CTI 101: Concierge Communications Provides Primer

Clark Atwood is vice president of technical sales for Concierge Communications, which is part of master agency CarrierSales.com. Atwood fielded Octobers Techno Beat questions on Computer-Telephony Integration, a technology that is becoming more widely adopted and thus, more important to agents.

T@G: What is CTI?
Atwood: Heres how some small and large companies define CTI: Fujitsu (http://software.fujitsu.com/en/Jasmine/yougoe.html): Stands for Computer Telephony Integration. CTI is a system that is based on the integration of computer, telephony and networks. Using CTI, a call center is empowered to improve productivity of reception services and to respond to each customer deliberately.ACC Systems (http://www.accsystems.com/glossary.htm): Computer Telephone Integration. A generic name for the technology automatically relating computers and PBXs via applications such as ACD, power dialing, IVR and other customer facing or agent facing services. Also known by older, proprietary names CIT (Computer Integrated Telephony) and CSTA (Computer Supported Telephony Applications).Intel (http://www.intel.com/network/csp/solutions/contact_cntr/6671web.htm): Computer-telephone integration: technology that facilitates control of the telephone and access to telephony media streams by a computer in order to deliver integrated voice and data solutions. CTI involves computer control of telephone calls and physical telephone devices, as well as the binding of telephone calls to media services, such as voice processing, fax processing, video conferencing and telecommunications.Israel Ministry of Finance (http://www.mof.gov.il/micun/gloss.htm): computer telephony integration: Using a computer connected to a telephone switch to issue call-routing commands; often used in call centers.As you can see, CTI can mean something simple to something complex, depending on whom you are talking to and what you are trying to accomplish. A definition is only as good as the number of people that have the common elements. The definition of CTI, as you can see from the examples above, has different meanings to different companies. My two simple definitions are:Computer and telephone integration;Computer-controlled telephony Traditional definitions of CTI (tying your phone and computer together) are evolving as VoIP becomes more readily available, as carriers attempt to offer more features and as more solutions become available in the market. To use an analogy, there are essentially two trains meeting in the night. These trains are the data train and the telco train. The data train is decimating the traditional telco train by replacing telco functionality with computer-based technology. CTI, VoIP, hosted solutions and IP backbones are data-related technologies out to replace telco elements like traditional phones, point-to-point circuits, frame relay and customer premise equipment.T@G:What is it about CTI that makes it an important technology for agents to understand? What are three or four key points?
Atwood: Intelligence – Taking information available from a call, DNIS, ANI or user key and processing this information in a timely manner to positively affect the call.Save time – For example, the computer could look at the ANI and have the customer information made available on a computer screen when the call is answered.Monitor – As the computer/phone system processes the calls, the calls can be logged, monitored, rerouted, and all of the data recorded for real-time and historical reporting.  The two acronyms that are becoming synonymous with, and possibly replacing, the CTI acronym are IVR (Interactive Voice Response) and ACD (Automatic Call Distribution or Distributor). A fundamental technology change is what makes it important for agents to understand. Those left representing traditional communications have not heeded the warning signs of the past decade that significant changes were coming.T@G:How can agents best bring this solution to their end users?
Atwood: The CTI world is evolving as quickly as the hardware and software it is attempting to integrate. Agents need a tool that is flexible with all of the current changes and future enhancements, but will also work with legacy systems. The best systems will work with a traditional PSTN connection and work with a SIP gateway for VoIP. This takes us into the age-old argument of using off-the-shelf or turnkey solutions versus custom-built applications. In a world of dynamic change, customization tends to be the better solution if you expect a lot of change to your needs.As needs change, settle down, and become more and more stagnant, an off-the-shelf solution will tend to dominate the market space. I believe that we are in the early stages and the custom applications will have dominance in the market until applications are developed to meet growing IVR and ACD needs.Hosted solutions are taking hold for the following reasons:Disaster Recovery – most small and medium businesses (SMBs) need it, but can’t afford it. Application service providers (ASPs) often provide redundant features that meet this need. This solution makes small companies competitive with big companies. Outsource Expertise – it is getting difficult to find quality and experienced talent in communications. SMBs cannot afford full-time personnel. Reduce Capital Outlay - a service is an expense, not an asset. It has to be carried on the books, depreciated, maintained or typically upgraded. Features – hosted solutions are offering features not available to SMBs in their budget range when comparing against a premise-based solution. As a communications agent, we are putting a great deal of time and resources in developing and bringing to market solutions based on UCN’s hosted inContact platform. There are three reasons we like this platform:Built on VoIP – This means we are already dealing with new technology, not legacy systems.Flexibility – We control the programming and we can get our customers to learn to do their own programming. How many solutions allow the customer to get deeply involved in a system and as they use it more, you as an agent get paid more? This is a win-win scenario. The customer can choose to outsource the development and maintenance, or he or she can bring it in-house and manage it. The agent wins with potential professional services and residual commissions on usage.Margin – We can build a better margin by offering professional services, intelligence and long-distance rather than just the long-distance portion. We expect customers to be with us a long time because we have helped them with a custom solution. Those agents representing commodity services of local, long-distance and Internet access don’t have a chance against this type of solution sale. The days of selling long-distance for a penny cheaper than the next rep are over. You must sell on product and service and when you do, you create lasting value.  T@G:What are some of the most popular implementations for CTI?Atwood: The most popular implementations are not going to be vendor-specific. Traditionally, tying a CRM database to a phone system has been very popular in a call center environment. I believe the most popular uses are yet to come.What I find interesting is there are few businesses that cannot benefit from some type of CTI, IVR or ACD functionality. I think the challenge is educational. The solutions that are forthcoming are more of a software sale rather than a traditional telco service sale. The agents need to evolve their sales forces and their approaches. The sales cycles can tend to be longer, more complex, involve a committee and, currently, the solutions are more custom. The companies doing well from both an agent and a customer perspective are those that have taken the time to educate themselves and boiled technology down to business benefit.