IVRS Models

Question

IVR Systems are so expensive and proprietary.

The vendor systems I've used are all pretty weak... What is a good alternative to Genesys, Intervoice, etc.?

Answer 1

Asterisk is open source and it includes the capability of defining and running IVR interactions.

They have proprietary hardware for interaction with the PSTN or you can build services on top of VoiceOverIP protocols such as SIP (i.e. IP only).

See the Asterisk Gateway Interface wiki page - this describes the primitives you would use in the IVR script.

Answer 2

I use Asterisk for IVR implementations. I don't think the learning curve was too steep, especially considering I'm not really into telecoms, and it's worked pretty well for what I've used it. I currently have an IVR with 8 E1 links (240 channels) with Asterisk and a Sangoma card, works pretty well. And it's easy to test new features, since I can run it in my machine with just VoIP, setting up SIP in Asterisk and using the X-Lite softphone.

I connect Asterisk with my Java application using FastAGI and JAGIServer/OrderlyCalls on the Java side.

Answer 3

I would recommend Katalina 'VoiceGuide' - a windows-based CTI, IVR and dialler system at a reasonable price, supporting both tradtional POTS/ISDN telephony cards and VoIP. see: www.voiceguide.com