ACD
Automatic Call Distributor: A system that is able to automatically: answer calls, queue calls, retrieve information and logic from a database, determine the best course for the call and finally, route the call to the appropriate agent (if available).
Agent
A member of a call centre who makes and/or receives telephone calls.
Auto Attendant
An automated voice and call processing system, which allows callers to automatically route themselves to internal extensions or departments.
CLI / ANI
Caller Line Identifier / Automatic Number Identification: Represents the telephone number of the caller.
CTI
Computer Telephony Integration: Can refer to any technology that provides an interactive link between telephone and computer systems, enabling features such as: Power Dialling, Screen Pop, Call Reporting and much more.
DDI / DID
Direct Dialling Inward / Direct Inward Dialling: Typically represents the last few digits of a dialled telephone number into a PBX, allowing external callers to reach an internal extension directly without going through an operator/switchboard.
DNIS
Dialled Number Identification Service: Similar to DDI/DID, but represents the whole number dialled, rather than the last few digits.
IVR
Interactive Voice Response: A system which allows a caller to access and update electronic information via a combination of touch-tone key presses and/or voice recognition (e.g. telephone banking).
PBX
Private Branch Exchange: A private telephone switching system, usually located on an individual company’s premises (unless it’s a hosted PBX), providing additional features such as: internal calls, hunt groups, call-forwarding and DDI/DID.
Power Dialling
A system which automatically places outbound calls for an agent.
Predictive Dialling
An automatic system which uses various algorithms to place many outbound calls and pass them to available agents upon being answered.
Preview Dialler
An automated system which shows the next person to be caller on a agent‘s screen, giving them the option to either proceed or skip to next contact.
PSTN
Public Switched Telephone Network: The public telephone network, to which PBXs are connected to.
Screen Pop
A term for automatically displaying detailed caller information to an agent, based on the callers telephone number (CLI/ANI) and/or the telephone number dialled (DNIS).
Switch
General term referring to an ACD, PBX, or telephone exchange.
TAPI
Telephony Application Programming Interface: An Application Programming Interface (API) that provides a common interface for interacting with the telephone system for a single user’s extension (1st-party integration).
Trunk
Physical link between telephone exchanges.
TSAPI
Telephony Server Application Programming Interface: An API that provides a common interface for interacting with the telephone system for multiple extensions (3rd-party integration).
VOIP
Voice over Internet Protocol: A protocol that enables the transmission of voice via the internet (e.g. internet telephony), instead of traditional PSTN.
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