Advantages of VoiceXML & Open Standards

VIRTUATel are totally committed to the use of Open Standards technology to deliver their Automated Customer surveys. The intelligence of this choice has been confirmed time and time again when asked to deliver completed survey applications, new reports or new features in - what seems to our clients - impossible time scales (sometimes in a few hours).

Open standards-based VoiceXML is significantly impacting the IVR industry, by augmenting or replacing proprietary systems. VoiceXML offers our clients considerable flexibility and options at every level; very important in these days of commercial uncertainty. Some of the main reasons are;

• The use of VoiceXML radically simplifies the programming task and therefore, the speed and cost of application delivery. Experience shows IVR and Speech applications can be built 10-12 times quicker.
• VoiceXML-based applications offer unprecedented flexibility to deploy in-house on purchased equipment or outsourcing via hosting services such as VIRTUATel, or a combination of the two.
• VIRTUATel clients can begin using out hosted survey service and bring it in house when call numbers dictate - STILL continuing to use the powerful VIRTUATel application servers.
• VoiceXML allows voice response services to be deployed with significant re-use of existing Internet/intranet infrastructure. Therefore, two separate infrastructures - one for Web access and one for phone access - can be collapsed into a single Internet-based infrastructure that's easier to manage and cheaper to maintain.
• With open, standards-based VoiceXML, there is a larger pool of application developers available to build and modify customer applications, allowing savings to be passed on to our customers; it's often very difficult to find developers proficient in specific proprietary IVR application languages.