| IVR - short for Interactive Voice Response - | | | | enterprise, by an IVR development shop, or |
| is a technology that automates interaction | | | | from companies that offer canned IVR |
| with telephone callers. Enterprises are | | | | applications. |
| increasingly turning to IVR to reduce the | | | | |
| cost of common sales, service, collections, | | | | IVR applications direct the IVR platform to |
| inquiry and support calls to and from their | | | | prompt callers, gather input, and transfer |
| company. | | | | callers to other phones. IVR applications |
| | | | also call on existing back-end database and |
| Historically, IVR solutions have used | | | | application servers to retrieve records and |
| pre-recorded voice prompts and menus to | | | | information required during the course of a |
| present information and options to callers, | | | | call. |
| and touch-tone telephone keypad entry to | | | | |
| gather responses. Modern IVR solutions also | | | | Back-end servers |
| enable input and responses to be gathered via | | | | |
| spoken words with voice recognition. | | | | Back-end servers are existing enterprise |
| | | | servers on which the required customer or |
| IVR solutions enable users to retrieve | | | | corporate data can be found. |
| information including bank balances, flight | | | | |
| schedules, product details, order status, | | | | Back-end servers can include databases, |
| movie show times, and more from any | | | | mainframes, Java or other application |
| telephone. Additionally, IVR solutions are | | | | servers, and 3rd party information services |
| increasingly used to place outbound calls to | | | | and solutions. |
| deliver or gather information for | | | | |
| appointments, past due bills, and other time | | | | Telephony Infrastructure |
| critical events and activities. | | | | |
| | | | Telephony infrastructure includes telephone |
| To deliver or leverage IVR, an enterprise | | | | lines, call switching equipment, and call |
| requires: | | | | center Automatic Call Distributors (ACD's). |
| | | | |
| IVR Platforms | | | | Telephone lines for IVR can be standard |
| | | | analog lines, digital T1, or digital ISDN |
| IVR Platforms are the "server and operating | | | | lines. These lines are connected on one side |
| system" hardware and software platforms on | | | | to the IVR platform and, on the other, to |
| which IVR solutions run. | | | | call switching equipment including telco |
| | | | switches, Voice over IP gateways, and |
| IVR platforms at a minimum provide the | | | | corporate PBX's; or in some cases, directly |
| ability to play and record prompts and gather | | | | to call centers via an ACD. |
| touch-tone input. IVR platforms may also | | | | |
| offer the ability to recognize spoken input | | | | IVR Experts |
| from callers (voice recognition), translate | | | | |
| text into spoken output for callers | | | | IVR Experts include employees and consultants |
| (text-to-speech), and transfer IVR calls to | | | | who know IVR technology and challenges well. |
| any telephone or call center agent. | | | | |
| | | | Ideally, IVR teams should include one or more |
| IVR Applications | | | | members who have experience with IVR |
| | | | integration, configuration, reliability and |
| IVR Applications are programs that control | | | | redundancy, application development, and IVR |
| and respond to calls on the IVR platform. IVR | | | | solution deployment management. |
| programs can either be developed by an | | | | |