Targeted Intranet Sites and Employee Experiences Within One Tenant

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Solution Overview

Problem

Current multitenant computing environments struggle to provide tailored intranet sites and employee experiences for diverse workforces due to licensing and access permission issues, leading to impractical solutions that introduce complexity and scalability challenges.

Innovation Solution

A system that allows multiple intranet sites and employee experiences to be created within a tenant, utilizing affinity information and license data to direct users to specific instances based on their needs, ensuring backward compatibility and a cohesive user interface.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Adaptability or versatility

If a separate tenant is created for each employee group to provide customized intranet experiences, then user experience customization is improved, but licensing complexity and access permission issues worsen

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveintranet customizationVSAvoidlicensing complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments the intranet experience by creating multiple site collections within a single tenant, each tailored to specific employee groups. This allows customization without the complexity of multiple tenants, as the segmentation occurs at the site collection level rather than the tenant level, thereby maintaining unified licensing and access management.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The patent introduces an intermediary mechanism - a gateway or portal - that directs users to appropriate site collections based on their identity and needs. This intermediary layer enables customized experiences for different groups while maintaining a single tenant architecture, thus avoiding the licensing and permission complexities of multiple tenants.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

2Adaptability or versatility

If multiple tenants are created for different employee groups, then tailored employee experiences are improved, but collaboration accessibility worsens

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveemployee experience tailoringVSAvoidcollaboration accessibility

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The patent merges multiple site collections into a single tenant environment, allowing employees from different groups to collaborate seamlessly while still experiencing tailored content. By combining previously separate tenant functionalities into one unified tenant with multiple site collections, the system maintains collaboration accessibility while providing customized experiences.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #5Merging (Combining)

3Device complexity

If a single intranet site is provided for all employees, then system simplicity is improved, but user experience personalization worsens

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvesystem simplicityVSAvoidexperience personalization

Core Design Contradiction:

Device complexityVSAdaptability or versatility

Solution Approach 1:

The patent applies local quality by making different parts of the intranet (site collections) have different characteristics and content tailored to specific employee groups. While the overall tenant architecture remains simple, each site collection within it is customized for its intended audience, thereby achieving personalization without sacrificing system simplicity.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #3Local quality

4Reliability

If discrete access permissions are implemented for multiple intranet sites, then security control is improved, but administrative complexity worsens

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveaccess controlVSAvoidadministrative complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent implements a universal access control mechanism within the single tenant that can be applied across multiple site collections. Instead of configuring discrete permissions for each separate tenant or site, a unified permission system manages access to all site collections, thereby maintaining security control while reducing administrative complexity.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

Data Source

PatentUS12437034B2Multiple targeted intranet and employee engagement experiences within a tenant

Publication Date: 2025.10.07 MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING LLC

AI summary

A data processing system implements providing multiple targeted intranet sites and/or employee experiences within a tenant of a multitenant computing environment. The administrators of a tenant are provided with tools to create multiple separate instances of the intranet site and/or employee experiences. The individual instances of the intranet site and/or employee experiences are separate and utilize a layout and include components that are appropriate for the particular audience for which the instance of the intranet site or employee experience has been tailored. The administrator can define affinity information that indicates which users or groups of users should be directed to a particular intranet site and/or employee experience. The administrator can define an order in which the intranet sites and/or employee experiences are considered when determining which intranet site or employee experience to present to a user in response to a request to access the intranet site or the employee experience.