According to a recent report released by Global Industry Analysts, Inc., the global speech technology market is projected to read $20.9 billion by 2015. This growth of speech-enabled systems in contact center environments has been fueled in large part by the use of IVR technologies, which convert unstructured customer communications and conversations into actionable occurrences.

Despite the dismal economic circumstances that plagued much of the globe in past years, IVR technologies rose above and came out on top as organizations sought out efficient and less expensive methods for operations. Since then, according to a blog on Angel.com (News - Alert), IVR continues to be instrumental in reducing the costs of live service agents as well as enhancing overall productivity in the call center by obtaining customer feedbacks in a simple and accurate manner.

IVR goes beyond corporate business use, as it has also entered the realm of personal usage on mobile devices. While customer demands are more easily met through enhanced voice recognition features, including voice-dialing and speech-enabled GPS navigation, many mobile manufacturers have been encouraged to implement voice recognition features into mobile handsets.

For example, as reported by TMCnet, Radish released its ChoiceView technology to deliver images and information onto the iPad via IVR, a PC user, or contact center representative. Through this revolutionary software, IT, customer service and social commerce businesses will be able to transmit visual data to PC users. This, in turn, will enable mobile device users to receive, review and store information on the iPad while talking to a service representative or anyone who may need accurate information quickly.

Earlier this year, the Mobile Marketing Association (News - Alert) formed an IVR Committee with the objective to educate the marketplace, create best practices and build standards around the implementation of IVR into mobile devices. At the helm is Dennis Becker of CommerceTel (News - Alert), a provider of mobile marketing technology, who has been at the forefront of providing IVR services in conjunction with text messages to mobile marketing campaigns.

When it comes down to numbers, it’s quite apparent how much speech-enabled technologies and IVR have transcended into an indispensable offering to everyday operations. According to the report, revenues for text-to-speech in the U.S. are expected to grow exponentially at a CAGR of 23.2 percent during the analysis period. Meanwhile, the global demand for automated speech recognition is projected to rise at double-digit growth rate during the 2007 to 2015 period.

According to TMCnet, some of the IVR technologies and applications that are hitting the market this year are IVR in payment, bulk voice calling, and interactive voice and video response.

Tammy Wolf is a TMCnet web editor. She covers a wide range of topics, including IP communications and information technology. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Jennifer Russell