Discuss and analyze the technology, components, and market-players that comprise the Computer Telephony Integration industry. This paper intends to introduce the history of computer telephony (CT), the technology, the concepts, and the competitors within the marketplace. At the conclusion of this paper, the reader should have a basic understanding of CT concepts as well as the market players that compete within the CTI industry.

Computer Telephony is the combination of two communication devices: the Telephone and the Computer. By combining these two instruments, a new wave of technologies as well as a major boost in global economies are the results of the surge in the computer telephony industry. The ultimate goal of integrating these two technologies is to provide better efficiency, more effective communication, and improved goods and services to the consumer.

Computer Telephony is the technique of combining the tools and functions of both computer and telephone systems to derive a more effective and efficient tool for a user, business, or enterprise. Traditionally, computer telephony was most commonly encountered within large call centers that could justify integrating technologies due to heavy call volumes. However, with the surge in technological advances and decreasing hardware and software costs throughout the 1990’s, has pushed the market into a multi-billion-dollar-a-year industry. To show the enormity of the CT industry, see what a few prominent CT market researchers have concluded:

• The number of call centers in Europe will grow from 12,750 in 1999 to 28,289 in 2006.

Computer Telephony evolved during the advent of the personal computer (PC). Shortly thereafter, data communication via modems where introduced to the PC. This launched the need to provide telephony functions to the PC in order for a computer to connect to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). In parallel, large Private Branch Exchange (PBX) manufactures (i.e. AT &T, Northern Telecom) started to develop proprietary links between the PBX and PC to allow more control via a computer. These links were of a proprietary nature in order to avoid the use of modems. This link is more commonly referred to as the computer telephony integration link or "CTI link." (Nexus Telecom)

Nowadays, computer telephony encompasses a large mass of technologies to include:

• Voice
• Fax
• Email
• Web
• Voice over IP (VoIP)
• Chat
• Web Collaboration
• Web Callbacks
• Wireless Application Protocol (WAP)

Typically, now and days, most people have interfaced with a Computer Telephony system. Let’s take an example of the banking industry. Most banks employ a CT system for their clients to access their personal account information over the phone. Clients can access their account balance, transfer funds between accounts, and process payments. Clients who call into a CT system may connect to one or more of the following components:

• Database (customer/account information)
• Voice Response Unit
• Private Branch Exchange
• Fax Server
• CTI Server

See the following diagram of the typical architecture within a Computer Telephony system: (Carden)

Consequently, throughout the early 1990’s, several factors occurred to simplify CT system integration and increase market interest. Factors such as developing an international standard of interconnecting telephony and computing systems; better known as the Computer-Supported Telephony Application (CSTA) was developed. Additionally, software developers such as Microsoft and Novell heavily promoted the Application Programming Interface (API’s),which gained wide-world appeal and acceptance. Similarly, voice-processing technologies were becoming easier to develop while providing higher-port densities at no significant increase in cost. In addition, telecom providers were offering more computer-telephone features as Caller Line ID and Voice Mail services to their customer base. (Strathmeyer)

This convergence of standards, technologies, and features prompted businesses to take notice and invest in computer telephony to provide better services to their clients while saving money in the process. Hence, the evolution of the modern Call Center emerged.

Call Centers (or Contact Centers as they are commonly referred to today) are typically company-owned service centers who support a product or service. Typically, a contact center is a place where a large mass of people (Agents) are devoted to the task of making and receiving calls both to and from customers (inbound/outbound) in order to provide assistance and answer questions. In the past these were typically reserved for large corporations/insurance companies that had a large customer base to support and could afford the large cost of such a center. However, within the new economy of e-commerce and the Internet explosion over the past 10 years, companies are focusing more on servicing their customers by employing computer telephony. Such pioneers in the call center industry as LL Bean direct marketers and FedEx have proven that large savings and huge profits could be amassed by employing computer telephony. (Dawson)

Historically, call centers have invested heavily in computer telephony integration. At first these call centers handled inbound voice calls only. Clients would call into the call center to get support, answer questions, get product information, or make a purchase. A typical inbound voice call center would only need a few Agents, a PBX and some telephone extensions to the Agents. The PBX would employ a software feature called the Automatic Call Distributor or ACD to route these calls to the Agents. The Agents would simply stand-by and wait for the call from a customer. (Intecom)

However, as the company expanded and call volumes increased, Agents were noticing they were spending much of their time making notes, filling out forms, and processing these forms once the call was completed. This lead to a severe bottleneck with call center. As more information needed to be filled out, transposed to a typewriter, etc., callers had to stay on hold and wait for the Agent to complete the task. Something needed to change. Quickly!

What was the fix? Supply a personal computer to every Agent. By employing PCs at the agent desktop, Agents could fill-out forms, process forms more efficiently, and submit forms electronically. What transpired was Agents were spending less time with their customers over the telephone. Furthermore, more calls could be answered in a shorter amount of time. (Intecom)

However, once again, a bottleneck developed. Call center supervisors were noticing a common problem. Agents were continually answering the same questions again and again over the phone. This trend tended to lead to high job dissatisfaction and high employee turnover. The response? Implement computer telephony into the call center. Call centers saw that CT could save them much time and effort if common questions/concerns could be answered automatically via a Voice Response Unit or VRU. The VRU would present the caller an option of menus that the caller had to choose from. These menus could answer common questions and accept data from the caller (via DTMF tones) to process transactions without an Agent’s intervention. This, in turn, led to less call volumes and less repetition by the Agent. CT was simply supplementing the call center. (Intecom)

At this time many call centers were employing VRU’s to supplement their call centers. However, the VRU’s could do much more than just play messages and guide callers away from an Agent. As the CT industry continued to improve the VRU’s, the VRU’s evolved into IVR’s or Interactive Voice Response units. These IVR’s could accept data from a caller (DTMF, ANI, DNIS) in the form of digits and process data in many other ways. The IVR could accept a caller’s account code to process banking transactions and access a database to process an account and respond back with "voice prompts" which the caller could understand. Furthermore, an IVR could identify who the caller was by an account code and view the caller’s transaction history, balance, status, orders, etc. The amount of data an IVR could collect and process seemed limitless. Hence, the idea of the CTI server was born. (Intecom)

A computer telephony integration server or CTI server could monitor the events that were occurring on an IVR and process that data to an Agent. This lead to the advent of the so called "Screen Pop." Callers would first encounter the IVR. The IVR would prompt a caller for an account code or security pin to identify the caller. Additionally, telephone companies had the ability to provide Caller Line ID (the caller’s number) and pass that data onto the IVR. The IVR could collect the Caller Line ID or PIN number and perform a database query concerning the particular caller. Afterwards, the CTI Server would gather all the information an IVR collected and present it to the Agent if the caller needed assistance. At the Agent’s desktop, a "screen pop" would occur on the Agent’s PC which provided valuable information concerning the caller. This, in turn would save the Agent time not having to ask the caller simple questions as their name, address, birth date, etc. because the IVR already retrieved this information from the database. This was a giant leap forward in the call center industry. (Intecom)

Today, as the call centers transform into Contact Centers with the advent of the Internet, clients have a wealth of options to choose when contacting their contact centers. Callers not only have to the choice to call a service center via a telephone, but also via fax, email, Internet, chat, voice over IP, etc. The possibilities seem endless. A new industry was born.

The CT industry as a whole is quite extensive due to sheer demand of this technology. Within the CT industry, is a sub-category of firms that have focused their attention on the development and improvement of computer telephony integration (CTI). These firms develop sophisticated software applications (CTI middleware) that integrates with numerous CT components common in many call centers. CTI middleware manages the overall flow of interactions within a Contact Center to include voice, email, Web, fax, chat, web collaboration, web call back, and VoIP. Not only do CTI vendors need to focus on the traditional call center components such as the PBXs and IVR’s, but they must also be able handle all other types of contact media as well. According to Newton’s Telecom dictionary, CTI is defined as:

These CTI middleware vendors focus exclusively on managing the overall interaction types available within a contact center. As a CTI middleware vendor, only software solutions are provided to integrate with a variety of technologies that may be included within a call center. This middleware is installed onto a computer server and placed within the contact center, better known as the CTI server. As such, CTI middleware vendors may support the following hardware and/or software:

• PBXs/ACDs

• Alcatel, Aspect, Ericsson, Fujitsu, Harris, Intecom, Lucent, Nortel, Philips, Rockwell, Siemens

• IVR

• Conversant, Edify, IBM Direct Talk, Intervoice-Brite, Periphonics, Voicetek

• FAX
• Numerous vendors

• Operating Systems:

• MS Windows 95/98/NT/2000, AIX, HP Unix, Sun Solaris

• Databases

• MS SQL Server, Informix, Oracle, Informix, Sybase

Below is a list of companies that offer products in the CTI server market. These firms concentrate exclusively on the highly competitive telecom/internet market. As such, their product scope is broad to remain competitive and profitable within the telecom market. The primary CTI vendors are:

• Aspect Telecommunications
• Cisco
• Genesys Telecommunications
• Nortel

Aspect Communications has undergone a positioning and cultural overhaul over the past 12 months. The company is shifting from a hardware-based ACD provider to a software solution provider. Aspect views themselves as the leading provider of customer relationship portals, a software platform for building and deploying eCRM applications that enable businesses to ensure consistent interactions with their customers from one centrally managed eBusiness system. Aspect’s bases their position in customer relationship management solutions on its 15-year history and more than 7600 customer contact implementations. (Roark)

• Aspect Customer Relationship Portal

• CTI capabilities
• Rules-based management to route interactions throughout the contact center without low-level programming
• Real-time reporting capabilities from multiple sources

• Aspect Customer Self-Service

• Agent application that interfaces with fax, e-mail, web, voice

• Aspect Customer DataMart

• Gathers information from distributed multimedia contact centers and other applications

• Aspect Office

• Powerful ACD switch for small to medium sized call centers

• eWorkforce Management

• Software application to examine statistical analysis/trends to determine needed staff to support call center.

Cisco Systems is the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet. Cisco’s networking solutions connect people, computing devices and computer networks, allowing people to access or transfer information without regard to differences in time, place, or type of computer system. Cisco sells its products in approximately 115 countries through a direct sales force, distributors, value-added resellers and system integrators. Cisco has more than 210 sales and support offices in 54 countries. (Roark)

Since shipping its first product in 1986, the company has grown into a global market leader that holds No.1 or No.2 market share in virtually every market segment in which it participates. Since becoming a public company in 1990, Cisco annual revenues have increased from $69 million to 12.2 billion in fiscal 1999. Cisco is among the largest companies in the world. Cisco recently acquired Geotel, a CTI middleware provider to gain a competitive advantage and reap the benefits from the CTI industry. (Roark)

• Cisco ICM

• Cisco’s enterprise-wide CTI server to include routing, reporting, Web interaction, Agent Client, IVR integration, and Workforce Management solutions

"To be the leading provider of best-in-class, infrastructure independent contact center solutions, managing customer interactions across any media, for the enterprise, service provider and e-business markets." (Roark)

Genesys was one of the firsts to pioneer the field of computer telephony integration (CTI). Founded in 1990, Genesys has focused on providing applications for customer contact centers, which enable companies to manage multimedia interactions. In fiscal year 1999, Genesys exceeded investor’s expectations by reporting revenues in excess of $140 and has continually met or exceeded investor’s expectations since going public in 1997. (Genesys)

In January of 2000, Alcatel acquired Genesys in a stock-for-stock transaction. Genesys is a wholly owned, independent subsidiary of Alcatel and will function as Alcatel’s center of excellence for contact center applications. (Genesys)

• Framework Suite

• Core CTI software suite for contact centers that include the award winning T-Server.

• Inbound Suite

• Multi-media routing solution for contact centers

• Outbound Suite

• Outbound campaign application for blended contact centers

• Internet Suite

• Contact Center application to handle email, fax, web, VoIP, chat interactions

• Workforce Manage

• Software application to examine statistical analysis/trends to determine needed staff to support call center.

• Contact Center Analyzer

• Historical reporting suite to process statistical and call detail reports concerning all contact center interactions

Nortel is a global leader in telephony, data, wireless, and Internet solutions. Nortel, formerly known as Northern Telecom, has a long tradition in the telecommunications field. Nortel’s primary focus was to concentrate solely in the telecommunications field yet, has been acquiring many CT firms in recent years to capture more market share in the fast-paced e-business and customer contact centers. (Roark)

• Symposium Call Center Suite

• Core CTI Server for contact centers
• IVR – interactive voice response server
• Web Response Server – web server for web interactions to the contact center
• Agent – Agent desktop client for Symposium call center Agents.
• Meridian- Nortel’s Award-winning PBX/ACD

Overall, each one of these competitors has an excellent series of products to fulfill the needs of contact centers. However, each firm has deep roots in its traditional product offerings not encompassing CTI, except for one – Genesys.

Here is the comparison between these firms:

• Good customer service reputation.
• Large PBX/ACD customer base.

• No integrated outbound solution.
• Inexperienced with network routing.

• Strong customer service
• Strong worldwide brand recognition
• Highly experienced with network routing
• IP industry leader

• New to CTI market.
• Lack experience with PBX/ACD integration
• Recently acquired Geotel for CTI products. Will take time to incorporate into contact center solutions.

• Excellent brand recognition
• Integrates with all PBX/ACDs
• Solely a middleware provider
• Recently acquired by Alcatel

• The small fish in a huge pond
• Recently acquired by Alcatel

• May lose customer base, lack of brand recognition

• Reliable ACD/PBX
• Large customer base

• Limited integrator with other vendors
• No outbound solution

The benefits of CT technology are a win/win solution for both the businesses and the consumers. Computer and telephony technologies help businesses reduce operating costs while improving the quality of individual interactions, which over time drive customer loyalty and revenues. Additionally, CT empowers contact centers to service their customers via a variety of means, either by voice, email, fax, web, chat, etc. As technology and innovation improves and the demand for services increase, contact centers will strive to implement more interaction type medium.

As for the firms that produce CT technologies, there is a wide plethora of choices for the buyer. As shown throughout this paper, most of the core telecom providers (Aspect, Nortel, and Lucent*) have been the major drivers and the longest running providers in the CT market. However, a few "new economy" firms have developed CTI software solutions (middleware); which are proving to be just as successful as the core telecom suppliers (Genesys, Cisco). The reason being is because the focus is shifting away from a hardware solution to a software solution. Over time the data providers and system integrators will become the new champions within the CT market space.

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