Computer Telephony Integration

Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) is about bridging the gap between the telephone system and business applications. On IP Office, this is achieved by use of the IP Office CTI Link, a CTI middleware product and Software Developers Kit.

On IP Office, CTI is delivered through adherence to open standards. This gives businesses access to a wide range of third-party solutions, addressing vertical markets, and designed to meet their requirements. For developers, migrating their offering from other platforms to IP Office is quick and easy, and the advanced CTI features IP Office offers makes it easy to demonstrate full integration, and more business benefits.

IP Office provides two levels of CTI interoperability: CTI Link Lite, which is free of charge, provides all the functionality required to support the vast majority of applications, including screen-popping, and many third-party products.

CTI Link Pro provides enhanced functionality, including the ability to control multiple telephones and gives access to advanced call center operation.

Because IP networking is integrated into the IP Office system, all CTI is done through the LAN. On many other systems, CTI is delivered by a physical connection between each handset and computer (first party CTI). This introduces additional points of failure, as well as relying on non-standard interfaces and handsets. On IP Office, all devices can be used with CTI.

E-mail Reading

In addition to providing a unified mailbox for voicemail messages, emails and fax message, VoiceMail Pro can also provide the ability to retrieve email messages through the telephone.

When operating in INTUITY mode, using a Microsof Exchange server and with the system licensed for Text-To-Speech (TTS) facilities the user will be presented with a list of both voicemail messages and email messages. The emails can be read out over the telephone in any of the supported 14 languages, based upon the system or user localization settings. The benefit to the user is that their messages are now accessible while in and out of the office through any telephone.

When accessing messages through the telephone all new voicemail messages will be presented to the mailbox owner before any new email messages. When accessing an email message the system refers to the message as “New message with text”.

Configuring the reading of emails to users is a simple exercise:

1. TTS services will be loaded onto the VoiceMail Pro server (the Avaya TTS media pack will install the Avaya TTS engine)
2. A TTS license key will need to be purchased and entered into IP Office manager
3. For each user who is wishes to utilize email reading, the user’s email address will need to be entered into the user profile details in IP Office Manager and the facility enabled through the email reading checkbox.

Where the user has email reading in their voicemail box, they will be able to record a voice reply to the email, and send it as a .WAV attachment to a reply email to the person who sent the email.

Voicemail to E-mail

ITC would like to introduce Voicemail to E-mail integration. ITC offers two types of Voicemail to E-mail integration. There is the Basic integration that simply connects to an SMTP mail server. Basic integration stores your voicemails as .WAV files and composes them into an e-mail and sends that e-mail message to you through your company’s SMTP server. The voicemail will remain on your phone and will also be accessible to your e-mail and any devices attached to your e-mail i.e. blackberry.

The second type of integration is Full Integration. Full Voicemail to E-mail integration simply adds to the basic integration. Full integration connects via MAPI to a Microsoft Exchange Server. When full integration is used a voicemail that is deleted in the e-mail box will also be deleted on the user’s voicemail box as well. This keeps the user from having to delete the message in both places. Voicemail to E-mail integration is just another way that ITC and Avaya are able to add to the mobility and productivity of your business.