Abstract: Integrating collaboration products or processes includes displaying a plurality of contacts in a collaboration display area, receiving a selection of one or more contacts from the plurality of contacts, displaying a plurality of collaboration service selections from a plurality of collaboration service providers in the collaboration display area, receiving a first collaboration request relating to one of the collaboration service selections provided by a first collaboration service provider, displaying a first collaboration session from the first collaboration service provider, and associating the the one or more selected contacts with the first collaboration session. A selection of business objects may also be received, and may be made available from the collaboration session.

Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention provide methods and apparatuses enabling groupware to track time associated with a workflow task. A workflow object representing a workflow task is provided. The workflow object is associating with a time period, a project code, and an identifier of a groupware client user participating in the workflow task. In response to an event indicating completion of the workflow task, the time period, the project code, and the identifier is automatically transmitted to a backend application.

Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention provide methods and apparatuses facilitating groupware creation of a travel itinerary. The present invention enables querying of a backend application with an identifier of a groupware user. A past travel itinerary based on the identifier is retrieved to populate a template used to create a current travel itinerary. The template may be a graphical user interface representation of a workflow object. The user provides additional information regarding the trip. The information is submitted to the backend application, which determines options for each itinerary component (e.g. flight, car rental, and hotel) and a best match option for each component. The groupware client enables the user to select from the options to create a tentative travel itinerary. The groupware client may also enable the user to submit the tentative travel itinerary to another groupware user for approval, e.g. a supervisor.

Abstract: Integrating collaboration products or processes includes displaying a plurality of contacts in a collaboration display area, receiving a selection of one or more contacts from the plurality of contacts, displaying a plurality of collaboration service selections from a plurality of collaboration service providers in the collaboration display area, receiving a first collaboration request relating to one of the collaboration service selections provided by a first collaboration service provider, displaying a first collaboration session from the first collaboration service provider, and associating the the one or more selected contacts with the first collaboration session. A selection of business objects may also be received, and may be made available from the collaboration session.