Atom's IVR helps ISKCON raise donation

MUMBAI, INDIA: Atom Technologies, a mobile payments service provider, has helped Mumbai-based ISKCON foundation to solicit funds and donations by directly using the fully-automated interactive voice response (IVR) technology.

ISKCON foundation, in terms of its various philanthropic programs such as mid-day meals for school children, requires funds and donations, for which it has to approach corporates and organizations but it remains a time-consuming exercise, according to Atom Technologies' director Dewang Neralla.

“Also, apart from corporates and organizations, the foundation was looking at a way, which allows individuals to donate funds directly in a simple, secure and easy manner,” said Neralla.

However, the foundation was not keen on using Internet or any online payments systems for soliciting donations.

Looking at ISKCON's requirements, Atom Technologies deployed its fully automated IVR with voice customization that allows any person to call from landlines or mobile phone to the foundation's telephone number (022 26814366 or 40366866).

Thereafter, the IVR communicates with the caller, prompts the donation options such as credit or debit card with the amount wished to donate. Further the system collects credit or debit card details using the dial pad, where the IVR server sends the details to the respective banks' server using the dual tone multi frequency (DTMF) tone and accordingly processes the payment transfers.

“Since it's a fully automatedIVR system, there's no human intervention and no one can know the credit or debit card details of any caller, which makes it highly private and secure payment mode,” explained Neralla.

Here the interaction happens between the caller and the system in a private domain, while the online or Internet payment mode is in the public domain and there's high possibility of information leakage or frauds.

In terms of security, Atom's IVR is integrated with a management system that is customized to detect frauds, prevents and alerts any possible suspicious transactions. It follows the advanced encryption standards – 128 bit cipher block chaining for routing transactions via secure virtual private network (VPN) connectivity, he said.

After initial pilot runs, Atom Technologies finally activated the fully automated IVR at ISKCON in the mid of July this year.