With the way the cloud is touted as a solution for many contact center ills today – slow responses, a lack of channel integration, poor customer satisfaction and low first-call resolution rates – you’d think that nearly every contact center interested in keeping its head above water would already have implemented a cloud-based solutions. It turns out, however, that this is not the case.
A recent study, Evolve IP (News - Alert) and CCNG's 2014 North American Call Center Survey, found that more than three quarters of north American contact centers (77 percent, to be precise), are still using premise-based solutions. About 70 percent of the same call centers, however, expressed interest in moving to a cloud-based model. What it means is that contact centers today get why it’s necessary…they just haven’t done anything about it yet.
There’s a reason for this hesitation: it’s a big undertaking, even if it’s easier from an infrastructure perspective to move to the cloud. There’s the network to think about, according to a recent blog post by LiveLook’s Michelle Brusyo. Migration isn’t simply a matter of flipping a switch.
“Switching to the cloud isn't as simple as buying new equipment,” wrote Brusyo. “Migrating into virtual environments can be a complex task, particularly for organizations that rely heavily on technology to complete core functions. Before jumping into the cloud, contact center leaders need to establish a defined plan for migration.”
Some cloud contact center migrations have failed because companies were not able to successfully predict the resources they would need to support it. Brusyo wrote that one of the biggest miscalculations these businesses make is failing to understand how their network could be impacted by increased cloud usage. Before they even begin with an implementation, companies need to understand how much by way of network resources they will need to dedicate to the solution. A trusted vendor can help them with this undertaking.
Brusyo notes that working with a trusted partner is key to a successful implementation. This company can also help you decide which delivery model will best suit your needs.
“Many cloud services are outsourced or managed, meaning a third party will take care of a contact center's virtual solutions,” she wrote. “This is a great strategy for service units that aren't experienced with cloud computing or that want to limit the amount of management internal IT teams are tasked with. The one potential pitfall here is contact centers partnering with a provider that doesn't have a solid track record or necessary tools for powering multi-channel communications.”
Finding an experienced and flexible vendor is the most critical step a company can take in the pursuit of a cloud contact center model. From here, the contact center can take advantage of all the features and benefits a cloud solution has to offer: but only after it readies itself sufficiently for the challenge.
Edited by Alisen Downey