Computer telephony integration (CTI)

Computer telephony integration (CTI) is a term used to describe a general architecture in which functions traditionally provided by a telephone switching system are provided to some degree by personal computers and/or computer servers which are not dedicated to switching and telephony applications alone. Business telephony systems have become quite complex and provide a number of features in addition to local switching and control of incoming calls. These systems, often referred to as private branch exchanges (PBX), are capable of multiplexing a large number of voice and data signals from a large number of user consoles. Computer automation has found its way into every facet of data processing including telephone call processing systems. Computer telephony integration may be defined as the functional merging of telephony and data processing services in order to add value to business or other service applications. CTI enables a computer system to control a telephony system and a telephony system to access to a computer system. More specifically, CTI permits an exchange of command and status information between voice and data processing environments. Through the application of computer technology, calls can be controlled so that computer-supported call number dialing, call monitoring, or call forwarding is possible. With the use of CTI technology, computer-supported processing of items of information transmitted as a result of a telecommunication connection is possible, so that a computer-supported data transmission, speech recognition, or tone production can be executed.