IVR Market to Reach $2.78 Billion by 2017

The global market for interactive voice response (IVR) systems is projected to reach $2.78 billion by 2017, according to new research from Global Industry Analysts (GIA). The growth, which is expected to be most robust in the United States, will be primarily driven by a growing prominence of outbound IVR, increasing opportunities in the small and midsized businesses segment, innovative pricing strategies, technological advancements and development of open standards. Growing opportunities from developing markets, especially Asia-Pacific, also augurs well for the market, GIA concludes.

As stated in the report the U.S. continues to represent the largest and one of the fastest growing regional markets for IVR systems, waxing at a compound average growth rate of about 10.32 percent per year through 2017. Growth in the U.S. IVR systems market will be especially driven by robust demand from domestic financial services firms, which are undergoing significant restructuring after the recession, and the presence of several leading players with advanced proprietary technologies. Although the large enterprise segment (with more than 65 IVR ports) has been the traditional revenue contributor for the IVR systems market, future growth will largely stem from small and medium businesses with 25 to 46 ports.

Although growth in new orders slowed during 2009 due to recession-induced cutbacks on technology spending and investments, the global IVR market staged a quick comeback in the year 2010, led by companies re-focusing on customer retention, new customer acquisition, and customer satisfaction ratings. A growing focus on benchmarking customer experiences and the ensuing emphasis on IVR optimization also helped bring in fresh opportunities for product replacements and upgrades. 

The market in the future will be driven by growing prominence of outbound IVR as a cost-effective solution for delivering important notifications, providing proactive and personalized customer service, and expediting collections. Also, companies that had shied away from hosted/managed service IVR offerings are now investing in these solutions. As hosted IVR services storm into the limelight, an influx of new hosted/managed service providers is expected to translate into increased demand for IVR systems.

Another key factor for growth is quality monitoring and recording solutions that play an important role in helping boost productivity. QM/Recording solutions are now made available via software-as-a-service or hosted models instead of conventional, premises-based licensed product delivery modelc. In their effort to tackle the IT budgetary issues, companies are displaying greater keenness on the SaaS subscription-based model. With this hosted/SaaS arrangement, call centers can implement new solutions without significant capital investments in installation and license fees.

Major players in the marketplace include Aspect Software, AT&T, Avaya, BCE, Cisco Systems, Convergys, Dialogic, Enghouse Systems, Syntellect, Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Healthcare Technology Systems, IBM, Mitel Networks, Nuance Communications, Philips Speech Processing, Verizon Communications, Voxeo, and West, among others.

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