The abbreviation CTI stands for Computer Telephony Integration. The telephone system is usually an indispensable component of corporate communications. With a CTI client, the telephone is operated from the PC. CTI software enables call set-up, call acceptance and termination of telephone calls or telephone conferences from within programs. In addition, CTI systems support the sending and receiving of faxes or telephone call forwarding. The CTI software enables the user to assign the incoming caller to a stored customer on the basis of the call number. Customer information matching the phone number can be displayed in a dialog box.
For the configuration of CTI systems a so called TAPI interface is necessary. The abbreviation TAPI stands for Telephony Application Programming Interface and describes a programming interface (API) for the CTI software. To connect the telephone system with the TAPI interface, a TAPI driver or TAPI software is needed. The connected telephones must be TAPI capable. In this way, depending on the CTI solution, extensive CRM or backend systems can be integrated via the interfaces.