Siebel CTI Administration Guide > Overview of Siebel CTI and Related Products >

About Siebel CTI and Siebel Communications Server

Siebel Business Applications provide an infrastructure to support communications functionality for Siebel application users, including Siebel CTI (Computer Telephony Integration). Siebel CTI works with CTI middleware products, which integrate with telephony systems so that agents can make or receive voice calls through the Siebel application.

Other types of communications can also be supported for some deployments. For more information about products that use Siebel Communications Server, see Siebel Product Modules That Use Siebel Communications Server.

The term Siebel Communications Server refers to the set of Siebel Server components and related features that support the functionality described in this book and the functionality described in Siebel Chat Guide and Siebel Email Administration Guide. The key server components are part of the Communications Management component group. Communications drivers provide the interface to the communications system with which you are integrating. Several drivers are provided with Siebel Business Applications. Where appropriate, you can create custom drivers for third-party products, by using the Adaptive Communications API.

The types of communications supported by Siebel Communications Server include the following:

• Session-based or interactive communications. Supports multichannel interactive communications for call or contact center agents who use the communications toolbar to make or receive voice calls through Siebel CTI and CTI middleware products. This capability is described in this book. Siebel Chat, which is described in Siebel Chat Guide, also uses session-based communications.
• Inbound communications. Supports integrating to third-party email servers and processing inbound email, for Siebel Email Response deployments. For more information, see Siebel Email Administration Guide.
• Outbound communications. Supports integrating to a variety of third-party communications systems such as email servers to send outbound communications. For more information, see Siebel Email Administration Guide.

NOTE:  Your Siebel implementation might not have all the features described in this guide, depending on which software modules you have purchased.