Patent ID: 8230352

Claim:
A computer system configured to provide a collaboration window providing a graphical user interface to a user for facilitating communication over at least one of a plurality of communication channels while providing data relevant to the communication and available from a backend application, the computer system comprising: a collaboration engine comprising instructions stored in a memory, the instructions configured to, when executed by a processor, generate the collaboration window including the graphical user interface, and configured to provide and receive information therewith regarding the communication; a collaboration manager comprising instructions stored in the memory, the instructions configured to, when executed by the processor, communicate, in accordance with a common collaboration interface, with each of a plurality of collaboration components, each collaboration component associated with at least one communication channel, the collaboration manager including: a component selector configured to select a selected collaboration component from among the plurality of collaboration components, the selected collaboration component associated with a communication channel for executing the communication; a plurality of component managers, each associated with a corresponding one of the plurality of collaboration components and configured to communicate, using the common collaboration interface, with its corresponding collaboration component and with a connector of the corresponding collaboration component that is compatible with the backend application in order to receive the data relevant to the communication from the backend application, wherein a selected component manager corresponding to the selected collaboration component is configured to relay information between the selected collaboration component and the collaboration engine to thereby execute the communication using the collaboration window; and a registration manager that is configured to register each of the plurality of collaboration components with the collaboration manager as being compatible with the common collaboration interface, the registering including associating each registered collaboration component with a corresponding component manager.