Patent ID: 7472352

Claim:
A system for inviting a person to join a communications session initiated using a team member interface of a virtual team environment, comprising: a collaboration services suite for: receiving an invitation request message from the team member interface of a member of the team, the invitation request message including an identification of the person to be invited to join the communications session, and an identification of a desired type of communication; identifying a preferred communications device of the person to be invited for the communications session, based on the received invitation request message and dynamically maintained availability information of the person to be invited, the availability information comprising communications information identifying types of communication in which the person prefers to participate, and, for each identified type of communication, a respective communication device that the person prefers to use to participate in that type of communication, wherein at least one communication device is only reachable through a Switched Telephone Network (STN); identifying a preferred communications medium associated with the person for handling an invitation to join the communications session; and sending an invitation from the collaboration services suite to the person using the identified preferred communications medium.