Interactive Voice Response -------------------------- (C) 1993 ZyBel MicroSystems Inc. April 26, 1993 This file contains technical and marketing information about a technology known as Interactive Voice Response (IVR) / Faxback. This technology can be utilized by LANtastic equipped organizations to save clerical costs, increase sales and improve customer service, and represents a new high growth market for network VARs and Systems Integrators. Since most IVR systems operate with existing information systems (accounting, database etc), this technology is a natural enhancement to LAN installations for solving common customer problems. This information was compiled by ZyBel MicroSystems, Inc., a software developer and reseller of Artisoft LANtastic products. ZyBel would be happy to work with any resellers or end users who have applications for IVR and would like assistance in configuring a system. Our address and telephone number can be found at the end of this file. The author will assume that the reader is familiar with PCs, LAN based networks and network-capable application software. 1). What is Interactive Voice Response (IVR)? The term IVR refers to a technology that provides a telephone interface to computer systems. IVR allows a customer or employee to call into a computer and access various information systems using nothing more than a touch-tone telephone. Most people have had some exposure to IVR through the three most common applications; cable vision pay-per-view services, consumer banking, and college registration. Most IVR systems have the following basic capabilities: a). The system can detect a ringing condition on the telephone lines attached to the unit. b). Each telephone line can be answered (taken off hook). c). The system can play pre-recorded voice files to the caller. d). Touch-tone input can be accepted from the caller. e). The system can perform some type of processing based on caller input to produce the desired information (which is then played back to the caller). f). If the caller hangs up, the system can detect a telephone line disconnect and hang up the phone (go on hook). The above features allow a basic IVR system to be implemented, however most systems will also have the capability to voice play numbers and dollar figures (to speak the results of the processing back to the caller). In addition to verbal response, some IVR systems are also equipped with computer based fax technology to allow for fax transmittal of the desired output (when the output is too complex or too long for voice replay). Please note that IVR technology is distinctly separate from Automated Attendants and Voice Mail Systems in that IVR systems are intended to perform some form of computer processing based on caller input to obtain the desired result. 2). Who uses IVR? IVR is attractive to any organization that experiences repetitive tasks that can often be mundane in nature. Instead of incurring a substantial ongoing labor cost to service these repetitive tasks, a company can invest once in an IVR system, and re-assign employees to more productive tasks that require human decision making (such as assisting the sales force to improve response time and increase sales, or marketing to obtain sales leads etc). In addition to direct cost savings, IVR systems operate in a consistent manner and generally don't make mistakes or forget anything. As a result, an IVR system can lead to better customer satisfaction and better clerical support - and as an added bonus, they are available 24 hours a day at no extra charge. Some customers will hesitate to "bother" a clerical staff member too often, but will not be intimidated to check inventory levels to their hearts content with an IVR system. 3). What are some possible IVR applications? IVR technology is applicable to many industries, including: Insurance: Verbal premium quotations, fax of life illustrations, disability and small group, company financial comparisons, policy status. Banking: Verbal replay of balances, verbal quotation of interest rates, fax of latest checking statements, verification of check clearing. Manufacturing: Order entry, order status, inventory levels, pricing, product availability, customer balances, fax of customer statements. Education: School registration through the telephone, special event calendars. Telcos: Access to customer records during field service, requests for change in service (call waiting etc), problem reports, fax of wiring locations/line configurations. Newspapers: Reporting of missing or damaged copies, verification of subscription status and renewals. Cable vision: Pay-per-view services, customer balances. Sales: Fax of client information, sample contracts, verification of pricing/availability, fax of EMAIL messages while traveling. 4). What are the benefits? Companies implement IVR systems for three basic reasons: a). Cost savings. An IVR system replaces routine clerical labor and usually pays for itself in under one year. The displaced labor can be assigned to more productive tasks dealing with marketing/sales where human knowledge and decision making is required. IVR systems can also replace numerous portable laptop computers alleviating the need for regular software updates to many geographically dispersed machines. With IVR, application software is centrally located resulting in easier maintenance. b). Increased revenue. Most IVR systems deliver information more quickly and more accurately than human clerical labor, and are generally available 24 hours a day. As a result, sales staff can get instant access to critical information while visiting a prospect - resulting in a shorter sales cycle and improved performance. Customers also appreciate "instant access" and tend to be more loyal to vendors who implement IVR systems. In addition, a company can monitor the IVR system use to determine which customers are active (i.e. where to spend time on sales support). For example, a manufacturer can determine which dealers and distributors are regularly accessing information and target sales efforts at the active clients. Finally, IVR may be a necessity to effectively compete with larger players who have already implemented the technology. c). Quality control. Since an IVR system is consistent in operation, and the company decides upon the format and presentation of the information, better quality control is realized in delivering information to customers and field-based employees resulting in fewer errors and delays. 5). How is IVR Implemented? Most IVR systems offer some form of proprietary programming language which is used to implement a particular IVR application. Using the proprietary language, an installer customizes the voice side of the application (the voice prompts and flow of the application), and then process information requests internally, or by interfacing to existing computer information systems. The technique used to interface with existing applications is the primary difference between competitive IVR systems. There are essentially five types of IVR systems available today: a). Terminal Interface This is a category of IVR system which is intended to interface with a host computer through a terminal interface. These systems emulate a few common terminals, and can be programmed to "read" information from the screen. In essence, this type of IVR system acts like a normal terminal device except that it is automatic in operation. If a prospect uses host based information systems, this type of IVR implementation works but is limited to a few distinct terminals, which may not be supported by the host computer. In addition, should the customer modernize in the future and switch to PC or LAN based applications, the IVR system will probably not be portable to the new environment. b). "Standards" Based Integration The newest generation of IVR platform is intended to work with existing information systems through "standards" based application- application communication protocols. Two examples of such "standards" based protocols are Windows DDE and OS/2 HLAPI. With DDE for instance, an IVR system running under Windows could send a DDE message to Microsoft Excel (or some other DDE capable application) to instruct Excel to perform some calculations and return the result in a DDE message. The advantage to this technique is that it is "standards" based and can theoretically work with modern "off-the-shelf" application software. The drawback to "standards" based systems is that there are only a small number of applications available today that support these protocols, and it is unlikely that the majority of businesses are using Windows and/or OS/2 based applications in their existing information systems. In the future (3-5 years) this technique will probably be commonplace and well accepted, but market opportunities are somewhat limited today. c). Database compatible This type of IVR system can interface with a common PC database file format (such as Dbase) and allow basic information retrieval from existing database systems. This technique is useful in implementing simple information retrieval systems, but little processing can be performed on the data. In addition, none of the reporting capabilities of the original database program are available to the IVR system (the IVR product access the raw database files and must format the output itself). Finally, the scope of commercial products which can be accessed by these systems is limited by the one or two database formats which are "understood" by the IVR system. d). Custom Applications Perhaps the oldest approach to IVR development is the creation of an entire application from scratch. Rather than interface with an existing information system, the IVR system either replaces an existing I/S, or works on a stand-alone basis. Custom applications are most applicable to financial calculations, where multi-user data access is not required. For example, an IVR system to calculate mortgage payments could be implemented on a stand alone basis with no negative impact, where as an inventory application would be virtually impossible to implement since the inventory is already maintained on a commercial software product separate from the IVR system. The two biggest drawbacks to custom IVR programs are cost and maintenance. Since these systems are often implemented in a high level language (such as "C") they require skilled programmers. It is not unusual for a custom IVR system to cost between $100,000 and $250,000 to develop (with some large mainframe systems costing upwards of $1 Million). Since the system is developed with a high level programming language, support and maintenance must be purchased from the developer, which places undue business risk on the continued financial health of the vendor. e). "Off-The-Shelf" Compatibility ZyBel MicroSystems has just announced a new IVR product based on our own KeyStream(tm) Technology, which is actually able to interface with virtually any "off-the-shelf" DOS based application software. The system is known as VISTA(tm), and works by feeding keystrokes to the DOS application much like a human operator, and extracting output from the screen or from print data. As a result, VISTA is able to use all of the features of the application software (including report formats etc..), and can interface with custom financial software packages and all common accounting systems. Connection to host based systems is highly flexible by controlling a third party terminal emulation package. VISTA really opens the door for installing IVR into small- and mid- sized business, where information systems are likely to be DOS based and budgets are limited. 6). How much does IVR cost? When considering an IVR system you must evaluate not only the system purchase price, but also the installation fees (for application programming) and ongoing maintenance. A complete IVR system configured and installed usually costs between $8,000 on the low end to upwards of $150,000 for larger host based systems. Most terminal-interface and "standards" based solutions range between $45,000 and $75,000 for a 6 to 8 line system. Database systems and ZyBel's VISTA product tend to be lower in cost ranging from about $8,000 for a 2 line system up to $30,000 for a typical 8 line configuration. 7). Voice Hardware The voice interface cards used in IVR systems are available from several different manufacturers. These cards come in two different flavors; DSP based implementations and analog implementations. DSP cards use digital signal processing techniques to recognize various signaling events (touch tones, dial tones etc) and to provide echo cancellation of outgoing speech. Analog cards use a circuit known as a hybrid to separate incoming and outgoing audio signals, and generally don't perform as well as the higher cost DSP products. The selection of voice hardware is critical to the performance of the IVR system. The most important specifications relating to performance are: a). Touch Tone Cut-Through When outgoing speech is being played to the caller, some amount of the outgoing signal will find its way to the incoming touch-tone receiver which can de-sensitize the hardware and make it difficult to detect incoming touch-tones. This manifests itself in a system which often misses touch-tone keys, and is very frustrating to the caller. DSP based cards generally perform much better than analog cards in this regard (they use digital signal processing techniques to cancel the outgoing signal). b). Signaling A plain old telephone line (POTS line) from the telephone company uses loop current (the current flowing through the telephone circuit) to signal when the calling party hangs up the phone. When loop current is interrupted by the telephone company central office, the voice card knows the calling party has hung up, and can reset itself. If a PBX or Key System is placed between the telephone line(s) and the IVR system, loop current drop is often not passed through the PBX. Instead of signaling using loop current, most PBXs use a special tone to indicate the caller has hung up (called a reorder tone or fast busy tone). An important feature of an IVR system is the ability to recognize various PBX tones to determine when the call has been disconnected (this is called disconnect supervision). A good IVR system will allow custom configuration of signaling tones, including specification of signal cadence (timing) along with the frequency. c). Speech Compression Different voice cards use different digital sampling rates and compression techniques resulting in widely varying audio quality. A particular card should be tested to ensure adequate voice fidelity. d). Phone Interface There are many different types of telephone lines available from phone companies. The standard POTS service is called a loop start circuit. There are also ground start circuits, E & M circuits, DID trunks, ANI equipped lines, T1 lines etc. It is a good idea to make sure the IVR system uses voice hardware which is compatible with a wide range of telephone interfaces to ensure maximum flexibility. 8). Selecting an IVR System As a general guide, the following issues should be considered when selecting a particular IVR solution: a). Can the system interface with existing information systems? b). Can the system be maintained outside of the vendor (i.e. - is the system implemented using a "scripting" type of language or a high level language, source code for the latter is usually not available). c). Is the system flexible to adapt to changing needs, and perhaps even a different underlying information system in the future. d). Is installation and technical assistance available? e). Is the system based on industry standard hardware available from multiple vendors, or does it use proprietary equipment? f). Does the system deliver a good price/performance ratio? -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ZyBel MicroSystems, Inc., headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, designs, manufactures, sells and services voice response, fax-on-demand and data networking products. The company was founded in 1990, and maintains sales and support offices in Sterling, Virginia (D.C. area) and Dallas, Texas. ZyBel has developed an IVR/Faxback product known as VISTA(tm) which is able to operate with virtually all "off-the-shelf" DOS applications, and is implemented using LANtastic as the underlying network component. VISTA is compatible with network ready application software and can even be used to deliver LANtastic EMAIL to employees who are away from the office. ZyBel sells VISTA direct to end-users and through dealers. Dealer inquiries are welcome. For further information, please feel free to contact the author at the address listed below. I sincerely hope the above information has proved to be useful. Warren D. Belkin ZyBel MicroSystems Inc. 883 Black Rock Turnpike Fairfield, CT 06430 (203)-330-1200 (203)-330-1275 (FAX) (203)-330-1400 (VISTA DEMO) Compuserve: 70571,3651