What is computer telephony integration?
Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) involves integrating computer systems with telephony resources to augment an organization’s communications capabilities. In the last several years, the definition of CTI has grown to include call routing, the integration of multiple media channels—such as Web, voice, and e-mail—and integration with interactive voice response (IVR) units. For many organizations, the definition of CTI continues to include such “classic” applications as “soft phone” and “screen pop.” Since its inception, the integration of CTI has been difficult for many organizations to achieve. Smaller organizations without dedicated IT staff often lack the funding necessary to hire consultants who can develop and maintain custom integrations. As CTI has matured, however, the requirement to integrate telephony applications with business applications—such as customer relationship management (CRM) systems—has created additional pressure for smaller enterprises to deploy CTI. Before def
