IVR Deconstructed

In the US, callers connect to Plum’s hosted IVR platform via local or toll free numbers.  Many people often ask us about toll free coverage, whether a caller from outside the US can call an 800 number and if an IVR application can transfer calls from one toll free number to another.

In order for a call to reach a toll free number, the caller must place a call from within an area that supports the North American Numbering Plan (NANP).  The NANP is comprised of 24 countries including the US, Canada and a number of Caribbean territories.  Due to billing issues, callers from outside the NANP cannot connect to a toll free number.  This means people calling from Europe, Africa, Asia and even Mexico cannot dial an 800 number.  Plum can provision numbers in 65 countries as well as provide local numbers in almost ever city across the US so customers calling IVR applications outside the US can connect to our voice center.

Another limitation of toll free numbers is that if you’re connected to the public switched telephone network (PSTN) via direct 800 number circuits, you cannot transfer to another 800 number.  The PSTN billing system simply cannot trace the responsible billable party and does not allow for this type of call transfer.

For more information, please see the links below:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Numbering_Plan
http://www.nanpa.com/

Developers who build voice applications using Plum’s platform serve VoiceXML code from their web servers to Plum data centers in Massachusetts, Virginia and England.  Plum’s voice platform works like a web browser: it interprets code that provides instruction to our IVR systems.  The code tells the platform what prompts to play to the caller, when to listen for input, and collects and exchanges data with a caller by using standard data transfer methods.

To provide callers with instructions about how to navigate through an IVR application, audio prompts are typically recorded and serve as the caller user interface.  These prompts are typically large audio files that are transferred over the Internet  from a company’s web server to the Plum platform.

To remove possible latency associated with pulling large audio files over HTTP, the Plum platform supports caching.  Caching lets developers store audio files on the Plum platform to eliminate the need to transfer large files each time the IVR accesses a VoiceXML script.

For more information on caching, see here: http://www.plumvoice.com/docs/hosting/cache.html

Many of Plum’s customers and prospects look to us to replace their existing IVR solutions.  Whether a company is replacing legacy technology or looking to move to a more reliable platform, there is one common business issue that remains consistent in their pursuit for a new IVR system or hosting service: portability.

Many businesses spend tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars to implement IVR to automate phone calls in order to save money.  However, the ROI case for IVR diminishes if a vendor charges a fortune to make changes to the application after it’s deployed. Also, if the platform is not stable, reliable or scalable, calls will either not be processed correctly or transferred to a live operator.  This is where VoiceXML comes in.  VoiceXML is the web’s open standard programming language for IVR and using it to build voice applications is kind of an insurance policy for companies.  If your IVR is developed in VoiceXML and you’re not happy with your vendor, you can port your code to another vendor that supports the programming language.  If you want to make changes to the application, any web developer can assess the VoiceXML specification and change the call flow without recourse to the company that development the call flow.

Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn, Classmates.com…the Native Society?

Not sure if you’ve seen this thing, but the Native Society is a social network for native New Yorkers with upper-crust pedigrees who went to private schools. (Not kidding.)

Actually, let’s wait a sec for the Native Society.

Facebook was originally exclusive to students of Ivy League schools. It’s still exclusive in that you choose your friends, but the site is now open to anyone with an email address.

Now it looks like other sites are trying to recapture the exclusivity Facebook has left behind…

According to Financial News Online, Citigroup’s private banking unit is planning a social networking site for the 15- to 22-year-old children of its wealthiest private clients (again, not kidding).

The bank already runs a website with partner Tile Financial called Spend Grow Give (www.spendgrowgive.com), which they bill as an online financial tool for the same group of ultra-wealthy kids of clients.

The site supposedly helps these kids track their spending, investments and charitable donations. It also assesses and ranks their risk tolerances, gives them labels like “cautious mover” or “rabble rouser” and ranks them with their peers (so they can know how many other rabble rousers are out there).

Talk about exclusivity…according to Financial News, these are kids with at least $25 million to invest.

Peter Gaudry, vice president and business development officer for Citi Private Bank, said in the Financial News article that the new website won’t necessarily be a social network for the kids but will “reinforce friendships they’ve built from other platforms.” (Isn’t that a social network?)

Gaudry also said the site isn’t about business, it’s about forging relationships. But then he went on to say of the site that “your future clients are already there whether you’re there or not.” (Doesn’t that sound like business?)

Now, for the Native Society (www.thenativesociety.com)…

(We purposely waited to give you the URL so you wouldn’t jump away. You definitely want to take a peak afterwards.)

Although the founders originally intended it exclusively for native New Yorkers who went to private schools, they now accept non-native New Yorkers too (honorary members), just as long as they’re of the correct breed—New Yorkers who have adopted certain “attitudes and sensibilities.”

These attitudes and sensibilities are, according to founder Oliver Estreich in New York Magazine, “an understanding of culture, cars, fashion, people. It’s kind of like: a mentality.”

To join, a club administrator has to invite you, and you have to pass an evaluation. Estreich (who still lives with his parents, by the way) said it’s really hard to get into the network, but you don’t have to be rich and the network is broadening its horizons. Still, you have to pass Estreich’s personal litmus test because he’s the one who decides who gets in or not.

“It’s a lot of power for one person,” he said. (Insert your own comment here.)

So, anyway, where is all this going?

Patent agent Mark Nowotarski, president of Market, Patents & Alliances, says that social networking is one of the fastest growing areas for patents in the country. According to Nowotarski, the U.S. patent office received over 1,200 social networking patent applications in 2010. By comparison, there were almost none in 2003.

On the Internet, you can find websites dedicated to every imaginable subculture on the planet. Are social networks following? Will it get to the point where there’ll be social networks with only a couple hundred members (versus 500 million for Facebook)?

Oh, wait. The Native Society only has about 170 members. Maybe we’re there already. (Well, good thing they have a Facebook account—they can get some new friends…not members necessarily…but friends.)

There’s a scene in the movie Going the Distance where the main character’s friend breaks the main character’s cell phone because he’s spending too much time texting his long-distance girlfriend.

If you haven’t seen it, Going the Distance is a romantic comedy (romcom, if that’s how you roll) with Drew Barrymore and her real-life on-and-off boyfriend Justin Long (it’s a good possibility a lot of you hadn’t seen it before Monday, but now you have).

No spoiler alert, but basically they meet in New York City where Barrymore’s character is on a summer internship at a newspaper (she’s in journalism school at Stanford) and where Long’s character lives and works (he works at a record label).  They start a long-distance relationship after Barrymore goes back to California, and you don’t need to know anymore than that if you haven’t seen it.

What the movie does as much as anything else is show how people really communicate these days. (Not so much the crude jokes and language, which is fairly realistic for people in the characters’ demographic, but the means through which they communicate.)

Not one time during the movie do you see the couple writing each other letters. Why? Because it doesn’t happen anymore. What you do see (a lot) is them texting. They also talk a lot over the phone, but the main way they stay connected is through texting. In fact, they pretty much stay connected all day every day that way.

We don’t know where these changes in how we communicate are going and what long-term effects they’ll have on human interaction, but the fact is…it’s going technology’s way. Internet and telephony are how it’s done. And the fact that a couple like the one in the movie ever even considers a relationship between New York and California speaks to our investment in it.

By the way, the reason Long’s character gets his phone trashed is because of his cellfish behavior—he’s always texting his girlfriend when he’s hanging out with his friends. You probably know someone like that. (Spoiler alert!) They’re at a driving range, and his friend (SNL’s Jason Sudeikis) grabs his phone, puts it down on the turf and hits it out into space. Maybe that’s something you’ve wanted to do once or twice.