Computer telephony integration (CTI) is a term with which many are becoming familiar. It encompasses an entire industry, devoted to the closer integration of telephony systems with computer-control devices, as well as an ever-expanding range of applications. Typically, these operate in industrialized chassis housings and act as switches, voice-mail servers, automatic call distributors (ACDs), and nearly any other kind of Telco equipment imaginable. The CTI revolution has led to a generation of such equipment, upsetting traditional notions of how telephony networks should be built.

Two major market forces and architectural frameworks are merging to create the most explosive network services opportunities available today. Enterprise computer telephony integration (ECTI) applications and advanced intelligent network (AIN) services are being integrated to provide an array of advanced, carrier-delivered services. Virtual call centers, applications for effective customer interactions, productivity applications for Centrex users, blending of formal and informal call centers, and extending the resource pool of call centers to professionals working at home are but a few of the services that can be delivered by the leading carriers.

CTI applications can do the following:

• Authenticate callers using one of several standard methods; the telephone number of the caller (ANI) can be screened against a database
• Recognize a voice, either for authentication or for message forwarding
• Using live voice, recorded voice, or touch-tone entered input, determine how to process a call (for example, by forwarding it to the appropriate person or department)
• Provide interactive voice response (IVR) to callers
• Match a caller’s number with a customer record and display it for reference when talking to the caller
• Manage voice or video conferences
• Collect and display pending live calls or messages that have been left by callers
• Receive fax messages and route them to appropriate fax machines
• Predial callers for outbound calling such as telemarketing
• Based on call input, initiate a smart agent application to provide help with the caller's request

Find out more about how CTI can be applied in your organization by contacting us.