Method and system for managing and monitoring of a multi-tenant system

A system for controlling access to shared on-demand application programs executed on a shared multi-tenant database server in a computer network, the system comprising:

• a processor-based application executed on a computer and configured to:
• allow a software support representative to access a shared application provided by a software vendor for execution in tenant organization resources maintained for a client tenant organization on a shared platform of the multi-tenant database server;
• enable an administrator of the tenant organization to grant support user access for the application to the software support representative, wherein such support user access grant allows read-only privileges to only that tenant organization's metadata of the shared application;
• enable the administrator of the tenant to grant access by the software support representative to the application as a specific tenant organization user of a plurality of the tenant organization's users for a limited term, wherein the specific tenant organization user is granted use privileges of the application limited to that tenant organization's license and data;
• and
• allow the support representative to login to the tenant organization resources and use the application as the specific organization user for the limited term if the tenant administrator has granted access to the third party as both a support user and as the specific organization user, thereby enabling the support representative to troubleshoot a problem associated with application usage by the specific organization user, wherein the limited term is defined by one of an explicit revocation of access rights by the administrator, and an expiration of a time period defined by a date selection.

A non-transitory machine-readable medium containing one or more sequences of instructions for controlling access to shared on-demand application programs on a computer network, the instructions configured to cause a processor to:

• define a support user class in a user profile database a shared on-demand application program installed as part of tenant organization resources on the shared platform of a networked multi-tenant system, wherein a support user for one of a plurality of tenant organizations is granted read-only privileges to only that tenant organization's metadata of the shared application;
• enable an administrator for the one of the plurality of tenant organizations to grant access by a third party to the application as a support user for the tenant organization;
• enable the administrator for the tenant organization to grant access by the third party to the application as a specific organization user of a plurality of that tenant organization's users for a limited term, wherein the specific organization user is granted use privileges of the application;
• and
• allow the third party to login via the tenant organization to the tenant organization resources of the shared application on the shared platform and use the application as the specific organization user for the limited term if the administrator for the tenant organization has granted access to the third party as both a support user and as the specific organization user, thereby enabling the third party to troubleshoot a problem associated with application usage by the specific organization user.