CTI basics

CTI, standing for Computer Telephony Integration, is a technology that allows data integration between telephony systems and computer/network systems. CTI is an important part of contact centers, providing enhanced capabilities and functions to the PBX. Through CTI, a computer user can control his attached telephone system. The telephone system can also send information to be displayed on the computer.

In a CTI powered contact center, the CTI subsystem usually assumes centralized control over everything else. When calls enter the system, information such as called number and dialed number are used to decide how to handle the called, based on predefined routing strategies. For example VIP customers may be recognized by their caller number and directly forwarded to a preferred representative. Or, assuming the company has two different inbound numbers, one for technical support and another for general issues, the callers will be directed to the appropriate representative group, depending on the number they called.

CTI can have access to various databases whereupon it will extract data required to enhance its business logic further. A typical scenario that is widely used in inbound contact centers is the following: The call enters the CTI system, and it is then diverted to an IVR application that performs user authentication (asking a couple of questions like name, or a PIN number). After the caller is successfully identified, the call is returned to CTI along with identification token. The token can then be used to extract information from a database, and the decision on what to do with the call is taken afterwards. In this scenario, the routing possibilities are virtually unlimited, since the entire CRM information about a particular customer can be used for the decisions. Parts of this information can also be forwarded to the customer representative that is going to receive the call, as a screen popup, giving him all the details he needs to better serve the caller. This architecture example is depicted in the schematic below:

Another system that CTI usually handles is a call logger, a disk-based system where calls are recorded.

Due to its centralized position in the contact center, CTI is usually a good point to gather statistics. Since it interfaces with almost every other system in the center, it has access to a lot of relevant information that can be gathered and analyzed.