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Cloud and Home Agent Solutions Keep Contact Center Operations Connected

By Amanda Ciccatelli, TMCnet Web Editor

Today, companies must find customer service strategies that minimize costs while at the same time improve service productivity. The most popular and innovative solutions include cloud delivery of applications and the work-at-home agent model. In order to reach the organization’s objectives in this competitive space, managers must understand these game-changing solutions.

Frost & Sullivan (News - Alert) published two reports entitled, "Navigating through the Contact Center Cloud: How Best to Move Customer Contact Processes to the Cloud" and "Bringing Customer Interactions Home," which delve into the benefits of home agent programs and cloud integration. According to the research, annual contact center cloud revenues will surpass premises-based solutions over the next ten years.

Overall, there are many benefits of moving customer contact applications to the cloud, including flexibility, speed and decreased cost, which is achieved by avoiding hardware, and instead paying for the functionality as a monthly fee. Also, the cloud optimizes customer IT resources by relieving customers of solution maintenance tasks and simplifying contractual obligations to providers.

“System managers must examine the business cases for replacing technologies, the right choices to make, as well as how best and when to implement those changes. This includes the core applications and how they are delivered, premises, and in the cloud, and the cloud delivery choices,” explained Frost & Sullivan Industry Analyst Brendan Read, in a statement.

The increasing obsolescence of on-premises solutions in contact centers is driving this trend, while manages are seeking ways to support new processes. This slow economic recovery is forcing organizations to defer expenses, and the cloud presents an effective solution.

Being delivered over the Internet, cloud solutions also provide a great fit for home agents. This demand is pushing more companies to source programs using at-home agents. This model has emerged to manage agent interactions affordably and flexibly. It attracts quality personnel, regardless of their location or their ability to commute and decreases costs by reducing facilities expenses.

So, organizations are figuring out how to utilize home agents to meet performance, productivity and security objectives.

"Ensuring home agents are connected with contact center operations, using technologies such as the cloud, is of paramount importance," said Read. "Desktop reporting displays, social media, discussion groups, and instant messaging are excellent tools to keep agents engaged with the broader teams."

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