SPEAKING UP FOR COST SAVINGS IN THE CALL CENTER: VXML TAKES ON THE DINOSAUR OF LEGACY IVR

摘要

Most enterprise call centers and service providers today are saddled with aging, proprietary IVR systems that are costly to maintain. These providers are trying to keep up with changing customer demand. As a result, many are looking to the open-standard of VoiceXML to help them deliver lower costs and improved customer self-service. In fact, we may look back on the summer of 2003 as a key transition point where almost every major call center, enterprise and service provider has made a decision to move from legacy IVR to open standards, next-generation IVR. These open and more flexible telephony platforms are based on the three-and-a-half-year-old standard VoiceXML. Among the many benefits promised by the VoiceXML standard are faster application development and deployment cycles and less costly hardware and professional services costs than traditional IVR.