Call center integration, from the telephony and CTI side.
The CTI vendor handles the call delivery, the ACD routing, the agent desktop, and the recording. Strkr handles the CRM side of the handoff. This page walks the CTI side: how calls route to agents, how recording and transcription flow, how the CTI connects to Strkr through the open API, and how the pattern operates for teams in regulated recording industries.
What the telephony vendor handles before the CRM gets involved.
Call center integration has two sides: the CTI vendor side (which handles the call delivery, routing, recording, and the agent desktop) and the CRM side (which handles the screen pop, activity log, and follow-up flow). This page walks the CTI side. The companion page at /features/call-center-crm-integration walks the CRM side so a buyer evaluating the full stack can see both halves clearly.
The call arrival
Call lands on the CTI through a SIP trunk or carrier connection.
An inbound call arrives at the CTI vendor through a SIP trunk from the carrier or a direct carrier connection. The CTI receives the call with the caller ID, the called DID, and any carrier-provided metadata. The CTI is now in control of the call. Everything downstream from here (routing decisions, recording, agent delivery) is a CTI responsibility rather than a CRM one.
ACD routing
Call routes to the right queue based on business rules.
The CTI's ACD (Automatic Call Distributor) routes the call to the right queue based on business rules: time of day, caller phone number, called DID (toll-free number, sales line, support line), IVR selections, and any CRM-side context the CTI pulled through the pre-ring API. The routing happens in milliseconds and lands the call on the right queue for the right team.
The pre-ring API call
CTI asks Strkr for the matched contact context.
Before the ACD rings an agent, the CTI makes a pre-ring API call to Strkr with the caller phone number. Strkr looks up the matched contact and returns the account tier, the named owner if any, and the current health score. The CTI uses this context to adjust the routing: VIP tier accounts route directly to the named owner, standard tier accounts route to the general queue. The pre-ring handshake is the connective tissue between the two sides of the integration.
Agent delivery
Call rings on the agent desktop with the screen-pop context.
The CTI delivers the call to the agent desktop (a browser-based or installed softphone depending on the CTI vendor) and simultaneously fires the screen-pop event to Strkr. The agent sees the call on their desktop and the matched-contact context in Strkr before answering. The two-system experience lets the agent work in the CTI tool for call handling and in Strkr for CRM context, which keeps each tool doing what it is good at.
Call recording
Recording captures with the configured policy.
For teams that record calls (compliance recording in financial services, insurance, regulated telehealth, or quality-management recording for coaching), the CTI captures the recording per the configured policy: all calls, random sampling, specific queues, or on-demand per agent. The recording lands in the CTI's storage with a unique URL that the CTI shares with Strkr through the call-completion webhook.
Transcription
Live or post-call transcription on the CTI side.
The CTI handles the transcription of recorded calls, either live during the call or post-call. The transcript lands with the recording in the CTI's storage and the transcription URL ships to Strkr through the call-completion webhook. Strkr AI reads the transcript to generate the call summary that lands on the CRM activity log. The pattern keeps the heavy lifting on the CTI side where the audio processing happens.
Call completion
CTI fires the completion webhook when the call ends.
When the call ends, the CTI fires the call-completion webhook to Strkr with the call duration, the recording URL, the transcription URL, the agent identity, and the disposition the agent entered on the CTI side. Strkr receives the webhook, writes the activity to the CRM, and fires the downstream CRM-side flow (follow-up assignment, next-step surface, escalation routing).
Outbound calls
Click-to-dial from the CRM through the CTI.
For outbound calls, the agent clicks a phone number on the CRM and the CTI initiates the call. The pattern uses the CTI's native click-to-dial API with Strkr firing the dial request on click. The outbound call records on the agent's CTI session and fires the standard call-completion webhook on end, which keeps outbound and inbound calls in the same activity shape on the CRM side.
Picking the right CTI vendor
What matters when the shortlist narrows.
The CTI vendor decision is a separate decision from the CRM decision, and the right CTI for a given team depends on the call volume, the recording requirements, the ACD complexity, and the integration surface the team needs. This section walks the factors that matter when a shortlist narrows to two or three CTI vendors.
Call volume
The per-seat and per-minute pricing math.
CTI pricing typically combines a per-seat license with per-minute call rates for inbound and outbound. For teams running two hundred agents at modest call volume, per-seat dominates. For teams running fifty agents at high call volume, per-minute dominates. The breakdown matters because the vendors that are cheaper at low volume are often meaningfully more expensive at high volume. A one-year TCO model against your actual call pattern is the right evaluation lens.
ACD complexity
Simple queue routing or omnichannel orchestration.
The ACD complexity requirement varies widely. A sales team with three queues (SMB, mid-market, enterprise) and a simple time-of-day rule needs a different CTI than a contact center with twenty queues, skill-based routing, agent proficiency scoring, and omnichannel blending across voice, email, chat, and messaging. The complexity requirement often determines the vendor shortlist before any CRM integration question is on the table.
Recording compliance
Which industries require which recording standards.
Recording compliance requirements vary by industry: financial services and insurance typically require all-calls recording with specific retention, regulated telehealth requires PHI-compliant recording with BAA, and quality-management recording typically allows random sampling. The CTI vendor's compliance posture matters more than most buyers evaluate at the shortlist stage, and the vendor list differs materially between compliance-required and compliance-optional buyers.
Agent desktop
Browser-based or installed softphone.
The agent desktop experience is browser-based for most modern CTIs (which simplifies deployment and keeps the desktop up to date automatically) and installed-softphone for some legacy vendors (which can offer lower latency and tighter OS integration). The choice is a per-team preference that often depends on the agents' comfort level, the IT team's desktop management posture, and the latency tolerance of the call pattern.
Integration surface
Open webhooks, open API, or vendor-specific.
The integration surface for CRM-side handoff varies between vendors. The vendors with open webhooks and open APIs (Five9, Genesys Cloud, Talkdesk, NICE CXone, Dialpad, RingCentral) integrate cleanly with Strkr through the open API primitives described on the companion page. Vendors with vendor-specific-only integration surfaces require more custom work and typically produce more fragile integrations. The open integration surface is one of the lenses buyers increasingly use to filter the shortlist.
Multi-site deployment
One tenant or federated across regions.
For organizations with contact centers across multiple regions, the CTI deployment model matters: one tenant with regional routing or federated per-region tenants that interoperate. The federated model gives per-region control over the CTI configuration at the cost of cross-region reporting complexity. The one-tenant model gives cross-region reporting at the cost of per-region flexibility. Strkr handles both patterns on the CRM side without a configuration change.
Carrier flexibility
SIP trunk independence or vendor-locked.
Some CTI vendors require their own carrier connection (which simplifies the sale but locks the team in on telecom pricing). Others accept BYOC (bring-your-own-carrier) through standard SIP trunks (which gives the team flexibility on telecom pricing and the ability to keep existing carrier relationships). The BYOC model is increasingly the mature-company preference because it decouples the CTI software decision from the carrier decision.
SLA and support
The uptime commitment and the support shape.
The CTI vendor's SLA and support shape matter because a CTI outage means every inbound and outbound call stops. The uptime commitment, the credit structure for breach, the follow-the-sun support coverage, and the dedicated support contact for enterprise accounts are the factors to evaluate. The commitment should be commercially meaningful, not just an abstract percentage number buried in the standard terms.
Compliance recording in detail
What regulated industries actually need from the CTI.
For teams in regulated recording industries (financial services, insurance, regulated telehealth, and some government and legal segments), the compliance requirements shape the CTI vendor decision more than any other factor. This section walks the compliance patterns the CTI vendor needs to support, and how the Strkr side of the handoff fits into the compliance evidence picture.
All-calls recording
Financial services typically require every call recorded.
For financial services (broker-dealers, registered investment advisers, banks) under SEC, FINRA, or similar regulators, the requirement is typically every call recorded with specific retention periods (often seven years). The CTI handles the recording and the retention. Strkr handles the activity log reference to the recording URL with the audit evidence that the recording was captured for every call the agent took.
Consent-based recording
Two-party consent states require spoken announcement.
Two-party consent states in the US (California, Florida, Illinois, and others) require explicit consent before recording. The CTI typically handles this through an automated spoken announcement at the start of the call. The announcement audio and the consent capture record on the CTI side with the audit evidence that consent was obtained. Strkr's activity log references the consent capture for the compliance review.
HIPAA posture
Healthcare call recording requires BAA on both sides.
For healthcare call centers (patient-facing scheduling, insurance verification, regulated telehealth), HIPAA applies and requires a BAA with the CTI vendor and with the CRM vendor. Strkr is HIPAA compliant with a BAA available on request. The CTI vendor must independently offer a BAA with the same posture. Both BAAs cover the PHI flow from the CTI's recording and transcription into the Strkr activity log and audit evidence.
Retention policy
The retention window and the enforcement mechanism.
Each regulated industry has its own retention requirement, and the CTI must enforce it on the recording side. Strkr enforces the same retention on the activity log and the summary. The two retention policies tie out through the compliance review: the recording retains in the CTI for the required window, the Strkr activity log references the recording URL for the same window, and both sides retire the artifact at the same time per the agreed policy.
Redaction
Removing specific PII or PHI from recordings.
For calls that captured specific PII or PHI that the customer later requests be removed (GDPR right-to-be-forgotten, CCPA deletion request, or specific HIPAA scenarios), the CTI handles the redaction on the recording side and Strkr handles the redaction on the activity log and the summary. The two sides reconcile through the deletion event with the audit evidence showing the deletion propagated through both systems.
Audit trail
Who accessed which recording when.
For compliance review, the audit trail of who accessed which recording when matters: an auditor, a manager replaying for coaching, a quality team member reviewing. The CTI records the access on the recording retrieval and Strkr records the access on the activity log view. The combined audit trail answers the "who looked at this recording" question across both systems. The pattern replaces the untracked shared-drive access that typically plagues older recording archives.
Right-to-know
Customer requests transcripts and recordings on demand.
For customer-facing right-to-know requests (common in GDPR and CCPA jurisdictions), the customer asks for every recording and transcript the company has of them. The CTI produces the recordings and transcripts. Strkr produces the activity log entries referencing them with the full agent, queue, and disposition context. The combined response is a single packet rather than two separate exports that the customer has to reconcile themselves.
The clear framing
Compliance is a two-vendor conversation.
Compliance for recorded call centers is a two-vendor conversation: the CTI handles the recording and transcription compliance, and Strkr handles the activity log and audit evidence compliance. Both sides need the appropriate BAA, SOC 2 Type II posture, and retention controls. Strkr's SOC 2 Type II certification is in progress through 2026-Q4. HIPAA with BAA is available. GDPR and CCPA compliance are in place. The CTI vendor must independently offer the matching posture on the recording side.
When the CTI side changes
Migrating between CTI vendors without losing the CRM continuity.
CTI vendor migrations happen for a set of reasons: contract renewal with pricing increase, feature gap in the current vendor, compliance posture change, or a strategic consolidation across the parent company. The migration is typically a six-to-twelve-month project. This section walks the pattern for migrating between CTI vendors while keeping the CRM continuity intact, which is where Strkr sits in the migration.
The decision drivers
Pricing, feature gap, compliance, or strategic consolidation.
CTI migrations typically start with pricing (the current vendor raised rates on renewal), a feature gap (the current vendor does not support a requirement), a compliance posture change (the current vendor does not meet a new regulation), or a strategic consolidation (the parent company picked a different vendor across all subsidiaries). Each driver shapes the migration timeline and the vendor shortlist differently.
The parallel run
Both CTIs run live during the cutover window.
The migration typically runs the old and new CTI live in parallel during the cutover window. Different queues or different regions migrate first, with the remainder following over the cutover window. The parallel run surfaces integration gaps that would otherwise appear only at full cutover. The clean cutover is a function of how well the parallel run surfaces the issues, which is usually a six-to-twelve-week window.
The CRM continuity
Strkr accepts webhooks from both CTIs during the cutover.
During the parallel run, Strkr accepts call-event webhooks from both CTIs through the open API. The activity log carries the originating CTI in the activity metadata so a review of the parallel run has the data to reconcile. The pattern keeps the CRM continuous for agents, managers, and reporting during the cutover, which eliminates the "we lost two weeks of CRM activity during the CTI migration" failure mode.
The agent transition
Agents learn the new desktop with the familiar CRM.
The agent transition is easier when the CRM side stays constant. Agents learn the new CTI desktop while continuing to work in the familiar Strkr CRM for context, activity logging, and next-step surfaces. The pattern halves the perceived migration pain for the agent-facing experience because only one side of the two-system work changes at a time.
The recording migration
Historical recordings carry forward or stay in the old archive.
The historical recordings from the old CTI stay in the old archive for the retention window, or migrate to the new CTI's storage depending on the business need. Strkr's activity log references the appropriate URL for each historical call so a lookup from the CRM still finds the right recording regardless of which CTI captured it. The pattern avoids the "we lost the historical recordings in the migration" failure mode.
The reporting continuity
Reporting stays continuous across the CTI change.
Call volume reporting, disposition analysis, agent utilization, and compliance evidence stay continuous across the CTI change because the CRM-side activity log is the source of truth for the reporting. The CTI change affects the call-handling side without affecting the reporting side, which keeps the operating cadence intact during the migration rather than forcing a reporting rebuild midway through.
The compliance continuity
Audit evidence covers both CTIs during the cutover.
For compliance-sensitive teams, the audit evidence for the parallel run period covers both CTIs. The activity log metadata carries which CTI handled each call, and the compliance review has the data to reconcile. The clear framing is that the compliance posture is defensible across the cutover window rather than becoming a gap that the next audit cycle will flag.
The realistic timeline
Six to twelve months for a mid-market migration.
The realistic timeline for a mid-market CTI migration (fifty to five hundred agents) is six to twelve months end to end: three to six months for vendor evaluation, procurement, and configuration, three to six months for the parallel run and cutover, and a trailing month for the full retirement of the old CTI. The timeline is shaped by the compliance review and the agent transition pace rather than by Strkr's integration speed, which is a one-week configuration on the new CTI's open API side.
Call center integration through the open API, every major CTI supported.
Open API, inbound webhook triggers, pre-ring lookups, call-completion handlers, Strkr AI call summarization, audit trail stitched to the account, and SOC 2 Type II posture ship on every paid tier. The CTI integration is a flow on the Strkr side rather than a vendor-specific native connector, which keeps the integration maintainable across CTI vendor migrations.
Does Strkr ship native integrations with specific CTI vendors?
Strkr integrates with every major CTI vendor (Five9, Genesys Cloud, Talkdesk, NICE CXone, Dialpad, RingCentral, and others) through the open API and inbound webhook triggers rather than vendor-specific native connectors. The pattern works with any CTI that supports standard pre-ring and call-completion event webhooks, which covers essentially every modern CTI vendor. The CTI-side logic lives in the CTI vendor's automation surface and the CRM-side logic lives in the Strkr Flow canvas, which respects what each tool is good at and keeps the integration maintainable across CTI vendor changes.
How does the pre-ring API lookup work?
Before the ACD rings an agent, the CTI makes a pre-ring API call to Strkr with the caller phone number. Strkr looks up the matched contact and returns the account tier, the named owner if any, and the current health score. The CTI uses this context to adjust the routing: VIP tier accounts route directly to the named owner, standard tier accounts route to the general queue. The pre-ring handshake typically completes in under 200 milliseconds, which keeps the caller experience smooth. The handshake is the connective tissue between the two sides of the integration.
What recording compliance does Strkr support?
Strkr handles the activity log and audit evidence side of the recording compliance. The CTI handles the recording capture, retention, and redaction on the audio side. For compliance review, the two systems reconcile through the activity log reference to the recording URL and the audit evidence that the recording was captured for every call. Strkr is HIPAA compliant with a BAA available on request. SOC 2 Type II certification is in progress through 2026-Q4. GDPR and CCPA compliance are in place. The CTI vendor must independently offer the matching posture on the recording side.
Can we migrate between CTI vendors without losing CRM continuity?
Yes. During the parallel run of the migration, Strkr accepts call-event webhooks from both CTIs through the open API. The activity log carries the originating CTI in the activity metadata so a review of the parallel run has the data to reconcile. Agents learn the new CTI desktop while continuing to work in the familiar Strkr CRM for context and activity logging. The reporting stays continuous because the CRM-side activity log is the source of truth. The pattern eliminates the "we lost activity during the CTI migration" failure mode that typically disrupts mid-market migrations.
How does outbound click-to-dial work?
The agent clicks a phone number on the Strkr CRM record and Strkr fires the dial request to the CTI through the CTI's click-to-dial API. The CTI initiates the call from the agent's session and connects to the dialed number. The outbound call records on the agent's CTI session and fires the standard call-completion webhook on call end, which keeps outbound and inbound calls in the same activity shape on the CRM side. The pattern avoids the per-call manual dial that otherwise slows outbound productivity meaningfully.
What is the typical setup time for a new CTI connection?
A one-week configuration on the CTI side (webhook destinations, pre-ring lookup, agent desktop embed) and a half-day configuration on the Strkr side (inbound webhook triggers, flow logic for screen pop and activity write). Teams that are migrating from an existing CTI typically complete the Strkr side in half a day because the flow set is already there. The limiting factor is almost always the CTI vendor's configuration pace rather than the Strkr side. The pattern lets a procurement decision ship a working integration in a week to ten days rather than a multi-month project.
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