Slide 1:Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) By, Pavithra Krishnan, Ammu Lily Kala


Slide 2:Introduction Computer telephony integration (CTI) is technology that allows interactions on a telephone and a computer to be integrated or coordinated. As contact channels have expanded from voice to include email, web, and fax, the definition of CTI has expanded to include the integration of all customer contact channels (voice, email, web, fax, etc.) with computer systems.


Slide 3:Working of CTI System


Slide 4:Common functions The following functions can be implemented using CTI: Call information display (caller's number (ANI), number dialed (DNIS), and Screen population on answer, with or without using calling line data Automatic dialing and computer controlled dialing (fast dial, preview, and predictive dial.) Phone control. (answer, hang up, hold, conference, etc.) Coordinated phone and data transfers between two parties (ie pass on the Screen pop with the call)


Slide 5:Call center phone control. (logging on; after-call work notification) Advanced functions such as call routing, reporting functions, automation of desktop activities, and multi-channel blending of phone, e-mail, and web requests Agent state control (for example, after-call work for a set duration, then automatic change to the ready state) Call control for Quality Monitoring/call recording software. Screen Popup which provides Common Controls Continued…. Caller Line Identification (CLI) Automatic number identification (ANI) Dialed Number Identification Service (DNIS) Information entered from an Interactive voice response (IVR)


Slide 6:Forms of CTI Generally, there are two forms of CTI. First-party call control Third-party call control


Slide 7:First party call control operates as if there is a direct connection between the user's computer and the phone set. An example of this would be a modem card in a desktop computer, or a phone plugged directly into the computer. Typically, only the computer associated with the phone can control it, by sending command directly to the phone. The computer can control all the functions of the phone, normally at the computer user's direction. First party call control is the easiest to implement but is not suited to large scale applications such as call centers. First-party call control


Slide 8:Third-party call control is more difficult to implement and often requires a dedicated telephony server to interface between the telephone network and the computer network. Third party call control works by sending commands from a user's computer to a telephony server, which in turn controls the phone centrally. Specifically, the user's computer has no direct connection to the phone set, which is actually controlled by an external device. Information about a phone call can be displayed on the corresponding computer workstation's screen while instructions to control the phone can be sent from the computer to the telephone network. Any computer in the network has the potential to control any phone in the telephone system. Third-party call control


Slide 9:CTI application event flow This typically proceeds along the following sequence: Set up Deliver (ringing) Establish (answer) Clear (hang up) End CTI applications handle events related to automated call distribution (ACD) such as: Agent logged in Agent available Agent not available Agent ready Agent not ready A typical CTI application manages the event flow that is generated by the telephony switch during the life cycle of a call. Other call events that can be handled by a typical CTI solution include the following: Hold Retrieve from hold Conference Transfer Forward


Slide 10:Computer Telephony Integration Standards CSTA (Computer-Supported Telephony Application) is an ECMA (European Computer Manufacturers Association) standard for computer telephony integration which has been ratified by the ITU. TSAPI (Telephony Service Application Program Interface) is an AT&T/Lucent/Novell standard for computer telephony integration. TAPI (Telephony Applications Program Interface) is the Microsoft standard for computer telephony integration. ANI (Automatic Number Identification) is a feature of telephony intelligent network services that permits subscribers to display or capture the telephone numbers of calling parties. ACD (Automatic Call Distributor ) In telephony, an is a device or system that distributes incoming calls to a specific group of terminals that agents use. It is often part of a computer telephony integration (CTI) system. DNIS (Dialed Number Identification Service ) is a service sold by telecommunications companies to corporate clients that lets them determine which telephone number was dialed by a customer. This is useful in determining how to answer an inbound call.


Slide 11:Superior total cost of ownership: The web-based CTI architecture allows dramatically faster application deployment. Maintenance, upgrades and new applications are administered centrally on the server in real-time, saving the time and expense associated with making such changes agent by agent. Needless to say, there is a dramatic decrease in hardware resource utilization. Greater Customer Satisfaction: The web-based CTI application provides a unique rich set of data provided from Cisco CTI server, together with information provided from the customer back end system. Such information will allow the agents to service the customer better, hence resulting in greater customer satisfaction. CTI Benefits


Slide 12:Location Independence: The web-based CTI architecture allows agents access to centralized applications from virtually anywhere, given the agent has corporate connectivity. Platform Independence: The web-based CTI architecture allows the agents' web clients to work independently, regardless of the hardware or OS type. Localization: With IST’s constant commitment and understanding of the local market, the agent web-based application has the option to support both Arabic and English interfaces, depending on the preferences of the agent. Latest Technologies: The agent web-based CTI solution is built with the latest Java/J2EE technologies using the latest version of JDK level – JDK1.5. Outstanding Performance & Scalability: Typically increasing the processing speed of the CTI web server environment hosted on the Oracle application server will directly improve system performance. With the application server deployed on a high performance server, the solution could scale to thousands of agents with no virtual limitation.


Slide 13: EXPLANATION FOR IMPORTANT CTI STANDARDS AUTOMATIC NUMBER IDENTIFICATION Automatic Number Identification (ANI) is a feature of telephony intelligent network services that permits subscribers to display or capture the telephone numbers of calling parties. The ANI service was created by AT&T for internal long distance billing purposes, and is not related to newer caller ID services. Inward WATS is purchased by customers so that other telephone users (for example, prospective customers) can call the number toll free. The customer is issued a distinctive toll-free telephone number beginning with a special area code such as 800, or more recently, 888, 877, or 866. Subscribers to these numbers are typically called Inward WATS subscribers. A related piece of information conveyed to the Inward WATS subscriber is the Dialed Number Identification Service (DNIS), the number that the caller dialed when accessing the service. With the information, the service provider can have several toll-free numbers directed to the same call center and provide unique service based on the number dialed


Slide 14:Contd…. DNIS can also be used to identify other call routing information. For example, the WATS service can be configured to send a specific DNIS number that is assigned to callers from geographic regions based on city, area code, state, or country. ANI has two components, information digits, which identify the class of service, and the calling party telephone number. Privacy Because ANI is unrelated to caller ID, the caller's telephone number and line type are captured by ANI equipment even if caller ID blocking is activated. The destination telephone company switching office can relay the originating telephone number to ANI delivery services subscribers. Toll-free Inward WATS number subscribers and large companies normally have access to ANI information, either instantly via installed equipment, or from a monthly billing statement. Residential subscribers can obtain access to ANI information through third party companies that charge for the service.


Slide 15:CALL ROUTING INTEGRATION CONVERTING ANA


Slide 16:Automatic number announcement In telephony, an Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) is a device or system that distributes incoming calls to a specific group of terminals that agents use. It is often part of a computer telephony integration (CTI) system. Routing incoming calls is the task of the ACD system. ACD systems are often found in offices that handle large volumes of incoming phone calls from callers who have no need to talk to a specific person but who require assistance from any of multiple persons (e.g., customer service representatives) at the earliest opportunity. The system consists of hardware for the terminals and switches, phonelines, and software for the routing strategy. The routing strategy is a rule-based set of instructions that tells the ACD how calls are handled inside the system. Typically this is an algorithm that determines the best available employee or employees to respond to a given incoming call. To help make this match, additional data are solicited and reviewed to find out why the customer is calling. Sometimes the caller's caller ID or ANI is used; more often a simple Interactive voice response is used to ascertain the reason for the call. Originally, the ACD function was internal to the Private Branch Exchange of the company. A system was then designed to enable common computing devices, such as server PCs, to make routing decisions.


Slide 17:Contd…. An additional function for these external routing applications is to enable CTI. This allows improved efficiency for call center agents by matching incoming phone calls with relevant data on their PC via screen pop. A common protocol to achieve this is CSTA; however, almost every PBX vendor has its own flavor of CSTA, and CSTA is quite hard to program because of its complex nature. Various vendors have developed intermediate software that hides these complexities and expedites the work of programmers. Also, these protocols enable call centers consisting of PBXs from multiple vendors to be treated as one virtual contact center.


Slide 18:DIALLED NUMBER IDENTIFICATION SERVICE (DNIS) is a service sold by telecommunications companies to corporate clients that lets them determine which telephone number was dialed by a customer. This is useful in determining how to answer an inbound call The Telecommunications company sends a DNIS number to the client phone system during the call setup. The DNIS number is typically 4 to 10 digits in length. For example, a company may have a different toll free number for each product line it sells. If a call center is handling calls for multiple product lines, the switch that receives the call can examine the DNIS, then play the appropriate recorded greeting. Another example of multiple toll free numbers might be used for multi-lingual identification. A dedicated toll free number might be set up for Spanish speaking customers. With IVR (Interactive voice response) systems, DNIS is used for dispatching purposes by using it as routing information to determine which script or service should be played based on the number that was dialed to reach the IVR platform.


Slide 19:2. PREDICTIVE DIALER A predictive dialer is a computerized system that automatically dials batches of telephone numbers for connection to agents assigned to sales or other campaigns. Predictive dialers are widely used in call centers HISTORY The autodialer preceded the predictive dialer. While the basic autodialer merely automatically dials telephone numbers for call center agents who are idle or waiting for a call, the predictive dialer uses a variety of algorithms to predict both the availability of agents and called party answers, adjusting the calling process to the number of agents it predicts will be available when the calls it places are expected to be answered. The predictive dialer monitors the answers to the calls it places, detecting how the calls it makes are answered. It discards unanswered calls, busy numbers, disconnected lines, answers from fax machines, answering machines and similar automated services, and only connects calls answered by people to waiting sales representatives. Thus, it frees agents from the task of manually dialing telephone numbers and subsequently listening to ring tones, unanswered or unsuccessful calls.


Slide 20:Contd……. A predictive dialer can dramatically increase the time an agent spends on communication rather than waiting Call list is the data loaded to the dialer before commencing a campaign. The data is generally derived from a large database such as a telephone directory or similar listing from CRM software. Some predictive dialers generate call lists and report call attempts. Unsuccessful calls are often analyzed to determine if the number called needs to be called back later or needs special treatment, such as a manual or autodialed call by an agent to listen to an answer machine message. Predictive dialer systems are commonly used by telemarketing organizations involved in B2C (business to consumer) calling as it allows their sales representatives to have much more customer contact time. Predictive dialers may also be used by market survey companies and debt collection services who need to contact and personally speak to a lot of people by telephone.


Slide 21:Functioning The predictive dialer exhibits predictive behavior when its dialing algorithm produces more call attempts (dials) than the number of agents currently logged in and available to handle calls. The predictive dialing happens when the predictive dialer dials ahead of the agents becoming available or when the predictive dialer matches a forecast number of available agents with a forecast number of available called parties. The matching and dialing ahead perspectives provide the large increases in dial rates and agent productivity. Some predictive dialers incorporate "answering machine detection", which tries to determine if a live person or answering machine picked up the phone. This is one cause of the typical delays that one may experience before being connected to an agent. If not enough calls are made ahead, agents will sit idle, whereas if there are too many calls made and there are not enough agents to handle them, then the call is typically dropped.


Slide 22:ADVANCED PREDICTIVE DIALER The advanced predictive dialer determines and uses many operating characteristics that it learns during the calling campaign and adjusts automatically to the behaviour of an ongoing campaign. Examples of such statistics include call connection rates (both current and average for recent past days by hour of the day), average agent connection time, geographic location dialed, etc. It uses these statistics continually to make sophisticated predictions so as to minimize agent idle time while controlling occurrences of nuisance calls, which are answered calls without the immediate benefit of available agents. An advanced predictive dialer can readily maintain the ratio of nuisance calls to answered calls at less than a fraction of one percent while still dialing ahead.


Slide 23:SILENT CALLS Predictive dialing systems use algorithms to control the ratio of calls to agents. Because a dialer cannot know what proportion of its calls will connect until it has made them, it will alter its dialing rate depending on how many connections it manages to achieve. Occasionally the system will get more live parties on call attempts than there are agents available to take those calls. Consequently, the dialer will disconnect or delay distribution of calls that cannot be distributed to an agent. This is known as a silent call or a nuisance call. The called party hears only silence when the predictive dialer does not at least play a recorded message. The experience for those who receive a predictive dialer call can be less satisfactory. There may be an appreciable period of silence before a call is routed to a sales representative. This annoys people and also gives them a chance to hang up. If no sales representative is available for a successful call, it is often disconnected.


Slide 24:Types of Predictive Dialers Predictive dialers perform the same function but the architecture and delivery methods can vary greatly between manufacturers. There are several types of predictive dialing: Software, Hardware, Smart, and Hosted dialers. In recent years, 'mixed' type predictive dialers have emerged. These predictive dialers are based on simpler hardware, such as voice modems, and more powerful software for answering machine detection and call progress detection. The biggest advantage of this type of predictive dialers is the substantially lower cost of ownership. Soft dialers Software-only solutions use ISDN messaging, or a CTI link to provide call progress analysis for calls made. Software-only dialers are often cheaper because they do not require expensive telephony components, but may offer less functionality than more traditional 'hard dialer' solutions, particularly when it comes to detecting answering machines (AMD) and integration with other 'voice' related functions (voice recording, IVR, speech recognition, text-to-speech etc.). Open Source dialers have proven themselves in the production world and enable call centers of all sizes to lower costs.


Slide 25:A SOFT DIALER SYSTEM


Slide 26:Hard dialers Hardware dialers use dedicated telephony boards to perform call progress analysis and answering machine detection. Those switches usually have two main types of connections: agent audio and external audio. The agent audio connections are usually simple T1/E1/ISDN etc. telephony spans which are connected directly to an existing PBX (although other connection types that do not require a PBX are available such as Analogue or VoIP connections). When an agent first logs in for the day, the dialer will place a call from the switch directly to the phone on the agent's desk. This open phone call between the agent and the dialer switch is then kept open for the duration of the session. The second type of connection is the external audio connection which is the connection that will be used to make outbound phone calls. These connections are typically ISDN/T1/E1 connections direct to the PSTN. When an outbound call is made and answered, the call is immediately joined to an already open agent audio connection of the agent selected to take the call.


Slide 27:Smart predictive dialers Smart predictive dialers combine auto dialing with voice messaging and phone agents who are prepared to handle calls initiated by the dialer. Answering machines, busy signals, and unanswered calls are processed in a manner similar to that of a normal predictive dialing system. However, when a 'live' answer is detected, the dialer plays an introductory recorded message, giving the call recipient the option to talk with an agent to complete the transaction. This message is a consistent greeting that identifies the caller, the nature of the call, and the option to speak with an agent. SMART DIALER FLOW SYSTEM


Slide 28:Hosted predictive dialers Hosted predictive dialers (aka Virtual Predictive Dialers, Web-Enabled Predictive Dialers, VoIP Predictive Dialers) use the Software as a Service (SaaS) model to provide organizations and individuals with a predictive dialer capability. Typically, the only requirement for a firm to use a hosted predictive dialer system is a computer with an Internet connection and a telephone line for each agent.


Slide 29:Screen pop For call centers that provide integration between a telephone system and an agent's PC, a screen pop is used to display information about a call that has just been sent to the call centre agent. For Inbound calls the data displayed will typically contain information about the call such as the following: Caller Line Identification (CLI) Automatic number identification (ANI) Dialed Number Identification Service (DNIS) Information entered from an Interactive voice response (IVR) Extended information derived from one of the above. For example, an order number entered using the IVR is used to look up order information from a database, which is then displayed for the agent For Outbound call the data displayed will typically contain information that was sent to the outbound dialler as part of the customer call record.


Slide 30:Telephony Application Programming Interface The Telephony Application Programming Interface (TAPI) is a Microsoft Windows API, which provides computer telephony integration and enables PCs running Microsoft Windows to use telephone services. Different versions of TAPI are available on different versions of Windows. TAPI was introduced in 1993 as the result of joint development by Microsoft and Intel. The first publicly available version of TAPI was version 1.3, which was released as a patch on top of Microsoft Windows 3.1. Version 1.3 is no longer supported, although some MSDN development library CDs still contain the files and patches. With Microsoft Windows 95, TAPI was integrated into the operating system. The first version on Windows 95 was TAPI 1.4. TAPI 1.4 had support for 32-bit applications. The TAPI standard supports both connections from individual computers and LAN connections serving any number of computers. TAPI 2.0 was introduced with Windows NT 4.0. Version 2.0 was the first version on the Windows NT platform. It made a significant step forward by supporting ACD and PBX-specific functionality.


Slide 31:Contd… TAPI 3.0 was released in 1999 together with Windows 2000. This version enables IP telephony (VoIP) by providing simple and generic methods for making connections between two (using H.323) or more (using IP Multicast) computers and now also offers the ability to access any media streams involved in the connection. Windows XP included both TAPI 3.1 and TAPI 2.2. TAPI 3.1 supports the Microsoft Component Object Model and provides a set of COM objects to application programmers. This version uses File Terminals which allow applications to record streaming data to a file and play this recorded data back to a stream. A USB Phone TSP (Telephony Service Provider) was also included which allows an application to control a USB phone and use it as a streaming endpoint. The Telephony Server Application Programming Interface (TSAPI) is a similar standard developed by Novell for NetWare servers.


Slide 32:TAPI compliant hardware Telephony hardware that supports TAPI includes most voice modems and some telephony cards such as Dialogic boards. Overview 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). An intuitive web-based CTI-enabled application will be developed & deployed for all agents to service customer driven requests transferred from the CVP. The web-based CTI application is one of the business applications that will appear in the consolidated Agent Screen. The web-based CTI enabled application leverages the Cisco CTI provided toolkits which provides numerous application programming interfaces (APIs) for customization and integration.


Slide 33:TAPI HARDWARE


Slide 34:Ready-to-Use RFP Master This Ready-to-Use RFP Master™ is focused on selecting computer telephony integration system software solutions, and provides benefits that go far beyond those of traditional RFPs that are limited to asking vendors about the availability of CTI software features . Specialized for use in complex information system environments, this RFP Master collects information from vendors about all apects of the computer telephony integration software implementation project they are proposing. Actual screens and questions from this RFP are shown below to illustrate how it enables you to easily collect the unique metrics needed to successfully identify, acquire, and implement the computer telephony integration software solution best suited to your company's needs. (Click thumbnails to enlarge)


Slide 35:A Detailed & Comprehensive List of: Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) System Features : 400+ of pre-defined computer telephony integration RFP criteria ensure no important business requirements or software features "slip through the cracks". All are in a quantitative format that guarantees vendor responses will be meaningful, consistent, and easy to compare. All questions are professionally prepared by application specialists to address BOTH the STANDARD features and EXCEPTION CASE software functions required. Unlike other RFPs that try (and fail) to gather useful solutions data about complex computer telephony integration system features, RFP Masters are not constrained to the use of summary-level "Yes" or "No" answers. This RFP Master™ uses a Feature Support Matrix™ (FSM) that identify BOTH feature AVAILABILITY and DELIVERY Method. This RFP Master function is useful during both the computer telephony integration software selection AND the system implementation phases of large projects.


Slide 36:Weighted Grade Score Graph Compares the Weighted Grade Point Score calculated for each proposed system. This is calculated as follows: The vendor response to each RFP question is assigned an unweighted "raw" score. This raw score is then multiplied by the weight factor you entered previously (default = 1) for that RFP question to calculate the weighted score for each response. All of these individual scores are then totaled for use in this comparison. This score is essentially a measure of how well a computer telephony integration software system fits your business and software needs.


Slide 37:Color-Coded, "Apples-to-Apples" Comparison of Proposed Systems CTI Software Comparison These comparison matrices automatically change vendor response cell background color to GREEN, YELLOW, or RED, to reflect how favorable each response is to your needs Compared to the tedious task of reviewing hundreds of mono-color Yes/No answers, these colored responses allow problem areas to be spotted more easily, and risk assessment is made much more accurate. All required response comparison matrices are included and ready-to-use Quickly and easily compare computer telephony integration software system proposals side-by-side, feature by feature, in detailed comparisons you control! Keep your project on-schedule and under-budget. Vendor Response Input Validation Vendors must answer each RFP question by choosing from a pre-defined list of possible responses. See below for an example of this drop-down list. This forces all vendors to respond to each computer telephony integration (CTI) software question in a consistent, standard manner. Eliminates the days of time typically wasted trying to compare the inconsistent or incomplete vendor responses obtained by using traditional methods.


Slide 38:MOTHER BOARD OF A CTI


Slide 39:Real Time Usage of Computer Telephony Integration


Slide 40:Bibliography Wikipedia Cisco Nortel IEC ( International Engineering Consortium) SCIAM ( Scientific American ) UCN


Slide 41:THE END THANK YOU