How IVR Systems Benefit Consumers and Enterprises Alike

By Juliana Kenny, TMCnet Web Editor

In recent years, VoIP service providers have come out with cheap feature-rich phone services that have become increasingly popular with businesses and consumers alike. Using Internet protocols instead of the public switched telephony network to transmit phone calls has become almost the norm these days, and a lot of companies are using customers’ existing broadband service to carry phone calls now.

VoIP benefits consumers as they have access to low cost calling plans and features. The enterprise market benefits as well because companies are able to lower costs in terms of infrastructure and efficiency. IVR systems also help companies create new services and improve customer service interactions.

Lower infrastructure costs are one thing, but VoIP has enables many next-gen video and Web conferencing systems as well. VoIP requires lower bandwidth so enterprises can conjoin data and voice systems over a single network instead of having to separate them. Eliminating redundancy and lowering operational costs, the VoIP systems of today can allow companies to operate in multiple geographic locations by being interconnected via phone and data services.

All sorts of costs are lowered when switching to a VoIP system over a PSTN. Businesses lower infrastructure, travel, and communications costs through being able to conference remotely. It is now possible to message, speak, fax, and email all on the same platform using IVR applications. With this new way of unifying communications, companies are able to better track their customers’ interactions and lower overall costs. With the converging of data and voice networks, it’s only the beginning for the communications industry.

Juliana Kenny graduated from the University of Connecticut with a double degree in English and French. After managing a small company for two years, she joined TMC (News - Alert) as a Web Editor for TMCnet. Juliana currently focuses on the call center and CRM industries, but she also writes about cloud telephony and network gear including softswitches.

Edited by Juliana Kenny

(source: http://www.tmcnet.com/channels/ivr-system/articles/124467-how-ivr-systems-benefit-consumers-enterprises-alike.htm)