IVR Glossary

Plum Voice's comprehensive documentation of IVR concepts, topics, and terminology.

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A-law: A-law is a lossy method of audio encoding that will compress 16-bit linear PCM audio samples into 8-bit samples thereby reducing bitrate by 50%. Like its encoding cousin, u-law, a-law assumes that the audio stream contains predominantly voice data (as opposed to, say, music data) which has a low dynamic range. It then uses a pseudo-logarithmic algorithm to compress the data, favoring detail for samples in the “middle” of the range and effectively glossing over samples at the extremes. Read more...See also: Audio
Abandoned Call: Abandoned calls are defined as calls that are concluded after a call has been answered, but before discourse has begun. Read more...See also: Call Completion Rate, Outbound
Abbreviated Dialing: Abbreviated dialing allows users to place an outbound call within their existing phone network using two or three digit codes instead of the typical seven or ten-digit codes dictated by the North American Number Plan. Read more...
ACD: ACD is a device that receives, processes, and distributes incoming calls to specific locations or terminals. Read more...
Android: Android is a Linux-based operating system developed by Google that powers both mobile devices (typically smartphones) and tablet computers. Read more...
ANI: ANI, which stands for automatic number identification, is a feature often included in telephonic applications that allows users to either view or capture an incoming caller’s billing telephone number. Read more...
Anthropomorphic Research: Anthropomorphic research is a method of research in which survey or study respondents are asked to assign human characteristics to an inanimate object. Read more...
Apache: The Apache web server group formed in 1995 to build an open-source web server. The name was a play on the phrase "A patchy web server" referring to initial state of the code base. Read more...See also: Application server
API: An API is a specified set of rules and requirements that software programs can utilize in order to establish communication with each other. Read more...
Application: Software created to help a user perform a given task. Read more...See also: application.lastresult$[i].confidence, application.lastresult$[i].interpretation, application.lastresult$[i].recording, application.lastresult$[i].recordingduration, application.lastresult$[i].recordingsize, application.lastresult$[i].utterance
Application Layer: In Network Architecture, the application layer is the 7th and final layer and is where all protocols and methods that are process-to-process communications are contained. Read more...
Application server: An application server in the context of IVR is a server that generates VoiceXML to drive the progress of a callflow. Besides generating VoiceXML, it may access a database, call webservices, read and write from files, send emails, or perform other useful actions. When an IVR server (such as an on-site Plum Voice Platform or our hosting platform) receives or initiates a call, it requests VoiceXML from the application server via an HTTP request. Typically a start URL pointing to your application server is configured for each inbound DNIS. Read more...See also: Apache
application.lastresult$[i].confidence: The application.lastresult$[i].confidence indicates the confidence level for this utterance. Read more...See also: Application, Variable, VoiceXML
application.lastresult$[i].interpretation: The application.lastresult$[i].interpretation contains the interpretation, or the exact match to the active grammar. Read more...See also: Application, Grammar, Variable
application.lastresult$[i].recording: application.lastresult$[i].recording contains the last utterance if the global property “recordutterance” is set and audio was collected. Read more...See also: Application, Variable, VoiceXML
application.lastresult$[i].recordingduration: The application.lastresult$[i].recordingduration contains the last utterance duration size in milliseconds. Read more...See also: Application, Variable, VoiceXML
application.lastresult$[i].recordingsize: The application.lastresult$[i].recordingsize contains the last utterance recording size in bytes. Read more...See also: Application, Variable, VoiceXML
application.lastresult$[i].utterance: The application.lastresult$[i].utterance indicates the raw string of words that were recognized in an interpretation. Read more...See also: Application, DTMF, Variable
Array: A data type offered by most programming languages that provides indexed access into a collection of variables. Read more...
ASR: ASR stands for Automatic Speech Recognition. It represents a collection of technologies required for an IVR system to listen for specific words and phrases, detect the speech from within an audio sample, analyze the speech relative to what is being listened for, and provide the final text representing what the ASR system believes was uttered. Read more...See also: Token
Assign: The assign element assigns a value to a predefined variable. Read more...See also: Variable
Asynchronous Transfer Mode: Asynchronous transfer mode, or ATM, is a standard that can process and handle all types of exchanges (data, voice, image, video) and unifies telecommunication and computer networks. Read more...
Attribute: Attributes are options that you can set for your VoiceXML tag. There is a specific set of attributes for each VoiceXML tag of all sorts of varieties. Some attributes allow you to set a maxage or maxstale value for your VoiceXML tag for caching purposes. Other attributes allow you to set the scope or a specific mode for your VoiceXML tag. Read more...See also: Data Attribute, Exit, Form
Audio: The audio element retrieves and plays the specified audio file. Read more...See also: A-law, U-law
Audio repository: The audio repository is a tool provided for Plum Hosting Accounts that allows users to upload and store their audio files locally on Plum's hosting site. The audio repository also allows users to use a phone application to record audio files that can then be used within their own application. Read more...
Audiofetchint: This attribute tells the platform whether or not it can attempt to optimize dialog interpretation by pre-fetching audio. Read more...
Audiomaxage: This attribute tells the platform the maximum acceptable age, in seconds, of cached audio resources. Read more...
Audiomaxstale: The audiomaxstale attribute tells the platform the maximum acceptable staleness, in seconds, of expired cached audio resources. Read more...
Automated attendant application: An interactive voice response (IVR) application that replaces the role of a human attendant by answering incoming telephone calls with a recorded or synthesized greeting or message. Read more...

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