Automated Testing Solutions

BUSINESS PROBLEM: After deploying a speech-enabled interactive voice response (IVR) solution, it’s important that it functions as it should. But without the proper resources, monitoring customer interactions within the system and pinpointing potential problem areas can be incredibly difficult.
TECHNOLOGY SOLUTION: Automated Testing Solutions
There are a wide variety of testing solutions available to examine speech IVRs and provide precise, actionable data with which enterprise customers can enact improvements.

Product: IQ Services’ StressTest
Delivery Method: An online service.
Pricing: Fixed prices start at $2,200 (including setup, testing, real-time access to online test results, analysis, and reporting).
Functionality: StressTest can test voice solutions on up to tens of thousands of ports concurrently. During a StressTest session, IQ Services remotely generates real telephone calls that access the communication solution; test traffic is controlled to either gradually ramp up to maximum capacity or to generate sharp waves of calling traffic. The results of each test call, including step-by-step response times and complete recordings, are available online and via post-test reporting. Unexpected results are highlighted for possible resolution during or after the test.
Business Benefits: StressTest services conducted from the customer perspective against the integrated speech-based communication solution help ensure you meet your ROI and customer satisfaction objectives. Because this is an online service, additional hardware or software isn’t required. StressTest services provide the opportunity to proactively observe, tune, and verify the performance of complex unified communications and contact center solutions.
Contact: IQ Services at 1-612-243-6700; www.iq-services.com.

Product: Empirix Hammer Test System
Delivery Method: A hardware and software solution.
Pricing: Prices start at about $50,000.
Functionality: The Hammer Test System provides automated acceptance, regression, and load testing for contact center applications. It generates thousands of calls in TDM, IP, or hybrid environments and provides dynamic prompt and speech recognition testing for speech applications. The system also offers voice quality testing for measuring and characterizing voice quality over VoIP devices and networks, a graphical tool for scripting and scheduling, and built-in reports for trending and analysis.
Business Benefits: The Hammer Test System ensures that applications have been properly engineered to meet current and future performance requirements. It helps users detect and measure configuration errors, resource problems, IVR and PBX/prompt errors, IVR/host response times, database response times, and other performance issues. It improves the customer experience by identifying and correcting problems prior to production.
Contact: Empirix at 1-781-266-3200; www.empirix.com.

Product: ClickFox Customer Behavior Intelligence
Delivery Method: Installed software.
Pricing: Prices average between $300,000 and $500,000 for smaller configurations and between
$1 million and $3 million for larger installations.
Functionality: ClickFox technology transforms call logs into a graphical representation of customers’ IVR/speech experience that goes beyond reporting on volumes of transfers, hang-ups, and hold times. After identifying a potential problem, a simple drag-and-drop interface allows companies to monitor user behavior over time and gauge the effect of changes.
Business Benefits: Customer Behavior Intelligence software identifies the exact series of events that cause customer frustration, resulting in behaviors such as hang-ups or transfers to a human agent. This insight allows enterprises to really understand what customers want to accomplish in automated service systems and base their system improvement priorities on facts, maximizing user adoption and customer retention.
Contact: ClickFox at 1-877-256-3761; www.clickfox.com/contact.