Load Testing tools for IVR systems

In this post, we’ll go over tools for IVR load testing. Our background in this field will help you to choose the right tool for you.

Around the world, JMeter and LoadRunner remain some of the most popular tools for load testing. These are truly excellent tools and most performance engineers use them.

When choosing load testing tools the main question is whether the tool supports all the required protocols? When it comes to HTTP, the selection of tools is enormous, including excellent cloud solutions that make it possible to create a load simultaneously from different points on the planet. For less common protocols the number of suitable tools shrinks considerably. In these cases, the indisputable leader is LoadRunner, a product and the de facto standard in the enterprise segment.

However, there are protocols that even LoadRunner does not support. For example, voice traffic must be emulated to load testing call centers’ IVR and IT systems. Neither LoadRunner nor JMeter has standard support for the appropriate protocols (SIP, etc.). Accordingly, when it comes to load testing IVR systems performance engineers have to search for other solutions that are generally outside of their areas of expertise.

An elegant solutions to this problem has been created by Data Synergy, our Australian partner. Data Synergy VOICE is a solution that can use the familiar tools LoadRunner and JMeter to create scripts to emulate the behavior of voice communications customers. Data Synergy VOICE works as a plug-in for LoadRunner and a connectable class for JMeter. The list below shows the capabilities of Data Synergy VOICE in the LoadRunner VUGen environment.