Conn3ct, one of the market leaders in global communications partnerships, recently announced a new strategic acquisition. The company purchased ICR Speech Solutions & Services Limited. The ICR brand offers an advanced speech application development opportunity for interactive voice response and next-generation speech bot technology.
Conn3ct is a vendor-agnostic communications partner dedicated to helping multi-site organisations solve their communications problems. The acquisition of ICR Speech Solutions will help Conn3ct to further develop it’s M&A strategy by adding important skills in the IVR landscape. This will be crucial to Conn3ct’s understanding of customer experience.
Adding IVR Technology to the Portfolio
IVR is an essential technology in the contact centre environment, providing an initial response customers when they’re looking for business support. Over the last few years, changes in the technology landscape and the introduction of new systems for machine learning and artificial intelligence have helped to transform IVR. The technology isn’t just a tool for call steering anymore; it’s a way to enhance a contextual and personalised service experience.
The Conn3ct brand had been searching for a partner to complement its skillset with IVR and a fully automated caller experience. ICR seemed like the perfect partner. According to Alex Tupman, the CEO of Conn3ct, the company carefully considered the key players in the market before choosing ICR as the perfect strategic fit. Conn3ct believes that ICR will keep the brand at the cutting edge of the customer experience landscape.
ICR technology will add crucial ICR and IP capabilities to the Conn3ct proposition. This includes the delivery of a decision engine, which adds historical and real-time context to the call. The system captures information using natural language, so it can correctly route calls to live agents or automated services depending on individual needs. The Data Services layer also adds business-specific logic to the user interactions. Said Tupman:
“Conn3ct’s vision for contact centre IVR is quite simple: we want to move away from rigid, linear applications to something that is more human and satisfying to the customer’s experience”
Improving the Customer Experience
Conn3ct and ICR will be working to improve the customer experience going forward. The technology available includes a tool for reading Nuance natural language content, and the option to blend cloud-based speech AI and on-premise IVR tools.
Similar to Conn3ct, ICR is a vendor agnostic brand. The middleware ensures that different technologies can integrate seamlessly. This offers Conn3ct the ability to provide solutions no matter where technology comes from. Conn3ct believes that purchasing ICR will add more value to the business in the long-term. The combination of bespoke IVR and ICR’s dedicated developers will lead to an excellent customer experience solution.
Conn3ct’s customers have already expressed their need for AI-based IVR that’s accurate, engaging and conversational. These customers need a convenient way to transition from their legacy bases and remove costs from their service solution. The new acquisition of ICR will help Conn3ct to offer a convenient and cost-effective solution for customers.
