Patent 7716253 was granted and assigned to Microsoft on May, 2010 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
The subject invention pertains to a centralized key performance indicator (KPI) framework and systems and methods of utilization. In particular, KPIs can be defined and centrally stored as data or metadata in a data store. Systems and methods are provided to enable, among other things, KPI definition, storage, identification of defined or available KPIs, and interaction with the KPIs. For instance, an interface is provided to allow KPI data to be requested and retrieved from a source such as a database. A generic application program or users thereof can then interact with and display KPI data without knowing anything a priori about the stored data or the structure thereof.