Patent ID: 8417791

Claim:
A computer-implemented method comprising: receiving, at a calling module, using a standardized interface, a call request from a remote client, the standardized interface enabling interoperability between the calling module and heterogeneous remote clients, wherein each of the heterogeneous remote clients comprises a computing system that provides a computer-based service to at least one user for which the computing system verifies an identity of the at least one user by providing a call request to the calling module; in response to the received call request, identifying, by the calling module, a first message to audibly transmit to a telephone specified by the call request; generating a telephone call over a telephone network to the telephone specified by the call request and audibly transmitting the identified first message to solicit first information from the person who answers the telephone, wherein the generated telephone call solicits information from a person who answers the telephone, and wherein the remote client uses the solicited information to verify an identity of the person who answered the telephone or an entity for which the person who answered the telephone is a representative or an agent; providing, by the calling module, the solicited first information to the remote client for client-specific processing; during the generated telephone call, receiving a command from the remote client to solicit second information through the generated telephone call from the person who answered the telephone; identifying, by the calling module and based on the received command, a second message, that is different than the first message, to audibly transmit to the telephone to solicit the second information; audibly transmitting, by the calling module during the telephone call, the identified second message to the telephone through the generated telephone call to solicit the second information; and providing, by the calling module, the solicited second information to the remote client for client-specific processing; wherein at least a portion of the client-specific processing is performed after termination of the generated telephone call and comprises verifying, based on at least one of the first information or the second information, an identity of the person or the entity, and wherein the person or the entity is a user of the remote client.