Cloud-based vs Hosted Contact Centre Solutions | What’s Right For You?
Not long ago, every contact centre operated on-premise or hosted technology. Over the years, contact centres have migrated from these technologies to cloud-based platforms to deliver a more agile, flexible, and cost-effective customer experience.
Thanks to rapid digital transformation, rising customer expectations, and a global shift towards remote working, contact centres have been propelled to fundamentally change the way they operate.
If you’ve been considering whether or not to move on from your on-premise system and migrate to a cloud-based solution, read on to discover which one is right for you.
Firstly, What Is A Cloud-based Contact Centre?
A cloud-based contact centre utilises the power of cloud servers to host communications through voice, webchat, email, and many more digital touchpoints within a single application.
A common misconception is that cloud-based and hosted solutions offer the exact same capabilities, the only difference is where it’s managed. This may have been true years ago, but as more and more vendors leave behind their on-premises software to invest in emerging cloud software, their capabilities have become very different. In particular, Talkdesk believes cloud-based solutions will dominate the future of contact centres.
Now, cloud-based solutions go far beyond hosted technology with next-generation functionality that allows for multi-channel communication, third-party integrations, and increased reliability.
Cloud-based solutions are often offered under a comprehensive subscription service called Contact Centre as a Service (CCaaS) as opposed to UCaaS which we cover in our Top UCaaS suppliers blog. In this blog below, we compare CCaaS solutions against hosting your own hardware and software; whether that is on your company’s premises, or fully owned but managed and located at a third party’s site.
Cloud-based vs Hosted Contact Centre Solutions
Set-Up
Hosted Contact Centres
On-premises contact centres can take months to install after your company purchases the hardware, sets up the infrastructure and installs the necessary software. This long implementation involves a degree of risk with operational disruptions, supply delays, and requires specialist resources to carry out a large launch.
Cloud-based Contact Centres
Cloud-based contact centres are fast to deploy as they require minimal or no installation of physical infrastructure. With vendors offering set-up, and managing the maintenance and storage of servers, the implementation process is often seamless with lower risk.
Upfront & Ongoing Costs
Hosted Contact Centres
On-premise solutions require upfront costs for physical hardware installation, licenses and secure, controlled storage. The recurring costs to manage the on-site infrastructure is much higher than cloud-based solutions. Ageing hardware may need to be replaced every 5 years, and consistent upgrades are required to maintain security and performance.
Cloud-based Contact Centres
Cloud-based contact centres are set up without infrastructure in your network as it’s completely managed by a third-party vendor, so that most commonly means no SIP trunks and no Session Border Controllers for your business, all of which are costly to buy and manage. This means you can create a virtual contact centre with low investment and far reduced risk as the vendor is providing and managing the hardware..
Recurring costs are flexible with monthly billing and pay-as-you-go plans, where you only pay for usage. Ongoing system upgrades are managed for you to future-proof your business against security threats, operational inefficiencies and financial loss due to breakdowns. You can forget the downtime of version upgrades, that’s a concept from on-premises infrastructure.
Integrations
Hosted Contact Centres
Similar to the initial set-up of on-premises software, any integrations or add-ons to the system are time consuming to install, require more resources, and are often costly.
Many vendors have shifted their efforts to cloud-based technology to keep up with digital transformation. Due to this, on-premises systems may have fewer choices for third-party integrations – although it’s still possible.
Cloud-based Contact Centres
Most cloud-based contact centres come with pre-built integrations and application programming interface’s (APIs) so businesses can add channels as they need with effortless connection. They can be quick too, sometimes added in just hours!
By offering robust connections with modern cloud-based applications like accounting software, customer relationship management (CRM) systems and reporting platforms, businesses can optimise their productivity and organisational agility for enhanced customer experiences.
Scalability & Flexibility
Hosted Contact Centres
With a great deal of upfront expenditure, resources and downtime to implement traditional software, you may be constrained to certain licenses and hardware that make it difficult to adapt to your business needs.
Agents are also restricted to where they work with physical infrastructure that is only accessible on-site. This will limit the recruitment of future agents to a specific location.
Cloud-based Contact Centres
Cloud-based technology has become especially favourable due to its flexibility and unlimited scalability. Cloud-based solutions continually adapt to meet evolving customer expectations and offer businesses the ability to scale up and down depending on their business needs and goals.
On top of this, agents are given greater flexibility to work from anywhere that has internet access. This opens up the opportunity for global expansion, increased talent pools and diverse teams.
Reliability & Resilience
Hosted Contact Centres
Businesses may choose to keep their servers local to avoid latency and to have more control over their data and security. Although this may be true for some on-premises software, businesses must be mindful of whether they’re running outdated systems, or otherwise known as legacy systems.
Legacy systems pose risks to businesses as they’re unsupported by vendors. This is becoming more and more common with on-premises software as vendors steer towards cloud-based solutions. To learn more about the risks of Legacy systems we cover that in A CyberSecurity Guide to Legacy Systems.
Cloud-based Contact Centres
Rather than relying on local servers, cloud-based contact centres are distributed across multiple servers around the world. This means they often provide far better uptime and availability compared to on-premises solutions and carry less risk of security breaches, breakdowns and data loss.
As cloud-based contact centres utilise the internet, it’s essential for businesses to have a strong and reliable internet connection for the software to operate at optimum efficiency.
Are you ready to make the move to a cloud-based solution?
Outdated on-premises systems struggle to keep up with the growing demands of agile, flexible and accessible collaboration in contact centres, but it’s not always easy to choose which cloud-based solution is right for your business.
If you’re ready to consider a cloud-based contact centre, it’s important to get in touch with an expert to ensure you choose the best solution for your business.
Here at Great Outcomes, we have the expertise to guide you through the process seamlessly with minimal disruption to your business. Get in touch today to learn more.
