Recently I have traveled North and Eastern part India and met many people who are either using IVR systems or are dealing with call centres. While interacting with them, one thing I realised that, people are now warming up to the concept of hosted IVR in India. Most interesting part is, even bigger companies are now a days receptive to the idea of hosted IVR, which few years ago was a complete no, no.

I think, there are two major factors which have helped people warming up to the hosted IVR services :-

1. Reliable Internet connectivity
2. Cost Benefit : Pay as per usage model

1. Reliable Internet Connectivity
In the last few years, quality of internet connectivity has gone up manifold and downtime is no longer frequent unlike few years ago in India. Reliable and dedicated internet connectivity was also costly and not available easily, specially outskirts of cities, where industries tend to exist!

This kind of internet connectivity has helped integration information available at the premises of an organization with of IVR system hosted some where else using internet connectivity. One can say, “IVR in cloud” is now possible, works reliably thanks to good internet connectivity.

2. Cost Benefit : Pay as per usage model
I think, I would give credit to hosted IVR providers in India, who have been able to convince IVR users about the cost benefit of using hosted IVR over on-premise IVR. It is not only about initial investment in hardware and software, but also keeping updated with latest CTI hardware and IVR tools.
Most of the people I have interacted with, have had clear idea about how hosted IVR can reduce initial investment an reduce time to live with IVR. Many of them were also happy with accessing IVR logs online by just visiting a website and logging in.

Apart from above two major factors, I think many business houses become focused on their core competence while outsourcing business processes to professionals. Many people were more comfortable with one time capital expenditure than recurring operational expenditures. But, in IVR, there is always an fixed or variable operational expenditure in the form of telephone rental and outbound call cost. So, many have started opting for just operational expense without any major capital expense and hosted IVR just fits in between.

Most probably, with slowing of economy world wide, even bigger companies might be finding it easier to go with “pay per usage” hosted IVR system to server their customers.

I would be happy to know feedback from others how they feel about hosted IVR in India.

Recently, I have come across many IVRs which asks multiple choice questions and press a key to answer the correct options. For every correct answer, the caller gets a point and these points are accumulated. If I remember correctly, this kind of quiz on IVR has been popular in voice portal services in India where some contest was organised and top 10 scorers were given prizes.

Normally, this kind of quiz contest on IVR used to work following way :-

1. Voice Portal had hundreds of questions ( some easy, some difficult).
2. The questions were asked randomly.
3. A caller can call many times till the end of the contest period.
4. The caller never gets a question twice whose correct answer has been already given by him. But wrongly answered questions may be asked again.
5. With every correct answer, his/her points keep increasing.

This kind of quiz contest were popular some 5/6 years ago when there was not IPhone or other smart phones! Now a days, I hardly come across such contests. May be VAS ( Value Added Service) providers have run out questions or people are no longer interested in playing such contest on phone.

But, similar IVR applications seem to have come back again! But this time, this is not a contest, but few specific questionnaire on a product or service!

While interacting with few people, who are using such questionnaire on IVR, I have come to know about interesting benefits:-

They normally schedule such questionnaire to a person who has stayed in their hotel. While many people enter a phone number in their guest register, but there is no option to verify that number. So, as soon as the guest is checked out, IVR calls up that number and asks few questions about quality of room, services etc. I solves two purposes, it verifies that number and it gets some feedback for their services too which is very important for quality purpose.

In order to sweeten the IVR call, they offer some cash discount on their next stay in the hotel if the complete the questionnaire! They also get a report about these feedback properly which is useful for various analytical purposes.

Another questionnaire is used for screening candidates applying for a job. The IVR calls up the prospective candidate and asks related questions for the position where candidate is given multiple option to choose. The IVR gives giving points as per the option chosen by the candidate!

This IVR questionnaire act as an first line of screening and it also helps gauge if the candidate really want the job or not!

This is complete automated system where one gets back score of each candidate, hang up in between etc. It saves cost by reducing foot falls in the recruiters office as well as save time.

So, I think, quiz on IVR is back again and this time it has different applications and different usage! I also think, questionnaire on IVR could be applied in different industries where some processes could be automated!

Among the many applications available with IVR Hosting providers, which could be leveraged by any start-up companies or smaller companies, Virtual Receptionist is one of the most useful whose benefit is measurable and very evident.

While many traditional PBX systems too offer facility of virtual receptionist, concept of virtual receptionist is nothing new in telecom domain, when a ‘Virtual Receptionist’ is implemented using IVR system at the background integrated with SMS (Short Messaging Service), E-mail, Call Whisper etc. apart from intelligent call routing, the whole concept becomes very interesting an useful!

So, how IVR based hosted Virtual Receptionist is different from traditonal virtual receptionist available in PBX systems ?

First of all, choosing an hosted IVR has its own advantages like very small or no initial investment in hardware as well as time to set up the system! PBX based virtual receptionist has limitations in terms of configuring complex and intelligent routing, integration with third party business logic etc.

Being majorly software driven, hosted IVR based virtual receptionist can have any type of computation capability, easy integration with third party systems like SMS, CRM etc.

Few smart features which makes IVR based Hosted Virtual Receptionist interesting and a must have for many companies :-

1. Hosted virtual Receptionist would work 24 hours a day, play different greetings at different time. It can even use multiple languages depending on the caller ID. For example, it will greet ‘Good Morning’ in morning, ‘Good Afternoon’ in the afternoon. If it detects caller ID from Spain, it can greet in Spanish, like “Buenos días, bienvenidos a nuestra empresa” ( Good Morning, welcome to our company ) even if your company is in China!

2. Virtual receptionist can send you immediate alert for any incoming call either by SMS or E-email. This SMS or Email can information like Caller ID, time of call. And if the caller has recorded a voice mail, the recorded audio file can also be attached in the email as WAV file. WAV file can be played back on BlackBerry, IPhone or Android phones. So, one never has to miss any important update!

3. Call whisper is one important feature where hosted virtual receptionist can speak out the caller ID and ask for an key press option either to receive the call or transfer to someone else or to voice mail! This kind of call screening is specially useful for calls from irritating tele-callers or banks asking for loan returns. (Ok, the later part was a joke.)

4. Hosted IVR service providers would have record of each and every call, their status ( either forwarded, voice mail, or out office hour, holidays etc.). This is very useful for marketing and sales lead generation point of view as it provides real time, online report using which one can measure lead captures, converted etc.

Few practical and pressing reason why you should opt for hosted Virtual Receptionist ?

If you are small company and have to travel out of office during office hour or out-station, hosted virtual receptionist is the service for you!

Hosted virtual receptionist provider like Niche Tech Services Private Limited can provide you with 10 digit mobile number owned by you! So even if you change IVR service provider, the number remains with you!

With online and accurate MIS, accessible from net anywhere, your office people can no longer avoid or lie about any inquiries on phones to the office! One can fix responsibility if any one does not attend a call during office hour!

So, with hosted virtual receptionist, you no longer need to be afraid of high initial and recurring investment to have your own smart receptionist!

Now a days, very often one gets to hear the term ‘Cloud Telephony’, but what exactly is this ‘Cloud Telephony’ and why is it relevant or important in the field of IVR ?

What is Cloud Telephony ?

In IVR, point of view, in a single sentence, Hosted IVR or IVR Hosting service where user can design, deploy their own IVR or Telephony Applications themselves is Cloud Telephony! Most probably, It has got its name to sound similar with ‘Cloud Computing’ and to bridge the gap between specialised telephony application developer with general computer/web application developer! And at the end, ‘Cloud Telephony’ does exactly that, it empowers any computer application developer to add Telephony functionality to their software applications!

Cloud Telephony means, you do not have to deal with telephony jargons, knowledge of how telephone works as long as you know what you want your telephone to do! And most of the time, it is pretty simple for everyone to understand, make/receive(pick up) a telephone call, hang up or disconnect the call, play an audio file, transfer the call, conference the call! With Cloud Telephony, these kind of telephony functions can be added to any computer application!

Cloud Telephony offers many advantages

Cloud Telephony offers many advantages over traditional on-premise telephony applications. Traditional on-premise telephony applications typically consisted of PBX, IVR and lot of wires through MDF ( Main Distribution Frame)! IVR application is the only visible computer application which provides software like function and computational capabilities! IVR could pick up an incoming call, play a greeting, ask to dial extension number, transfer the call, if the transferred number did not pick up the call, ask the caller to record voice mail!

All these kind of telephony functions ( and much more!) are now available which can be integrated with any computer applications without knowing about telecom technology or worry about telecom infrastructure like PBX/IVR!

Typically, in a cloud telephony, few hundred lines of coding is enough to provide above functions. One can just subscribe to Cloud Telephony service provider with monthly subscription fee, or actual usage basis, use their API in his own applications! With standardization of VXML, a user can become truly independent of coud telephony vendor or hosted IVR provider!

IVR and Cloud Telephony

I would actually wish to view Cloud Telephony as IVR 2.0 which have graduated from specific telecom domain to web domain like any other computer applications! Cloud Telephony or bringing IVR to the web world, has given a new and fresh lease of life to the aging world of IVR!

With cloud telephony, one can hope to find any interesting and innovative telephony application to appear, solving real world problems and serving diverse population!

Tropo, Twilio and India’s own Kookoo are few of the could telephony providers where one can play around with their applications by adding telephony functions!

What is Phone verification ?

Phone verification can be called verification of a phone number entered in a form ( both online form or offline paper form ) either it is a valid phone number or not. Here, validity of the phone number does not mean only about the numbers entered numeric, length of digits entered sufficient ( which can be verified by smart software though), but the phone number works! It mean, the number has to ring when dialed from another phone number. Also it has to match the owner of the phone number with the name entered in the form!

So, most of the time the only way to verify the number is to manually dial and speak to the person.

Why Phone verification is required ?

Phone verification is required for many services for obvious reasons to authenticate credential of a person. Credit card, Banking, ID proof etc. are few examples where phone verification is a must.

A verified phone may also reduce many unproductive calls by any tele-caller.

How Missed Call and IVR can be used ?

A missed call is a call when it is not picked by the caller. Now that missed call may happen when called party does not pick the call even when ringing is over, or when called party disconnects call after one or few rings. Depending on the type of missed call, few messages are exchanged between called party and the caller. In India as well as other countries too, missed call is widely used by people!

“Missed Call” are also known as ‘drop call’ in USA, ‘prank call’ in United Kingdom and Australia, beep in Africa etc.

The same “Missed Call” can also be used to verify a phone number automatically using the following method :-

1. When a person enters a phone number in any online registration form, he is given a phone number to dial from the phone number she entered in the form within a given time say next 20 mins. The pop up clearly mentions that as soon the phone rings, it will be disconnected just after capturing the Called ID and the call will not be charged!

2. The person calls the number. The IVR receiving the call will capture the Caller ID and match it with the number entered in the online form. If it matches, the phone number will be verified and the registration would be accepted.

3. The IVR can now make an outbound call to inform that the registration is accepted and now he can proceed with his registration or any other purpose of the online form submission.

Any PRI connection in India is normally given 100 numbers in continuity. So, these 100 numbers could be used in random to get missed calls from different users in order to increase secrecy as well as security.

So, missed call with an intelligent IVR system could be used as completely automated phone number verification service.

With evolution of social media like Twitter and Facebook Fan page, it has become easy for celebrities in various fields to connect with their fans. While some fields, connecting with fans may not be important or necessary, but celebrities in the fields like Cinema, Music,TV serials, literature, connecting with fans is an important PR exercise to keep their fans engaged as well as well informed!

Celebrity IVR to connect with fans

How IVR can be used ?

IVR ( Interactive Voice Response System) can be used to where fans would be given a number to call and listen to news, greetings by the celebrity. The IVR can have options to record fan messages in voice too. This could be a simple inbound IVR, even on hosted IVR platform with original voice greetings from the celebrity.

There could be an option to listen to latest news or breaking news section where some important or immediate update about the celebrity could be stored to be heard by any caller.

The IVR could also be used to collect feedback from fans about new releases, or any activity by the celebrity. This kind of feedback could be very informative for the celebrity or her teams to get public sentiment and than strategise next performances.

Outbound IVR could also be used for campaigning any cause endorsed by the celebrity. With inbound IVRs, it can build up huge phone numbers which could be utilised to any kind of promotion or campaign.

What are the benefits ?

Since fans will listen original voice of the celebrity, IVR could be more “emotional as well as personal” kind of communication between the celebrity and her fans. So, IVR could make fans more loyal to the celebrity!

In a market like India where mobile penetration is much higher than internet, Radio or news paper, IVR seems to be better suited medium to connecting with fans for celebrities. By recording phone numbers using caller ID, one can build a database of loyal fans.

Using these recorded phone numbers, a targeted campaigning could be mounted for new launch of albums by singer, new movie release by film stars or release of new book by a writer, or even merchandise.

Fans will be able to dial the IVR number any time in the day, listen to her voices of her favourite star, leave message. It will make them feel important and make the celebrity more accessible to her fans.

Hosted IVR or On Premise IVR ?

Hosted IVR solution seems to be a better model for any kind of celebrity IVR as it will allow professionals to handle the technical nuances of running IVR! The contents could be uploaded by he celebrity using the same IVR over a phone. Or it could be done by her team using simple web interface.

So, after Twitter and Facebook, IVR could be another medium for celebrity to connect with their fans! It would gread if anyone shares their experience of calling any celebrity IVR!

Donjin’s Keygoe series of multimedia switches are communication platform which can handle almost all types of voice, video applications in any size. While the entry level KeyGoe Series product Keygoe1000 starts with 1 channel and can be increased to 240 channels, and high end KeyGoe Series like KeyGoe 3000 has up to 127 E1 lines.

KeyGoe Donjin Multimedia Switch

All KeyGoe Series products support all types of available telecom protocols like ISDN PRI, SS7, IP ( RTP, H.323 etc). So, a KeyGoe series of product is almost future proof which will never go obsolete. Keygoe series multimedia switches are independent rack 19″ rack-mountable.

In their voice resources, they support all types of CODEC, play audio files of many formats like WAV, ADCPM, Dialogic VOX format. They have inbuilt echo-cancellation, AGC ( automatic gain control), full duplex audio playing and recording. They have VAD ( Voice Activity Detection) as well as CNG ( Comfort Noise Generation).

KeyGoe series products provide 1:1 conference facility for all voice resources. They have built in FAX resources too.

They support Windows Operating System, Linux ( Kernel Version 2.6 and above) and have SDK with many sample codes in C++, C#, Delphi.

The installation and configuration is also quite easy with visual tools to configure various parameters.

KeyGoe Series products are very feature rich, low cost but performs very well. All types of IVR applications as well as telecom solutions can be provided using KeyGoe series of products. Developing Voice applications, Conference application, FAX applications are quite easy using Donjin KeyGoe products.

Donjin support has improved a lot over the time and they have now a big number of installation in India. KeyGoe series products are being used in Hosted IVR solutions, Voice based Value Added Services, Hosted Conference Services as well as hosted Outbound IVR ( Bulk Voice Calling).

KeyGoe series products from Donjin are available at Sunshine Telesoft (P) Limited. in India.

Almost everyone is aware of IVR ( Interactive Voice response System) being used to listen information over phone as well as lodging complaints about utilities. Recently, NTS (IVR Service provider in India) has implemented an interesting hosted IVR solution for Find My Info International, where vital information about a person running into an medical

Find My Info - Using IVR for Medical Emrgencies

This is an web based simple application which helps people organise their critical information so that it can be retrieved by logging to website or dialing a phone which ever is available. Find My Info provides wearable accessories like pendent, wristband which are engraved with CODE and PIN unique tot that individual along with the IVR number and website address. This CODE and PIN can be used to retrieve vital medical information of the individual.

The IVR service is provided by NTS on its hosted platform which accesses information from Find My Info server using secure and encrypted API online in real time. The caller has to call the number, enter the CODE and PIN and the corresponding critical medical information like blood group, emergency contact number along with relation.

Find My Info Accesories

The caller has also an option to download the information to his mobile number, in case he is dialing from a mobile.

As Find My Info describes, “increasing number of people need to go out of the home for work, study, business, leisure or other activities for short or prolonged periods. As soon as you leave home, you become vulnerable, and start to deal with many unwanted and unfavourable situations, knowingly or unknowingly, out of your instincts – all by yourself.

Unfortunate emergency situations may suddenly come in your way, externally or internally, impairing your ability to communicate to others – who are trying to assist. Accidents, sudden medical conditions may strike even to the most healthy and diligent person – while our children, adventurous youngsters, elderly loved-ones, and family members with physical or mental impairment have greater vulnerability. We cannot emphasize less, the invaluable benefit of this service to reunite lost children with their families.”

This is very useful IVR application as well as unique service where IVR is playing a role of life saver!

What IVR technologies or IVR applications would be hit in the year 2011 ? Here is a list of few IVR applications or IVR technologies that might see high usage as well wide acceptance among people!-

What IVR technology or Application will rule in year 2011 ?

1. IVVR ( Interactive Voice And Video Response)

With introduction of 3G technology in worlds most populous countries, India and China, IVVR should see wide application and deployment. I think, IVVR would be used in VAS ( Value Added Service) industry, customer care, virtual tour in hotel industry.

IVVR would also be used Tele-medicine in India as well as e-governance.

2. IVR in Payment

IVR would be increasingly used in phone banking as well as payment using phones. Recently, RBI ( Reserve Bank of India has introduced OTP ( one time password) valid for just one transaction for 30 minutes to 24 hours. So, the public confidence in payment using IVR might will increase. Many payment gateway providers are now trying to provide payment option using IVR with just a telephone call on the move.

3. Speaker Recognition

With increasing payment using IVR, speaker recognition technology will be used more and more. Most probably, this technology would be further developed.

4. Speech Recognition

With increasing usage of IVR in customer care as well as ‘self-help’ complaint management system, speech recognition usage as well as accuracy may increase in 2011!

5. IVR Hosting

Since many visual as well as online web-based tools are now available for IVR call flow designing, I think, IVR hosting will see increase in 2011. Presently, Click To Call is one service which is a hosted IVR service used by many people. Many people are also opting for hosted IVR solution in order to reduce initial capital investment as well as support.

6. Bulk Voice Call

Bulk Voice Call should see increase as well as competition in terms of per call pricing in 2011, specially in India. Reminder Service using voice call will also be used more and more.

These are the IVR applications which I think will be deployed and used by many people in the year 2011! I would like to hear from you too, so kindly leave a comment with your opinion!

MLM ( Multi Level Marketing) can be defined as a marketing strategy where its sales force earns from their selling as well as from those sales generated by people whom they recruit to sell. So, essentially if a sales person creates many successful sales person under him, he generates enough revenue without himself involving in any direct sales! Amway is one of the most famous MLM companies in the world with many products which they sell through their members only.

MLM is also known as Networking Marketing as well as referral marketing, there are many MLM companies in India now a days.

IVR in Multi Level Marketing Companies

The reach of MLM companies is now not confined to city or town areas in India where internet penetration is high, but also to villages where there is almost no penetration of internet and computer, but mobile phones have reached. So, providing updated account information as well as other MLM activities like adding new recruit, lodge any complaints using an IVR may not only add provide added facility to MLM company, but also increase its service area.

What IVR for MLM Companies can do ?

Here are few tasks an IVR can perform for MLM Companies 24 hours a day, without any break and any manual intervention :-

1. It can register any enquiry of new member which could be immediately alerted to any existing member in the same area from where one has made the call.

2. IVR can be used to retrieve member account information like commissions earned by his sales as well as his down-line distributors or any new member additions to his network. These instant and updated information keep a member motivated all the time.

3. IVR can be configured to act as an outbound IVR that can be used to blast mass voice message to all its members any important news, new scheme, discount or any service disruptions etc.

4. IVR can be used to play back recorded voice message of the managing director or owner of the MLM company which builds confidence in its members. This can also be used to gauge member enthusiasm about the MLM company.

So, if you own an MLM company and not using IVR, most probably, you are missing a tool which can not only increase efficiency of your MLM company, but also increase its profitability as well as reputation.

5. IVR can be used as complete automated complaint management system for its members. IVR based complaint management system offers many benefits like lodging complaints using just a phone call without any human intervention by the MLM company.

Apart from these, IVR could b beneficial to automate many mundane and routine tasks performed manually which can result in decrease in operational cost, increase efficiency resulting in increased profitability.