The Many Benefits of Cloud-Based IVRs

Over the past few years, enterprises, as then as their IT departments, have discovered the many benefits offered by the cloud. By running applications on a providers’ computing platform out in the network cloud, companies can offer their clients more cost-effective, intelligent and responsive services.

Incredible amounts of available bandwidth, as so then as the simple distribution of telecommunications through VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), and vast amounts of storage have given way to many companies moving entire applications to the hosted cloud space. With the cloud, the concept of servers has faded into the background as companies move to run applications on massively interconnected networks.

A system used to partially or fully automate a business’ incoming calls, an IVR uses speech recognition to detect voice and dual-tone multi-frequency signaling keypad inputs to interact with callers, gather data and route clients to the appropriate line or contact. IVR providers have as well created cloud-based models in order to achieve a more agile, flexible and cost-effective solution that will ultimately improve the customer experience and general call center productivity.

The cloud space for an IVR?

So why consider the cloud space for an IVR? Back in 2008, when the cloud-based model for applications was beginning to emerge, many experts pointed to scalability, deployment speed, ease of experimentation, business continuity, and decreased costs. During enhancements have been made over the years, these benefits for all that exist.

Since most IVR applications are used for special event announcements, new product offerings, seasonal surveys or service outage coverage, IT departments often seek speedy deployment. With a cloud-based model , the deployment of IVR applications no longer necessitate provisioning servers or adding lines to a telephony service. Instead, companies can simply upload applications to a hosting provider, and connect the application to inbound or outbound phone numbers.

The event of a natural disaster

In the event of a natural disaster, IVRs in the cloud will remain unaffected as cloud-based IVRs are typically protected by massively distributed and redundant networks. No matter the situation, cloud-based IVR applications will be available to respond to customer inquiries.

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