Customizing products

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9773263-B2
Application number	US-25744008-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 24, 2008
Priority date	Oct 24, 2008
Publication date	Sep 26, 2017
Grant date	Sep 26, 2017

Abstract

To customize products, a first entity receives generic products from a supplier entity, wherein the generic products include base software. The first entity provides a customization component for at least a subset of the generic products. Base software in at least the subset of the generic products is executed at the first entity to interact with the customization component to customize at least one feature of at least the subset of generic products.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of customizing generic products received at a first entity from a supplier entity, wherein the generic products include base software, the method comprising:
providing, at the first entity, a customization component for at least a subset of the generic products, where the subset includes plural ones of the generic products, wherein the customization component is based on at least one purchase order from a particular customer of the first entity, the at least one purchase order specifying product customization, and wherein the first entity has a plurality of customers including the particular customer; and
causing execution of the base software in the subset of the generic products at the first entity to interact with the customization component to customize at least one feature of the subset of generic products, where the customizing of the at least one feature of the subset of generic products is performed without having the supplier entity perform the customizing.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first entity comprises a selling customer of the supplier entity, wherein the generic products are received at a facility of the first entity, and wherein causing the execution of the base software to interact with the customization component is performed at the facility of the first entity.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the supplier entity is an original equipment manufacturer (OEM), and the selling customer comprises an OEM customer that supplies customized products to downstream customers, the customized products including the generic products in the subset customized by the customization component.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the generic products are received from a factory of the supplier entity.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
providing, at the first entity, at least a second customization component for customizing generic products other than the subset of generic products, wherein the second customization component is based on at least a second purchase order from another customer of the first entity, the second purchase order specifying a different product customization; and
at the first entity, causing execution of the base software at each of the other generic products to interact with the second customization component to customize at least another feature of the other generic products.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein customizing the at least one feature comprises customizing a user interface associated with each of the generic products in the subset.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein customizing the user interface comprises customizing a graphical user interface that is selected from among an operator control display screen or a screen provided at a remote management console.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising providing a unique code identifying the customized feature, wherein the unique code is configured to not be changeable to prevent a change of the customized feature.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the received generic products comprise generic storage products.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the received generic storage products comprise generic tape library systems.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein providing the customization component comprises attaching a removable storage device to each generic product of the subset, wherein the removable storage device includes customization data accessible by the base software.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein attaching the removable storage device comprises attaching a Universal Serial Bus (USB) storage device.

13. An article comprising at least one computer-readable storage medium containing instructions that when executed cause a processor in a system associated with a first entity to:
receive information specifying at least one customized feature for a first group of generic products received by the first entity from a supplier entity, where the first group has plural ones of the generic products, wherein the received information is received from a particular customer of the first entity, and wherein the first entity has a plurality of customers including the particular customer; and
provide customization data associated with a customization component, wherein the customization data is based on the received information, wherein the customization data is accessible by base software in each of the first group of generic products to provide the at least one customized feature in each of the first group of generic products, wherein providing the at least one customized feature in each of the first group of generic products is performed without having the supplier entity perform the provision of the at least one customized feature in each of the first group of generic products.

14. The article of claim 13 , wherein the customization component comprises a removable storage device that is pluggable into each of the first group of generic products.

15. The article of claim 14 , wherein the removable storage device is a Universal Serial Bus (USB) storage device.

16. The article of claim 13 , wherein the first entity is a selling customer of the supplier entity.

17. The article of claim 16 , wherein the supplier entity is a manufacturer.

18. The method of claim 1 , wherein causing execution of the base software in the subset of the generic products at the first entity to interact with the customization component causes customization of the at least one feature of the subset of generic products prior to the subset of generic products being provided to the particular customer.

19. The article of claim 13 , wherein provision of the at least one customized feature in each of the first group of generic products is performed at the first entity prior to the first group of generic products being provided to the particular customer.

Assignees

• Reasoner Kelly J
• Hewlett Packard Entpr Dev Lp

Inventors

• Reasoner Kelly J

Classifications

• G06Q30/0621

  by configuring or customising goods or services · CPC title

• G06Q30/06 Primary

  Buying, selling or leasing transactions · CPC title