Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) involves integrating computer systems with telephony resources.

CTI, in business terms, is the efficient and effective flow of information to improve customer interactions by presenting automated systems (eg. Interactive Voice Recognition - IVR), the Customer Service Representative (CSR) and/or the caller with the right information in order to complete the transaction. This process is often referred to as ‘screen popping’ or populating the CSR’s screen with relevant customer data. This is one example of the efficient use of CTI in a contact or call centre.

Benefits:

Improved customer service.
The CSR is more informed about the customer as they answer an interaction because of richer customer data being presented to their screen.
A strong differentiator for organisations seeking to improve their customer service, achieved through tighter integration with back office systems, which also can reduce errors in data entry.
CTI, while easier to integrate to IP solutions, can be applied across most Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) multi-channel platforms.
CTI is application driven. The richer the applications and tighter their integration to back office systems, the greater the level of customer service that can be applied.
CTI is a critical component of automated speech/IVR solutions.

In summary, CTI gives our customers the ability to:

Automate processes.
Centralise control and tracking.
Save money.
Increase customer satisfaction.
Increase productivity.
Make expertise more accessible.
Provide sales opportunities.
Personalise service.
Improve quality.

Features: CTI provides application integration between telephony systems and computers. More common uses include:

"Intelligent call routing" = route your callers based on business information instead of voice context alone.
“Screen pop” = customer data from customer relationship application (CRM) appears on the agent's computer screen before the phone rings.

CTI can also be used to describe CRM applications, Work Force Management (WFM), network signaling interface, reporting interface, web/email integration, etc. CTI is often referred to as a generic application interface function.