Computer Telephony Integration (CTI)

Organizations can configure an additional option in their IP telephony system for launching the Service Desk console. Once this option has been added, the organization’s service desk analysts will be able to use it whenever a call is routed to the softphone on their computers. When used, the incoming call is picked up while at the same time a new browser window presents the details and previously registered requests of the caller. If a new request needs to be opened for the caller, the analyst only needs to press the Enter key.

To configure this option, the IP telephony system needs to be told to launch a new browser window with a URL that ends with the telephone number of the caller. This URL must adhere to the following syntax:

https://example.r-service.tech/sd?telephone=1234567890

In the URL above, example represents the ID of the R-Service account. Replace it with the ID of the R-Service account of the organization for which the computer telephony integration is to be configured.

Note that the REST API can be used in a similar fashion to retrieve a Person record using a telephone number.

Testing

After substituting example with the ID of an organization’s R-Service account, the URL can be tested using a browser. Enter the URL in the address bar of the browser and press Enter.

Be sure to log into R-Service as a user of the account who has the Service Desk Analyst role. Use a telephone number of a Person who this user is able to select manually in the Service Desk console.

Number Matching

It does not matter how the phone numbers are registered in R-Service. A number could be written as +1 (123) 456 7890 or 123-456-7890 or just 4567890. Similarly, the phone system can add the phone number at the end of the URL as +11234567890 or 0011234567890 or 4567890. Only the numbers will be used to find a match. Any other characters are ignored. When spaces are included in the URLs that the phone system generates, then each space gets encoded properly as %20.

People can call from their work, mobile or home number. As long as the number is registered in R-Service for a Person, R-Service finds this Person. When the number is used by multiple people, these people are suggested as options for the Requester field when the Service Desk console is launched.

Support ID

Many organizations use an automatic call distribution (ACD) system to collect some information from callers before assigning their call to an available service desk analyst. A caller could, for example, be asked to enter his/her security badge number or customer number. When the Support ID field of the Person records is populated with this number, the ACD can pass the value that the caller said or entered to R-Service.

To ask R-Service’s CTI functionality to use the Support ID to look up a caller, the URL must use the following syntax:

https://example.r-service.tech/sd?supportID=33821

When the same customer number is entered in the Support ID field of each contact person of the corresponding customer organization, these people get listed as options for the Requester field when the Service Desk console is launched.

Employee ID

Rather than using the telephone number or support ID of the caller, it is also possible to look up the caller using his/her employee ID. Organizations can use their ACD to ask for the caller’s employee number. The ACD can then pass the value that the caller said or entered to R-Service’s CTI functionality to ensure that the caller gets selected automatically in the Requester field of the Service Desk console.

To use the employee ID to look up a caller, the URL must use the following syntax:

https://example.r-service.tech/sd?employeeID=40001652

Request ID

Instead of using the telephone number or Support ID of the caller it is also possible to use the ID of a Request that was requested by the caller. In this case, the URL must use the following syntax:

https://example.r-service.tech/sd?request=70464

The browser window will show the details and previously registered requests of the caller. The provided Request ID will automatically be selected from the list of previously registered requests and the details of that Request will be loaded.

When the Request ID cannot be found within the last 50 registered requests of the caller, the details of the Request will not be loaded automatically.

Proving Fallback Parameters

R-Service’s CTI functionality also offers the ability to provide multiple parameters. This can be useful, for example, when the ACD is programmed to ask a caller for the number of the request that he/she is calling about. But if the caller does not enter a number because the call is about a new issue, or if the caller provided a request number that does not exist, it may be helpful if the telephony integration falls back on the caller’s telephone number. That way, the Service Desk console would still open automatically for the agent who accepts the call and even though a previously registered request will not be presented, the Service Desk console will still automatically select the caller in the Requester field and list all of this person’s previously registered requests.

The following parameters can be provided:

If all of them are provided, they are processed in the order listed above. This means that the CTI functionality will first attempt to find a match on the request ID. If such a match could not be found, it will try to find a person record using the employee number that was provided, etc.

An example of a valid CTI URL that provides two parameters to R-Service is presented below:

https://example.r-service.tech/sd?request=1081652&telephone=2123682651

Bi-directional

The computer telephony integration is bi-directional. R-Service automatically hyperlinks the telephone numbers it displays. When a user clicks on a telephone number, the softphone (if properly configured) will be launched to call the number.