Store intelligence—in-store analytics

1. A computer-implemented method for generating and providing one or more visual indicators, each reflecting generated analytics regarding target items to improve a user's experience in online shopping, managing, or monitoring the target item in an online store on a network, comprising:

augmenting, by a back-end web system, a remote online store of a remote third party target site by providing a particularly designed browser extension, said extension configured to collect, cause to store on the back-end web system, and display target item data and statistics; and

performing, by the back-end web system, by using the particularly designed browser extension:

collecting, from the remote third party target site, data about a target item and storing on the back-end web system the collected data;

receiving user input reflecting a mode and based on said mode, sorting the target item data using an end user GUI capability;

using said data and said selected mode, computing, by an analytics engine, the statistics about the target item;

based on a configuration that gives weighting and ranges to the data, displaying the target item and the statistics on a display responsive to a request for viewing the target item, wherein the displayed target item is displayed with the one or more visual indicators, wherein a visual indicator indicates a particular importance about a particular statistic;

providing drill-down capability via the display for presenting further detailed information about the target item;

responsive to a drill-down request, presenting the further detailed information about the target item; and

wherein the target item represents a virtual or physical item that is requested and assigned to one or more target users;

causing a configured programmed processor to perform, based on the statistics of the target item and associated rules, any of:

automatically ordering more items that are of the same type as the target item;

automatically decreasing an order for more items that are of the same type as the target item; or

automatically removing the target item from the online store;

causing, GUI elements to be added to a user interface of the third party application;

supplying, on an on-going basis by the back end web system, data from the remote third party application to the analytics engines and storage of the back-end web system;

computing metrics from the supplied data, said metrics used in computing the statistics;

receiving user input causing a link on the visual indicator representing the target item to open a social media application, said user input passing target item identification information to cause the social media application to display consumer reviews of the target item; and

wherein the target item data and statistics are linked to social media applications via a web service reporting component of a custom click report module that is configured to expose the data and enable other systems to use the exposed data to perform actions; and

wherein one or more steps are performed on at least a processor coupled to at least a memory.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method is performed automatically within a business organization and wherein actions are automated processes based on the statistics regarding the target item.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the target item is any of: stored assets; items available at the store; and representations of individual SAP accesses, Oracle accesses, or active directory accesses.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the monitoring is used in auditing and compliance.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the selectable modes are displayed as store analytic buttons on the display.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

providing a configurable interface and application that allows a customer to configure the data, analytics, and display to suit their business needs by using a point click GUI web based configuration application.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the indicators available are visual indicators for display to the end user and the configuration settings comprise:

Metric;

Type (Static, Percent);

Color Bands comprising red, yellow or green

Range End;

Default Sort comprising descending or ascending; and

Reverse.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the indicators comprise:

an overlaid special icon; and

an audible indicator.

9. An apparatus for generating and providing one or more visual indicators, each reflecting generated analytics regarding target items to improve a user's experience in online shopping, managing, or monitoring the target item in an online store on a network, comprising:

at least one processor operable to execute computer program instructions;

at least one memory operable to store computer program instructions executable by the processor, for performing the steps of:

augmenting, by a back-end web system, a remote online store of a remote third party target site by providing a particularly designed browser extension, said extension configured to collect, cause to store on the back-end web system, and display target item data and statistics; and

performing, by the back-end web system, by using the particularly designed browser extension:

collecting, from the remote third party target site, data about a target item and storing on the back-end web system the collected data;

receiving user input reflecting a mode and based on said mode, sorting the target item data using an end user GUI capability;

using said data and said selected mode, computing, by an analytics engine, the statistics about the target item;

based on a configuration that gives weighting and ranges to the data, displaying the target item and the statistics on a display responsive to a request for viewing the target item, wherein the displayed target item is displayed with the one or more visual indicators, wherein a visual indicator indicates a particular importance about a particular statistic;

providing drill-down capability via the display for presenting further detailed information about the target item;

responsive to a drill-down request, presenting the further detailed information about the target item; and

wherein the target item represents a virtual or physical item that is be requested and assigned to one or more target users;

causing a configured programmed processor to perform, based on the statistics of the target item and associated rules, any of:

automatically ordering more items that are of the same type as the target item;

automatically decreasing an order for more items that are of the same type as the target item; or

automatically removing the target item from the online store;

causing, GUI elements to be added to a user interface of the third party application;

supplying, on an on-going basis by the back end web system, data from the remote third party application to the analytics engines and storage of the back-end web system;

computing metrics from the supplied data, said metrics used in computing the statistics;

receiving user input causing a link on the visual indicator representing the target item to open a social media application, said user input passing target item identification information to cause the social media application to display consumer reviews of the target item; and

wherein the target item data and statistics are linked to social media applications via a web service reporting component of a custom click report module that is configured to expose the data and enable other systems to use the exposed data to perform actions.

10. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon a computer program for generating and providing one or more visual indicators, each reflecting generated analytics regarding target items to improve a user's experience in online shopping, managing, or monitoring the target item in an online store on a network, said computer program comprising a program code which, when executed by a processor, performs:

augmenting, by a back-end web system, a remote online store of a remote third party target site by providing a particularly designed browser extension, said extension configured to collect, cause to store on the back-end web system, and display target item data and statistics; and

performing, by the back-end web system, by using the particularly designed browser extension:

collecting, from the remote third party target site, data about a target item and storing on the back-end web system the collected data;

receiving user input reflecting a mode and based on said mode, sorting the target item data using an end user GUI capability;

using said data and said selected mode, computing, by an analytics engine, the statistics about the target item;

based on a configuration that gives weighting and ranges to the data, displaying the target item and the statistics on a display responsive to a request for viewing the target item, wherein the displayed target item is displayed with the one or more visual indicators, wherein a visual indicator indicates a particular importance about a particular statistic;

providing drill-down capability via the display for presenting further detailed information about the target item;

responsive to a drill-down request, presenting the further detailed information about the target item; and

wherein the target item represents a virtual or physical item that is requested and assigned to one or more target users;

causing a configured programmed processor to perform, based on the statistics of the target item and associated rules, any of:

automatically ordering more items that are of the same type as the target item;

automatically decreasing an order for more items that are of the same type as the target item; or

automatically removing the target item from the online store;

causing, GUI elements to be added to a user interface of the third party application;

supplying, on an on-going basis by the back end web system, data from the remote third party application to the analytics engines and storage of the back-end web system;

computing metrics from the supplied data, said metrics used in computing the statistics;

receiving user input causing a link on the visual indicator representing the target item to open a social media application, said user input passing target item identification information to cause the social media application to display consumer reviews of the target item; and

wherein the target item data and statistics are linked to social media applications via a web service reporting component of a custom click report module that is configured to expose the data and enable other systems to use the exposed data to perform actions.