Robert Blackshaw wants to lend a voice to electronic commerce. The computer veteran heads up a Calgary company that is developing interactive voice response systems (IVR) that will allow people to access a wide range of computer applications over the phone, or from the Internet.
The concept is pretty simple. Programmers have been hard at work building new generations of applications that allow people to do everything from book golf tee times, reserve squash courts, file invoices or make purchases over the Internet.
While there’s no denying the potential of such systems, it doesn’t eliminate the fact that many people still prefer to pick up the phone to conduct certain kinds of transactions — like book tee times — rather than log on to a computer.
Blackshaw and his company, IVRnet, think they have the answer. They have developed a hosted platform that allows companies to add a voice-response component to their existing Web applications, or build IVR into applications planned for the future. The system is already being used by an affiliated golf-reservation company, IVRnet Golf, and trials have begun in the oilpatch using the platform to automate invoice processing.
“We recognized the fact that in the new economy, it’s still important to incorporate old economy solutions into business practices,” says Blackshaw, the firm’s chief executive officer. “You have to be able to do business the way people want to do business with you.”
Blackshaw is a well-recognized name in the Calgary and Alberta technology landscape. He worked as a consultant to Intel Corp. for a number of years and was a co-founder of Keyword Office Technologies Ltd., which was acquired by a U.S.-based software company in 1992. He served as chairman of the Canadian Advanced Technology Association (CATA), and was a founding member of the Alberta Science and Technology Leadership Awards council. He also served as the CEO of Chinese translation firm Zi Corp. until the summer of 1998.
After leaving Zi Corp., Blackshaw was introduced to Jae Hendrickson, a longtime member of the Alberta golfing community, who had come up with an interactive voice response system for booking golf tee times.
While Blackshaw saw that the system had a solid future in the golf industry, he realized there was an even greater potential for taking the technology and applying it to other business applications. He joined the venture, and brought along some other Zi Corp. and Keyword alumni, most notably Jon Constable and Denis Demco.
IVRnet operates its business on a hosted model. That is, it runs the IVR application for a company and charges a fee for each call processed. For golf bookings, the firm charges about 25 cents per round booked. It might sound like small potatoes, but it can add up to about $10,000 to $14,000 per golf course and, for now, IVRnet has 12 courses in its stable.
The company has even bigger hopes for processing invoices. It is working with firms including ICG Propane, to develop automated voice-response systems that work on top of Internet applications.
IVRnet, a publicly traded company that employs about 20 people, has set up its offices in the former Currie Barracks, which is becoming a technology hot spot.
“The exciting thing about this business is we keep discovering new areas that the technology can be used in,” says Blackshaw. “One of the businesses we’re looking at now is campgrounds. We’re getting a lot of interest there.”
