Hosted Contact Centers: What Triggers Comprehensive Investment (Strategic Focus)

Table of Contents

• Overview
  • Catalyst
  • Summary
• Key Messages
  • Unified Communications and hosted contact centers make a formidable partnership
  • IP in hosted contact centers has led to an increased take-up in SIP architectures
  • Hosted contact center are business not technology solutions
• Table of Contents
• Table of figures
• Table of tables
• Market Opportunity: Hosted contact centers play a strategic role in an organization
  • The hosted model has evolved over the past 15 years
    • A quick history on the contact center
    • The hosted contact center arrives and further disrupts the market
    • The hosted contact center market is set to grow by 45.3% over the next 5 years
  • The drivers for hosted contact centers is a combination of meeting organizational change and technology requirements
    • The nascent hosted Unified Communications market is a hook to bait enterprises
      • The product lifecycle for hosted UC will begin through hosting component parts
      • Hosted UC and Hosted Contact Centers have one major commonality: reducing OpEx and CapEx
      • Vendors need to promote hosted UC hook to reel in mid-sized contact centers
    • Business continuity and resilience is an important hook for vendor' s to bait contact centers
    • The mid-market will be most vocal for hosted contact centers, particularly in the US and Western Europe
      • Multi-tenanted environments will be more attractive to cost-conscious SMBs
    • Economic slowdown will accelerate uptake of hosted contact centers
• Technology Evolution: Many technology debates arise from new-generation software-based platforms
  • The migration from a premise-based to a hosted contact center
    • The next step in the evolution of managed services is the deployment of a hosted contact center
      • Hybrid Solutions are a valid alternative to pure hosted environments
      • Multi-tenant platforms are not complex but uptake is slow in WE
  • The evolution of the PSTN to IP plays an important role in the development of hosted contact centers
    • A vendor' s dummies guide to contact centers in a PSTN environment
    • Dummies guide to contact centers in an IP environment
      • Hosted IP contact centers rely on multi-tenanted environments
  • The function of IP in the hosted contact center raises the debate between SIP and H.323
    • Key differences between SIP and H.323
      • Dummies guide to H.323
      • Dummies guide to SIP
    • SIP vs H.323: which horse wins in the multi-channel and hosted environment?
    • Over time CTI sales will drop as SIP becomes common in hosted contact center environments
      • Quick overview of CTI
      • CTI in a SIP environment
  • New applications have evolved to take advantage of hosted contact center platforms
    • Workforce optimization will become more accessible in a hosted environment
    • Middleware vendors acquire contact center vendors to facilitate customer interaction routing
• Customer Impact: Vendors must know the inhibitors to purchasing hosted solutions if they are to understand the customer
  • Existing contractual arrangements can hinder hosted uptake
    • SPs offering complementary services should enhance existing contractual arrangements
  • Enterprises that entering into arrangements with new entrants is a growing concern among SPs
    • Vendors and SPs need to market a transparent solution to end-users.
    • Sell business solutions not technology solutions
  • For vendors contact center de-centralization is good for short term revenue, but hosted environments lead to long term revenues
    • Hosted contact centers can bridge the gap in asset consolidation post-merger/acquisition
  • The hidden cost of a contact center is driving up the price of hosted models and repelling users
    • Customers do not understand the true cost associated with a hosted contact center
    • Contact centers are a large drain on an enterprise' s cash flow
    • Customers are price sensitive and vendors need to be able to push the right buttons with proper purchasing options
      • Usage - based pricing for contact centers
      • Concurrent verses log-in pricing
      • Bundled minutes and contact center services
      • As a result of recent acquisitions hosted CRM vendors have influenced hosted contact center prices
• Go to Market: How to position the solution to Service Providers and end-users
  • The hosted contact center supply-chain revealed
    • Vendors explaining the different hosted delivery models can confuse end-users
      • Vendors as implementers in the value chain is a new phenomenon to the hosted contact center
      • Combining vendor, SP and consultancy firms competencies can strengthen a hosted solution
  • The increasing market for mobile solutions will impact go-to-market strategies
    • Mobile solutions will transform the hosted contact center
      • Enterprises will continue to invest in all mobility technologies over the next two years
  • Recommendations
    • Vendors, SPs and ASPs need to understand the business process to successfully sell hosted solutions
    • Vendors should invest in SIP as hosted IP contact centers will grow in importance
    • Vendors must market Unified Communications to hosted contact centers
• APPENDIX
  • Definitions
    • Automatic call distributor (ACD)
    • Capital Expenditure (CapEx)
    • Computer telephony integration (CTI)
    • Field worker
    • Operational Expenditure (OpEx)
    • Private Branch Exchange (PBX)
  • Methodology
  • Further reading
  • Ask the analyst
  • Datamonitor consulting
  • Disclaimer
  • List of Tables
    • Table 1: Hosted Agent Positions, 2006 - 2012 (000s)
    • Table 2: Typical contact center costs in developed markets
  • List of Figures
    • Figure 1: Call flow in a traditional contact center
    • Figure 2: The pace of hosted contact center agent positions will accelerate between 2006 - 2012
    • Figure 3: The hidden costs to contact center implementation
    • Figure 4: UC has the ability to connect a customer to any part of the organization by any means
    • Figure 5: Hosted UC Product Lifecycle
    • Figure 6: Evolution and sizebands of hosted contact center services in US and WE
    • Figure 7: Evolution of hosted contact center services
    • Figure 8: Multi-channeled hosted contact center components: SIP and H.323 comparison
    • Figure 9: Regional differences in barriers to uptake of hosted contact centers
    • Figure 10: Hosted contact center value chain