Cisco Cisco Computer Telephony Integration Option 9.0

This chapter provides a context understand CTI. It includes the following:

Discussion of what CTI is and why it is useful

An example of Cisco’s approach to CTI

Introduction to Cisco CTI and its individual components

Throughout this document the presentation will be cast in terms of telephones and calls. This is in part 
because it takes a while for terminology to catch up with reality (sometimes it never does—for example, 
one still speaks of “dialing a phone number” even when there is no dial). However, keep in mind that 
telephony represents a medium, and a call is an interaction. The medium might just as well be the 
Internet. The interaction might just as well be an e-mail message, a faxed document, or a Web entry. The 
underlying Cisco technology will work the same regardless of the medium or the interaction.

The workflow of a modern contact center is based on two main areas: the media for communicating with 
the customer and the platform for servicing customer requests. 

CTI is the integration of the communications media (that is, phone, e-mail, or web) with the customer 
service platform (that is, customer databases, transaction processing systems, or CRM (customer 
relationship management) software packages).

Integrating communications media with the customer service platform helps agents to service customers 
better and faster in two ways. First, it enables the agent to leverage the information and events provided 
by the media to direct his workflow. Second, it increases the depth and breadth of customer information 
presented to the agent when the customer’s contact arrives at the workstation. 

A software used by the agent to service a customer request, which is driven by the information generated 
from the presentation of the customer contact.