PALO ALTO, Calif., Sept. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- The increasing emphasis on cost optimization has created tremendous pressure on service delivery mechanisms to provide customer satisfaction and contribute to the overall reduction of customer defection. This has created demand for new, web-based solutions and migration to higher-end, Internet protocol (IP)-based interactive voice response (IVR) from the current installed base of self-service customers.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan (http://www.itservices.frost.com/ ), North American IVR and Web-Based Self-Service Markets, reveals that the market earned revenues of $930.3 million in 2005 and expects to reach $2.59 billion in 2012.

If you are interested in a virtual brochure, which provides manufacturers, end users and other industry participants with an overview of the North American IVR and Web-based Self-Service Markets, then send an e-mail to Mireya Castilla, Corporate Communications, at mireya.castilla@frost.com with your full name, company name, title, telephone number, city, state, country and e- mail address. Upon receipt of the above information, an overview will be sent to you by e-mail.

The ability of contact center vendors to cross-sell and up-sell their self-service solutions has significantly positioned them in the overall IVR and web-based self-service markets. Most of the enterprise contracts comprise a host of contact center solutions, including IVR and web-based self-service solutions. However, as companies look to upgrade their customer service functionality, contact center vendors can look to create revenue opportunities through the sale of stand-alone applications. Further, the emerging small and medium business segment presents an excellent opportunity for revenue growth.

"As small and medium businesses grow, their needs for low-cost customer service solutions are also likely to grow," observes Frost & Sullivan Senior Industry Analyst Arun Ranganath. "This can provide vendors with an excellent revenue stream for a longer period."

The addition of speech applications to IVR solutions, cognitive intelligence from natural language processing and enhanced vocabulary recognition functionality increases customers' interest in voice and web-based self-service solutions. Embedding speech attributes in self-service also helps in handling a larger call volume and greater customer resolutions, as a range of service issues can be tackled from the same customer touch point. This helps reduce overhead costs, meet customer requirements and also creates an avenue to train customer service teams to address a greater variety of customer concerns in each interaction.

In order to create greater robustness in the IT backbone, companies are fortifying their customer relationship management (CRM) systems, IT infrastructure, back-end systems and databases to develop a firm background to generate higher value from their web-based self-service solutions. These initiatives are critical in the light of integrating front-end, highly intuitive web-based self-service systems with customer records with the back- end. This will enable in identifying customer history and transaction records that will help provide better customer service and map suitable campaigns and programs for future growth.

Unlike the vendor-driven CRM market, the IVR and web-based self-service markets are characterized by consumers' desired level of service quality at every touch point. This is forcing vendors to increase the value proposition from their solutions at every customer touch point. The transition from traditional IVR solutions to IP-based IVR solutions will help vendors provide higher value to their customers. The deployment of next-generation IVR solutions on open standards such as voice extensible markup language (VXML) and speech application language tags (SALT), are also helpful towards achieving this.

The North American IVR and Web-Based Self-Service Markets is part of the IT Applications and Services subscription, which also includes research services in the following markets: hosted CRM, mobile CRM and enterprise analytics. All research services included in subscriptions provide detailed market opportunities and industry trends evaluated following extensive interviews with market participants. Analyst interviews are available to the press.

Frost & Sullivan, a global growth consulting company, has been partnering with clients to support the development of innovative strategies for more than 40 years. The company's industry expertise integrates growth consulting, growth partnership services, and corporate management training to identify and develop opportunities. Frost & Sullivan serves an extensive clientele that includes Global 1000 companies, emerging companies, and the investment community by providing comprehensive industry coverage that reflects a unique global perspective and combines ongoing analysis of markets, technologies, econometrics, and demographics. For more information, visit http://www.frost.com/ .

North American IVR and Web-Based Self-Service Markets FA24-72 Contact: Mireya Castilla Corporate Communications - North America P: 210.247.3830 F: 210.348.1003 E: mireya.castilla@frost.com Srividhya Parthasarathy Corporate Communications - Europe P: + 91 44 42044668 E: sparthasarathy@frost.com Sarah Lourdes Corporate Communications - Asia Pacific P: +603 6204 5878 F: +603 6201 7402 E: sarah.lourdes@frost.com Sharmin Jassal Corporate Communications - Australia P: +61 2 8247 8900 F: +61 2 9252 8066 E: sharmin.jassal@frost.comhttp://www.frost.com/

Keywords in this release: IVR, interactive voice response, Web-based self- service, North America, customer relationship management, IP, customer service, service solution, CRM, voice extensible markup language, VXML, speech application language tags, SALT, research, information, market, trends, technology, service, forecast, market share

CONTACT: Mireya Castilla, Corporate Communications - North America,
+1-210-247-3830, or fax, +1-210-348-1003, or mireya.castilla@frost.com , or
Srividhya Parthasarathy, Corporate Communications - Europe, +91-44-42044668,
or sparthasarathy@frost.com , or Sarah Lourdes, Corporate Communications -
Asia Pacific, +603-6204-5878, or fax, +603-6201-7402, or
sarah.lourdes@frost.com , or Sharmin Jassal, Corporate Communications -
Australia, +61-2-8247-8900, or fax, +61-2-9252-8066, or
sharmin.jassal@frost.com , all of Frost & Sullivan

Web site: http://www.frost.com/
http://www.itservices.frost.com/