Method of providing transfer capability on web-based interactive voice response services

A method for use in a system that comprises a telephone/IP server which serves as a gateway between an end user at an audio terminal that is communicating over a telephone network and a plurality of web servers on an IP network, which telephone/IP server translates web pages that are formatted using a phone markup language and received from the web servers into dialogs containing statements and/or questions for transmission over the telephone network to the end user, and which translates the end user's inputs and/or responses to such statements and/or questions received from the audio terminal over the telephone network into IP-formatted requests for transmission over the IP network, the method comprising the steps of:

• translating into an audio signal a web page that is formatted using the phone markup language and is received from a web server running a first service logic through which a first interactive voice response (IVR) service is provided, the translated web page providing a dialog containing statements and/or questions associated with said first IVR service for transmission over the telephone network to the end user's audio terminal;
• and
• translating the received end user's responsive audio inputs to the statements and/or questions in the dialog of the first IVR service into IP-formatted requests for transmission on the IP network;
• characterized in that:
• at least one of the statements and/or questions associated with said first IVR service on its web page that is formatted using the phone markup language is associated with a hyperlink that is capable of being accepted by the end user through an audio input at the audio terminal, the hyperlink being a link to a web page that is formatted using the phone markup language that is on a web server running a second service logic through which a second IVR service is provided, and that the method further comprises the steps of:
• translating an audio input received over the telephone network from the end user's audio terminal in response to the end user's affirmative response to the statement and/or question associated with the hyperlink into to an IP-formatted request for the linked web page on the web server providing the second IVR service;
• outputting onto the IP network the IP-formatted request for the web page associated with the hyperlink for transmission to the web server running the second IVR service logic, the request also transferring information associated with the end user's interactions within the first IVR service to the second service logic providing the second IVR service;
• translating a received responsive linked web page formatted using the phone markup language from the web server running the second IVR service logic into an audio signal, the responsive web page from the web server running the second IVR service logic being formed using at least some of the transferred information associated with the end user's interactions with the first IVR service, the translated linked web page providing a dialog containing statements and/or questions associated with said second IVR service,
• wherein from the end user's standpoint, with the transfer to the second service logic of information associated with the end user's interactions within the first IVR service, a seamless transition occurs between the provisioning of the first IVR service by the first service logic and the provisioning of the second IVR service by the second service logic.