IVVR Services

Visual IVR Customer Service

2009-06-16T03:04:00.005+03:00

Visual IVR is used in Customer Care services to describe an IVVR Service. The terminology indicates the evolution from services that are based on regular voice calls to 3G video calls.

So what can Visual IVR do for a Customer Care / Customer Support center?!

The basic principal of a Visual IVR service is to provide the easy access and interaction to all users without the need to install a dedicated application and with no overhead of device support and security. Current mobile customer service solutions are usually very limited, poor in user experience, and requires the user to make a significant effort in order to use the service.

A Visual IVR service enables the organization to cut on expenses and head count, to provide a better and easier service to the customers, and centralize as many different services in one access point to the service. Such a service can use the phone keys (DTMF), voice commands with voice recognition, and even video input.

A good Visual IVR service is tailor made for the organization's needs. Visual IVR can be used for simple navigation to view information ( Visual IVR Self Service ), contact a customer service attendee (with an ability to send text, graphical information, and video), and to grant access to specific systems (such as ERP, data centers, and billing). Such a service can also manage complex authentication rules description to allow customers and employees to use the same service to retrieve, insert, and update information.

A Visual IVR service can support any number of concurrent users without damaging the quality of experience and with no dependency on the mobile phone's operating system, encryption support, or the customer's technical skills.

Our Visual IVR solutions can serve telecommunications operators (land-line, mobile, cable, satellite), financial institutions (banks, insurance companies, investment companies), health care companies, delivery services (postal services, shipping services), and commerce (stores, online stores, services providers) etc.

You can contact our representatives to learn more about the values of Visual IVR solutions to your organization here.

Mobile Banking

2009-05-07T13:41:00.001+03:00

Mobile Banking ( M-Banking ) is defined differently by different companies in the Mobile Banking market. Ugunduzi's definition of Mobile Banking is:

Mobile Banking - A system or service that enables customers to access the bank account and perform actions and inquiries, using their mobile phone, which they usually perform in the bank or using the bank's systems (such as the bank's internet website).

This definition excludes the person-to-person payment which is more Mobile Wallet and Mobile Payment system than pure Mobile Banking.

Traditionally, basic Mobile Banking services were implemented using SMS services (SMS Banking), Mobile Internet Banking (WAP), and dedicated clients. We believe that with the new era of interactive media, the service should be much richer and include access to information in an easy way, an ability to watch financial tips, and to talk with live customer service professionals that are able to interact and deliver videos, pictures and texts (such as an updated information on a specific stock). Our Mobile Banking IVVR System which is already in use by a leading bank, is a cutting edge service. IVVR requires no prior installation, has a very wide support among existing devices (3G penetration rates are very high in developed countries), and is very secured (the call is encrypted and the servers are located in the bank's premises using a secure direct network with the mobile operator).

The benefits of using Ugunduzi's IVVR are obvious:
1. The application is dynamic and server centric (thus can be updated immediately to all users that access the service)
2. The IVVR M-Banking provides an intuitive and clear navigation options
3. IVVR Mobile Banking holds the widest device support in interactive services
4. Ugunduzi's Mobile Banking is secure even more than many of the internet based solutions (based on architecture of the solution and the video calls standard encryption)
5. Ugunduzi's Mobile Banking supports live chat with bank's representatives while viewing graphical content on the screen sent by the representative in real time
6. Our IVVR system has the success record to make sure banks and financial institutions get a proven and a stable service.

Click the link in order to learn more about Ugunduzi's IVVR Mobile Banking System

IVVR Billing

2009-02-18T05:29:00.005+02:00

Billing an IVVR service the regular conservative way is easy (as long as you can get an agreement with mobile carriers), you launch a service on a mobile number and get a revenue share from the generated calls to the service. Revenue sharing is a simple solution but it is not an option in certain markets (like in markets with unlimited calls plans) and usually can be problematic in terms of ROI from the service.

This post is about the other billing options we have in IVVR which in part are less common and not even recognized.

Premium lines – this option is the second most obvious and common way to launch IVVR services. It is based on a premium line with a fixed revenue model. According to local regulatory issues, users are charged per minute. The service operator gets its revenue share form the accumulated calls generated by the service. This option is a good option where available as long as the prices for a premium call suit the content price and that the service operator gets a significant portion of the revenue generated. First services to use IVVR premium lines are of course adult services that already used this billing option in the IVR based services.

RB (Reverse Billing SMS) – this option is a very functional one where there is no revenue sharing agreement with the operators but there is access to reverse billing. Depends on the service, a RB SMS can be sent during the call per any configured event or at the end of the call to sum all the costs for the session. This option is very easy to integrate as the billing solution but can only be supported by few good IVVR platforms (at least easily), still requires to reach an agreement with a local cross-carrier SMS provider, and most importantly, depending on the market but you usually get only between 50-70% of the payment.

Credit card – in the case of IVVR, there is an audio-visual feedback which means a user can be prompted to enter the credit card information and billed by the credit card company. This option is best suited in services that require a big payment which is not supported by RB SMS or in cases where the service operator wants to get a larger share of the payment. The credit card billing can be used by integrating the IVVR service with an online credit card payment system.

Subscription – this option can be used when the service operator wants to generate a stable revenue stream or to provide an “all you can eat content” service. The subscription can be based on direct billing through the mobile operator’s bill, credit card, and RB SMS. The IVVR platform filters every caller (by the caller ID) unless the caller is a subscriber to the service. This option can only support the number associated with the subscriber (unless it generates a personal ID and PIN code) and of course doesn’t support unidentified numbers.

A good IVVR platform can support many kinds of payment calculations. The billing can be based on any billable event such as: per event, per content item, per call duration, per a sum that was inserted by the user (like in donation applications), and more.

Services that can benefit from the billing opportunities of the IVVR platform include the usual media portals with premium content, Voting applications, Trivia games, Gambling applications, Shopping services, and we even have a donation service where people donate to a specific cause using their credit card number (so they decide how much they want to donate).

When it used wisely by services professionals, an IVVR platform can be the best mobile medium for billable events and it requires no installation and no unusual skills from the caller. An IVVR service that is backed up by a payment method or that is used as a payment method, is fast, intuitive, and can generate revenues in many ways to best fit the needs of the service and match all relevant regulatory requirements.

Contact us if you are interested in launching any of these services:
Ugunduzi – IVVR Services

*977 - Channel 10 IVVR Service Spot

2009-02-05T01:21:00.003+02:00

IVVR News

2009-01-06T04:29:00.003+02:00

As a result of the fighting in Gaza, Israel’s channel 10 started to promote its IVVR service (*977) and release a summary about the fighting every hour. People on the go, use the service in order to get updated with the news immediately and comfortably. The promotion is done during the news on TV in a text scroller on the bottom of the screen. Thousands of IVVR calls were handled in just a few hours.

Pushing the IVVR market

2008-12-26T19:55:00.000+02:00

The main challenge in pushing the IVVR solutions and services is to penetrate a market which is already dominated by high speed mobile internet portals and applications. Ugunduzi was created by IVVR professional, Idan Gafni, with the goal of penetrating the mobile content and mobile services market with IVVR technology.
So what are the attributes of IVVR that make it a valid and even a superior option to deliver on-demand, media-rich, services?! Every UMTS (GSM 3G) enabled device is capable of easily run an IVVR service and deliver interactive mobile video content using Video IVR. In mobile internet services, a data plan is a necessary prerequisite while IVVR is inherently supported in every plan in a 3G (UMTS) network. In addition, IVVR provides interactivity level that WAP portals just can’t provide. Billing can be done by revenue sharing with the mobile operator on the air time generated by the service, by launching the service on a premium line, or by sending reverse billing SMS per action, per content item, or per time spent in the service / portal. Basically, IVVR provides a dynamic environment that encourages media companies and content owners to deliver mobile services with a clear business model, good interactivity attributes, and a great device support.
The old paradigm in IVVR solutions was to provide telco-grade infrastructure to the mobile operator and let it develop services, manage the services, and get services companies and content owners to launch services on the IVVR application server. This approach caused in most cases a "deadlock" in the business flow. The IVVR platform is an enabler and there is no justification to deploy it (and no ROI) unless it hosts active "off-the-shelf" or tailor-made services. Mobile carriers in most markets evolved to play the integration and operation role and not the innovation and development role in the mobile services ecosystem. Ugunduzi’s IVVR solution is a hosted service and therefore we own the platforms and develop the services for our clients thus we avoid the business deadlock and enable our clients to focus on their strengths like content and marketing.
Ugunduzi offers its services to mobile operators, as an outsourced service, and also to content providers and service providers. We enable the launch of services in niche markets and encourage a long tail economy where companies can launch their services even if they cannot afford the costs of the IVVR platforms. In our view, the mobile content and mobile services market should be more accessible to media companies. We allow entities that have the need and the desire to deploy mobile services to extend their reach and to launch services in a short time frame. In this ecosystem, every company remains in its natural habitat; companies can focus on their service/content and their customers while we take care of the technological and operational part of the service. Hosted IVVR which is Ugunduzi’s main offering to its clients provides them an operator independent solution and an immediate clear go-to-market strategy.
The key element to solving the deadlocked business flow in IVVR was to isolate such factors as IVVR platform purchasing and IVVR services development while moving the center of the business chain from the operator to an independent services oriented company. This is what Ugunduzi believes should solve the problem with launching IVVR services in most markets. The direct connection to the end-user and the cross-carrier IVVR solution enables TV channels, health care organizations, banks, internet portals, and more, to create and customize their own IVVR service with maximum device compatibility and rich experience. This is how we push the IVVR market forward.
For more details please refer to our website at www.ugunduzi.com and contact us using the contact page.

IVVR Strengths analysis

2008-11-20T22:27:00.002+02:00

Why do we need the IVVR technology?! We already have mobile internet, execution engines (J2ME, FlashLite), and OS like Symbian, Windows Mobile, IPhone OS and more. So what can IVVR do that can’t be done using mobile internet or mobile applications?!

Ease of use – IVVR services are based on a video call, in order to enter the service the user only needs to call in a video call to the service number. When the video call starts, all interaction is done using the digits of the phone (DTMF). Basically, it means that you only need to call for the service and interact using the keys when asked to on the screen and with audio instructions (press 1 to watch first video, press 2 to watch second video…). There are still two problems with IVVR in terms of the ease of use. One problem is that many people do not know how to do video calls with their devices (usually it requires to enter the number press options/video call). The second problem is that because the service is based on a video call, the interactivity takes time. The application can only react to the key press only after the server got the keystroke and performed the corresponding action. When considering the launch of an IVVR service, these factors should be taken into consideration.

No installation is needed – installing an application or a service is a cumbersome process and usually users are deterred by it. In IVVR services the access to the service is done by calling the service number. No Download, No installation, call the service and you are ready to use it. This factor makes IVVR services ideal for pay-per-use services with little barriers to entry.

One application fits all devices (no need of porting) – a main problem in mobile applications is that each and every device requires adaptation (called porting). In many cases these adaptations can take almost a third of the time needed to develop the application per every new device. In IVVR, because the service is based on a video call, a service suits every supporting device. The display is actually a streamed video in a standard resolution of 176*144 hence there is no need for adaptation of the display. The interaction keys are the standard keys of the phone and therefore it is supported by every device. IVVR stands out in this factor as many projects in mobile internet and mobile applications ended up supporting only few devices or requiring a substantial amount of money for adaptation which reduces the ROI.

Clear business model that generates revenues – IVVR inherently generates revenues. The services can be launched over a regular number or a premium number and can be also supported by premium SMS to strengthen the business model. The service provider can make sure every call generates positive nominal revenue.

No need for an internet bundle – all the video transport is over the video call and therefore there is no need for an internet bundle. The users know how much they are planned to spend when using the service with no hidden payments.

No buffering in video playing – because the video call is a dedicated channel, there is no buffering when playing the video. The video playing is a continuous experience for the users with no buffering time in the beginning and with no buffering stops in the middle of the playing like users experience in internet video playing and in mobile internet.

Real interactive video – In IVVR services you can interact while playing the video using a “barge-in” feature. In IVVR for example you can have a multi choice voting application on top of a video (score 0-9 the video you watch). In mobile internet, the videos are streamed in the integral media streaming player which means video applications cannot be created.

That was the summary of the main advantaged in IVVR. If you have more questions, want to see if a service fits to the IVVR medium, or want to launch a new service, please contact us at Ugunduzi.

IVVR (Video IVR) fundamentals

2008-11-20T02:20:00.008+02:00

IVVR (Interactive Voice & Video Response) is based on 3G mobile video calls. The technology is the evolution of the IVR (the voice services we use in customer care services, voting, information services etc) and adds the ability to launch video services with audio-visual feedback.
In order to use an IVVR based service, there are three mandatory requirements:

The device needs to support 3G based video calls
The mobile operator needs to support 3G video calls
A dedicated platform needs to serve the service

When all these requirements are met, every user can use the services without any installation.

IVVR is an enabler that provides us the means to create interactive applications based on a video call. There will be dedicated posts about specific IVVR services but in general companies like Ugunduzi offer mobile video portals, live video broadcast, voting applications, trivia, self service, mobile video advertisement campaigns, and mobile access to enterprise applications (such as mobile banking applications).