Patent ID: 7401125

Claim:
A method for managing documents, comprising the steps of: receiving a request from a remote user; providing said user with consulting advice regarding said request based upon data input by said user, said consulting advice including advice on document retrieval costs, document storage strategies, document storage organization, protection of secured documents, or delivery options of documents; selecting an application service provider from a plurality of application service providers based on said request, wherein said request is not related to said application service provider; forwarding said request to said application service provider; providing said application service provider with a user access level that includes first, second and third sections, each section indicating a different hierarchical level of access, wherein said first section indicates a business entity, said second section indicates a department, and said third section indicates an individual; receiving information from said application service provider indicating information of a document provided from said application service provider to said user; formatting said document from said application service provider into a standardized format regardless of which application service provider of said plurality of application service provides is selected; generating a unified bill from bills received from application service providers; and transmitting said unified bill to said user.