IVR hosting: weighing the benefits

Written by Eric Fleming

When choosing to route much – or all – of your company's phones through an IVR system (interactive voice response), one of the decisions you'll need to make is whether to have the hardware and software hosted on-site, or off-site by a third party. There are advantages to either, especially the control you'll have over on-site IVR hosting, but in many cases having third-party hosted IVR solutions is beneficial as well.

What is IVR hosting?

With an interactive voice response system, your customers are able to call in, regardless of time of day or your level of customer support available, and access their data, all while "talking" to your IVR system.

As with a typical phone menu, your customers make choices and tell the system what they want to access, who they are, and what they want to do. However, instead of punching in responses on their keypads, customers simply speak responses into the phone. IVR systems typically lower business costs, raise efficiency, and increase customer satisfaction.

Top 5 advantages of IVR hosting by a third party

There are the top five advantages to having someone host your IVR solutions.

1. Fast –If you've ever tried to upgrade all your company's systems at once, you know it can't easily be done, at least not without disrupting your daily workflow. Imagine trying to upgrade in-house hosted IVR without disrupting your phone systems. With hosted IVR services, upgrades (and new features) can be added quickly and without disruption.
2. Reliable –What if you've decided to host your own IVR system in-house and your computers have a catastrophic failure? With third-party hosted IVR solutions, redundancy is essential, as it is with any data-storage company. Whether it's in the form of a RAID array or simple redundancy, you can usually sleep secure in the knowledge that your phones are always online.
3. Scalable –Companies often realize the need to expand only when their lack of expansion causes growing pains. With hosted IVR solutions, adding new call volume capabilities happens naturally, as the system realizes the need for it.
4. Cheaper – Compare the price of IVR hosting on-site to off-site and you'll generally see a dramatic cost advantage to off-site start-up costs. This is due to the lack of hardware expenses up front, as well as the lack of a full-time IVR administrator at your business.
5. Up-to-date technology –Once you've purchased your on-site IVR hosting solution, you're "stuck" with it, at least until you purchase the next new technology. With hosted interactive voice response systems, this is typically not a problem, as companies in the business of IVR hosting make it their business to stay on top of what's new.

Looking for IVR hosting solutions for your business? Use BuyerZone’s free request for IVR price quotes, and we’ll match you to multiple providers in your area.