Virtual Call Center

As the concept of cloud computing is rapidly gaining adoption, much information is available concerning the cost advantages, ease of upgrade, elimination of upfront costs and access to enhanced capabilities. In the call center space, you also need to look at the inefficiencies of the on-premise call center and compare this information with the potential of the virtual call center.

In a recent Contactual (News - Alert) blog, which is actually a two-part series, the writer takes a closer look at the inefficiencies of implementing and maintaining an on-premise call center. When evaluating these different elements, it’s easy to see where a virtual call center may offer greater benefits that go beyond the accessibility the cloud offers.

We already know that an on-premise call center demands expensive and cumbersome equipment that requires large capital expenditures and ongoing operational costs. Here, you can evaluate the architecture for the typical 100 seat on-premise call center and the associated costs and resources to support the deployment and operation.

In the deployment stage of the on-premise call center, components like CTI (News - Alert), IVR and recording require significant investments in terms of time and resources. These costs can typically amount to 60 percent of the total setup cost. The traditional architecture requires multiple client software components to support agent activities- something that is easily avoided in the virtual call center.

Beyond the costs associated with the hardware for each component (CTI, IVR, recording, etc.), hardware maintenance costs must be addressed every year. The on-premise call center must also rely on multiple IT specialists for maintenance and support. Server count can be reduced using virtualization, yet the complexities of the integration remain constant. The virtual call center helps to eliminate these costs and challenges.

The on-premise call center may require full redundancy and disaster recovery options, yet it is cost-prohibitive to include these options. In most environments, this requires duplicating components of the existing infrastructure and the organization can’t benefit from economies of scale. The traditional call center will typically budget and plan for upgrade and maintenance projects involving considerable system downtime, yet this cost is eliminated with the virtual call center.

The comparison between the on-premise and virtual call center gets down to cost. According to Contactual, the cost to setup and deploy the traditionally 100 seat call center can easily exceed $700,000 for a 100-seat environment. Annual maintenance and support can quickly exceed $200,000. For the mid-size call center, these costs alone can present the greatest barrier to entry; yet can be avoided with the virtual call center.