What is IVR short code ?
IVR (Interactive Voice Response) short code can be defined as special telephone number which has ‘less’ digits in it than traditional full length telephone number. This kind of special ‘short code’ are mainly used for special purposes like customer care for telephone/mobile subscribers, VAS ( Value Added Service) access either SMS/MMS ( Short Messaging Service/Multimedia Messaging Service) or IVR based, public utility services etc.
With recent ‘VAS boom’ all around the world in telephone and mobile industry, short-code has become quite well known and many people want to ‘have’ it! While, short code is nothing but telephone number with less number of digits in it, it has become very special special as it is always associated with some special service as well as special charging for calling to it! For any VAS short code, it is charged premium while for any customer care service, it is free of charge for the caller.

Different countries have different policies about short code used for IVR access or SMS/MMS access. Normally any short-code has length of 5 digits and can have customisable suffix for specific service.

Advantages of a short-code

Short codes work as just like any telephone/mobile number. But the main advantage is, it is short so it is easy to remember.
Customer Care numbers are widely publicised by telephone companies and these short codes grow to become brand for any telecom company. Likewise, value added service providers also build their brand around the short-code for the services they provide and try to make them popular. For example, 56969 is SMS as well as IVR shortcode for Rajasthan Patrika Pvt. Ltd. in India which offers many value added SMS and IVR services through this short-code.

Apart from being short, these short-code also tend to be vanity number. For example 58888, 56969, 54321 which have some interesting pattern and easy to remember.

Sine it is short number, it is faster to dial or send SMS. Apart from advantages of being short and faster to dial, I could not think of any other advantages. Many people may think short code as vanity number and associate it with pride.

Disadvantages of Short Code

The main disadvantage of short-codes is it is completely telecom company dependent. Shortcodes are accessible within the home network only. In order to make the short-code accessible in all operators across the country, the short code needs to be configured in all the operators. For example, the short code 56969, it is registered by Rajasthan Patrika Pvt. Ltd. in all mobile operators in India in every circle. That is why it is available in all networks in India. This activity of registering the shortcode in all operators ( in India, we have more than 12 mobile operators) and the allocating software as well as hardware resources to for connectivity to each of them is quite cumbersome and time consuming affair. Most of the time, mobile operators may not allocate the desired short code or simply refuse to allocate one.

But a long code or traditional phone number is accessible by all telecom subscribers without having to register with multiple telecom operators.

Revenue Sharing
Normally, apart from the short codes used for customer care services, all other short codes are used for value added services and so charged premium. The revenue generated are shared by telecom operator and the value added service providers.

Short code for IVR
Short codes are being used IVR portals ( popularly known as voice portal) which provide many value added services or utility services. Popular TV reality shows, Contests generate lot of revenues from this kind of IVR short codes from participants. But this kind of short-code would be accessible across country and all telecom networks only when the short-code is registered with all telecom operators. This need huge initial investment in terms of hardware and software as well as recurring expenses.
So, those who do not want to invest more initially and start any IVR service quickly, they may opt for long code or normal telephone number with E1 connectivity form single operator. It may not be possible to charge callers premium and work like a VAS to generate revenue.

What is a Video IVR or IVVR ( Interactive Voice and Video Response System) ?

This is nothing but IVRS ( Interactive Voice Response System), but it also has video. So essentially the calling terminal has to have video screen as well as video playing capability! It also requires high bandwidth, so existing POTS (Plain Old Telephone System) or 2G mobile phones can not be used to make a call to IVVR Server.  IVVR is essentially for 3G or 4G Mobile Phones.

So IVVR seems to be quite new concept! But with its description in WikiPedia, seems it may have major application in the field of Tele-Medicine or Telehealth!

It can take inputs or commands from users either in the form of DTMF or Voice Recognition.

It can also be used in Voice Portal to deliver users many exciting services like instant cricket video update, live sports update, watch few interesting TV programs, catch up with TV Live Breaking news! It will also be used in live interactive multi-player games!

Overall IVVR seems an quite interesting development, enhancement in IVR Applications. Since Video will be delivered to user handset as Video Call, it eliminates requirement of processing the video feed for different 3G phones!

APEX Voice Communications, Inc. is one such company which has Video IVR Solutions.

What is UMS ( Unified Messaging System) ?
In one sentence, UMS can be defined as a system that provides phone subscribers with the ability to access, read and reply all their messages in whatever form from any terminal (whether telephony-based, Internet-based or both) that may be available. Message types are normally, Email, Voice Mail, Fax and SMS. UMS provides a single mailbox to store all all these messages and then access these messages from mobile phone, telephone, website or as SMS on mobile phone! For more, please visit Niche Tech Services NTS1BOX product page.

With the above description, it is obvious that IVR Software will play the main part in a UMS Solution. In fact, one can view UMS as enhancement of IVR Software.

1. Accessing ‘Message’, either Email, SMS, Voice Mail or FAX one has to use an IVR Software. This IVR software will be programmed to give options to read Email, SMS, Voice Mail or FAX to a caller.

2. Depending on the choice, IVR Software will retrieve Email, read it out to caller using TTS(Text To Speech). It will also give option to reply by the caller as a voice message, which will be stored as Audio File ( WAV File) and replied to sender as email attachement. For Option to download as SMS, IVR Software will trigger SMS Module to send out the email as SMS.

3. For Voice Mail, its a straight forward retrieval and playback of stored messages.

4. IVR Software can also send and receive FAX! The CTI Card has to have FAX support.

5. For SMS again, SMS texts would be read out to the caller and a voice message would be sent as reply to the SMS sender.

Best part of an UMS is, for every incoming message, be it SMS, Email, FAX or Voice Mail, a subscriber can be alerted by a outbound IVR Software.

UMS can be an extension of Voice Portal Software. Voice Portal operators can easily upgrade their IVR Software to give functionality of UMS. This can be new revenue earner for voice portal.

So, IVR Software can be extended to serve as UMS.

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).