CTI Matures

The "integration" component of CTI still isn't easy, but there's more help than ever for getting computers and telephones to work together efficiently.

Alan Joch

The "integration" component of CTI still isn't easy, butthere's more help than ever for getting computers and telephones to worktogether efficiently.

Computers and telephones are two fundamentally different technologies, yet they have something in common: When they work together, we work more efficiently in applications that hinge on customer service and timely inf ormation. Unfortunately, integrating computers and telephones can seem about as easy as herding butterflies.

For this reason, some companies are only beginning to take advantage of computer telephony integration (CTI). Traditionally, call-center o peratorshave benefited most from merging computers and telephones. However, CTI also makes possible fax-back systems, interactive voice-response implementations, and a number of specialized vertical applications.

Fortunately, the hardware, software, and integration techniques for CTI are maturing. For example, special-purpose add-in boards let you add PBX services inside a CTI server. The consolidation of call-switching and network-server functions makes the implementation and maintenance of CTI applications easier. In some cases, including large-scale call centers, you may need a more elaborate architecture with a stand-alone CTI server connected to a PBX and a database on a mainframe or distributed across a number of servers. More mature hardware and connection standards help these implementations, too. We asked a veteran CTI systems integrator to outline the basic components of a CTI implementation and explain how tomake the right choices. His report can be found in "CTI, Piece by Piece".

Once you have the hardware in place, you'll need to develop end-user applications. Depending on the programming talents of your development team and the project's deadline, procedural languages, graphical applications-development environments, telephony components, and visual-programming tools should give you the power you need. "Tools for Telephony Apps" describes where each of these alternatives shines or runs out of steam. We also asked two developers of CTI systems -- one who chose to program in C++; the other who used visual-programming tools -- to tell us how they made their development decisions. Their perspectives can help you focus your choices when it's time to develop your CTI application.

With new hardware and a wealth of development tools, CTI is easier, but still one of the trickiest integration tasks we face. At least the butterflies are now fluttering in the same direction.