[asterisk-users] TAPI and Asterisk

[Jeff LaCoursiere]

Funny how a topic will come up that you have never dealt with before, and 
suddenly it comes up from multiple directions at the same time.  I was 
recently involved in a meeting where TAPI (which I understand only 
vaguely) was proposed as way to link a custom application to Asterisk for 
outbound and inbound call processing, much like SugarCRM and probably 
others are doing.

Today I was asked by an existing client if I knew a way to synch their 
mobile device contacts with the system in some way so that they would have 
quick access to speed dial or otherwise call up a personal directory on 
their (Polycom) phones that could be synched in this manner.

It struck me that the Polycom directory interface is a bit kludgy for such 
things, having no search capability and no sorting capability once loaded 
that I am aware of.  Given the meeting last week it seems that a more 
elegant solution would be to link Outlook itself with Asterisk, so "right 
clicking" a contact makes it possible to launch an outbound call.  That 
would take care of integrating a WHOLE LOT of devices, as (sadly) the MS 
contact database would be the go-between that all of these devices synch 
with in one way or another already.

Is TAPI the right protocol to investigate for this purpose?  Would 
something like Fonality's HUD software bridge this gap?  Has this 
wheel already been invented?

Hoping for some thoughts!

Cheers,

j