NEC and Oki have joined forces in China to provide customer relationship management (CRM) services through computer telephony integration (CTI) providers.

Functioning as contact windows for enterprises, call centers communicate with the enterprises' customers by phone, e-mail and SMS.

Currently in China, 5% of call centers are large ones, with more than 200 seats each, almost all run by major telecom service providers. Medium-size call centers with 50-200 seats, mostly operated by financial institutions and securities firms, account for 27% of the total and the remaining 68% are small centers of below 50 seats. While the market for large call centers is already saturated, that of small ones is growing rapidly and becoming the target market for CTI providers.