Voxeo Talks

The Orlando Business Journal recently interviewed our CEO, Jonathan Taylor, for an article about Voxeo’s growth. The story, which ran December 23, 2011, outlined Voxeo’s plans to hire approximately 100 new employees in the Central Florida area throughout the next five years. More immediately, 20 new hires are anticipated for 2012. This is all thanks to a 25 percent increase in 2011 revenue, as well as projected growth for the New Year.

Voxeo’s leadership team will be seeking additional software developers and technology-related professionals. According to the Orlando Business Journal, these will be competitive positions to fill due to local demand. The article also reports that approximately 9,400 telecom and related industry professionals are currently working in Central Florida.

Read more here.

It’s a story that’s familiar to too many. A company buys a “standards-based” IVR solution only to find themselves shackled by inflexibility, paying for difficult integrations, piecing together technologies, and waiting for promised functionality to be delivered. Worse, they bought a “standards-based” IVR and found themselves locked in. 

If you’re looking for a new or replacement IVR in 2010 and value the true meaning of open standards and portability, be sure to ask these questions:

Does the vendor use proprietary, non-standard XML and/or proprietary features that will lock you in?

Are proprietary development tools being used to lock you in?

Does the platform support more than one speech engine?

Does the platform provide a consistent offering across multiple regions of the world?

Does the vendor offer the flexibility of a hosted or on-premise solution, with the ability to easily migrate from one to the other or use a combination of the two?

Does the platform only support legacy TDM telephony?

—Does the application platform only support voice self-service?

Many vendors are using proprietary features and application development tools to create a new era of IVR lock-in.  At Voxeo, we choose to keep our customers by providing them with a better product and better support – never by locking them in. Our solutions are designed to ease application development, assure interoperability, facilitate innovation, and destroy vendor lock-in.

• Voxeo Prophecy remains the only platform to pass 100% of the VoiceXML Forum compliance test suite. Additionally, we offer the world’s most deployed and proven CCMXL engine, and deliver a scalable SIP server foundation that is compliant with over 30 Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) SIP standards.

• The same platform behind our global IVR hosting – the largest worldwide VoiceXML and CCXML hosting solution – is offered for on-premise deployment. Customers are free to use a combination of deployment models or move between platforms should requirements change. 

• Voxeo provides a consistent global solution with support for multi-lingual applications and multiple speech engines.

• With Voxeo, you own your application and are free to deploy it on non-Voxeo platforms for any reason, at any time. Voxeo Prophecy features compatibility modes that make porting VoiceXML IVR applications as easy as changing a single Prophecy setting.

• Voxeo’s VoiceObjects service creation, management, and analytics platform enables customers to build applications once and deploy them on over 30 different VoiceXML platforms.

• Prophecy works with SIP platforms and services from AT&T, Avaya, Cisco, Digium/Asterisk, Global Crossing, Nortel, Verizon, and over 40 other companies. This foundation bridges diverse SIP services and devices, eases integration with IP-PBX and call center investments, and lowers the cost of connecting and transferring calls with direct IP connectivity.

• Voxeo enables customers to leverage their IVR investments, application code, and business logic to deliver self-service via additional channels, such as SMS, IM, the mobile web, and even social networking sites like Twitter.

If you’re planning to look at IVR solutions in 2010, be sure to take a look at Voxeo. We’d love to talk. Also, you can instantly get started with any of our solutions for free. We even provide free 24/7 developer support.

Last minute shopping trips, family gatherings, and out-of-town visitors. All contribute to the holiday rush that puts drivers in a less-than-cheery mood. This season avoid traffic backups and other problem areas with 511.

511 is the nationally designated abbreviated dialing code for real-time travel information. Callers can get instant updates on road construction, traffic, weather conditions, and more. It’s a free service that’s currently available to more than 70% of the U.S. population. 511 leverages interactive voice response (IVR) and speech recognition to provide drivers with anytime, “hands-free” access to information. If you find yourself in a jam this holiday season or want an update before hitting the road, give 511 a call. 

Voxeo partner, PBS&J, delivers Voxeo-powered 511 systems in Virginia and North Carolina. PBS&J provides reliable 511 IVR services – even during the holidays when traffic and weather conditions trigger huge fluctuations in call volume. The Voxeo-powered solution ensures PBS&J clients have high availability, on-demand scalability, and cost-effective bursting during usage spikes. Learn more about 511, PBS&J, and Voxeo in our new case study.

If you subscribe to industry newsletters and frequent industry websites, you may have noticed an increased number of webinars and whitepapers on Outbound Interactive Voice Response (IVR). The recent flurry of activity isn’t surprising given analyst forecasts. For example, Datamonitor predicts the market for hosted Outbound IVR services in North America alone will more than double from an estimated $213 million in 2008 to $524 million by 2013.

Outbound IVR offers companies the ability to provide proactive customer service, deliver important notifications, expedite collections and more. But to truly put the advantages of this technology to work for you, it is important to understand the intricacies of successful outbound calling, how it differs from your Inbound IVR solutions, and the importance of delivering a cohesive customer experience.

At Voxeo, Outbound IVR is old hat. A large portion of our hosting business can be attributed to customers with high-volume outbound traffic. In fact, last month a Voxeo hosted customer made 1.3 million outbound phone calls in 1.5 hours. In our latest whitepaper, “The Ins and Outs of Outbound IVR,” we set out to share some of the knowledge we’ve gathered over the last ten years, including a few gotchas to be aware of, as well as success factors that will make your campaigns better and your customers happier.

Read Voxeo’s new Outbound IVR whitepaper now. You can also learn more about our Outbound IVR capabilities, including how to get started for free at www.voxeo.com/outboundivr

A Voxeo customer, Evolv On-Demand, has developed a cutting-edge solution that helps customer contact centers efficiently recruit and hire agents who stay longer, are more productive and provide superior customer service.

In an industry plagued by traditionally high agent turnover rates, contact center managers find themselves in a continual, expensive and time-consuming hiring cycle. Evolv eases the pain with a web-based application and screening process, and Voxeo-powered outbound calling.  

A joint press release issued today by Evolv and Voxeo includes these impressive stats:

Evolv’s end-to-end sourcing, selection and hiring solutions have helped leading call center organizations reduce agent turnover by 15%, boost hourly agent productivity by 20%, cut cost-per-hire by 35% and improve customer satisfaction, resulting in annual bottom-line impacts of seven to eight figures.

Evolv’s web-based software-as-a-service solution integrated quickly and tightly with Voxeo’s hosting platform. Before making a purchase decision, Evolv was able to prototype and trial their solution using Voxeo’s free hosted developer portal. Use of open standard VoiceXML significantly streamlined development and integration with Evolv’s backend systems.

Voxeo’s call progress analysis technology and methodologies for answering machine detection improve the success rate of outbound calls and streamline the user experience. Information provided by the job applicant can be used to trigger different versions of the outbound calling application. For example, an applicant’s indicated language preference or a client’s specific hiring requirements can be used to serve up call scenarios in languages such as English, Spanish or French. 

Advantages of the Evolv solution include:

• Eliminates dependence on the availability of the interviewer and applicant with an automated, 24×7 solution, thereby saving valuable time in the hiring process
• Provides accurate, real-time insight into applicants’ phone presence
• Frees recruiters to focus their energy on strategic sourcing, candidate management, and final selection as opposed to candidate screening
• Contributes to reducing the average hiring timeframe from weeks to days
• Reduces subjectivity and bias in the hiring process

Read our case study to learn more.  To optimize your call center workforce, performance and profitability, visit www.evolvondemand.com or contact Evolv On-Demand directly at (866) 971-4473.

We just had a big party for my son’s 11th birthday. When all was said and done he had close to $200 in Visa cash and gift cards from Toy R Us, BestBuy, and Target (although he gave this one to his mom, sweet boy).  Prepaid cards have become so popular that we can now walk into the local grocery or convenience store and select from at least a dozen options. Gift giving has never been easier. 

But in the midst of this growth, one payment transaction processing company struggled to quickly deploy new prepaid card programs for their clients. They turned to Voxeo and Chrysalis Software to ease the administration headaches associated with developing and managing client-specific IVR applications that give cardholders automated phone access to information such as account balances and recent transactions.

Prior to Voxeo and Chrysalis, the transaction processing company had to rely on a third party vendor who took weeks to put a custom self-service IVR application in place. We reduced that to minutes and lowered operating costs by implementing a simple web interface that put our customer in control. Equally important was the fact that Voxeo’s hosting solution provides reliability (with a 100% uptime guarantee) and the ability to cost-effectively handle bursts in traffic – like during Christmas or Teacher Appreciation Week when gift card giving is in full swing.

Read more about the solution in our new case study.

Like all marketing people, I love a good customer testimonial. It’s no big secret that many of the quotes that marketers feature in case studies and press releases start with a customer comment that is then tweaked, massaged and put back in front of the customer for approval. While these types of testimonials are extremely important and greatly appreciated, I was recently reminded that accolades are often best when they are unprompted and in the customer’s own words.

Voxeo talks a lot about our 24×7 Extreme Support. We can write engaging copy about how we stop at nothing to make customers happy or how our support engineers are VoiceXML-certified developers. We can work with customers to craft perfectly phrased recounts of their customer service experience. But nothing beats the real deal.

Voxeo’s Extreme Support team forwarded me a collection of unsolicited feedback. Here are some of the raw comments included in those emails and support tickets.

“Voxeo’s commitment to not just excellent performance, but to flawless performance… to not just near 100% success rate, but to a perfect success rate… is essential to our product.” 

“I gotta say you guys are unquestionably the best support team in the industry.”

“Voxeo and Voxeo support is freaking incredible…. Wow and you can quote me on that.”

“Voxeo Rules!”

“THANK YOU for such wonderful support.  I can’t remember the last time I experienced support like this, even when paying premium rates.  Your department is definitely unique.  I truly appreciate all the help and look forward to working with you in the future.”

“Thanks for the quick response.  Your support is fantastic.”

“Thanks for the speedy response (I’m impressed)!”

“Can I just simply say: You, guys, ROCK!”

“This is one of my best experiences EVER of getting comprehensive answers, quick replies, professional support on any question I have with your product. It’s being a real pleasure to do business with you.”

“Wow, you guys really go on beyond the call (pun intended).”

“As usual, you were right on, right away.”

“WOW you guys are FAST ”

We love getting comments – both positive and negative – and it was great to see this list from Support.  (And if you come across some of these quotes in future marketing materials, I’m telling you now they are real!)

If you aren’t a customer and want to experience Voxeo Extreme Support first hand, download Prophecy, try our VoiceObjects application platform, or sign up for Voxeo’s Evolution developer portal. Getting started with our products is free and so is our 24×7 developer support. 

When it comes to communication with teens it still seems that the old school phone is still king of the media channels based on this USA Today article. While I would have expected that cell phones would have taken the crown by now it seems the old wired lines still have some life in them for at least a bit longer (or until mom and dad fork over the cash for the kids to get a cell phone). Interestingly teens least favorite method of communication was e-mail.