Love them or hate them, Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems are here to stay. Or
are they? With the proliferation of Web-based solutions, the ability for customers to
retrieve information online has caused some people to believe that the IVR’s days are
numbered. What’s TMC Labs take on this? Well, we believe that although the Web is a
useful tool for acquiring information, it does not completely negate the need for IVR
systems. What are the reasons? First, for the most part, the Web is currently
self-service, so if you need to speak to someone, you will need to dial the corporation.
Second, although the Web is very popular in the United States and Europe, there are
still many people who are not online and still rely on the phone as their primary means of
performing self-service transactions. TMC Labs believes that for the foreseeable future,
IVR systems will be combined with the power of the Web. We will marry these two
technologies, and thus benefit from the strengths of both.
CCS TrexCom, a leading IVR systems manufacturer, has taken this approach with their
FirstLine Encore (Windows NT-based) product, which combines the power of the Web with IVR.
In addition, using text-to-speech, FirstLine Encore allows you to hear information such as
your e-mail messages or the shipping status over the phone.
INSTALLATION
Several representatives from CCS TrexCom visited TMC Labs and brought with them a turnkey
FirstLine Encore system. We watched as they hooked up the amphenol cable, microphone,
microphone amplifier, speakers, ring generator, and a single analog phone. Upon boot-up,
we logged onto Windows NT as an administrator and then loaded Internet Explorer. Next, we
had to point our browser to /index.html to load the necessary code. At this point, we
could go to http://tmclabs/encore to load the main configuration and administration screen
for setting various system parameters. After setting up the parameters, we were up in
running and less than 15 minutes.
DOCUMENTATION
The documentation consists of two very thick three-ring binders. One of the binder manuals
is called ROAM (Remote Operation & Administration Module) User’s Guide, which
explains how to configure the system via the Web browser. This manual is very well
organized and includes extensive screenshots explaining each feature. In the appendix, the
listed error codes are accompanied by problem-solving tips that were quite handy.
The other manual, called ScriptWrite Developer’s Guide, is for developers who wish
to write their own scripts. It was equally well put together and organized, but we feel it
could use a tutorial or sample scripts to better aid new developers in learning how to
write scripts.
Both manuals also had tab dividers with section descriptions, making it easy to flip to
the appropriate section when we needed more information. The documentation fared well in
our testing and earned a 4.5 rating.
FEATURES
FirstLine Encore allows users to retrieve account information via the Web or through an
IVR system, and allows Web administration across the Internet. It also uses ActiveX
controls and a Microsoft Jet Engine database. Other features include:
- Text-to-speech.
- Support for SQL queries.
- FirstLine ProVoice graphical tool for recording the phrases.
- Up to 144 lines per server.
- Script-based development tool.
- ODBC compliance.
- Support for analog and T1.
- DSP-based fax capabilities (included with the system).
OPERATIONAL TESTING
The system includes a sample demo that is called the “Metro Utility
Demonstration,” which we used to test the product’s features. For our first test
we pressed a button on the ring generator to send ring voltage to the telephony card in
the CCS TrexCom chassis. We put the phone on speaker mode and were prompted by the IVR to
choose the Metro Utility demo (“Press 1”) or the AccuVoice text-to-speech
demonstration (“Press 2”). We chose the Metro Utility demo and were then
prompted to enter our phone number, which acted as our account number in this
demonstration. It then asked us for our phone extension, which we quickly entered using
the touchtone keys.
Next, we entered our PIN number, and the IVR performed a database lookup to find the
first and last name associated with the account number. Using text-to-speech technology,
it said, “Hello Tom Keating.” Then it prompted us to choose whether we would
like an account balance or if we would like a faxed copy of our account. We chose to get
our account balance, and the IVR spoke our account balance using concatenated system
prompts, which, of course, is more natural sounding than text-to-speech.
For our next test, we tried to duplicate the same test using the Web interface. We
opened Internet Explorer and entered the proper URL. We were prompted via HTML to enter
our phone number, extension, and PIN. After we entered this information, another Web page
loaded with our account information. From this screen, we clicked on the “Pay
On-line” button. Next, we entered a credit card number, expiration date, and a
payment amount. We did not pay the entire amount, since we wanted to leave a balance in
there for future tests. After charging the payment, the account balance dropped to $22.
Is It Magic?
To make sure the system wasn’t deceiving us with any sleight-of-hand, we
made another test phone call into the system, to determine whether the balance change was
reflected not only on the Web interface, but also on the IVR/phone interface. Although we
were pretty confident the balance change would take effect, strange things have happened
in TMC Labs, so we wanted to take a peek. Sure enough, the balance spoken to us was $22,
proving that the Web page and IVR were sharing the same database.
App-Gen Support
FirstLine Encore includes a graphical application generator that is called ScriptExpress
for creating scripts. We tested ScriptExpress and found it to be very powerful, but it
also had a higher learning curve. TMC Labs has examined many IVR app-gens in the past, and
the best ones are those that let you figure out how to write an application without having
to crack open the manual — or at least with minimal need of documentation. However,
we could not do that in this case. We found ourselves repeatedly referring to the
ScriptExpress Developer’s manual as we tried to figure out how to use the program.
One feature we liked was that on compile errors you can select the error message, which
will automatically display the “erroneous” icon.
Although ScriptExpress uses icon blocks to depict various functions (answer, speak,
branch, and goto), and lines to connect the icon blocks, this development wasn’t as
intuitive as we would have liked. We are told by CCS TrexCom representatives, however,
that most customers leave the application development and eventually the maintenance to
CCS TrexCom. There are customers, though, that do take over the maintenance once CCS
TrexCom writes the initial application. Certainly, modifying an application is much easier
than starting from scratch.
ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT
We would like to reiterate the need for a tutorial or sample script applications
in the documentation to lower the learning curve. The Web-based administration uses
ActiveX controls, which means you must use Internet Explorer. There are many Netscape
users who may find this requirement a bit much to swallow. As such, it would be nice to
offer a native HTML or Java-based Web administration utility. A suggestion for the script
development program is to color-code which prompts are recorded.
Finally, we noticed that the Metro Utility demo page would time out and not allow us to
check our balance if we left the system alone for a while. This is a good security
feature; however, when we tried to log back on by refreshing the logon screen, it still
gave us the timeout error message. We were forced to close the browser completely and go
back to log back on. We would like to be able to refresh the logon screen without having
to close and reopen our browser.
CONCLUSION
CCS TrexCom has done a fine job of combining the power of the Web with the utility of the
tried-and-true IVR. We liked the Web administration GUI, the reporting, and the real-time
monitoring. The ability to remotely manage the system from anywhere in the world via a Web
browser is something many companies will find invaluable. TMC Labs highly recommends CCS
TrexCom’s FirstLine Encore to suit your IVR and Web-enabled IVR needs. |
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