Patent ID: 8195493

Claim:
A method for displaying information derived from an integrated business system having at least one Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) module and at least one Customer Relationship Management (CRM) module, comprising: displaying a browser window to a user; simultaneously displaying within said browser window a plurality of portlet windows, each portlet window occupying a relatively small area within said browser window, said portlet windows being selected and arranged according to a user profile for that user, said plurality of portlets comprising: a first reporting portlet displaying a first business result metric derived from said ERP module, said first reporting portlet further displaying a first report access link associated with said business result that, when selected by the user, invokes a display of underlying business data associated with said first business result metric; a first application portlet comprising at least one application access link that, when selected by the user, invokes a browser-based interactive session with one of said ERP or CRM modules; and a second reporting portlet displaying a second business result metric, said second business result metric being derived from said CRM module; and accessing said user profile associated with said user from the integrated business system, said user profile comprising a display mode preference associated with each of said first and second business result metrics indicating a selection of one of a text-based output format or a graphics-based output format; displaying said first and second business result metrics according to their associated display mode preferences; receiving portlet positioning preferences from the user indicating desired spatial arrangements of said plurality of portlets in said browser window for that user; storing said portlet positioning preferences in said user profile; subsequent to said receiving portlet positioning preferences, displaying said first reporting portlet, said second reporting portlet, and said first application portlet according to said portlet positioning preferences; and for each of said first and second business result metrics, acquiring an associated threshold value; storing said threshold value in said user profile; comparing each of said first and second business result metrics against their associated threshold value; and displaying any of said first and second business result metrics that are beyond their associated threshold value in a highlighted format within its respective portlet, thereby immediately informing the user that said business result metric is beyond its associated threshold without requiring affirmative inquiry from the user.