Integrating a CRM like ACT, Goldmine, LeGRAND, Salesforce, Microsoft Lync etc with your phone system is much easier than customers think. Good CRM applications talk to a phone system via a common protocol called TAPI.
The Telephony Application Programming Interface (TAPI) is a Microsoft Windows API, which provides computer telephony integration (CTI) and enables computers running Microsoft Windows to use telephone services. There are different versions of TAPI are available on different versions of Windows. In laypersons speak it simply allows your computer and phone system to talk a common language so that you can access features like click to dial from your PC and in some advanced applications you can transfer calls, conference, put callers on hold and more with the click of a mouse.
If you are using a CRM this is a fantastic way to allow staff to access supplier and customer information and simply call from the screen. CTI can also perform functions like screen pop which is very popular. The phone system captures the phone number of the customer, does an instantaneous check against the database for the customer record, and pops or presents the callers CRM file on screen. This way there is no delay and staff will have all the callers information ready at their fingertips.
CTI has a dramatic effect on staff productivity and is something that any company using a CRM package should deploy. If you’re looking for a new phone system solution make sure you also investigate it’s compatibility and suitability for the CRM package your company uses. It’s one of those things that customers simply aren’t aware of and forget to ask.
If you have an existing phone system, the CTI and TAPI version available will really depend on the age of the solution. You should speak to the company that installed the system and see if TAPI and CTI are an option available to you.
If you would like more information about integrating your CRM with a phone system please speak to our friendly experts today at Infiniti Telecommunications.
