Contactual's Feature-Rich Integration, Part 1

- Contributed by Justin Couto, President, Couto Solutions

One of the greatest challenges to efficiency in today’s hi-tech software driven world is our use of the plethora of disconnected software applications that are supposed to make our lives easier.  It’s a major dilemma, a catch 22, a need for efficiency that is offset by the challenges that come from working in multiple applications.  So, why do we continue to torture ourselves this way?  The answer is simple: there is no such thing as a “do it ALL and tailored to MY needs” off-the-shelf software application.  Consequently, we have two options: Custom Software or Software Integration.  

Custom software is the ideal solution because it is tailored to your exact needs.  It is designed specifically to work the way you do instead of you trying to change your processes to work with it.  Furthermore, as your needs change you hold the flexibility of having your software change with you.  So what’s the catch?  Custom software is extremely expensive to have developed due to the high-priced labor involved in creating it.  You can expect to spend anywhere from $10,000 to $500,000 or more depending on the complexity of your processes and needs.  As a result, this high price tag doesn’t always fit into everyone’s budget even if the long-term increased efficiency outweighs the initial costs.  Consequently, this leads us to options 2 and the main focus of this series of articles.

Software integration was born out of the need for “Off-the-Shelf Software” and “Software Services” to work together in an attempt to be the “All-In-One” software solution.  In years since its inception, software companies around the world have been working diligently to provide programmable interfaces to their software applications and software services. These application programming interfaces (API’s) make it easy for programmers to push and pull data out of one system and into another.  They help eliminate double entry, duplicate data, and they are only limited by the API design itself.  To take advantage of these APIs all you need is qualified integration professionals to make it all happen at a fraction of the cost of custom software development.  

So how does software integration apply to the Contactual OnDemand Contact Center?  Very simply put, it might make all the difference in the world.  Thanks to the robustness of the Contactual API know as WAPI (pronounced: Wappy), you have lots of options when it comes to integration.  For example, Contactual provides “Screen Pop to Third Party Application” functionality, “Synchronization interfaces to your Customer Data, Case Data, Follow up Data, and FAQ Data”, and “CRM Triggers that fire when a customers, cases, and follow ups are created, edited or deleted.”  In addition to all of this, you can download voice files for 100% of all calls you record in the Contactual system through their FTP server.  Lastly, you can even setup call links that auto trigger outbound calls when clicked from third party systems.  

Contactual OnDemand Contact Center has it covered when it comes to third party integration options.  To showcase this, I will be writing a series of upcoming articles detailing real-world examples of integration in action.  Over the past 4 years my company, Couto Solutions, has worked extensively with the Contactual API.  For example, we have built a third party import/export application that is currently available for sale, we have a command line export tool, a Custom Reporting System, a C# API Library, and several other application integration tools that will be available soon.  In addition to this, several companies have already taken advantage of our data import /export services for Contactual. As we continue to push the envelope of deep integration with the Contactual system, your options and flexibility will truly rival those of a “Do-It-All, All-In-One” custom software application.

Author’s Note

I hope you have enjoyed this brief introduction to the Contactual API. I am Justin Couto, the President of Couto Solutions which is a Custom Software Development and IT Services company. With over 8 years of business behind us, Couto Solutions has developed Enterprise Custom Software Applications, has done numerous Software Integrations, and has designed and implemented many IT infrastructures.  If you have any questions about us, please feel free to call me at (888) 877-8667, visit our website at www.CoutoSolutions.com, or email us at info@CoutoSolutions.com