizations from third parties comprising the steps of: receiving first additional information or authorizations from third parties in accordance with the applicable resource provisioning policies; and seeking second additional information or authorizations from other third parties or the user based on the received first additional information or authorizations and the received attribute information, organizational information, and user role information.