A hosted contact center offers all the utilities associated with running a customer service outfit with a pay-as-you-go plan. This means that managers don’t need to buy prohibitively expensive hardware, instead they can add software as needed and get deeper in their involvement as they grow.

Most hosted contact centers offer all the major tools of a call center, including ACD, WFM, IVR, and unified messaging as well as stats and analytics for agent quality assurance. At this point, there really isn’t a premise based program that doesn’t have a less expensive and more flexible hosted option.

There are several advantages to hosted contact centers, namely minimal startup costs with virtually no equipment to buy, flexibility in usage and elimination of maintenance. Because the software is constantly upgraded and maintained on a provider’s end, companies get the benefit of newer and more effective software without the need to rip and replace components. Call center managers also enjoy worry free tech support that grants constant availability for customer service. This leaves managers more time to deal with office issues. Literally every function relegated to hardware can now be processed from a remote location, using hosted call center technology.

While relinquishing control has always been a pain point for customer service operations moving to a hosted solutions, the benefits were too numerous to recant. A recent Frost and Sullivan poll estimates that revenue in the hosted call center sector is likely to reach $1.5 billion by 2015. A huge portion of this growth will likely be due to the rise of the home agent, a trend fueled by the adoption of hosted contact centers.

Coupled with the advantages of the hosted solution, home agents offer deployments more time zone coverage and the ability to recruit skilled agents. The strategy also eliminates the operational costs of running an office passing further savings on to the hosted call center manager.

Hosted contact centers offer a compelling alternative for communications service providers that need to go to market quickly with little up-front cost. The software also allows customer service professionals the ability to employ a home-based agent strategy that could take savings even further. When upgrading your call center considering an on demand option can result in substantial savings and flexibility for your business. 

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO West 2011, taking place Sept. 13-15, 2011, in Austin, Texas. ITEXPO (News - Alert) offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations. It's also where service providers learn how to profitably roll out the services their subscribers are clamoring for – and where resellers can learn about new growth opportunities. To register, click here.

Chris DiMarco is a Web Editor for TMCnet. He holds a master's degree in journalism from Quinnipiac University. Prior to joining TMC (News - Alert) Chris worked with e-commerce provider Suresource as a contact center representative and development analyst. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page. Follow him on Twitter @cpdimarco.

Edited by Jamie Epstein