Magic Quadrant for Interactive Voice Response Systems and Enterprise Voice Portals, 2008 Gartner RAS Core Research Note G00154201, Steve Cramoysan, Rich Costello, 18 February 2008 RA1 05192008 Organizations are increasingly adopting voice response solutions based on Internet standards and a voice portal architecture. Leading vendors are improving integration between voice self-service and live-agent functions, and reducing the complexity of developing and operating solutionOrganizations are increasingly adopting voice response solutions based on Internet standards and a voice portal architecture. Leading vendors are improving integration between voice self-service and live-agent functions, and reducing the complexity of developing and operating solutions. WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW Providing self-service functionality is an important strategy that will help call center managers balance costs and quality of service. Leading companies require their customer service operations to provide increased automation and smooth integration from automated self- service to live-agent-handled tasks. They also need tighter integration between channels, and the ability to respond to the fast-changing application needs of the call center business. These business drivers are, in turn, leading to greater use of speech recognition and a shift to standards-based platforms and Web-based architectures for voice portals. They are also increasing the need for improved tools to enable call center staff to reconfigure applications without the help of technical staff. Functional differences between vendor platform products will erode, and vendor consolidation will continue. Differentiation will be based more often on integration in two directions. First, voice response is becoming a part of the call center portfolio, with the routing function and voice response increasingly being sourced and integrated by the same vendor. Second, the voice channel will be integrated more frequently with the IT infrastructure and Web self- service, with the same business rules and application determining routing and responses for all channels. Established vendors will continue to dominate the market. However, some less- well-established vendors – such as Envox Worldwide, Holly Connects and Voxeo – will differentiate themselves by focusing on specific market segments, providing them with tailored capabilities and services. Organizations should review their voice response portfolio. They should look at how they build, deploy and operate these applications in light of changing needs, and consider when a shift to next-generation platforms will offer a compelling business case. As many legacy platforms are approaching their “end of life,” companies should review their voice response platforms and tool road maps, and their choice of strategic providers. 2 MAGIC QUADRANT Figure 1. Magic Quadrant for Interactive Voice Response Systems and Enterprise Voice Portals, 2008 Market Overview The primary driver for enterprise investment in voice response platforms is the strong business case for challengers leaders call center self-service applications. These solutions enable customers to perform tasks via the telephone that would otherwise require a call center agent and, Genesys Telecommunications as a result, they can deliver a provable and often sizeable return on investment. Solutions can be applied to customers, employees and others Nortel Avaya requiring assistance. Intervoice Two key technologies that enable solutions to fulfill Aspect Software Cisco these business demands are speech recognition and Voice Extensible Markup Language (VoiceXML). Speech recognition provides a better user interface that can support a wider range of applications than IBM touch-tone interfaces that restrict input to digits Holly Connects entered on a phone keypad. VoiceXML, an Internet ability to execute Envox Worldwide standard protocol, encourages hardware that is Syntellect independent of a specific application server. This Voxeo leads to an “ecosystem” of applications from different developers that can be deployed on a range of different vendor platforms, without having to be completely rewritten. The shift to a voice Interactive Intelligence portal architecture for voice response platforms, which is similar to a Web application architecture, allows companies to create more easily voice and niche players visionaries Web channels that use the same underlying business application. completeness of vision As adoption of these approaches has matured, the As of December 2007 complexities and costs of developing and maintaining Source: Gartner (December) them have become more apparent. Successful vendors focus strongly on reducing the complexity of application development, improving the management and reporting functions, improving analytics, and providing better Although there have been some high-profile public campaigns and integration between channels and between live-agent and self- customer reaction against voice automated systems, the service tasks. They should also provide support for voice over fundamental challenge remains that call managers must balance Internet Protocol (VoIP) standards, such as Session Initiation quality of service with cost of service. Voice self-service solutions Protocol (SIP) and Call Control XML (CCXML), and drive standards can help call center managers achieve an optimum balance, that will decouple application execution from the development although applications should be chosen carefully and solutions tools. They also have a strong third-party ecosystem of application developed with consideration of human factors to ensure a good partners, solution providers and hosted service providers to enable customer experience. Effective tools and a third-party ecosystem customers to select a blend of deployment models to meet their are important contributors to delivering good solutions. An needs. Leading vendors support multiple media, such as video increasing awareness of the potential for unified communications streaming in addition to voice, and are evolving their platforms (UC) to extend the call center throughout a company, and to its toward a service-oriented architecture supporting Web services. business partners, is causing leading self-service vendors to put The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted December 2007 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner’s analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the “Leaders” quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose © 2008 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction and distribution of this publication in any form without prior written permission is forbidden. The information contained herein has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. Gartner disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information. Although Gartner’s research may discuss legal issues related to the information technology business, Gartner does not provide legal advice or services and its research should not be construed or used as such. Gartner shall have no liability for errors, omissions or inadequacies in the information contained herein or for interpretations thereof. The opinions expressed herein are subject to change without notice. 3 forward a vision for how voice response functionality fits in with Decide on the sourcing approach that best fits your objectives and UC. Leaders provide clear road maps for how today’s new consider these alternative sourcing options as needed. solutions integrate with a UC architecture. Added Market Definition/Description Two vendors have been added since our last Magic Quadrant: Voice response platforms are systems that provide voice access to Holly Connects and Voxeo. information and applications, and they can perform complex call routing based on information provided by the caller. Gartner Holly Connects started by addressing the needs of carriers and provides two distinct classifications of voice response platform: has evolved its products and go-to-market strategy to address the needs of large enterprises for a carrier-grade, scalable, • Interactive voice response (IVR) – An application engine built distributed, software-only platform based on strict adherence to on a proprietary platform. IVR solutions include an application industry standards. development environment, a runtime engine and the physical telephony access interface cards within a single platform. The Voxeo is a privately held company offering an IVR platform – hardware platform may be proprietary. Application Prophecy – built on standard hardware and open standards, with programming interfaces are proprietary and there is a limited attractive pricing targeting the application developer community partner ecosystem providing packaged applications and with free downloadable software. It addresses the needs of professional services for the platform. developer-led projects that want a small-scale solution up and running