Computer telephony integration, also known as computer-telephony integration or CTI, means using technology to link the telephone systems and business softwares of a company to one another. This linkage allows the sales agents or the company to control all the functions of their telephone right from their computer systems. This basically means that using computer telephony integration the sales agents can make calls, answer and reject calls, put them on hold or mute a call right from their computers without touching their telephony systems. However, it is important to note that computer telephony integration can not only be desktop-based but also can be server-based such as in case of interactive voice response or IVR system or call routing.
The applications of computer-telephony integration can be many, ranging from giving complete control of telephone systems to calling teams via their desktop to enabling call routing in the call center and implementing interactive voice response or IVR system. Not only this, CTI can help in improving supervision as well as customer experience with features like call detail recording, live call monitoring and screen pop ups that will show the information of the customer when the agent makes or receives a call from the customer.
