Niche Tech Services Private Limited, Udaipur based hosted IVR Service provider, has recently launched its own hosted bulk voice messaging service with www.tringo.in and joined the band of numerous bulk voice service providers in India! So, when I spoke to Ankit Bhargava, Director Marketing of Niche Tech Services, my first question was, how is it different from hundreds of the market ?

TRINGO.IN : Hosted Voice Messaging Service

He replied that, Tringo is not just another bulk voice service provider, neither our aim is to provide just outbound voice calls for spamming telephone owners! We aim to reduce peoples perception about voice calls as another form of marketing spam calls which started with SMS.

Here is the email conversation with Ankit Bhargava:-

IVR World: Do you think you have started late as there are many bulk voice messaging service provider alreay there ?

Ankit Bhargava: Yes, we may be little late in introducing a dedicated website for outbound voice messaging service, but we have always been providing outbound voice message service to our clients for long time now. Also, as per my knowledge, there are not many voice message providers in India who have their own infrastructure. There are many who are just resellers with white level reseller panel. We have invested in our own hardware, software and PRI lines with redundancy from several telecom operators.

IVR World: How do you position yourself in this competitive voice messaging market in India ?

Ankit Bhargava: We do not see ourselves as “just another bulk voice call provider”, but a customised messaging service to broadcast crucial messages quickly with delivery reports. We do not just dial out a phone number and play a WAV file, but we discuss with our clients what is the purpose of this voice message and how it can be more effective in conveying the message. So, we put more emphasis on ‘conveying the message at the right time’ and a proper reporting system to our clients. We also keep our clients informed how we keep channels dedicated for instant call out for voice messages which are required to be conveyed instantly.

IVR World: What are pricing ? Do you give discount for requirement for bigger number of calls ?

Ankit Bhargava: We have a simple pricing, you pay Rs. 1000 and get 500 minutes of free usage, 50 paisa per MOU and the other is you pay Rs. 2000/- and get free usage of 1000 MOU, and 50 paisa for additional usage per MOU. We calculate MOU as 30 second pulse. We do not give any discount for bigger number of calls. Actually, one must understand that, in order to cater bigger number of calls, one requires larger number of PRI lines which requires huge investment in term of CTI hardware, PRI lines. So I do not think it is logical to offer discount on for bigger number of calls. Voice calls are made sequentially and we charge only for successful calls. Even though resources are used for just dialing out. Consider a situation when a called party does not pick the call, our IVR allows ring out which takes 20 seconds for the ring out and the channel remains busy for that much of time and we do not charge our client for such usage!

So that is how TRINGO.IN plans to serve its client and claims itself to be different from any other bulk voice providers in India.

If you have launched any IVR related new product, you may contact us for an email conversation here at Contact Page!

One of most common and continuous problem faced by any website owner is spam registration and spam enquiry submitted from website. With increasing usage of website for enquiry generation, he search for fool proof spam filter is going on with two objectives to achieve :-

1. Effectively eliminate any spam registration while not rejecting valid registration
2. Not to annoy prospective client enough not to discourage from registration but perform some prior verification.

Anti-spam human readable images, CAPTCHA, is one of the most popular and widely used method used by websites to fight spam registration by automated bots. While it is effective to filter spam and non serious registration, it still faces challenges of difficult images which are difficult even to human eye to read and thus scare away many people from submitting enquiry.

IVR (Interactive Voice Response) System can be used not only to fight spam, but also to verify phone number.

How ?

The process is very simple actually! Every registration or enquiry form will have a field for entering a valid phone number. The registration is not complete till the registrant does not give a “missed call” to IVR number!

1. Every registration will be inactive till the registrant calls to IVR number though the other records in the registration form will be stored in a database.

2. As soon as the IVR receives the call, it will match with inactive registration int he database with phone number, if it matches, it will disconnect the call without picking up the call( So no charge to the caller) and verify both the phone number as well as the registration.

3. Alerts about the new verified registration can be sent out to concerned personals.

Few advanced options which can also be incorporated:-
1. The IVR number could be dynamically changed.
2. The “missed call verification” would be valid for fixed time, say 10 min or so within which the registrant has to give the “missed call”.
3. Verification Number could be asked to enter by the IVR (shown on the registration form) in order to use another level of authentication.

Advantages of IVR based spam filter:-

1. It does not uses difficult and intimidating CAPTCHA, but just a phoen call which is one of the easiest tasks performed by anyone daily.

2. It not only validates the registration, but also verifies the phone number to be active and working! Yes, one can immediately give a call back if its a sales enquiry!

3. It is very fast and requires minimal efforts unlike email verification.

4. It is almost 100% accurate as it involves a valid phone number.

This kind of smart IVR usage can be implemented both on premise or hosted platform. Contact me for using this verification service without investing any on hardware or software! Use IVR based Spam Filter and make all your web based enquiry a qualified ones!

In other countries, Toll Free Number and IVR goes hand in hand or, without IVR nobody thinks about owning a toll free number. But, I have been getting many Toll Free Number enquiries from this IVR Blog where people have asked if the toll free number can be forwarded to their mobile number! While, there is nothing wrong in getting the toll free number to one’s Mobile Phone, but, I think it is an under-utilization of a toll free number.

I would like to quickly add few facts about Toll Free Number in India

1. Telecom operators provide 11 digit toll free number which is just a number starting with 1800, which can be dialed by any mobile phone, land line number without prefixing 0.

2. This Toll Free number has to be forwarded/terminated on another telephone lie/ PRI line or even mobile number. And this number could be anywhere in India.

3. The cost/charges of owning of the Toll Free Number and the phone number where calls to toll free numbers are forwarded/terminated are completely different and dependent of each other.

4. The caller will not be charged, but the owner of the toll free number will bear the cost of both Toll Free Number as well as the other telephone number.

5. The number simultaneous calls to the toll free numbers is minimum 30 or a PRI line. It means that at one point of time, 30 people can dial to the toll free number and get connected. But, if the toll free number is forwarded to one Mobile Number, then at one point of time, only one person will be able to speak, rest 29 people will get busy tone.

So, I hope the above five points are clear enough why any one who wants to own a toll free number for his business should also have an IVR!

IVR is particularly helpful if the toll free number is not used for a call centre. In normal situation, there would be many call agents to accept those minimum 30 simultaneous calls from the toll free number. But for organisations, which do not have a call centre, IVR is the ideal solution! The best part is, in order to use IVR, one can always go for hosted IVR model which will require very low initial investment and get benefit of pay-per-usage model.

In this hosted IVR option, one can just forward the toll free number to telephone number of Hosted IVR Service provides! Now a days, it is easy to find a reliable hosted IVR service provider in every country.

And if you are a programmer, then one can use one of those Cloud Telephony Service provider and make your own IVR for your toll free service.

IVR for your toll free number has many benefits:-

1. It will record all incoming calls with date and time stamp. It will not allow any incoming call go unanswered.

2. IVR works 24 hours a day. At non office hours, IVR can record a voice mail which can be emailed directly to your mailbox while at office hours, calls can be routed intelligently to different departments.

3. IVR can provide updated routine information to caller which does not require human intervention. This saves cost for organisation and delivers quick service to clients.

So, if you are seriously looking for toll free number for your business where both existing and prospective clients can contact you, consider an IVR system too!

Recently, IVR (Interactive Voice Response) for utility services in India seem to be getting popular as government sector companies and organisations have started deploying IVR for various automated service. The automatic monitoring of Midday Meal service and Gas Booking. Still, India is far from utilizing the amazing “Benefits Of IVR” to automate utility services which have fixed format, collect request as per customer id and deliver goods.

IVR for gas booking system is such an IVR application which can completely automate household gas booking and delivery system where any consumer can just dial a number, punch in his consumer number and register for gas cylinder. The IVR can immediately store the request and announce a tentative date and time for delivery to ensure some one at home to receive it. The IVR would also be able to lodge any complaint if any, find its request etc.

Recently, there were reports in news papers about launching of such IVR service in some cities in India. While I spoke to few gas agency about IVR, most of them have not heard about IVR. Few of them who heard about it, find it too costly for their business.

I think, the time has come now some IVR company comes out with simple, low cost “Gas Booking IVR” which can be used by any Gas Agency.

Or, has anyone deployed such IVR in India ? If yes, can anyone share a case study on it ? I oftenly feel, IVR is not being utilized at many places where it can really help both the business and its consumers.

Click to Call has been gaining popularity and becoming well known now a days in India across various industries. I recently did a “online searching” ( and also spoken to few Click To Call Service providers in India) which industries are using Click To Call and what is their general feedback about it.

Click To Call is normally a hosted service which is simple IVR, but requires many support web application, billing module, user management etc. Report of Click To Call is very helpful so it requires a good reporting system in place. So far, industries which have been using Click To Call, has continued so and has not abandoned it. This is very encouraging for all related to Click To Call.

Here are industries which are using Click To Call in India and their feedback:-

1. Travel Industry
Travel industry is normally using Click To Call in their high margin trip/holiday package booking, international flight booking.
Some portals tried it in hotel bookings too, but abandoned and it is majorly due to low margins in such bookings for online travel portals.

The feedback from this industry is good. It has increased conversion rates as web visitors are now calling getting connected free of cost.


2. Educational Institutes

Educational Institutes are using click to call to connect prospective student and parents to educaton counselors before admission. Some are using it to provide free information about courses on phone to students.
The student satisfaction has gone up by using Click To Call Service as student can speak to counselors as soon as they submit their enquiry form.
Feedback from this industry is positive so far.

3. Web Designer

Independent Web Designers are also using Click To Call as an alternative to speak to users. They are majorly using click to call as sales lead generation, than support system.

The feedback from this industry is mixed as it is competing with toll free number here. Most probably, this industry relies more on emails/chat than voice communication.

3. IT Software Provider

This industry is using Click To Call for support tool only. While they have dedicated call centre for support centre, they are using click to call to make it easier to reach their call centre.

The feedback is good and it has helped them keep track of web visitors and calls. They are particularly happy about being able to measure their calls.

4. Real Estate

Real Estate Industry is using this service for lead capturing. They are also using it to monitor umber of calls handled by their marketing executive and how they are handling new enquiry.

The feedback is good from this industry. They do not mind paying premium for this service as it is high margin industry.

5. B2B yellow pages
Some are using it to provide extra service to its advertisers as value addition to their listings and providing it for free to its advertisers. Some are using this as extra revenue source where they charge extra for this feature on their listing.

Feedback from this industry is very good. Major portals in India are using it and quite happy about it.

Apart from above industry, I saw hotels too using it for their booking. If you know any otehr industry who is using this service and their feedback, do let us know!

While there are many tips and tricks to increase IVR usability and thereby increasing IVR usage, still IVR will always be hated due to its own inherent problems. While recent introduction of SIRI in IPhone, I hoped that people will adapt to the idea of speaking to “machines”, but sadly, it seems, after the “initial honeymoon period”, it is yet to prove its mettle!

After many years in IVR industry, now a days, I am almost resigned to the fact that, IVR will always be hated by some people, with some valid reasons, no matter smart we try to make the IVR systems. No matter how well the IVR call flow is designed, there are few features in IVR which will keep drawing flak from IVR users.

And I think, these three will not go away in foreseeable future! According to me, the following “problems” or hate points of IVR will never go away, may be minimised, but never go away :-

1. Sequential Menu
The IVR menus will always be presented in sequential way! One may try to bring the most used options to the front of the sequential menu, or play the menu options smartly after analyzing past usage by the caller, still it will always remain sequential! Some users will always wait agonizingly till the end of the menu before knowing what to press or what to speak for her required information.
Quickest solution to long menu may result in nested and multilevel menus which may again be very frustrating for many!
Well, I do not know if this if any one can come out with some smart solution where every one gets to hear his required menu option at the starting of the menu!

2. Speech Recognition

Recent survey result shows than majority of the contact centers have got rid of speech recognition, for good! Sad part is, speech recognition has to be used in IVR, for many reasons! And it will continue to fail to recognise commands from callers and continue to get people frustrated!

Even if the speech recognition works perfect, still people will assume themselves to be smarter than machines and blame it for any wrong input. It is specially true for IVR contest where caller has to speak a choice and which is an wrong answer!

Finally, I have come across many times over now why people will continue to hate IVR, I would like to call it:-
3. Somebody Else’s problem

IVR is a machine and it does not show any emotion while blurting out “bad news” to the caller, making payment reminders dutifully on a per-defined hour! As as the saying goes, “messengers get shot”, IVR will face ire from callers!

And no matter how well the IVR is designed, it will still get hated for the very fact for its usage, giving out information, bad, painful to the callers!

So, I am resigned to the fact that, no matter what we IVR people do, IVR will still be hated. Share your thinking please!

Virtual Receptionist has been a feature with traditional EPABX for long time now. But it had a limited intelligence and utility. This feature works as receptionist in front office in any organisation which attends incoming calls, transfers the call to required extension or take a message. This feature of PBX is also known as “auto attendant”. This feature can be implemented using simple IVR with voice mail system and now known as Virtual Receptionist.

How to implement using a 4 Port Analog Card ?

“Virtual Receptionist” can be implemented using a 4-port Analog CTI card and a very basic 2-8 Port Analog PBX. SO total cost of hardware should be around Rs. 35000/- ( US$700 approx.) apart from PC and software.

On-Premise Virtual Receptionist

In the PBX, it will have 2 PSTN line and 8 extensions. Out of these 8 extensions, two extensions, say 10 and 11 would be connected to two ports of the Analog Ports. ( As shown in the figure above).

The PBX should be programmed in such a way that any incoming PSTN call should automatically land on extension 10 and 11.

Now we will have a “Virtual Receptionist” IVR running on the PC which will have the following simple steps :-

1. As soon as it gets incoming call, it will play greetings and asks for extension to be forwarded in DTMF/Key press. Or by using Speech Recognition, it may ask the caller to speak to the person.
2. Once DTMF digits received ( or name recognised), it will dial put the caller ON HOLD ( Flash ) and then dial out the extension.
3. If the extension rings, it will isconnects itself.
4. If the extension is busy, it will ask the caller to leave a message.

So that is all about implementing on-premise virtual receptionist.

It can have many advanced features. For example:-

1. Office hours
It will not transfer calls after office hours.

2. Follow Me
Any extension could implement “Follow Me” feature where a person can change his extension number to be dialed out depending on his time at office.

3. Reporting

Every call will be logged or can also be recorded.

Many other smart and intelligent call routing features, voice mail etc. can be implemented.

Advantages of having On-Premise Virtual Receptionist :-

1. No recurring cost
One of the major advantage of on-premise virtual receptionist system is, it does not have any recurring or outgoing call cost since it uses local PBX for transferring the calls.

2. Secure Incoming Call records
Since everything is on premise, all incoming call records are secure and it may be vital for many companies.

3. Sharing of Resources

Many people in the office will have virtual receptionist facility which other wise was exclusive to few people in case of a hosted one due to recurring call cost.

So, if you already have PBX in your office, having virtual receptionist may be just one time cost of few thousand rupees!

As per recent reports, VoIP is likely to be allowed in India by next month. “India’s Telecom Commission has approved allowing voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) services under the National Telecom Policy (NTP), 2012, in a move that is aimed at making telecom services more affordable”, the report says.

VOIP to be allowed in India

I think, this is huge news for many stake holders in IVR ( Interactive Voice Response) world! It will immediately give a boost to voice calling and most probably, people may not like to use Missed Call any more! The immediate question is, are CTI board manufacturers going to see jump in sales of their VoIP products ?

Here are my thinking how this new may have impact on IVR business in India :-

1. Boost to Hosted IVR as well as Cloud Telephony

With VoIP in India, hosted IVR as well a Cloud Telephony would get a much needed boost. Also, it will help established cloud telephony service provider like Aculab or hosted IVR provider like Message Technologies Inc. enter into the Indian market with 650 million plus telephone users! With their presence in India, the quality of IVR service may improve and they may also get access to more skilled manpower to develop various application using their platforms.

Developers would be able to test their application just by using their PC or laptop on VOIP, without having to spend extra money for making an TDM telephonic call!

2. Increase of sale of TDM-VoIP Gateway

It must be a good news for CTI manufactures, specially for Dialogic which is rumored to be facing some financial issues. I think, CTI manufacturer will be able to increase their sales by selling new products VoIP-TDM Gateways or licensees. Almost all major CTI manufacturers like Dialogic, Aculab, Sangoma, have impressive product line using VoIP technology, but missing Indian market.

Allowing VoIP in India should help them sell their VoIP products in India.

3. Fall of Price Bulk Voice Call and Click To Call

Most probably, voice call rate is the lowest in India at present, still many people find the rates higher than VoIP counterparts. So, with VoIP, the call rates for bulk voice messaging as well as Click To Call service may fall more. This in turn may see growth of their usage.

4. IVVR may also get a boost

Interactive Video and Voice Response may also see increase its usage as this service would be now accessible legally from a PC or laptop too! It was other wise a exclusive privilege of smart phone owners with deep pocket for making video calls!

On downside, most probably, Missed Call may not be as attractive as it used to be!

Most probably, customer will be the ultimate beneficiary in many fronts! But I hope, this will also help IVR industry as a whole.

These are my thinking, any feedback would be highly welcome!

“Voting by Missed Call” is getting popular in India. Previously, voting was majorly done by sending SMS to some SMS short-code, but now a days, it is almost getting replaced by “Missed Call”. The main reason for this is, normally user has to pay for sending SMS to any SMS shortcode Rs. 3/-. It is not easy to type and send text by many people. Also, SMS voting is limited to Mobile Phone users only while land-line telephone users are left out. Missed Call seems to include all, is free for the caller, and very quick and easy.

How does Missed Call Take place ?
In voting, there are some options and one has to choose any one of those options. So it is actually very easy to implement this. All the options could be assigned a dedicated phone number to which one may give a ‘missed call’. For example,

The question of the poll is “Who would win 2014 FIFA World Cup in 2014 to be held in Brazil ?”, options are a. Spain b. Brazil c. Argentina d. England e. Italy f. Germany.
Now in order to vote for a. Spain, one should give a missed call to 1800123451, to vote for b. Brazil, one has to give a missed call to 1800123452 and so on.

Every call would be logged against the option and it would be counted as a valid vote. The same number may be able to call other option to vote as per rule of the poll. An SMS can be sent to the caller confirming the voter.

How to implement a Missed Call System ?

It is very easy to implement a Missed Call System for voting. The most important part is to detect “Caller ID” of the caller phone. So, most probably, analog CTI board is not suitable for implementing a Missed Call System as Analog Boards may miss the caller ID some time. Also, Analog Boards are much slower ( connect/disconnect) compared to Digital E1/T1 CTI boards.

Since Missed Call Voting System does not require much to do except detecting caller ID and recording them and mapping them with poll options, so we may use a low cost CTI board. So, according to me, the most economic way to design and develop Missed Call Voting System would be to use the following hardware :-

1. Any E1 CTI Board without On-board processor like Sangoma, Digium etc. They tend to be less costly.
2. A PRI line with minimum 100 numbers from Telecom operators. Normally, in India, any telecom operators provide 100 numbers with any PRI line.
3. Normal PC.
4. Linux operating System ( free).
5. MySQL Database ( free )

For corresponding Windows System could be :-
1. Low cost board like Donjin DN300,
2. A PRI line with minimum 100 numbers from Telecom operators.
3. Normal PC.
4. MS Windows.
5. MS SQL Express ( Free)

While using Linux based system, one may use Asterisk or FreePBX while fro Windows System, one has many options for IVR toolkit like Velocity from GlorSoft or others like VBVoice from Pronexus, OsiDial from Osimatic etc.

Steps in Missed Call Voting System :
1. When any incoming calls comes, detect Caller ID as well as DNI ( Dialed Number Identification) then disconnect the call. Never answer the call.
2. Compare the poll option with DNI.
3. Store the Caller ID along with Poll Option as per #2 above into database.
4. Optional – Send out SMS confirming his/her vote to the caller ID detected.

So, if you want a Missed Call Voting System for your survey, feedback requirement, it is very easy to develop on your own On-Premise solution. For hosted solutions, one may contact NTS which provides such Missed Call Voting System at very competitive rates.

I went to “20th Convergence India ICT Expo” on its second day at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, India. I reached the venue little late at 11:45AM. As soon as I entered Pragati Maidan, I found few visitors. I thought since I am late, I thought visitors may have had gone inside halls already.

As expected, the registration desk was almost empty which reminded me, it was normally busy during my previous visits.

Congeregnce India 2012

I was disappointed to find not many visitors as per my expectation. Most phttp://www.ivrsworld.com/wp-admin/post-new.phprobably, it was second day and many people may eb waiting for the last day, that is tomorrow. I was looking for IVR related companies, but could not find many. Here are few which I found:-

1. Aculab – Complete Cloud Telephony Provider

Aculab well known CTI manufacturer, which is going aggressive on its complete cloud telephony AculabCloud was there showcasing there products.

Aculab was there with their AcuabCloud

AculabCloud allows developers to develop their hosted voice applications using Python and Microsoft .NET Technologies like C# etc. Theey have also ProsodyX (a highly practical alternative to DSPbased CTI boards) and ApplianX IP-TDM Gateway products.

2. VESTEC – Speech Recognition Provider
I found this interesting speech recognition product which claims to improve accuracy of speech recognition over traditional speech recognition engines by using AI ( Artificial Intelligence) technology.

VESTEC - Speech Recogntion

3. Alliance Infotech – Sangoma Distributor India

Alliance Infotech, a known Delhi based company for CTI baords was also their with Sangoma products. They were showcashing their SS7 gateways as well as recently released GSM Analog CTI card.

Sangoma - Alliance Infortech

They are also promoting their newly acquired VegaStream VoIP products. They hope to go aggressive in promoting their products in India in coming days.

4. ATCOM – Low Cost CTI board provider
I saw ATCOM first time in India. They have E1 Asterisk based products. I think Sangoma and Digium has some competition from them now!

ATCOM

5. Digium – Original Asterisk Promoter

Digium was also there with their 24 channel Analog boards as well as 8 Port Digital E1 CTI cards apart from other boards.

6. Aria Telecom – Known IVR Voice Logger company

Aria Telecom, a known IVR and Voice Logger provider based in New Delhi was also there with their CTI based solution.

Aria Telecom

Notable absentees from this exhibition was CTI giant Dialogic, Donjin, Synway and other IVR based companies. I was hoping to see more IVR companies like Glorsoft, Pronexus etc. to be here.

I found many Chinese Telecom companies in this exhibitions. There are so many companies from China that, I heard comments like ” This expo seems like Convergence China Hosted in India”!

Many Chinese Companies were here

This exhibitions was mainly for all ICT companies, still was happy to see some IVR related companies here. I hope, in future, more IVR companies would participate here and I hope to write about them here.

I hope to review some of the products them above IVR companies in coming days, so stay tuned!