CTI's introduction to the call center: What it means to you

Telemarketing, Jun 1995

To help you gain insight on how may affect the way you do business, we have interviewed several experts in the CTI industry -- Steven Cawn (marketing manager, CallPath(TM) Software, IBM), Andre Zazzera (general manager, CTI Systems Technologies, Rockwell International), Michael J. Tamer (president and CEO, Teknekron Infoswitch), Max Fiszer (director, Product Management Applications and Desktops, Siemens Rolm Communications), Michael Durant (senior product manager, Netware(TM) Telephony Services, Novell), Denise Deverelle (vice president, Marketing, Genesys Labs), Kermit Ross (vice president, Sales and Marketing, Teltone), Carol Wingard (director of marketing, SRX), and Earl C. Steman (director of marketing, Inbound/CTI Products, Davox).

We greatly appreciate the participation of these experts in our survey. They were all generous in their responses. In fact, the text below represents but a portion of the material they provided. We will present the rest in future issues. For now, however, we begin with a few general questions on CTI and its introduction to the call center environment:

CTI(TM): What is CTI?

Cawn: CTI is the functional integration of a telephone system and a computer system. Through this interconnection, the information the telephone system has about a telephone call can be passed to the computer-based application for more efficient handling of business transactions.

Zazzera: CTI is the application of information technologies and operations management that brings all call center transaction elements into a common operational system. CTI integrates telephone and computer systems, interactive voice response technology and telephone sales representative (TSR) workstations into a single business information system that can then be used as the ultimate tool for enhancing call center efficiency, delivering the best possible customer service, and increasing profitability. It is technology intended to augment the human interface between the customer and the support system.

Tamer: It appears there are two theories as to what CTI is. Some people believe it is the connection between the switch and the computer. and CTI is the interface that occurs between the switching system and the computer. We've asked people, "What happens when you're at the desktop, and you mix the phone and the personal computer (PC)? Is that CTI?" Some responses have been they don't think it's CTI. However, we believe the term CTI should encompass this kind of computer-telephony integration. We think CTI is where the voice meets data, and where the computer and the telephone come together. The CTI equation for our clients in bringing value to their customers is 1 1 = 3.

Fiszer: CTI is the merging of the existing information and communication technologies within an enterprise for improved productivity, greater cost savings and better customer service.

Durant: CTI is the functional integration of telephone systems and computer systems to provide a platform for applications that use information provided by both systems to simplify information exchange.

Deverelle: In simple terms, CTI allows a computer to give instructions to one or more phones and vice versa. When one phone and one computer can work together, it is termed first-party call control. When a computer can control a private branch exchange (PBX) or automatic call distributor (ACD) and vice versa, it is third-party call control. Third-party call control is the only truly useful solution in a call center. First-party has some use for work-at-home people, consumers and small workgroups interested in personal productivity solutions. It is important to note that first-party call control does not permit the call to be transferred with its data attached to other first-party controlled phones.

Ross: CTI is the combination of computers with telecommunications equipment and services to create powerful, software-defined information management and processing tools for businesses.

Wingard: CTI is a data communication link between a telephone system and a computer system. That computer system may be a mainframe, a server or a desktop PC. The most common application is the "screen pop," a feature that depends on timing the delivery of information to a call taker's computer screen with the delivery of a phone call. The objective of CTI is to get information about the call or caller, to utilize that information to access or reference additional information, and then to handle the call effectively and efficiently.

Steman: CTI is the intelligent synchronization and routing of customer voice and data to achieve improved customer service and optimal agent utilization.

CTI(TM): How does CTI work?

Cawn: There are two methods to implement a CTI solution. One approach connects the workstation to the telephone and has the ability to control only that single resource. This is known first-party telephony. The other approach connects the control link of the telephone system to a telephony server. This server is linked to applications on other systems and has the ability to control or monitor many different telephone system resources. This is known as third-party telephony.