Development of IVR Technology
Liu Zhiming
- INTERACTIVE VOICE RESPONSE, an interactive voice response, can improve the quality of the call service and save money. As the technology advances, IVR also has a series of development, which can be based on information related to the content of the user, or the operation prompt can also be the specific information content.
- IVR used in the Internet phone experienced the process from centralized to distribution, distributed IVR adopts the function of joining the intelligent gateway, making the original remotely sent voice prompt now only need to send locally, thereby reducing overhead and improving Service quality.
- 1, IVR technology overview
--1. Why use IVR
- Use IVR to enable users to receive information services at any time 24 hours a day, improve service quality, and coordinate user operation processes. If the call center is loaded into the IVR system, most calls implement automation, saving the original 60% of the cost, and also mitigate the burden of the agent, so that only calls that do require manual processing. Moreover, the IVR system allows the user to access anytime, anywhere, so the user's universal approval is obtained. At present, many companies are working to use IVR's advantages to attract users.
--2. Open and competing market
- At the Computer Telephone Expo in March 1999, Microsoft and Dialogic announced an agreement between them: Microsoft will issue licenses for Dialogic CT Media products, Dialogic provides upgrade services for Microsoft, while Microsoft CT Media is integrated into Windows NT. This means that in the near future, the sales and use prices of IVR software will be very low.
- Microsoft and Dialogic joint statements at the Computer Telephone Expo will make a deep change in the entire computer phone area.
- This agreement combines the standards of the Enterprise Computer Telephone Forum (ECTF, organization of computer telephone technology to open competition market), and has taken into account TAPI 3.0 and S. 100 (the standard interface of the ECTF). When CTMEDIA is integrated into Windows NT, the entire environment will change, and IVR retailers want to do only to develop high-level applications.
- Creating a call center can purchase an action platform independently, then purchase ACD, IVR, or voicemail application, put it on the server, make it shared port, integrated together. Because all of these parts do not conflict, CT Media and Windows NT can be used together. With the help of Windows NT and CT Media, the software and hardware of the computer phone can be easily coordinated and the hardware has complete independence. This constitutes an open telephone system.
- More and more telephone calls have realized automation, and companies are constantly expanding the IVR's automation to keep users with good service. IVR is all key parts that are connected to the user, so they want IVR to not only process duplicity, but also help to improve service quality and increase profits. As the call center improves, the role of IVR is constantly being redefined.
--3. Some changes in IVR
- Some changes in the IV system are as follows:
- Multi-channel self-service platform. Single Channel IVR Systems Extension into a full multi-channel self-service platform that supports IVR, speech recognition and email.
- Target information service. The self-service platform can be used for a pair of one-to-one marketing and advertising promotion, which can have a goal to send information to a specific user, such as the user logged in to the bank to apply for commercial loans, the merchant gets this information and records it in real time It is prepared for future marketing. When he (she) comes into IVR system, the merchant can provide a suitable promotional material based on the user information mastered. - Excellent equipment. Users do not want to be bound by the hardware system, do not want to follow hardware upgrades and continue to invest in funds. Therefore, the company wants to buy service software from first-class software vendors and buy hardware from first-class hardware merchants.
--Speech Recognition. Voice identification is another big trend that is far-reaching, estimating that 30% of IVR applications within two years will be loaded into speech recognition.
- The difference between the button signal is in other and speech recognition is obvious. The cost used by speech recognition is twice the button signal identification, but it makes it easy to make the original complex application system, and even some systems cannot use buttons to be used, such as flight ticketing systems to handle. The information is takeoff city and destination city. This system is difficult to automatically implement if it is not available to speech recognition.
- Currently, there is a device company that has 6,000 retailers in the United States, through the IVR system, using speech to identify or return the results of the order information. The 4000 different instruments are expressed in the only 15-bit, including the model of the letter and the number, so the correct rate of speech recognition is high, and the correct rate is as high as 96%. Now the bank system users only need to pay the billing operation by pressing the button on the phone, but the button operation will eventually replaced directly with voice operations.
--4. Several typical IVR systems
- Introduce some specific products from abroad.
- The difference in IVR / CTI system and other systems in the BRITE voice system is its flexibility. Since it is based on a client / server mechanism, the central computer system can expand into a sufficient speech processing line to meet the needs of specific user information to each other. In fact, this system is well matched with the main manufacturer's products. Some BRITE IVRs are combined with computer telephony system, producing more valuable systems, including terminal screen pops up user information. If the caller has entered some information by phone, the agent can no longer require it to re-enter the information.
The -Inter Voice platform provides single-point access service, also controls a large number of hosts, databases, networks, and telephone interfaces, integrating with all phones, databases, and information systems into one. The system provides a lot of ways to access the device and database interfaces. Using the system's host and database processing interface, users do not have to program the host computer or database server to transparently access information. In addition to answering a call and a call for a call, the platform also provides a factory service for authorized users: through the phone (button signal tone recognition or speaking) or browser to access the business; the text conversion function; Fax response verification and information Fill; allows the speaker to make a short message of the caller; the daily business automatic processing based on time dates and data triggers.
- Due to the establishment of the Centrevu voice response solution for Lucent Technology on the Intuity Conversant platform, the call center has a range of IVR features. The latest developed system is a natural language that provides 12 different languages and dialects in this system, including call simulation, word learning tools, and language identification. The new progress in the text has enabled the system to send voice prompts to the caller with English, Spanish and French. The Centrevu voice response scenario includes a auxiliary system for implementing personalized services.
- WhiteCap Developed WhiteCap IVR is an upgradeable voice processing platform that allows users to quickly develop and perform IVR applications for themselves. When the user service changes, the call flow and database login can be changed. If the user needs a seat agent to participate, WHITECAP's router and computer phone can transfer calls or web access to the best agent based on the past. - WhiteCap Visual Script Buider allows you to create and modify Script, which also allows the call processing process. To add other WhiteCap system components, you can create a call control process for your intelligent path and the Internet. WhiteCap Call Management Collects all information defined by the user, which is always tracked throughout the call, so that the user information issued from the IVR can be sent together with the call.
- Second, IVR improves the Internet phone
--1. Centralized IVR price and risk
- Most of the postal nodes are physically existed during each country, but are logically maintained, and bandwidth has been rented from the outside. However, with existing IP phones, all billing functions, call identification, and user prompt information related to the phone card must be centralized, this is because the gateway lacks intelligence such as IVR and billing functionality provided in centralized telephone network. characteristic. In a centralized structure, the international telephone call starts from "Please enter the phone number and the PIN" to "Number of Enter to Call" until the phone is turned on, and each process is accessed at least three access to the central database system at least three times. The prompt information for each user must be issued from the central IVR system, and each user response has to be sent back to the IVR system.
- IP phone is in order to save costs, but the transfer of prompt information on the network has caused a lot of overhead. If the delivery node is brought by bandwidth, they not only pay for the speech transfer to the bandwidth provider, but also pay for the overhead caused by the transfer of voice prompt information. And the voice prompt information will also congestion network. To ensure voice quality, you have to provide more bandwidth. In practical applications, the seeming little voice prompt overhead can accumulate a lot of losses.
- However, there is a way to avoid this problem, that is, distribute the functions and features of traditional voice world to IP-based networks.
--2. Disperse the prompt voice to various places to save overhead to save the round trip transfer overhead produced by providing voice prompts, and the transfer node disperse the central control function of the IVR to each node. Under the distributed architecture, local processing can be achieved by integrating the IVR function into the IP telephone gateway, requiring a voice prompt such as entering the user call number.
- Configure the gateway with a simple control language, so that it has a voice prompt, phone card verification and dial processing. Thus, only long-distance long-distance voice information is transmitted on the IP network in a voice manner. Prior to this, the prompt information like "Please enter the card number" is controlled by central control, so they must be transmitted in actual voice. After the integrated IVR, the central control section sends the IP information to the LAN gateway, and the IVR of the LAN gateway sends to the user voice prompt information according to the instruction represented by the central control section IP information. Because voice prompts are kept locally, therefore do not need to be transmitted on wide area online. WAN is only a small IP package for telling the LAN gateway to tell the LAN gateway, which saves a lot of bandwidth resources.
- There will be some overhead of the functionality to the gateway, but it can bring greater benefits.
- (1) low cost. Distributed IVR clearly saves a big overhead, first eliminating the routing route, it is a roundabout, which makes the bandwidth cost is high. If the delivery node is built in the United States, the cardholder calls to Argentina in Italy, then the call must return to the United States first, and each delivery node has to transfer a long-distance traffic on his node.
- The transfer node can only be transmitted through the switching device in each country. You can imagine how expensive this cost. These options can be done locally after IVR, so that the minimum cost path (LCR) can be taken. Moreover, distributed IVR can prevent spoofing behavior. With centralized IVR, fake callers can use the bandwidth resources of the delivery node before his PIN, distributed IVR guarantees that only payable users can use precious bandwidth resources. Since the delivery node does not need to have a wide bandwidth, it is not necessary to expand frequently, so it saves a fee. - At the same time, there is a "soft saving". On the one hand, each node does not need to exclusive resources, saving investment. On the other hand, since the call routing has strong flexibility, the transfer node can make full use of the local call routing plan and minimum cost path (LCR) plan to reduce overhead. The call can be quickly completed soon and with a smaller price.
- (2) Higher voice quality. You may not have to pass the central processing, directly controlling the call, and increase the voice quality while saving costs. Using the shortest route transmission between the two nodes, the number of times the compression and decompression of the traffic package is used, which makes the call to quickly transmit, thereby ensuring the integrity of each call.
- (3) The reliability of the entire network is improved. Getting IVR to the IP phone gateway is a policy that improves the entire network reliability, unlike PC-based gateways and routers, the gateway that truly transmits nodes is fundamentally designed according to reliability standards. Such a gateway uses a two-machine parallel processing structure to ensure that the data is redundant. When one of them cannot work properly, the gateway can operate normally.
--3. Ivr ten IP = MVP
- In a sense, IVR is the representative of user service when call processing, and its effect is not ignored.
- With the continuous development of the Intemet phone infrastructure, the distribution of advanced gateways and networks is also constantly improving service quality. The most gratified phenomenon is a wide range of support because a large number of end users have further request for the Internet phone's price and convenience, and the IVR is only one of the milestones in the history of Internet telephones.
- The combination of IVR technology and the Internet will provide a better service, and related technologies are needed to be further studied.
