Predictive dialer can be termed as smart auto-dialer.  Auto dialer dial out telephone number and handover or transfer the call to human agent in a call center.  Once the dialed number answers, the call agent or telemarketer starts speaking as per the outbound call center function.

Now there can be many situations where the process as described above may not go as expected. For example,

1. The dialed number may be busy. In that case, call agent will hear busy tone and disconnects wasting precious time of the call agent who is paid by the hour.

2. The dialed number simply does no reply. Poor call agent will listen the dialed number ringing and listening it over! Wasting precious time as well as patience.Though now a days, the dialed number may play a hit number of the season thanks to CRBT ( Caller Ring Back Tone), but that is not why a call agent is employed.

3. The dialed number turns out to be a FAX or a voice mail! Another miss!

4. The dialed number simply choose to disconnect the call. Yes, if the dialed number is a mobile number, they can disconnect a call and it was not possible for land line number though! Another miss by call agent!

5. What if auto-dialer dials out a number successfully, but no call agent to take to call ? This time the cursing will come from the dialed number.
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Technorati Tags: auto dialer, Autodialer, call agent, call center, Call Centre, human agent, increase call agent talk time, increase call center efficiency, increase call time, ivr, ivrs, outbound ivr, predictive dialer, Predictive Diler, tele-marketer, telemarketer, telephony

Recently, I commissioned a IVR Software in a call center in India. I have gone through a good learning process about not only Call Center, but also how IVR can be used smartly to serve customers better, solve customer problems at shortest possible time as well as minimizing call agent intervention!

My client is a ISP (Internet Service Provider) as well as Cable TV operator. They have large subscriber base with almost 10000 calls to the call center a day with calls ranging from customer complaint, inquiry for cable TV connection, internet connection. They had existing CRM software and they were trying to augment their call center with smart IVR Software which could integrate with existing CRM software for lodging complaint and generate complaint ticket, retrieving existing complaint status as well as retrieving officer in charge for rectifying the complaint and expected arrival time at his premises. The IVR was also expected to make outbound calls as soon as a complaint is rectified and customer had option to close if the complaint is resolved successfully or re-lodge the complaint if not resolved to his satisfaction.

One more part was to send an SMS informing the complaint has been rectified if customer has a mobile number stored in its customer record. Also SMS intimation along with complaint ticket number generated by IVR system as soon as call is disconnected from IVRS.
…click here to read more

Technorati Tags: ACD, call agent, call center, call center application, call center ivr, Call Center Software, CRM, EPABX, ivr, IVR Software, IVR System, IVR triggered Screen Capture, SMS, voice logger, Voice Mail

I have been thinking to prepare a list of RAD(Rapid Application Development) tools for developing IVR software or voice applications for long time. I have found 8 RAD tools ( including one free tool) for developing IVR Application so far and I think there may be more as I am quite sure, many IVR RAD Tool companies do not use SEO techniques to rank high in search engines! Or may be, Google does not know everything on net, after all.

I have tested only one among this list of 8 tools, VBVoice 5.6.1 of PRONEXUS, and I must admit, I am impressed with how they have made developing IVR software easy and quick! And I am sure pride of many people will be dented as who were member of exclusive and minority group of IVR developer using native API of CTI boards, including myself. I hope to download evaluation version of all the tools one day and compare all of them.

I would say, not all in this list of eight RAD Tools for developing IVR software may qualify to be called complete rapid application development tools, and here is the list:-

1. VBVoice 5.6.1 from PRONEXUS INC:-
I think this is the biggest RAD tool for IVR Software development. Very powerful, easy to use tool that uses industry standard programming environment like .NET technology. It has support for large speech and telephony technologies like ACD, SIP, HMP, MRCP, ASR, TTS and VoIP. If anyone knows VB.NET, C# then with this VBVoice 5.6.1, he can become an IVR Application developer overnight. They support high end CTI boards of Dialogic as well as other CTI boards from vendors like Donjin.
…click here to read more

Technorati Tags: age, call center, Donjin, envox, glorsoft, ivr, ivr consultant, IVR Software, ivr specialist, ivrs, ivrs development, pronexus, rad, RAD Tools, rage, Synway, vbvoice, velocity, velocity 2.0, voice portal, xtend, xtend ivr

EGAIN, IVR System, IVRS Company

I came across an interesting IVRS ( Interactive Voice Response System ) application on net while browsing Google search results. eGain, the leading provider of multichannel customer service and knowledge management software, headquartered in California, USA, has recently added “Intelligent Voice Self-Service Solution to Its Multichannel Customer Interaction Hub Suite”!

That must be a smart IVRS application! As per their press release, their solution enhances user experience in the IVR “integrating it with other communication channels“. By applying web self-service best practices such as seamless escalation, unified cross-channel content, and CBR-guided interactions to IVR, it redefines phone self-service and increases customer adoption of the channel, as they claim.

eGain has patented CBR System ( Case Based Reasoning) which captures agents expertise of a contact center and with help of this, the IVR Software can prompt customers with intelligent questions based on caller replies and finally provide the correct information to the caller.
…click here to read more

Technorati Tags: agent intelligence, cbr, contact center, egain, expert system, intelligent ivrs, IVR Blog, IVR Software, IVRS Blog, knowledge base, self-service voice solution, smart ivr, smart ivrs

Though I have previously written about tools for developing IVR software as well as standardised VoiceXML based IVR Software, I was always thinking about writing rapid application development tools for developing simple to complex and large IVR software available in the market presently.

What is Rapid Application Development Tools for IVR Software ?
These are the tools like a Microsoft Visual Studio used for rapidly developing IVR Software as per IVR call flow. While Microsoft Visual Studio is very vast and supports many kind of applications, RAD for IVR Software deals only with IVR Software or IVR kind of voice application. For example, Auto Dialer, Voice Mail, Auto Attendant etc.
Normally they have beautiful GUI ( Graphics User Interface) for implementing IVR Call flow with graphical tools for controlling CTI board related and Voice Related functions. They provide visual tools implementing IVR Call Flow with minimum requirement of actual coding.
They use their own scripting for IVR Application with own syntax or syntax of standard computer programming language like basic, C. Some even provide controls (pre-compiled executable API code for specific function, can be used as it is) to be used standard Software Development Environment like .NET, Visual Basic etc.

I think there is a scope for comparing three ways to develop IVR Software or any Voice Applications as a whole. The three ways to develop IVR Software are:
1. Legacy IVR Software using native API of CTI boards using C++
2. Using open standard VoiceXML
3. Using Rapid Application Development Tools like VBVoice

…click here to read more

Technorati Tags: cti card, ivr application developement tools, IVR Software, ivr tools, pronexus, RAD Tools, Rapid Application Development, Telecom, vbvoice, vbvoice 5.6, voice application, Voice Mail, voice portal

Whats is legacy IVRS and what is VoiceXML based IVR System ?

Legacy IVRS
Legacy IVRS can be defined as the IVR Software installed on a personal computer and is developed using available native CTI Card APIs. The IVR software is developed for one CTI brand and model and the IVR Software may not work for any other CTI board or even model. Also, this type of IVR Software depends on the telephony interface used between CTI board and telephone exchange.
Legacy IVR software is supposed to control both the telephone interface part as well as VUI ( Voice User Interface). IVR software developer is supposed to be well versed with API provided by one particular CTI board as well as knowledgeable in switch technologies. Legacy IVR software performs every functionality in a interactive voice response system.

VoiceXML based IVRS
VoiceXML based IVR software can be defined as those IVR software which are written in VoiceXML. They normally deal with VUI(Voice User Interface) part of a interactive voice response system. VoiceXMX based IVR Software are neither dependent on CTI board/CTI Model nor interface with telephone switch. Any hardware interaction is performed by VoiceXML interpreter.
VoiceXML based IVR applications mainly deal with call flow of the IVRS. So, to write a VoiceXML based IVR software one may not require to know about CTI boards or any telecom switch!

Comparison
Both legacy IVRS and VoiceXML based IVRS have their own advantages and disadvantages. Though recently, many IVR companies are moving towards voiceXML based IVRS, there are still many die-hard legacy IVRS fans including me. Here I am trying to compare between legacy IVRS and voiceXML mased IVRS:
…click here to read more

Technorati Tags: clinical trial ivrs, configuring ss7, dialogic boards, digium board, IVR Software, ivrs, ivrs software, legacy ivrs, medical IVRS, ss7, synway boards, telecom switch, voice portal, voicexml

The recession has pushed up sales for IVR Software! Many companies have been adopting both hosted/managed IVR solutions, as per latest DMG Consulting LLC, the leading provider of contact center and real-time analytics research, market analysis, business strategy, operations, and technology consulting services which has published a recent report on IVR market trends.

According to the report, “the IVR market is now attracting a lot of attention and investment dollars. Sales of IVRs are growing rapidly based on the strength of new applications, rapid deployments and product innovation from a range of highly competitive hosted/managed service providers.”

“Self-service IVR solutions are important for enterprises in good times and become critical when budgets are tight, because they are highly effective in automating interactions that do not require the cognitive capabilities of live agents,” says Donna Fluss, President of DMG Consulting. “Many of the hosted/managed service IVR providers have come to market with inbound and outbound offerings that are highly responsive to the economic and technical challenges of their customers and this is speeding up the pace of adoption.”
…click here to read more

Technorati Tags: Call Center Software, contact center, contact center software, hosted ivr, IVR Market, IVR Software, ivrs, IVRS Latest Trend, IVRS Market, IVRS Market Growth, ivrs news, managed ivr

Recently I met a client who was in a hurry to get an IVR Software developed for his business. But while discussing specification of his IVR Software, he was very keen on documenting and finalising the IVRS call flow as he thought it will waste precious time and will delay the IVRS development, but I insisted that, before actually starting coding IVR software, we must completely document the whole call flow. I had to cajole him, explain him why call flow is required and a must for any customised IVR software! Finally he agreed and gave us few days for documenting call flow in tight schedule of his IVR development.

When we submitted him our first draft along with our suggested improvement in call flow as per usability point of view, he told us,” thank you Uttam for insisting on call flow, now I can see why you insisted in preparing the call flow before actually do the development. I totally agree with the changes in the call flow and most probably, I would have asked you to make the changes after I would have checked by dialing to the IVR.”

While I was happy to hear those nice words, I thought I should try to write benefits of IVR call flow. They are:

1. While IVRS is sequentially processed, if call flow is available, required option can be spotted quickly in IVR call flow. Caller or user does not have to listen out whole list of options to know which option he has to choose for his required information. This is particularly helpful for new caller.
…click here to read more

Technorati Tags: callflow, IVR Application, ivr call flow, IVR Software, ivr usability, ivrs call flow, ivrs usability