Computer Telephone Integration - CTI

CTI - An Introduction:

This section is intended as a overview of the area of CTI.
The ACTIUS charter defines CTI as "A functional integration of business application software with telephone based communications".
Computer Telephone Integration can also be summarised as covering systems that involve the connection of a computer (small or large) to a telephone system (PABX, ACD or public network), using some form of intelligent control link, to enhance telephone call handling. The resulting CTI system has the effect of greatly improving the efficiency and effectiveness of all organisations that do business over the phone.

- A typical example of the use of a CTI system would be in a customer service Call Centre, where Inbound calls are routed by the PABX or ACD telephone switch to an Agent. The switch passes Messages to the computer about the call over a Control Link. The computer Application Program can then 'pop-up' an appropriate Screen of data on the Agent's Terminal - this is called Intelligent Answering (or Call Based Data Selection).
- Facilities can be provided such as Computer Assisted Call Routing (to pick the best agent for the call) , and Coordinated Voice/Data Transfer (for Consultation or Conferencing with eg a supervisor). The overall Business Application (eg order taking) can be greatly enhanced by this cooperation between computer(s) and switch(es).
- The Agents' Terminals may be directly attached to the controlling 'host' computer or be computers (eg PCs on a LAN). All CTI facilities can in fact be provided to any terminal user in an organisation whose work also involves use of the phone.
- Similarly Outbound call-handling can be improveded by the computer application Request-ing the switch, via the Control Link, to dial one or many numbers. This could be automatic, or the Agent or user could simply initiate the calls by pressing a key on his/her Terminal.
- This more effective Call Handling can also be further enhanced by Interactive Voice Response (IVR). Here an associated Voice Processing Unit (VPU) carries out a 'conversation' with the caller or called person - for example to answer easy queries (such as bank balances), collect data, provide 24-hour or peak-time overflow call handling.
- The VPU can act as a Front End to the Call Centre by establishing caller information before transferring the caller to the (appropriate) human agent. Such transfers can be accomplished by the VPU interacting computer-to-computer with the Call Centre computer, which then requests the switch to perform the transfer, via a CTI Link.
- All the call handling capabilities outlined above are usually performed via a CTI Control Link between computer and switch. As the actual requests etc in say, Call Routing, are generated by the computer (rather than by the Agent or user directly interacting with the switch), this type of coordination is known as 'Third Party Call Control'.
- It is possible for any computer (eg a PC) to emulate a telephone instrument (ie act just like a phone) and run a program that dials numbers etc. This direct interaction with the telephone switch is known as First Party Call Control. This is predicted to become a widespread use of PCs.
- Tied in very closely with these various ways of handling calls is the use of computers to also do Call Content Processing. Computer based units such as VPUs can be involved in manipulating the telephone conversations that make up the calls - eg by recording the speech (for messaging), recognising speech, synthesing speech from text.
Computer Telephone Integration addresses all the above ways of getting business benefits. It enhances the use of the telephone through the exploitation of an intelligent computer-switch link. It covers the connections and synergies possible by combining the telephone instrument, switches and networks with central and individual computers and with the application programs that run in all these.
- Today all these may be different entities, needing expertise from different disciplines to combine them into a successful logical whole. Tomorrow we can expect to see much more drawing together of these entities -- ie Integration....

See also
Consultancy - and Technical information.
Actius
Main Page - Index page for this set.

Comments, queries and messages to: dougglading@cix.compulink.co.uk