VoIP & call center terms, explained
Predictive dialers, SIP trunking, 10DLC, IVR, AI voice agents — the language of business phone systems in plain English.
VoIP (Voice over IP)
Voice over Internet Protocol — technology that carries phone calls over the internet instead of traditional copper phone lines. It cuts call costs, adds features like recording and analytics, and lets teams call from anywhere.
VoIP services →Cloud PBX
A business phone system (PBX) hosted in the cloud rather than on a box in your office. It routes calls, runs extensions, voicemail, IVR menus and call groups — with no on-site hardware to maintain.
Cloud PBX →SIP Trunking
A virtual 'trunk' that connects your phone system to the public telephone network over the internet using the SIP protocol. It replaces physical phone lines and scales up or down by channel.
Predictive Dialer
An outbound dialer that calls multiple numbers at once and predicts when an agent will be free, connecting only answered calls to agents. It maximizes talk time for large outbound teams.
Call center dialer →Progressive Dialer
An outbound dialer that places one call per available agent, only dialing when a rep is ready. It avoids dropped calls while still removing manual dialing.
Preview Dialer
A dialer that shows the agent the contact's details before the call is placed, so they can review context and choose when to dial. Best for complex or high-value conversations.
Power Dialer
An automated dialer that calls numbers from a list one after another for each agent, skipping busy and disconnected numbers. It's the simplest way to speed up outbound calling.
IVR (Interactive Voice Response)
The automated 'press 1 for sales' menu that greets callers and routes them by keypad or voice. A good IVR cuts wait times and sends callers to the right team the first time.
ACD (Automatic Call Distribution)
The system that queues incoming calls and distributes them to agents by rules — round-robin, skills-based, longest-idle and so on. It's the engine behind an inbound call center.
Auto Attendant
A virtual receptionist that answers every call, plays a greeting and routes callers to extensions or departments. It gives small teams an enterprise-grade front desk with no staff.
Click-to-Call
A feature that turns any phone number in your CRM or browser into a clickable link — one click places the call over VoIP and logs it automatically, with no manual dialing.
CRM integrations →10DLC
10-Digit Long Code — the US registration standard for business text messaging on local numbers. Registering your brand and campaign keeps SMS compliant and prevents carrier filtering.
CRM SMS integration →DID (Direct Inward Dialing)
A dedicated phone number that routes directly to a specific person, team or IVR without going through a switchboard. Businesses buy DIDs to give every extension its own line.
Local Presence
Showing a caller ID with the same area code as the person you're calling to lift answer rates. Outbound teams rotate local numbers so calls look local, not like spam.
Contact Center
An evolution of the call center that handles voice plus SMS, email and chat in one platform. It gives customers more ways to reach you and agents one screen for every channel.
Call center software →Vicidial
A popular open-source call center and predictive dialer platform. Managed Vicidial hosting removes the servers, upgrades and tuning so teams get the dialer without the sysadmin work.
Vicidial services →AI Voice Agent
A conversational AI that answers or makes phone calls in a natural voice — qualifying leads, booking appointments and handling FAQs 24/7. It handles routine calls so human agents focus on high-value ones.
AI voice agents →Softphone
A phone that runs as an app on a computer or mobile instead of a physical handset. Agents place and receive VoIP calls with a headset, so no desk phones are needed.
Call Recording
Automatically capturing calls for quality, training and compliance. Recordings can be transcribed and searched, and are often billed and stored per minute.
CRM Integration
Connecting your phone system to your CRM so calls, texts, recordings and outcomes log to the right contact automatically — with click-to-call and screen pops built in.
See CRM integrations →Missing a term? Ask us and we'll add it.