Mumbai: Research by independent market analyst Datamonitor reveals the number of annual Voice-XML-based* IVR (interactive voice response) shipments in China will rise dramatically from a mere 7,000 by the end of 2006 to over 66,000 by 2010, overtaking traditional touchtone IVR systems as the dominant platform in the country. As Voice-XML gains traction over the next four years, China will become the largest market for Voice-XML platforms in all of APAC (Asia Pacific).

IVR enables callers to conduct phone-based transactions or get routed to the right department or agent through touchtone or speech input. The technology helps companies reduce overhead costs, improve customer service and even increase revenue generation through upsell and cross-sell campaigns.

The next generation IVR platform technology is based on Voice-XML, an industry open-standard. Voice-XML brings the power of the Web to telephony applications. Developers can build and extend IVR applications leveraging the same web infrastructure assets, significantly reducing the cost of construction and delivery of new capabilities for the traditional phone customer.

In a speech on Tuesday 22 August at G-Force China 2006, Beijing, Daniel Hong, senior voice business analyst with Datamonitor, will provide an overview of China's IVR market, highlight key emerging trends and shed light on the advantages and disadvantages of Voice-XML and proprietary IVR systems in contact center environments.

According to Datamonitor, over 80 per cent of IVR implementations in China today are traditional touchtone IVR systems based on proprietary languages. Maintenance, upgrades and data integration can therefore be expensive and complex, causing vendor lock-in and placing companies in technology siloes. Some companies have developed and deployed their own proprietary IVR systems in-house but many of these companies face problems when it comes to scalability and flexibility.

The limitations of traditional IVR systems are finally being exploited in the North American and European markets and this is making inroads into China. Therefore, a growing number of Chinese businesses are investing in Voice-XML platforms not only prevent vendor lock-in but also to provide more sophisticated levels of caller interaction such as self-service, enhanced routing and speech recognition.

Many are also turning to Voice-XML to better leverage their existing web and application assets as they look to deploy an IP infrastructure. Key local vendors such as eSoon are among the leaders providing Voice-XML platforms in China. By 2010, China will account for almost 40 per cent of Voice-XML shipments in APAC.

"Companies in China have an opportunity to leap frog past traditional IVR systems to next generation IVR platforms based on the open standard Voice-XML", says Hong. "This provides the levels of interoperability, flexibility and agility needed for businesses to compete more effectively and efficiently in a rapidly expanding consumer market."

For an advance copy of the presentation or to arrange an interview prior to, during or post the event, please contact Datamonitor's Press Office. (contact information follows below)

*Voice-XML: The World Wide Consortium's (W3C) standard markup language based on XML used for creating voice user interfaces that use advanced speech recognition (ASR) and text-to-speech (TTS) technologies. It is the dominant open standard used for both DTMF and speech-enabled IVR platforms.