A New Design Framework for Computer-Telephony Integration (CTI)

Abstract

The need for computer-telephony integration (CTI) has expanded far beyond simply displaying information about an inbound call to a customer-service representative. This expansion has increased the number and types of problems experienced by developers and callers who interact with CTI systems. Some of these problems can be identified and prevented by using a design framework with the dimensions of “time” and “complexity”. The time dimension applies to the five phases of a call’s life cycle: (a) pre-call issues such as attributes of the caller and the caller’s environment, (b) call routing, (c) task interactions during the call, (d) post-call activities, and (e) historical records and statistics. Thus the model covers both stand-alone calls (e.g., to place an order) and calls that are related to previous calls (e.g., to change an order). The complexity dimension includes three types of complexity for inbound calls: (a) technology, (b) request and (c) people. Blending outbound calls into the call mix adds another type of complexity. Failing to understand the issues and variables for either time or complexity can cause problems for developers of a system and for callers after the system has been implemented.