3 Secrets to a Successful IVR Deployment

This blog post was co-authored by Genesys technology partner, Empirix.

IT and contact center leaders are embracing hybrid. Cloud-based applications, including IVR, often boast lower TCO than legacy, on-premises models. Moving to cloud can seem disruptive; ensuring that patches, upgrades or new technology deployments go smoothly is a critical part of a successful migration plan. But knowing these three secrets will push you a step closer to your successful cloud-based IVR migration.

1. Validate that your IVR works as designed.
   Whether on-premises or in the cloud, deploying new technology solutions is challenging. And it can be problematic. Even with a seasoned DevOps team, project complexity, multiple stakeholders, inefficient workflows, interoperability and disparate networks can unknowingly put an IVR deployment at risk. Without proper testing, customers become the guinea pigs — a first line of defense to alert customer service to issues.

In today’s consumer-driven market, great products aren’t enough. Customers expect more. Just ask any customer who’s been disconnected, misrouted or unable to reach a customer service agent. If it’s too hard to transact business, customers will go elsewhere. The pressure is on to ensure a positive customer experience with every interaction. Functional and regression (QA) testing are keys to ensure that your IVR functions as designed on Day 1. And that it eliminates the risks that are inherent with new deployments.

2. Validate what you can’t control.

After validating that the IVR works as expected, you’re not necessarily in the clear. QA testing is only part of the equation; it executes a single test case at a time. Any network can handle that.

For industries with high seasonal demand, such as the IRS during tax season, you need to ensure your network and your cloud-based IVR vendor can handle increased volumes. And it’s important to know which network or application is at fault if an issue occurs.

IT teams want visibility and control. When all systems reside on an internal network, you have complete visibility and authority to troubleshoot and solve issues. In contrast, identifying root causes with cloud or hybrid solutions isn’t clear cut. Disparate networks must communicate seamlessly and be able to handle peak traffic volumes. When they don’t, it can be difficult to identify where performance issues lie. This often results in finger pointing.

Testing at load before go-live highlights any potential network performance issues for the vendors network — or yours. It also helps you avoid catastrophic outages that affect customer experience and your bottom line.

3. Test, test and test again.

Technology environments aren’t static; they constantly evolve. No matter how small they are, changes to network configuration, bug fixes, patches and hardware upgrades can be made with or without warning. These changes can affect IVR performance, making it hard to identify which part of the call flow was impacted — and what caused it. Because issues can arise from either party, finger pointing can ensue.

To ensure continuous quality of service and limit customer disruption, it’s critical to continuously conduct active tests. With proper ongoing monitoring, you will detect issues before your customers do.

A Proven Test Automation Solution
Empirix, a long-time Genesys partner, have helped hundreds of Genesys customers deploy IVR technologies using its test automation solutions.

The Empirix Hammer Cloud Platform (HCP) is an easy-to-use, fully automated, self-service testing platform for voice applications. It allows cross-functional teams to test across the entire software development lifecycle. It helps identify and eliminate customer-impacting defects, unplanned downtime and rollbacks. And the flexible deployment options are designed for organizations of all sizes that want to:

• Increase test coverage
• Collaborate cross-functionally
• Streamline workflows
• Expand automation
• Execute hundreds of tests simultaneously
• Reduce opex, capex and TCO
• Embrace DevOps methodologies

Offering hybrid cloud functionality, HCP enables QA, AppDev and operations teams to generate traffic from any combination of on-premises, private or public cloud networks while minimizing, or even eliminating, toll charges. This means that contact centers that service international customers, regardless of their technology landscape, can generate a test call and authentically emulate customer experience from anywhere in the world.

RESTful APIs enable disjointed teams to work from the same blueprint and have access to the renowned Hammer technology from within the systems they use every day. To learn more about Genesys AppFoundry partner Empirix, visit their applisting in the AppFoundry Marketplace.