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

SUMMARY

Overview

Introduction

For the past 10 years the primary motivation to purchase hosted contact centers has been to reduce cost. But if growth is to continue, then vendors must look beyond cost as a marketing message. Vendors need to shift their marketing campaigns to address business processes.

Scope

• Market Opportunity: Hosted contact centers play a strategic role in an organization
• Technology Evolution: Many technology debates arise from new-generation software-based platforms
• Customer Impact: Vendors must know the pain points if they are to understand the customer
• Go to Market: How to position the solution to Service Providers and end-users

Highlights

Hosted contact centers were seen as solutions which were geared for the low end of the enterprise market. They were seen as providing basic contact center functionality, namely network routing. However, over the past 15 years hosted contact center technology has developed. The hosted model goes beyond pure network routing.

Reasons to Purchase

• Understand the key drivers in purchasing hosted contact centers.
• Discover the impact SIP will play on hosted contact centers.
• Realize the growing importance of Unified Communications in the context of hosted contact centers

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