CCaaS: Truth Versus Hype

Over the past few years, any enterprise considering an investment in contact center technology has examined the features and benefits of Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) solutions. The number of options in the market have increased in recent years, with lists of features and tools that can confuse the decision process.

While there are many providers to choose from, some only handle certain types of functions, and enterprises are forced to piece together solutions to meet their needs. If your enterprise decides to invest in CCaaS, what should you expect?

Cost Reduction: The total cost of ownership (TCO) for CCaaS is one of the first benefits that causes enterprises to consider it. Do those savings truly materialize?

Initially, the subscription-based pay model of as-a-service technology will offer some savings because there’s no investment in hardware or maintenance. When tracked over a three-year period, on-premise solutions tend to be close to those achieved with CCaaS. In addition, while enterprises may see a reduction of costs in areas like IT resources, there may be more spending required for provider management.

Scalability: Enterprise IT is often attracted to CCaaS because of its increased scalability. If a contact center needs to add agents or increase their call capacity, a change can be made within minutes. Most solutions offer a high level of flexibility to pay only for the licenses or capacity actually used.

By contrast, a premise-based solution could require days, or weeks, to expand capacity and may require expensive hardware investments. Once the changes are made, the enterprise may not be able to reduce it back to initial levels.

Agility: Updates are conducted without any downtime scheduled and tend to occur frequently. While you will receive a warning that the update is about to occur, you likely won’t have any influence over when it happens. If you happen to experience a problem with new features offered in the update, a rollback won’t be possible unless all customers are voicing a similar complaint.

One benefit of this agility is that there is an attitude focused on better, new and different features, so you’ll often receive new capabilities that you didn’t yet know you needed or wanted.

CCaaS is also easy to deploy, with little hardware to set up. Particularly if the CCaaS is utilizing a public cloud instance, the solution can be ready almost immediately if the network and desktop environment are ready to support it.

Enterprises should be careful to leave ample time to test the CCaaS solution before full implementation occurs. While some providers may advertise their solution as “set it and forget it,” it’s important to take time for testing and training so that front line employees are comfortable utilizing the new technology.If you’re in the process of considering CCaaS solutions,contact usat AMD Technology. We can help you separate the hype from the reality and help you choose the right technology for your enterprise.