IVR Providers

IVR provided by existing software vendors

This is a truly excellent approach to purchasing an IVR. Many software companies that serve a vertical market have an IVR add on to their main product either written by them or by a third part provider. These solutions generally have the tightest integration and have a level of reliability based on many copies of the software being run in the field. Remember, a custom IVR application really is a custom program and each one suffers from the same issues of deployment you would see in other custom software. The down side to this approach is that often the vendor considers their product to be a monopoly and the price can be deeply above fair market value for a custom IVR. This is where you see companies considering writing the IVR application; merely because they can get a custom application written cheaper than purchasing the packaged ad on. You can often entice an IVR developer to reduce their development costs when presented with the opportunity to sell into a market where this only one overpriced competitor. (If you ask us to do it, you need to have a plan for how we will access the market!)

IVR provided by generic software companies

The smaller the development house the less likely they have enough experience to build a reliable and successful IVR. They will drop terms like Voice XML and Natural Speech Recognition but they will not have the user feedback experience that is needed to build an IVR that customers will find quick to use and comfortable to work with. On the other hand, if you do find a smaller shop that has some experience there might be a price benefit by using them as most of those companies compete on price first then quality and experience. Large software development houses often have an IVR team and will be able to provide a decent product and the pricing may be fair, but will tend to be on the high end, unless this is part of a larger project, in which you can negotiate the price of this component as part of the larger package. Basically, if you are already working with them you are used to their price level.

IVR providers

There are a number of companies that specialize in building IVR applications using a various different tools. Many of these companies build their own tools, sell the tools as a package and offer IVR development as an add on service. If you find a satisfactory price point, it is hard to go wrong with these companies. They demonstrate technical competence and understanding by building a development environment and at the same time give you confidence in the quality and usability of their tool by using it themselves. The downside of these companies is that they are very hard to run profitably over the long run and often drop service and support levels or even disappear. For instance, Visual Voice in the 90's.

IVR provided by your phone vendor

Many phone system vendors try to provide an all encompassing solution including custom developed IVR. This can be ok, but generally the tools they use are the ones provided by the selected phone switch manufacturer and can be both pricey and limited in capability. Plus consider that this is a group that is doing everything from configuring your phone system to wiring your building including integrating to your network for VoIP installation. The rarity of the IVR installation in general makes these team look great for all the basics, but often bite off more than they can handle in the creation of a complex IVR system. Some of these companies outsource to IVR providers (like us) and that generally works out nicely. Sometimes it is easier to work directly with the IVR provider just for ease of communication so you may want to make sure you have access to the outside consults and make sure they are also going to be around a while.