Testing and Tuning Solutions
>>>>> BUSINESS PROBLEM: Your new interactive voice response system is up and running, but how can you be sure it’s actually working, and what can you do to improve it?
>>>>> TECHNOLOGY SOLUTION: Testing and Tuning
A number of automated and semiautomated testing and tuning solutions that run through an IVR or other speech application are available to provide developers and systems integrators with actionable results prior to or after deployment.
Product: Empirix’s Hammer On-Call Solution
Delivery Method: A hosted solution for Internet-based and time-division multiplexing environments.
Pricing: Services start at $2,500.
Functionality: The solution tests the entire customer experience—from the network carrier through the private branch exchange/automatic call distributor, interactive voice response system, and agent desktop. It is a systematic, repeatable, and scalable solution that lets developers, quality assurance personnel, and systems integrators verify operational performance under real-world conditions. It can also validate the performance of Voice over Internet Protocol or VoiceXML applications, computer-telephony interfaces, and speech.
Business Benefits: The solution helps reduce the cost of application deployment, providing insight from a customer perspective, and offering expert advice and guaranteed successful test execution with no up-front investment. Real-time results enable everyone to share, parse, and analyze the data, leading to faster problem detection and resolution.
Contact: Empirix at 1-866-EMPIRIX; www.empirix.com.
Product: IQ Services’ Performance Validation Services for Speech-Based Communications and Contact Center Solutions
Delivery Method: Outsourced services delivered remotely via the PSTN or Internet.
Pricing: Flexible pricing (including annual contract and fixed-price options) starts at less than 20 cents per call or $2,200 per fixed-price engagement (including setup, testing, real-time access to online test results, analysis, and reporting).
Functionality: The service includes StressTest performance and load testing services, which generate between 10 and more than 20,000 simultaneous calls that interact like real customers. Also included is HeartBeat availability and performance monitoring, which can generate calls more than 12 times per hour, every hour.
Business Benefits: Performance Validation Services can help reduce costs by eliminating the need for human agents. As a fully hosted solution, no investment in hardware, software, or human resources is required, potentially delivering immediate return on investment for a variety of business needs.
Contact: IQ Services at 1-612-243-6700; www.iq-services.com.
Product: Syntellect’s Voiyager
Delivery Method: Installed software.
Pricing: Pricing for larger applications begins at $25,000 and runs to $40,000 for an annual subscription.
Functionality: Voiyager automates over VoiceXML, bypassing the telephony layer. It can test an entire application, providing 100 percent call flow analysis and checking every possible action at every state. It is able to evaluate VoiceXML-compliant applications regardless of the development tools used to create them. As installed software, there is no limit to use over the entire life cycle of a system.
Business Benefits: Voiyager provides strong validation of a domain, exposes potential design flaws that could impact customers and the level of service, requires no professional setup, and deploys in an hour without advanced knowledge of the application, providing quick return on investment.
Contact: Syntellect at 1-877-800-0793; www.voiyager.com.