Overview | Handsets | Computer Telephony Integration | IP Telephony | IVR Applications | Voicemail and Attendant Submenu: Overview of IVR | Benefits of IVR | What does it do? | Where can IVR be used? | How can IVR save time & money? | Speech Recognition, Text to Speech and Fax

Intertel's IVR Applications Platform goes beyond traditional IVR software by integrating computer, telephony, database, e-mail, fax, Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR), Text-To-Speech (TTS) and other custom capabilities into any easy to use visual development tool.

Intertel's IVR Applications Platform allows for the rapid deployment of sophisticated Interactive Voice Response (IVR) solutions, which complement Inter-Tel's Axxess Converged Communications System. Additionally, the platform provides direct interfaces to the public switch telephone network (PSTN).

It provides dramatic savings in the time and cost associated with computer telephony and IVR solutions development, reducing deployment time from months to weeks or days. IVR Applications Platform also serves as a stable and robust production platform for all types of telephony solutions requiring interaction with data sources.

Interactive Voice Response (IVR) technology provides a telephony interface to data, documents, Web content, multimedia and people. IVR systems automate call handling and can provide access to and take information from databases essentially 24 hours per day, which provides significant benefits to business, clients and customers. The interface into IVR is typically via remote touchtone phones or voice.

IVR can be deployed as a front-end to automatic call distribution (ACD) systems, which can ask questions that help routing and enable more intelligent and informed call processing. It can be used to convey information during 'wait times', which can result in reduced call drops and increased customer satisfaction. In addition, by using IVRs as front-ends, recordings can be used for repetitive messages and transactions can even be performed without involving customer service personnel. IVR applications are typically customised based on specific business requirements, with the only limitation being perhaps the number of options that can be feasibly presented to callers.

If your organisation currently has programs in place that require human resources to fulfill, you are a likely candidate for IVR. This could include running marketing campaigns where prospects or customers respond into your inside sales/customer service group, operating a technical support centre, or any general formal or informal call centre operations. Do you have appointment scheduling/cancellation activities where your clients are calling into a central location and personnel need to perform the tasks manually? Would it be beneficial to your organisation to screen calls so you can ensure delivery to the appropriately skilled agent or representative? Do you have customer transactions that could be automated for self-service? By deploying and Intertel IVR solution, you can certainly realise cost savings and improved customer reponse such as:

	Increasing employee productivity
	Eliminating the need for agents to answer reptitive questions
	Reducing errors in data capture/input
	Providing your customers with 24 x 7 axxess to information and services
	Streamlining operations
	Reducing the need to add customer support staff for peak hours
	Increasing your ability to 'push' information to your callers
	Effectively routing calls to the appropriate support personnel

Intertel's IVR Applications Platform is capable of running bespoke scripts that utilise Automatic Speech Recognition, Text-to-Speech and Fax. Since not all IVR applications require these capabilities, Intertel offers these as optional modules.

A voice interface can significantly enhance your IVR applications and simplify 'navigation' for your customers. Essentially, having speech recognition allows callers to obtain information, provide instructions for call handling or conduct transactions simply by speaking naturally. The voice interface on the Intertel Applications Platform does not require voice training, so your speech-enabled IVR applications can be as simple or as sophisticated as your needs dictate.

Adding TTS to your IVR applications provides an interface to your callers that converts information into highly intellgible synthesised speech. This enables your customers and prospects to obtain dynamic and personalised information (e.g. from your company database) from virtually anywhere.

The Fax module allows you to add the ability to send faxes in any application, such as in reponse to a caller request for information or documents. It can also be used to receive faxes.