IVR Deconstructed

Fail-safe data security is a vital and non-negotiable component of any business.  Confidential information is often times exchanged over servers, and every company follows strict protocol to ensure that this information is transmitted and stored in the safest way possible.

Because we live in an era were the rapid exchange of technology is the accepted norm, a mass amount of private and confidential information is being exchanged over secure data servers thousands of times per minute every moment of the day.

At Plum, we adhere to the strictest security protocols in order to ensure that our customers’ data is safely uploaded, transmitted, saved, and discarded.  For customer’s that choose to use Plum’s hosted IVR infrastructure they have access to world-class data centers across the United States and Europe, complete with telco provisioning, limitless port capacity, fault, tolerance, and disaster recovery.

One our biggest achievements this year involved expanding and increasing our hosted IVR infrastructure.  We increased our telecommunications, web, and database cloud infrastructure in order to offer our clients maximum capacity and redundancy.  In addition, we did even more to improve our failover and disaster recovery services for our customers.

Data security was also one of the biggest topics in the tech world, with groups like Anonymous and Lulzsec dominating the headlines (link to blog).  While these groups, especially Anonymous, weren’t new to the scene, they presented a looming threat to network administrators worldwide through their massive data breaches.

Anonymous has actually been around since 2007, but they exploded into popular consciousness this year due in part to their extremely high profile targets.  From their targeting of government websites in Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya during the Arab Spring to their hacking of Bank of America, it seemed as if Anonymous was everywhere, and could breach every firewall thrown at them.

LulzSec drew similar notoriety having been responsible for the compromising of hundreds of thousands of Sony user accounts and for taking the CIA website offline.  LulzSec claims to have disbanded at the end of June 2011, but many members are believed to also be members of Anonymous, and Operation AntiSec, another hacking collective.

These two groups went far in exposing the security vulnerabilities of what were previously assumed to be some of the most secure websites and databases in the world.

While these group’s tactics were highly objectionable, they did expose weaknesses in security systems that may have gone undetected otherwise.  Because of these data breaches, those working in the IT space have had to upgrade and adapt their applications and systems.

Systems once thought to be fault tolerant and fail-safe were exposed as quite the opposite.  In reality, these hackers have changed the way data and websites are secured, and future data security efforts will benefit from this knowledge.

It has been quite a momentous year in technology, and we here at Plum, like everyone else, are waiting with breath that is bated to see what innovations and events 2012 has in store!  Happy New Year!

With 2011 rapidly coming to a close, it is time to rank and rehash the achievements in tech for the year that was.  It’s hard to imagine that just 365 days ago no one new what Siri was, had every heard of Lulzsec or Anonymous, Google+ was not yet in existence, and Steve Jobs was still with us.

Here at Plum Voice, we have also had a banner year with a plethora of noteworthy developments and achievements, that fit in to the larger framework of the biggest tech stories of 2011.  There have been major developments in the field of interactive voice response, and this new technology has allowed us to develop new products and streamline the products and services we already offer.

In February 2011 Plum released Floodlight, the first multi-modal survey product that allows users to design, build, and deploy one survey both telephonically and online.  Floodlight is unique because the tool allows users to author one survey and deploy it via any medium they choose, immediately.

Users need not go through a complex process of writing multiple surveys to be deployed on multiple mediums.  With Floodlight’s unique interface, they can simply log in to the survey interface, build their survey utilizing myriad question types, and then roll their survey into deployment with the click of one button.

The Floodlight product works telephonically with speech recognition, so users can interface with the product by simply speaking, without utilizing DTMF entry.  Users can also access survey content via the Internet, increasing potential response rates due in part to the many ways users can choose to take the survey.  In addition, Floodlight was built and developed to integrate with Facebook and mobile devices as well.

There have been similarly notable stories in the larger world of telephone technology as a whole.  This was the year of Siri, and the new frontier of speech technology introduced on the iPhone 4S.  Siri goes beyond the traditional interactive voice response software typically used on IVR platforms processing and storing keywords and speech specific commands.  Siri was engineered to process and understand natural speech, so the program itself has comprehension ability far beyond that of any voice recognition software previously on the market.

The telephony tech boom sparked fierce competition within the mobile sphere, with the patent wars between heavy hitters like Apple, Google, HTC, Microsoft, RIM, and Samsung underscoring the intensely cutthroat nature of the mobile industry.  New mobile technology was introduced constantly through out 2011, and companies were forced to move at breakneck speeds to patent the technology and release it to the public before their competitor.

Technology

There are companies and people that insist on being constantly up-to-date with the latest and greatest software and technology.  Whether we call them early adopters, trendsetters or innovators, it is important to many companies and individuals that they stay abreast of the current technological trends in both software and hardware.

Those who manage an IVR system onsite would argue that because they have personal access to the system’s operational functions, they can more easily and cheaply modify and update their application to function with the newest technology.

Whether this means replacing physical hardware with newer, potentially more efficient system components, or researching, uploading and integrating new software updates, some might assume that managing a system onsite offers the easiest and most efficient solution for staying constantly and consistently updated.

This is not actually the case.  Hosting your application in one of Plum’s many data centers means that customers and companies will have immediate access to the most state-of-the-art features (both software and hardware) for their IVR systems.

Plum exclusively focuses on interactive voice technology.  Since this is all that we do, we are typically the first to know about any new and exciting developments within the IVR community and the first to employ these technologies on our platform.

Since we have been operational for nearly twelve years (basically since the birth of IVR as a technology), we know the product inside and out.  Many of our development engineers started with the company twelve years ago and are still with us today.  We have the expertise to determine exactly which technologies will function best with our platform, and the knowledge and resources to be some of the first to know about new potential developments within the field.

In addition, we promptly update our technology to include the latest and greatest software and technology at our data centers.  This means that our customers will instantly have access to new features and functions, without having to do any of the heavy lifting themselves.  We do the research and then update our software and hardware accordingly.

Often times, incorporating new technology comes at no additional cost to the client.  Their contract and pricing models stay the same, but they have immediate access to the newest technology simply by utilizing a hosted IVR solution.

This is the best of both worlds for many since they have access to and information about the new technology without dedicating hours on end to researching and installing.

While there are many benefits to hosting onsite, it increasingly seems like the most efficient, high-functioning way to go is a hosted IVR application.  The security, cost and technology benefits of hosted IVR are undeniable, not to mention auxiliary benefits like energy efficiency.

Next year is the year of the cloud, and it seems like this is true for all types of technologies, including IVR.  

Cost

Oftentimes customers researching interactive voice response systems assume that onsite systems are a more cost-effective solution.  Sure, there is a large upfront investment associated with an onsite system, but after the initial construction costs have been paid, spending is minimized almost completely, right?

This is actually not the case as there many soft costs associated with managing and maintaining an onsite IVR system.  Hardware and software need to be updated.  A system could potentially need to be expanded due to the need for more extensive port capacity and server capability.  Hardware becomes outdated and requires replacement to keep up with the technological demands of the data it is processing.

In addition to the potentially frequent updates required in order to successfully maintain a high-functioning IVR system, you would have to have an experienced professional either contracted or a full-time employee available with enough knowledge to successfully modify and maintain the system.

Those who operate an onsite IVR also have to deal with phone carriers in order to keep their system functioning on a designated network.  Establishing a good carrier relationship, getting the best possible rates, and navigating the contract process are a lot of work.  Plum employs a full-time staff member whose job it is to interface with carriers in this capacity.

For companies operating IVR systems, especially those who have enterprise-level, business-critical applications, redundancy is a must.  However, the cost to establish and maintain redundancy onsite can be very high, requiring multiple hardware and software purchases for backup systems as well as front-facing systems.

In addition, companies have to be concerned with the costs of SIP termination.  The price of transferring calls can be an unanticipated expense that adds to the cost of an onsite system.

Hosted IVR is actually one of the most cost-effective solutions for businesses interested in integrating an IVR into their operations process or upgrading their current system.  Hosted IVR is actually more cost-effective for customers because, while there is a monthly hosting fee and they pay for the minutes used, Plum does all of the heavy lifting for them.

Plum negotiates rates with carriers, deals with initial system set up and ongoing maintenance, handles SIP termination, and oftentimes gets cheaper rates because of the bulk amounts of minutes the company is using.  Prices can simply be cheaper just because more of them are being purchased for myriad clients.

The bottom line is that, because Plum only operates IVR systems, we have a huge amount of expertise in the matter.  Hosting with Plum not only guarantees safety and security, but also gives businesses, regardless of size, access to an IVR system at nearly any price point.

Security

One of our customer’s biggest concerns in contemplating hosted vs. on-site IVR systems is security.  They often wonder how a hosted application can be comparably secure to a system housed on their premises.  How can the security of a system be ensured if they don’t have physical access to it?

Plum’s hosted systems are arguably more secure than onsite system for several reasons.  All hosted IVR systems are housed in state of the art data centers that are built with features like fault-tolerance, disaster-recovery, and infinite redundancy.  The complexes where Plum hosts customer-facing IVR applications are built and maintained specifically with the intention of housing data applications.  With that comes the physical assurance that every precaution has been taken to preserve and protect the servers running the applications.

Beyond that, Plum takes several steps to ensure that customer’s hosted applications, and the data housed and transmitted within these applications, is treated with the utmost security.  Plum never stores customer data, and all data is sent and exchanged in real time.

In addition, Plum’s applications are built to ensure that they don’t hold or disseminate patient or customer identifiable information.  All information, regardless of whether it is sensitive in nature, is received, processed, exchanged, and then summarily discarded in a safe and secure manner.

In order to ensure the secure transfer of data, information is both sent and exchanged using any type of encrypted protocol the client requests.  Plum’s hosted systems are built with the capability of fulfilling any security requirement with regard to data transfer.  In addition, Plum is PCI compliant, meaning that all applications (regardless of whether they are hosted or onsite) can be made PCI compliant in accordance with the safety and security standards stipulated for account data protection.