Most probably, the most dreaded and time consuming part of deployment of IVR system is the integration of CTI board with the telecom switch or EPABX. And if EPABX or switch is of lower end or from smaller EPABX manufacturer ( there are few in India), it may become really a nightmare for IVRS integrator or IVR Software provider.

While integrating IVR System with big Telecom operator, the blame of technical incompetence always fall on IVR software provider, specially in India. And if it is a government agency or PSU (Public Sector Undertaking), it is a real pain (anyone can guess where it is)! One needs real talent for handling those people. I have seen technical support engineer from CTI vendor spending months trying to integrate high end CTI board with certain Indian PSU! Once it took me almost 2 months of cajoling certain Indian PSU official to explain and make them understand them they are not sending DNI(Dialed Number Identification) due to which my Dialogic Board is not detecting any DNI.

Here is a list of problems IVR System integrators face with EPABX supplier or Switch People:-

1. Interfacing protocol
Most of the time, switch people or EPABX support people do not provide proper and complete information interfacing protocol to be used. Most commonly used interfacing protocols are SS7, ISDN PRI, R2MF or analog. One may say, analog interfacing is the easiest as it requires the least interaction with switch guys or EPABX supplier for integrating with CTI boards.

2. Lack of experimentation support
It is really pain to ask them for minor parameter change like CRC ON or OFF, which is a major problem in interfacing digital CTI boards with switch/EPABX. Many switch guys or EPABX people just do not want to change those parameter even for 5 minutes or so for testing purpose. Also worst part is, they do not inform accurately about the CRC status at their switch end. To be fair to switch guys, I think they do so because they can not afford to change those parameter as they may effect their existing working connections! But than there are various options, right ?

3. Lack of common jargon
EPABX or switch people seem to be using a lot jargon which is not easily understandable to CTI Board support team or IVR developers. With lack of proper communication, normally by the switch or EPABX manufacturer, things get worse. E1 lines are known as PCM lines by many Telecom engineers. In SS7 protocol, time slot number for signaling and voice differ from one Telecom operator to another and this is normally not communicated properly. In ISDN protocol, many EPABX manufacturer use Trunk Mode or User mode while CTI manufacturer use jargon like Terminal Mode and Network mode. It is not easy to relate those and poor IVR system developers suffer in between.

4. Lack of Communication between Switch team and CTI Technical Support
Generally during IVR system deployment, IVR software provider supplies the CTI board as well as the IVR software. In that scenario, most of the time, CTI technical support engineers do not interact with switch team or EPABX supplier and every communication go through the IVR software provider. This also add to the problems of IVR Software provider as he gets to hear complaints ( taunts) form both sides that the hardware from other side is not working properly. IVR software provider may experience really hard time providing logs from both sides to each other and explaining the significance to both sides.

Well, many IVR engineers, consultants must be facing these kind of problems or many more all the time and somehow managing to solve them. But this kind of avoidable problems really is painful to third party IVR developers.

One thing I keep asking myself is, EPABX manufacturer does not support IVR application developers while that is in their interest ? IVR developers or third party CTI developers can surely help EPABX manufacturer by helping developing many value added services for their switches PBXs.

My personal experience has been that CTI manufacturer provide very good support and assistance to IVR developers while EPABX manufacturers or switch guys do not provide much help to IVR software providers. I have been quite happy with supports from CTI manufacturer like Dialogic, Donjin, Synway. They have been helping me quite out of the way to integrate their boards with various switches/EPABX. Sadly, I can not say same thing with switch guys or EPABX manufacturers.

Most probably, the time has come to form an association of IVR suppliers in the world to demand and protect their rights by IVR professionals where they get legitimate and necessary support from switch/EPABX manufacturer for smooth deployment of IVR systems.

On 23rd August, 2009 www.ivrsworld.com has completed one year!

It is good feeling that it has finally completed its second year. As I have been crisscrossing India whole month of August, I could not add many article as per my plan. But in this year, I plan to do the following:-

1. Create an E-Book with various articles published in this blog.
2. Write more on developing IVR Software and IVR Application
3. Compare various CTI hardware as well as CTI manufacturer.
4. Create a marketplace where both IVR developers as well as IVR Software user would be able to exchange projects.

What is call flow ?

Call flow is the options offered to caller by the IVR Application. When a caller calls to a IVR number, he is given various choices. After he chooses one option, he may be required to enter few more choices before he finally gets his required information.  This complete call flow, right from the Welcome Prompt to the retrival of information and presentation can be presented in Flow Diagram in same as FlowChart for algorithm.

Importance of Call Flow

In my opinion, one should not even attempt to design IVR Application without finalising the call flow with the client. Changing Call flow may not only require changes in code, but also voice prompts! It may take time to record voice prompts, edit and test again. Many people do not like TTS ( Text-To-Speech) converter. So call flow finalisation is a must.

Customisation of IVR Application

Customisation of IVR Application is the design and finalisation of above call flow! The other technical integration like configuring CTI card, integrating with EPABX etc. are normally standard and same in all over the world. Also CTI vendors are quite prompt now a days in helping integrating their cards with different kind of exchanges. So, effectivily customisation comes down to only the customisation of call flow.

There may not be any fixed call flow for any industrial segment! Most probably Indian Railways have a fixed call flow for their IVR Application which they install at major Railway stations for train information announcement. Also they use different voice prompts and different languages.

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Most probably, this kind of customization requirement has resulted in coming out of Visual Tools to write scripts for implementing call flow by various companies! VoiceGuide, VBVoice, ExtendIVR  etc. have such tools for rapid develeopment of IVR Application! These tools have become so flexible and advanced, they can even integrate with existing database.

So, practically as a user, you may not have encountered IVR with same call flow at different places except few large organisations like Railways, Telecom Companies. This make using IVR difficult to use as well as this make IVR Application development challanging.

Speech recognition in IVRS has become more of a necessity after mobile phones have arrived. POTS ( Plain Old Telephone ) System have telephone instrument with proper keypad along with head-set. Procedure of calling is suitable for pressing DTMF based interaction with IVR System!

You normally lift the headset with left hand, dial pressing keys on telephone instrument using your right hand. So, when IVR is connected and you are listening to the voices by IVR System as well as pressing keys! While in a mobile phone, the tiny instrument itself is head-set, so when you are listening to IVR instructions, it is almost impossible to press keys without removing from your ear and looking at keys! The one solution is to use ear-phone or blue-tooth powered wireless headset!

Most probably, this has given prompted IVR developers as well as CTI vendors to come out with speech recognition for IVR Input. Though, speech recognition has evolved a lot, still speech recognition can not claim to perform 100%. This happens mainly because of pronunciation, accents of language from one region to another.

There are many speech recognition engines available. Nuance, Loquendo, Microsoft, Spinvox etc. are few companies which provide speech recognition engines on various technologies.

IVR with speech recognition capabilities are supposed to more advanced and suitable for mobile user, but it is actually very difficult to predict if the IVR application and speech engine will be able to recognise speech command properly. But IVR with Speech Recognition has been on the rise and every IVR Company now a days provide speech recognition. CTI vendors too support speech recognition in their hardware.

But still many people like me, will prefer to use DTMF for giving command to IVR as it sounds more technical. Most probably some people will take time get used to the idea of commanding some invisible machines by speaking!

After more searches and after getting comments about more CTI Companies,

[With the price hike in Dialogic, many of my clients have been asking me about alternatives. I have also started searching for some alternatives of Dialogic. I will be building a list and comparative article on them. Kindly send me any company.]

Here is another company I am looking at
TelcoBridges :

TelcoBridges is an innovative provider of enabling communications technologies for telecom system integrators, solution providers, and telecom equipment manufacturers worldwide.

TelcoBridges’ hardware and software products support VoIP, TDM, and IVR technologies enabling the rapid development of carrier-grade telecom systems.

Founded in 2002, TelcoBridges and its customers have deployed systems in more than 30 countries for some of the world’s largest telecom operators.

Technology
Supporting the most widely accepted industry standards and protocols, our technology is integrated by our system integration partners to build the industry’s most cost-effective, high-performance telecommunications systems marketed to fixed, mobile, and IP-based telecom operators.

Architecture
TelcoBridges delivers scalability, high-availability and unmatched redundancy into the design of carrier-grade telecom solutions by its solution partners.

Platform
Using our development tools our customers minimize development costs and reduce their development cycle, bringing innovative telecom solutions to market in record time.

Headquarters
Headquartered in Montreal, Canada, where TelcoBridges performs its R&D and production activities, the company has further sales representation and technical support staff in three regional offices: USA (San Jose, CA), China (Hong Kong), and Korea (Seoul).