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The cloud has revolutionized the way software is purchased and used by businesses, and rightly so. It enables firms to pay for software on a per-month, per-user basis and avoid having to upgrade and maintain hardware.

Like most industries, the contact center is discovering the benefits of the cloud. Increasingly, contact center software solution providers are offering cloud-based offerings for customer relations management, predictive dialing and contact center management systems.

There is a downside to the cloud, however, and this comes in the form of monthly subscriptions that sound low on a monthly basis, but add up to a more substantive investment than if they had purchased software outright.

Contact Center Solutions provider, Spitfire, has recognized the issue and now is offering a predictive dialer solution that delivers on much of the benefit of cloud solutions but without the downside of perpetual subscription fees.

The company a solution it calls FlexPay Predictive, which is a predictive dialing solution that enables a business to pay a low monthly fee like cloud solutions, but then after 12 months the contact center owns the entire solution and no longer has a monthly spend for the software.

Prior to the full purchase of the Spitfire solution, businesses have no obligation, no contract, and pay month-to-month just as if they were paying for a cloud subscription service. The only difference is that instead of this subscription being indefinite, the business owns the software after a year of continuous use.

This model saves contact centers an average of $5 per agent per month, according to the company. After four years, this savings amounts to roughly $3,385 per agent. That’s a substantive savings.

The Spitfire dialer does not skimp on features, either; it offers five dialing modes, including predictive, quick connect that gives a one-to-one dialing ratio, fixed, preview and manual. It offers unlimited lines, unlimited lists, list priority and stacking, workgrounds, email recording by disposition, role-based users, and a bevy of other features.

At the same time, unlike the cloud, it doesn’t create ongoing spend that is indefinite. This allows the benefits of a capital expense for software but in an operating expense form.

The best of both worlds!

While there still are reasons why some contact centers might want a cloud-based solution, Spitfire has created a compelling solution that makes sense for many contact center operations.