Computer telephony integration

A switching system comprising:

• means for responding to a request for the making of a call by obtaining an actual calling party identity assigned to an individual person;
• means for translating the obtained actual calling party identity to obtain a corresponding simulated consistent calling line identity permanently and individually associated with the calling party as an individual person;
• means for obtaining a called individual party identity;
• means for generating a setup signalling message to be sent for establishing a call to the called party, the setup signalling message having a calling line identity field containing the obtained corresponding simulated consistent calling line identity, the simulated consistent calling line identity also enabling calls to be delivered to the individual party associated with the simulated CLI by use of translation tables which hold information as to the identity of that individual party and his/her current recorded location;
• means for responding to an incoming call by using an incoming DNIS to identify a simulated CLI and a corresponding actual individual party identity;
• and
• means for connecting an incoming call to the current location of the actual individual party corresponding to the simulated CLI identified by the DNIS.

A method for operating a computer/telephone switching system to make and receive calls for an organization that may include individual persons variably positioned at different ones of plural workstations, said method comprising:

• maintaining data identifying each of plural individuals and the respective workstation at which each said individual is currently located;
• maintaining data identifying each of said individuals and a respectively associated simulated consistent CLI;
• setting up outgoing telephone calls from an individual of said organization using a respectively corresponding one of said simulated consistent CLI data;
• using DNIS data from incoming telephone calls in conjunction with said simulated consistent CLI data and said maintained data identifying individuals to direct incoming telephone calls to a respectively corresponding individual person at a workstation where that person is currently located.