In a recent article from TMC’s (News - Alert) Beecher Tuttle, he noted that the recent influx of travel sites like Kayak, Expedia and Priceline has created a major predicament for travel agents. The sheer size of these online booking companies enables them to undercut local agencies on the price of plane tickets, car rentals, hotel reservations and other travel-related services.

Online aggregation sites further their lead over small agencies with aggressive Web marketing investments, social media initiatives and SEO campaigns, says a recent blog post authored by PlumVoice.com, a leading provider of IVR products and services.

In other IVR news, Pronexus, a company specializing in telephony, speech and database integration technologies, announced that IKON Software’s IVR application is best suited for students. The company has created this IVR solution for the Training and Apprentice Fund, which allows students to call in, confirm, cancel and reschedule classes by phone.

Additionally, Voxify recently announced that it was awarded the top category for a speech application vendor in Ovum’s (News - Alert) Cloud-based Speech Self-Service Solutions Decision Matrix. Ovum reports that Voxify’s selection in the highest-rated “shortlist” category is because of its commanding market position and speech applications that are accepted by many in the industry as best-of-breed or best-in-class. 

John Gengarella, CEO, Voxify said that “Achieving a top spot on Ovum’s Speech Application Providers list is the result of our relentless focus on our customers’ success. Enterprises engage Voxify because they appreciate the most innovative solutions in the industry, enjoy unmatched deployment timelines, and expect a true realization of an ROI. And delivering Voxify solutions in a managed service model aligns Voxify’s success with our customers’ success. That’s an appealing value proposition.”

Juliana Kenny graduated from the University of Connecticut with a double degree in English and French. After managing a small company for two years, she joined TMC as a Web Editor for TMCnet. Juliana currently focuses on the call center and CRM industries, but she also writes about cloud telephony and network gear including softswitches.