USAid’s Regional Development Mission for Asia recently gave its top award to an application developed by the Open Institute that can reach out to voters who live in the remotest parts of Cambodia. Using Interactive Voice Response (IVR) technology, the application can connect people to services such as the country’s Election Hotline, which contains information on how, when and where to vote. Recent statistics show that voters in even remote parts of Cambodia placed more than 600,000 calls to the platform during the last election cycle.

"This is an excellent example of the innovative ways in which mobile solutions can help to improve development outcomes and empower communities with better information," said Michael Yates, USAid Asia Mission Director, in a statement announcing the award.

IVR can be used as a way for agencies and companies to save money, because there is less of a need for human operators to answer every call. The Interactive Voice Response programming will allow callers to get all the information they need without having to talk to an actual person. This also saves time and energy on the part of the caller, because there is less wait time involved. If someone is looking for basic information, there isn’t really a better solution out there than IVR. Now that the technology is making a move to mobile applications, it is becoming even easier to roll out for companies that don’t have a ton of assets at their disposal.