Patent ID: 7995737

Claim:
A method to be executed at least in part in a computing device for facilitating communications in an integrated telephony system through dual forking, the integrated telephony system comprising a first system and a second system with at least one of the systems being connected to an external communications network, the method comprising: receiving a request for a phone call from a user provisioned for dual forking in the integrated telephony system; determining a source identifier, a destination address, and a preferred identity for the user; if the destination address is outside the integrated system: routing the request to the second system after replacing the source identifier with an external identity derived from the preferred identity and the destination address with a destination phone number, wherein the external identity identifies the user on either one of the first and second system in a transparent manner to a called party at the destination phone number; and upon establishing connection with the called party at the destination phone number, facilitating communications through an end device registered to the requesting user in one of the first system and the second system; if the destination address is inside the integrated system: determining the called party by performing a reverse number lookup based on the destination address; determining an available end device for the called party in at least one of the first system and the second system; and facilitating communications through the available end device for the called party in one of the first system and the second system.