It took a long time, but Intervoice has finally merged their enterprise and network platforms into one, both from a solutions and philosophy standpoint. That is one of the key takeaways that I got from having attended the Intervoice industry analyst event in DC this week. That doesn’t sound like such a big deal but it is when you consider that it completes a transition born out of a) moving to a software and services company from one that a decade ago was proprietary down to the board level, b) melding two very different businesses – service provider and enterprise, c) completing the integration of some big acquisitions – namely Brite, Edify, and Nuasis d) blending together contact center, self-service (IVR), messaging and notification onto the same platform.
This doesn’t mean that they still aren’t selling into two markets. They are. Their service provider sales for messaging, etc. are very strong, particularly internationally. It also isn’t that enterprise customers can’t buy voice portal (IVR) separate from the contact center either. It is that they aren’t developing to two platforms anymore. Now its same development tools, same code base, service orchestration layer, etc. This also allows them to add applications on more seamlessly whether it’s a Telco adding notification or messaging or a contact center adding self-service. It’s also the same whether a customer chooses to buy their own Intervoice solution or have Intervoice host all or part of it.
Another highlight of the conference was the repackaging of their self-service to live agent options on the enterprise side. The complete end-to-end solution combines Intervoice Voice Portal (IVP) with Intervoice IP Contact Center (IPCC) and new outbound services with the Intervoice Advanced Notification Gateway for email, SMS and voice alerts. This combined solution is now called Contact Portal. (One note, although the same platform, Media Exchange is still the name for their network offering.)
Last month at VoiceCon Intervoice unveiled Version 4 of its SIP-based, IPCC solution. IPCC – now part of Contact Portal - has integrated CTI capabilities which enable data collected from any self-service interaction to be seamlessly passed to an agent, and available to be collectively reported on later. IPCC is now available as a stand alone, or integrated with Intervoice Voice Portal (which is called Contact Portal) and either on-premise or hosted.
That is only a peek at what they are doing. As with any conference, there was a lot to digest in two days, but I hope it whets your appetite for finding out more.