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COVID-19 Pandemic Supercharges Growth of Cloud Contact Center Applications Market
The global cloud contact center applications market was already on fire, and then the pandemic happened. According to a study compiled by Nemertes Research, about 59 percent of contact centers around the world allowed at least some of their staff work from a home office prior to COVID-19. Once the pandemic hit, that rose to 74.1 percent as lockdowns and quarantines meant companies needed to close some offices and instead build up virtual call centers.
Research organization Frost & Sullivan (News - Alert) recent put a number to the predicted growth of the technology that supports virtual contact centers. The group analysis finds that the global cloud contact center applications market will reach $7.4 billion by 2026 from $2.7 billion in 2019, driven by the rapid migration from on-premise to cloud application solutions. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has propelled the demand for workforce engagement management and analytics applications, said the company. This increases the deployment of cloud/hybrid setups and creates opportunities to leverage digital solutions that support work-at-home agents (WAHA), self-service bots, and artificial intelligence-enabled solutions.
"The increasing demand for cloud solutions and intense market competition have led to cloud-to-cloud migration,” said Sherrel Roche, Information & Communication Technology Industry Principal at Frost & Sullivan, in a statement. “Cloud technology allows vendors to offer contact center solutions on a subscription basis, which enables client organizations to purchase the seats and functionality they need and change the configuration in line with operational needs dynamically.”
The Nemertes Research study found that even one the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have abated, 70.7 percent of businesses are likely to continue allowing agents to work from home in some capacity. With agents at home, companies are realizing side benefits such as lower overhead costs, larger labor pools since geographic restraints are eliminated, and improved workforce flexibility. Agents themselves are experiencing lower costs without the need to commute as well as better work-life balance, something that many younger workers have cited as of vital importance to them in their career choices.
Edited by Maurice Nagle