The telephony server is notified of an incoming call in an inbound telemarketing or customer service environment. The application on the server can examine the Caller ID associated with the call (all 800 calls, for example, provide Caller ID-type information) or use account number information entered by the caller and use that information to do a look-up in the customer database. Upon return of the customer's information, this data can be routed over the LAN to the next available customer service agent, or even a particular agent who regularly works with that customer. The application on the server can then direct the call to the appropriate agent who has already received the necessary information to deal with the call.
Historically, call-center applications like this have been built upon relatively expensive, proprietary systems that are challenging to customize and integrate with existing information systems. By making these applications entirely software-driven, they can be developed more quickly, more cheaply, and be more tightly integrated with PC-based information systems. This can result in ever more sophisticated systems for customer management or making call-center capabilities accessible to smaller organizations.