Contact Centers Rapidly Abandoning On-Premises Technologies
31% of contact center respondents have already moved their service to the cloud – an increase of 6.5 points in the last year. 89% of on-premises contact centers plan to evaluate a cloud service; of those, nearly seven in 10 (68%) will do so in the next 18 months. Additional findings note that software-driven technology needs such as omnichannel, and CRM integration are top investment priorities in 2019. – SIP Trunking News
The technology-driven environment and high competition have pushed business to pay attention to the growing customer demands, optimize the existing IT ecosystem and embrace a technology that guarantees seamless customer experience. Retaining customers is a key step to stay ahead of the complex competitive environment. That’s the reason contact centers are rapidly abandoning on-premises technologies and migrating cloud-based software and technologies. Thousands of companies, all across the world, have moved away from cumbersome, hardware-centric systems to modern, application-based solutions.
Let us find out the reasons companies are moving to more flexible customer service call center with solutions designed for the modern consumer.
Lack of flexibility
An on-premise customer service call center software lacks flexibility. It means whenever administrators, supervisors, representatives and contact center agents of a company are off the premises, they lose access to the tools. On-premise call center service provider doesn’t offer agents to enjoy the liberty of working from home, remote agents, emergency sign-ons, easy scaling and being present at dispersed locations.
In addition, on-premise software needs installation and regular maintenance for the supporting hardware, like direct lines and PBX phones. Though these alternatives aid additional reliability, it mars the flexibility.
If we consider a cloud-based system, it provides all the functionalities of on-premise software and is more scalable in multiple ways. For example, whenever you need to remove or add agents in your contact centers due to seasonal factors, you need to get associated with your service provider simply.
No mobility
When contact center uses on-premise software, the agents are required to be stations at on-site so that they can log into the system. Managers and supervisors of contact center need to be physically present to monitor calls, check reports and keep a close watch on everyday activities. On the contrary, a cloud- based contact solution allows managers and agents to enjoy working from any location. One need to log into the system from anywhere and with reliable internet connectivity, it can be operated hassle-free. Remote agents save not only property cost but also money on hardware.
Lower scalability for business growth
As the contact center grows, it becomes required to scale up your center to meet the demand of increasing workforce. The scalability of on-premise system is sluggish as it needs new investment to be made in new hardware and architecture. However, cloud-based contact center offers scalable software system which is dependent on data servers. It doesn’t require external investment on new hardware systems.
No provision of disaster recovery
On-site contact center solutions may seem reliable, but we often overlook the fact that what would happen in case of a disaster? A natural disaster, like fire, or flood may affect the direct phone lines. Conversely, a cloud-based contact center is powered by disaster recovery features. Because the cloud-based software runs on the internet, there is no need to worry about unforeseen events that may affect or disrupt phone services. Many cloud-based contact center offers several layers of redundancy and backup mechanism, and so, a failure on any point is scarcely going to affect the contact center.
Cloud is not just about buying individual services, it now means having a strategy for multiple services and make them work together to offer greater efficiency.