The CTI Market Will Grow Along With IP

The computer telephony integration (CTI) market will continue to grow in concert with the Internet telephony market through 2010, according to a new study by Frost & Sullivan. The study, "North American CTI Markets," reveals that the CTI market reached $5.14 billion in sales in 2004, which is expected to climb to $7.86 billion in 2010. Frost & Sullivan found that most of the spending will be in enterprise CTI, as opposed to basic CTI, or CTI targeted for the SMB market. "Enterprise CTI is going to be the big driver, in conjunction with IP," says Fred Landis, director of Frost & Sullivan's research division. Landis maintains that enterprise CTI will begin to tie traditional data with VoIP, multichannel, multimedia, and CRM applications. Also, the development of IP will facilitate the adoption of more advanced applications that CTI software enables and will simplify connectivity to third-party applications. "Leading CTI vendors must increase the range of applications they offer, while improving their existing capabilities, especially in the area of Internet contact routing," Landis says. "Already, vendors have started coming out with integrated suites of CTI-based applications, which include Internet contact routing, outbound dialing, self-service, and workforce optimization." Major vendors within the CTI space include Avaya, Nortel Networks, Cisco Systems, and Genesys. All these leaders have traditional circuit-switched solutions, but they also have VoIP offerings. Landis sees two market trends influencing vendors and their product lines: Vendors that offer converged and open solutions will have the ability to migrate new customers while keeping their current ones, and suite providers could benefit from the growing market. "Those suite players with portfolios with enterprise CTI and IP offerings will benefit," he says. "You won't have that silo or best-of-breed product out there anymore." Pricing will also play an important role for those vendors looking to profit in the space. Landis maintains vendors will get priced out of the segment. "Unless they break CTI and IP out, a vendor will look way overpriced. Customers won't know what they're comparing. The breakout is important to differentiate a product versus service, and service versus implementation." Related articles: Hosted Contact Center Apps For Everyone Siebel Gets the Contact Center Knack