Contact centers rely heavily on software solutions to help with the efficient completion of day-to-day procedures. Such solutions provide applications for call management, customer data management, work schedules, call routing, queuing, call volume forecasting and so much more.

These contact center software solutions ensure that the contact center can productively serve its purpose for the organization. Traditionally, these solutions have been premise-based systems, or software programs that reside on the contact center’s mainframe. While this platform has been conducive to promoting efficient operations, it does not necessarily promote smooth sailing for the IT department.

Premise-based systems often require significant attention from the IT staff. They must be able to maintain the telephony infrastructure, and the hardware and software to run the contact center. In doing so, the firm must focus much of its time and energy on a division of the organization that already drains a significant amount of financial resources.

 

Hosted contact center software solutions are not a new concept in the industry. Traditionally, however, these solutions were viewed as the option for smaller contact centers that needed specific functionality but lacked the financial power to implement a premise-based solution.

Those larger centers that enjoyed robust financial backing also tended to have more advanced call routing and queuing requirements that demanded premise-based solutions to ensure the functions were kept in-house. As a result, entire IT groups were designated for contact center software support only.

 

For contact centers today, the hosted contact center software options are functionally and architecturally strong enough to enable multiple tenants to run on the same server. This capability can increase scalability and functionality. No longer must the burden of installation and maintenance be on the end-user organization. 

For the enterprise that supports dispersed locations, IT no longer must support the configuration, implementation and control of on-premise solutions as the only option to provide the necessary functionality, security and control to ensure seamless consistency in operations. In the past, that was the only option as hosted contact center software solutions proved to be functionally inferior and options were limited at best.

In a premise-based contact center environment, the IT staff can spend so much of its time focusing on the software applications element of the overall system that other areas will suffer. In an environment with too much to maintain and too few hands to perform maintenance, the delivery of a high quality experience for each and every customer is a challenge that becomes too difficult to deliver.

Turning to a hosted contact center software solution can enable the IT staff to focus its efforts on supporting the activities of the contact center while the applications are managed by those who know them best. The result can be an efficient and productive contact center that delivers a satisfying experience for the customer every time.