Why Contact Centers Are Moving to the Cloud

According to a new study from International Data Corporation (IDC), the shift to a cloud-based contact center infrastructure is under way. Although most organizations still utilize an on-premises contact center, 77 percent are either using or evaluating a hosted or on-demand solution.

Why are more contact centers moving to the cloud? Research from the Aberdeen Group reveals compelling reasons:

• 64 percent of organizations believe the cloud allows them to better utilize their resources and meet the demands and expectations of today’s consumers. Instead of devoting resources to purchasing, installing and maintaining technology, organizations can focus on optimizing and improving their contact center solutions. An integrated cloud solution also enables organizations to seamlessly assist customers across multiple customer service channels, including phone, email, chat, text and social media.
• Cloud-based contact centers provide better return on investment and improve customer satisfaction. Faster deployments and minimal capital and maintenance costs result in faster ROI. With a cloud-based solution, annual costs related to customer turnover are 27 percent lower and revenue improves by 13 percent, while customer abandonment is 4.5 percent compared to 6.2 percent on premises.
• Downtime drops 36 percent. Because agents can access applications and data via the Internet from any location instead of being tied to a physical phone system, the contact center can be up and running with little or no disruption should a disaster occur. Also, data backup and updates to disaster recovery plans occur much more frequently with a cloud-based solution.

From a technological standpoint, dozens of new players have entered the contact center market, creating a more competitive landscape that has led to better infrastructure solutions, lower prices and less risk. The implementation of session initiation protocol and multiprotocol label switching data networks, along with lower bandwidth costs, are enabling the shift to a centralized infrastructure. Because cloud-based contact center services reside in applications and not the data center, they can be delivered anywhere, anytime, whether agents are working in a contact center, a different branch, offshore or at home.

While better solutions and more choices are available, organizations still need to proceed cautiously. A cloud-based contact center infrastructure doesn’t guarantee the results mentioned previously, but it can provide your organization with the tools to improve contact center performance and results if those tools are used properly. Moving to the cloud isn’t for everyone, and not all vendors and solutions are created equal. Evaluate solutions based on your business processes and goals, and make sure contracts and service-level agreements protect your interests.

LiveOps Engage is a cloud-based contact center solution designed to simplify the agent experience and fulfill customer service requests quickly, accurately and efficiently on any channel. Let IPC Technologies show you how LiveOps Engage can improve contact center performance and your bottom line.