Methods and systems for provisioning online services

A method of provisioning online services comprising:

• collecting user information from a user that desires to set up an online account for online services or modify an existing account for online services, said collecting being performed without intervention from a human system administrator;
• defining a plurality of service configuration objects (SCOs), each of which being programmed to provision a particular online service that is specified by a user;
• notifying the SCOs that they are to provision their particular associated online service;
• and
• using the SCOs, initiating a provisioning process that uses the user information to provision the particular online services.

An online service-provisioning architecture comprising:

• a collection mechanism configured to interface with a user without requiring intervention by a human system administrator, and collect and store user information from a user that desires to set up an online account for online services or modify an existing account for online services;
• a master object that is programmed to make a plurality of calls to enable one or more online services that might be selected by a user to be provisioned;
• and
• one or more service configuration objects (SCOs) communicatively associated with the master object, individual service configuration objects (SCOs) being associated with different online services that might be selected by a user, each service configuration object being able to receive one or more calls from the master object and, responsive thereto, attempt to provision its associated online service.

A computer readable medium having an online service-provisioning data structure stored thereon, the online service-provisioning data structure comprising:

• an identification portion that holds an ID value that is associated with a user that desires to either provide online services or to modify currently-provided online services;
• an operation portion indicative of one or more operations that are necessary for provisioning one or more online services;
• and
• a status portion indicative of the status of a particular user transaction that attempts to provision user-selected online services,
• said data structure being configured to facilitate service provisioning without requiring intervention from a human system administrator.

A method of provisioning online services comprising:

• collecting user information from a user that desires to set up an online account for online services or modify an existing account for online services;
• defining a plurality of service configuration objects (SCOs), each of which being programmed to provision a particular online service that is specified by a user, said defining comprising determining from the user information which online services have been identified by the user;
• and selecting only SCOs that are associated with the identified online services by instantiating the SCOs as COM objects;
• notifying the SCOs that they are to provision their particular associated online service;
• and
• using the SCOs, initiating a provisioning process that uses the user information to provision the particular online services.

A method of provisioning online services comprising:

• programming a first software module to collect and place in storage user information that is associated with a user that desires to set up an online account for online services or modify an existing account for online services, the programming of the first software module comprising programming a master object to make calls to other programming objects for provisioning a user account;
• and
• programming a second software module to receive instructions from the first software module and responsive thereto configure multiple different online services, the programming of the second software module comprising programming a plurality of service configuration objects (SCOs) to receive calls from the master object and, responsive thereto, separately configure different online services;
• the master object and the service configuration objects being programmed as COM objects.

An online service-provisioning architecture comprising:

• a collection mechanism configured to interface with a user, and collect and store user information from a user that desires to set up an online account for online services or modify an existing account for online services;
• a master object that is programmed to make a plurality of calls to enable one or more online services that might be selected by a user to be provisioned;
• one or more service configuration objects (SCOs) communicatively associated with the master object, individual service configuration objects (SCOs) being associated with different online services that might be selected by a user, each service configuration object being able to receive one or more calls from the master object and, responsive thereto, attempt to provision its associated online service;
• a data store configured to hold user information that is collected by the collection mechanism;
• a transaction log stored in the data store, the transaction log being configured to contain information that can be used by the one or more service configuration objects (SCOs) to provision their associated online service, wherein the transaction log comprises:
• an identification portion that holds an ID value that is associated with a transaction;
• an operation portion indicative of one or more operations that are necessary for provisioning one or more online services;
• and
• a status portion indicative of the status of a particular user transaction that attempts to provision user-selected online services.

An online service-provisioning architecture comprising:

• a collection mechanism configured to interface with a user, and collect and store user information from a user that desires to set up an online account for online services or modify an existing account for online services;
• a master object that is programmed to make a plurality of calls to enable one or more online services that might be selected by a user to be provisioned;
• one or more service configuration objects (SCOs) communicatively associated with the master object, individual service configuration objects (SCOs) being associated with different online services that might be selected by a user, each service configuration object being able to receive one or more calls from the master object and, responsive thereto, attempt to provision its associated online service;
• and
• wherein at least one of the master object and the one or more service configuration objects are programmed as COM objects.