Cloud computing is beginning to penetrate many industries, including CRM and in particular the interactive voice response (IVR) market.

Forrester Research has said that cloud computing is one of the top 15 technology trends to watch in 2010, especially for IVR speech applications, because it saves enterprises money, frees up limited resources and allows companies to benefit from the latest and greatest IVR technology on someone else's dime.

In a cloud computing model, the entire IVR and speech infrastructure is built, maintained, monitored and operated by a hosting provider.  There are many, many benefits to a cloud-based IVR model.  Here's just a few:

• For enterprises that experience seasonal spikes or occasional unplanned call volume increases, it's likely more cost effective to use an on-demand, cloud-based IVR solution. With a cloud based solution, the enterprise pays just for the capacity they need, when they need it. The alternative is to build and to maintain the extra infrastructure, even that which is rarely utilized.
• Not only do you pay just for the capacity you require, but an IVR cloud typically provides access to many adjunct technologies which you can benefit from, often times at no additional cost. Examples include biometrics, multi-lingual speech recognition, pre-build dialogue modules and grammars, and analytics.
• A hosted solution can be treated as an operational rather than a capital expense, eliminating wasteful equipment depreciation.
• A cloud infrastructure is a green alternative, because the enterprise does not have to invest in computing power that is not needed on a continuous basis.
• Clouds typically integrate the newest technologies quickly- lowering cloud operating costs and improving the service provided to the users of the cloud.
• Speech clouds can be thought of as enormous repositories of data that can be leveraged by all customers within the cloud. Like a search engine, a speech engine improves as more data is added. A cloud based speech system will have handled billions of transactions. These can then be integrated back to the engine to achieve higher recognition rates.

Of course we can't go without mentioning Nuance's in-the-cloud service.  With Nuance On Demand, customer's self-service application(s) can either reside in Nuance's cloud alongside the speech servers, IVR ports, etc., or IVR applications can be hosted by the customer and connected to the "cloud". Both models allow customers to gain from the benefits of Nuance On Demand.

As always, give us a shout at consultingteam@nuance.com and we'd be happy to talk more with you about this.  

Posted by Nuance TIPS* Expert: Dean Skrbina, Senior Director of Solutions Marketing, Nuance

*TIPS expert posts are written by Nuance experts and thought leaders and discuss a common issue or emerging trend they're seeing in contact centers and around customer experience.  It's just another way we can engage in a relevant, meaningful dialogue with you and share our contact center expertise.  We encourage you to post your comments, challenges or questions.