In many applications, the IVR has to be connected to a host-computer to get and/or store appropriate data. The IVR is usually seen as a terminal or group of terminals, and each user is considered as a terminal session, on the network.
So there is a need for proper or standard communication protocols . Usually technology providers use host-computer emulation packages (like IBM3174, X25, ANSI-ASYNC, DEC-VT100, TCP/IP, Novell-Netware, etc.). Recently other interfaces were introduced to support the integration of telephone resources with computer-based information systems (see section on CTI below). The application developer should know if such connections are available and how suitable they are for his application.