Method and system for creating a virtual team environment
First Claim
1. A system for facilitating collaboration between members of a geographically-dispersed team, comprising:
- a collaboration services suite adapted to enable a communications session between at least two of the team members over a network supporting packet network based communication devices and switched network based communication devices; and
a graphical user interface adapted to enable a team member to view communications icons representing dynamically maintained presence and availability information for respective communications devices associated with each member of the team, and to initiate a request for a communications session with another member of the team by selecting a one of the communications icons associated with the other member of the team;
wherein for switched network based communication devices, the dynamically maintained presence and availability information is obtained by monitoring of Common Channel System (CCS) Signaling and deriving the presence and availability information from the monitored CCS Signaling.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
A collaboration services suite is adapted to support a plurality of integrated telecommunications services accessed by geographically dispersed team members using a virtual team environment (VTE) client that generates a graphical user interface (GUI) for each of the respective team members. Communications sessions are automatically set up by the collaboration services suite in response to request messages generated by the VTE client when a team member initiates a communications session request using the GUI. Team members require no knowledge of another team member'"'"'s communications device address in order to initiate a communications session. The collaboration services suite includes a VTE server that communicates with the VTE clients, a presence engine that collects and maintains a status of communications devices specified in a current profile of the team member; and, a call server for handling setup and control of a voice component of each communications session completed.
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Citations
60 Claims
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1. A system for facilitating collaboration between members of a geographically-dispersed team, comprising:
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a collaboration services suite adapted to enable a communications session between at least two of the team members over a network supporting packet network based communication devices and switched network based communication devices; and
a graphical user interface adapted to enable a team member to view communications icons representing dynamically maintained presence and availability information for respective communications devices associated with each member of the team, and to initiate a request for a communications session with another member of the team by selecting a one of the communications icons associated with the other member of the team;
wherein for switched network based communication devices, the dynamically maintained presence and availability information is obtained by monitoring of Common Channel System (CCS) Signaling and deriving the presence and availability information from the monitored CCS Signaling. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37)
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38. A method of facilitating collaboration between members of a geographically-dispersed team, comprising steps of:
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providing a collaboration services suite adapted to enable a team member to initiate a communications session with at least one other team member over a network supporting packet network based communications devices and switched network based communications devices; and
providing a graphical user interface adapted to enable the team member to view communications icons representing dynamically maintained presence and availability information for respective communications devices associated with each other member of the team, and to initiate a request for a communications session with another member of the team by selecting a one of the communications icons associated with the other member of the team; and
for switch network based communications devices, obtaining dynamically maintained presence and availability information by monitoring of Common Channel System (CCS) Signaling and deriving said presence and availability information from the monitored CCS Signaling. - View Dependent Claims (39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50)
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51. A system for facilitating collaboration between members of a geographically dispersed team, comprising:
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a collaboration services suite adapted to enable a communications session between team members over a network supporting packet network based communications devices and switched network based communications devices; and
a graphical user interface adapted to enable a team member to view communication icons representing dynamically maintained presence and availability information for respective communication devices for members of the team, and to initiate a request for a communications session with another member of the team by selecting a one of the communications icons associated with a respective communication device another member of the team;
wherein the collaboration services suite comprises a presence server for detecting the current operational status of communications devices associated with each member of the team and obtaining and dynamically maintaining presence and availability information for respective packet network and switched network based communications devices; and
wherein the dynamically maintained presence and availability information for switched network communication devices is obtained by monitoring of Common Channel System (CCS) signaling and deriving said presence and availability information from the monitored CCS signaling - View Dependent Claims (52, 53, 54, 55, 56)
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57. A method for facilitating collaboration between members of a geographically dispersed team, comprising the steps of:
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providing a collaboration services suite adapted to enable a team member to initiate a communications session between at least one other of the team member over a network supporting packet network based and switched network based communications devices;
providing a graphical user interface adapted to enable the team member to view communication icons representing dynamically maintained presence and availability information for respective communications devices for associated with each other for communications member of the team, and to initiate a request for a communications session with another member of the team by selecting a one of the communications icons associated with the another member of the team; and
for switch network based communications devices, obtaining said dynamically maintained presence and availability information at a presence server of the collaborations services suite by monitoring of Common Channel System (CCS) Signaling and deriving said presence and availability information from the monitored CCS Signaling. - View Dependent Claims (58, 59, 60)
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Specification