Lots happening with IVR this past week, let’s catch you up.

TMC noted that the First Financial Bank of Arkansas realized that its previous IVR system had reached the end of its useful life. The system couldn’t respond quickly enough to customer demands, and maintaining the proprietary architecture took a great deal of time. The bank chose a solution from Fiserv, Inc. called ConvergeIT: IVR. So far, bank officials are happy with the results.

The new system allows First Financial to automate many of its incoming calls. For instance, many customers call the bank regarding electronic fund transfers. In the past, these calls were directed to an EFT specialist. However, with the new IVR system in place, customers can obtain account balances and transfer funds in real-time. Also, bank staff members are freed up for revenue generating activities such as cross-promoting bank products and services.

ConvergeIT: IVR integrated seamlessly with Fiserv’s Signature platform, which First Financial uses as its core banking platform. The system is built on a vXML network architecture, which allows the system to deliver advanced self-service voice applications. Part of First Financial’s strategy was to avoid having to purchase additional external hardware. ConvergeIT: IVR helped them to stick with their strategy.

Also, West Interactive (News - Alert), a provider of contact center solutions, has launched Holly Voice Platform 6.0, a major upgrade to its carrier grade Interactive Voice Response (IVR) software.

“We are excited to launch the new Holly Voice Platform 6.0 release,” said Skip Hanson, president of West Interactive.

“This is another step in our commitment to delivering best-in-class contact center solutions for on-premise, as well as hosted contact center solutions,” said Hanson. Holly 6.0 delivers customer-driven benefits and supports West Interactive’s continued technology investment, benefiting both the company’s hosted and on-premise solutions.

Officials with West Interactive said that the new release offers more efficient data logging, an improved management console and higher port density per server.

And TMC’s (News - Alert) Anil Sharma wrote that Auraya Systems, a globally recognized expert on voice authentication solutions, has recently implemented the ArmorVox Speaker Identity System.

Officials with Auraya Systems claimed that the ArmorVox Speaker Identity System is the first commercially viable state-of-the-art voice biometric identity verification software that makes implementation practical.

Thanks to the system, solutions providers can now easily implement richer and more flexible voice authentication security and identity management applications within the enterprise or in the cloud.

“High-profile cyber-attacks and data breaches are making front-page news almost daily,” said Dr. Clive Summerfield, CEO and founder of Auraya Systems.

Summerfield said that the need for stronger protection of passwords, personal information, intellectual property, and corporate secrets is driving greater acceptance of new high-tech security solutions. He then added that the industry has long awaited advances in voice biometrics technology that are more practical, affordable, and secure, and the company is proud to be the first company making such technology advances possible.