Finding software can be overwhelming. Software Advice helps call centers choose the right computer telephony integration software so they can improve agent interactions and integrate CRM data.
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Genesys Cloud creates fluid conversations across digital and voice channels in an easy, all-in-one interface. Designed to provide exceptional experiences for your customers and employees, it deploys quickly, is intuitive to use, and... Read more
Platforms: MacWinLinux
Deployments: CloudOn premise
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RingCentral Engage Voice is a cloud-based contact center solution designed to help small to large enterprises automate and streamline outbound and blended communications between customers and call centers. It comes with a configurable... Read more
Platforms: MacWinLinux
Deployments: Cloud
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For quickly growing businesses looking to efficiently scale their support teams, Dialpad Support provides a cloud-based call center with access to real-time customer insights. Dialpad allows users to onboard quickly and focus on delivering... Read more
Platforms: MacWinLinux
Deployments: Cloud
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AVOXI Genius is a cloud-based call center solution that helps small to large enterprises streamline customer service operations and manage business communications. It comes with a centralized dashboard, which enables users to track... Read more
Platforms: MacWinLinux
Deployments: Cloud
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Talkdesk Enterprise Cloud Contact Center
Talkdesk is a cloud-based call center solution that helps businesses improve customer satisfaction while simultaneously reducing customer support costs. It uses interactive voice response (IVR), automatic call distribution (ACD) and... Read more
Platforms: MacWinLinux
Deployments: Cloud
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Five9 is an all-in-one cloud contact center solution for inbound, outbound, blended and omnichannel contact centers world-wide. Powered by Practical AI, Five9 enables agents to provide customer experiences across phone, email, chat,... Read more
Platforms: MacWinLinux
Deployments: CloudOn premise
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Nextiva offers a robust call center solution for business large and small. Nextiva Call Center allows companies to deploy a contact center in the cloud for inbound and outbound calling campaigns. Smaller organizations can now access... Read more
Platforms: MacWinLinux
Deployments: Cloud
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XenCALL is a cloud-based call center solution for companies of all sizes in a variety of industries. Key features include automatic call distribution, interactive voice response, auto dialing, scheduling, performance analytics and... Read more
Platforms: MacWinLinux
Deployments: Cloud
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Sharpen’s cloud-native platform is a SaaS contact center solution for midsize to large enterprise businesses. As an all-in-one solution, the platform provides businesses the ability to communicate with customers by SMS, MMS, live... Read more
Platforms: MacWinLinux
Deployments: Cloud
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Qubicles is a cloud-based contact center solution for sales and customer service teams covering email, phone and live chats. Key features include inbound, outbound and blended campaigns, call routing, interactive voice response (IVR),... Read more
Platforms: MacWinLinux
Deployments: Cloud
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Noble Enterprise is a call center management solution suitable for businesses of all sizes. Key features include inbound, outbound and blended contact management, predictive dialing, skills-based call routing, digital recording and... Read more
Platforms: MacWinLinux
Deployments: CloudOn premise
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Twilio Flex is a fully programmable cloud-based contact center platform that gives businesses complete control of their contact center experience. With Twilio Flex, companies can deploy an omnichannel contact center platform and customize... Read more
Platforms: MacWinLinux
Deployments: Cloud
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CARES (Communication and Relationship Engagement Solution) from Centurion is an integrated call center solution suitable for small and large enterprises looking for automatic call distribution (ACD), QA recording, outbound notification,... Read more
Platforms: MacWinLinux
Deployments: CloudOn premise
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NICE inContact Cloud Contact Center
NICE inContact is cloud-based call center software that helps businesses to maximize the quality of leads and minimize the cost of client interaction. The solution comprises many features required to process inbound support requests... Read more
Platforms: MacWinLinux
Deployments: CloudOn premise
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Aspect Via Cloud Contact Center
Aspect Via Cloud Contact Center is a web-based customer engagement center suitable for organizations with 100 or more concurrent and named users. The system is a complete set of customer service capabilities including self-service,... Read more
Platforms: MacWinLinux
Deployments: Cloud
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Service Cloud from Salesforce is a cloud-based customer service management solution that is designed to initiate customer service activities from anywhere. Built on the Salesforce1 Platform, Service Cloud works to centralize and optimize... Read more
Platforms: MacWinLinux
Deployments: Cloud
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Aircall is a cloud-based business phone and call center system that helps manage and streamline customer support and sales engagement operations. Designed for offices and teams in remote areas, it enables users to integrate software... Read more
Platforms: MacWinLinux
Deployments: Cloud
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Versature’s cloud-based business VoIP services provide Canadian companies with unified communications and call analytics solutions to help manage their business operations. Versature’s key features include auto attendants, click-to-dial,... Read more
Platforms: MacWinLinux
Deployments: Cloud
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Cloud communications provider RingCentral has expanded into the Call Center space with their Contact Center solution. The integrated suite powered by inContact offers Automatic Call Distribution, Interactive Voice Response, CTI, Auto... Read more
Platforms: MacWinLinux
Deployments: Cloud
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Aspect Unified IP is a call center management solution designed for inbound and outbound call centers of all sizes. Key features include automatic call distribution (ACD), interactive voice response (IVR), computer telephony integration... Read more
Platforms: MacWinLinux
Deployments: On premise
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Imagine you’re an agent at a busy call center: you’re fielding dozens of phone calls a day with customers you’ve never met, and you want to make a good impression on all of them. Don’t you want to be as prepared and efficient as possible?
One of the best ways to set up your call center team for success in the environment described is by investing in a system with computer telephony integration (CTI). CTI is an important category of call center software: It enables phone and computer systems to work together for the benefit of your agents and your customers.
In this guide, we’ll break down everything you need to know to choose the right CTI system for your company, such as:
What Is CTI?
Common Functionality of CTI
Benefits of CTI
CTI Implementation Options
Integration Considerations
What Is CTI?
CTI, or computer telephony integration, is also known as “computer-telephone integration” or “computer telephony.” These terms may sound intimidating, but their basic meaning is straightforward: CTI is technology that lets you use a computer to initiate, manage and enhance your phone calls.
CTI is often used as a jargon term for describing integrations between a phone system and a customer relationship management (CRM) system that has already been deployed. These integrations add features to enhance both systems and help agents better handle interactions.
An example of how they do this is “screen pops”—a window that pops up on an agent's computer screen when they have an incoming phone call. That window displays information about the caller, e.g., address and interaction history, which is pulled from the call center’s existing CRM program.
This phone system-computer coordination is made possible through CTI. Though it’s most common for CTI to be used for CRM integrations, it is also good for other types of integrations.
For instance, many organizations now use CTI to allow their accounting software to interface with their phone system. Agents can call customers with unpaid invoices directly from their accounting software through functionality called “click-to-dial” (more details on this below).
To recap: CTI software acts as a bridge for the exchange of data and functionalities between a company’s phone system and other existing programs, such as CRM or accounting solutions.
Common Functionality of CTI
Vendors offer a variety of functional breadth and depth in their CTI solutions. Here are some of the most common capabilities:
| Screen pops | In addition to what we’ve already described, screen pops can indicate the priority level of an interaction with a caller based on customer history data from your CRM program. They can also use a customer’s Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system answers to display the purpose of a call (e.g., sales or support). |
| Click-to-dial | This function adds outbound dialing capabilities to the databases of contacts you'd find in a CRM or accounting system. Agents can skip manual dialing and simply click a phone number on their computer screen to place a call. |
| Caller authentication | CTI software screens incoming calls and uses the phone number to find a match in your CRM system. It can confirm the caller’s identity before the call even starts. |
| Phone controls | Users can manage their phone controls through the computer instead of dialing buttons manually. These include the ability to answer, hang-up, conference, forward and transfer calls. |
| Logging and notes | Basic information is automatically logged in the CRM system while the call is in progress, such as the time/date of the call and agent handling it. Agents can also add manual notes directly into the CRM or accounting program. |
| Coordinated voice/data transfer | If a call needs to be transferred from one member of your team to another, this function allows all onscreen customer information (e.g., screen pops) to be transferred when the line is reassigned. |
CTI Benefits
Here are some benefits that explain how CTI can empower call center agents and companies to have more productive customer interactions:
Top Benefits of CTI Software
CTI Implementation Options
CTI can be implemented in one of two ways:
- As a best-of-breed application
- As part of a call center suite that has CTI capabilities built in, in addition to other applications (e.g., automatic call distribution or workforce scheduling)
It’s important to note that best-of-breed CTI software is a relatively niche offering. It could be a good option for companies with older phone systems who aren’t ready to buy a new one just yet, but still want to reap the benefits of CTI sooner rather than later.
The vast majority of buyers are better off with the second option: You’ll need an established phone system for calls to be able to work on your computers at all. It’s easier to implement a phone system that supports CTI from the start, rather than trying to retrofit or replace it later on.
Also worth noting: Some of the more basic CTI capabilities (e.g., click-to-dial and even screen pops, in some cases) can be achieved with a PBX system as an alternative to using CTI with a call center system.
Integration Considerations
Once you’ve decided on an implementation model, you can evaluate vendors. As we’ve explained, CTI is intended to be used with computer programs that call centers are already using, such as existing CRM or accounting systems. It’s important to ensure that any CTI vendor on your shortlist can interface with this existing software. You can usually find this information listed on vendors’ websites.