The Cloud for the Small Contact Center: What to Consider and How to Move Forward

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It's been the reality for some time. For years now, mid-size to large contact centers have had more mature, innovative cloud offerings steered in their direction by established contact center providers. Small centers with 50 agents or fewer, however, have had to settle for less functionality, less reliability, and questionable security from providers who aren't as proven.

Yet it's interesting that most of today's contact centers have fewer than 50 agents, and often have the same core requirements for serving customers as their larger counterparts. It's rather puzzling, then, that this prevailing small center market has been so underserved in the cloud, and for so long.

The good news is, this small center dynamic is changing. Increasingly, market leaders are looking beyond the large contact center and offering powerful, simple, and cost-effective cloud solutions designed specifically for small contact center operations. Not surprisingly, these offerings are inherently more mature and scalable, meaning small centers no longer have to settle. Instead, contact centers that are considered small only because of their agent counts now have access to the same cloud platforms as the big boys. For these small centers, the cloud is the great equalizer.

Accordingly, many small contact centers are asking the obvious question. "Is the cloud the right move for us?" Exploring such a move is imperative. And while a cloud-based solution isn't necessarily a better option for every small center - or maybe more so, the timing just isn't right - many centers are deciding it is. Still, such a move isn't something to take lightly. It's important to do your homework first, and do it in a constructive and sequential manner that can help ensure a successful cloud deployment.

Qualify the Cloud for your Small Center

Corporate strategy usually drives technology decisions in the contact center, and even for small centers, the cloud might help address pressing strategic imperatives. To see if that's the case for your operations, begin asking some basic qualifying questions.

• Is providing exceptional customer service a priority, and will it differentiate our business?
   
• Has the customer experience suffered due to a lack of resources, expertise, and budget?
   
• How can we offer the same level of service as large contact centers without the same IT army?
   
• For service processes, is there a need to deploy new capabilities more rapidly?
   
• Can we accomplish more by outsourcing the job of keeping systems up-to-date and running?

If you determine that the cloud does make sense for your small center, the next step is to begin dialogue with cloud contact center providers. With an estimated 100-plus providers worldwide, the list of potential vendors is long, so it's important to narrow the field in the most expedient manner possible.

What to Look for in a Small Center Cloud Solution

Five key solution guidelines are common throughout the cloud industry, and can help in your evaluation.

Level of maturity - are the technology and provider proven?

Breadth of functionality - what applications are supported?

Simplicity - how simple will it be to turn-up and manage?

Risk level - what risk reduction measures are available?

Scalability - how scalable is the solution in terms of agents and functionality?

Important Next Steps

Once you've qualified the cloud and been educated on viable options, build the business case and see if providers let you test drive their solution. Also for each vendor on your shortlist, ask pressing questions about their security policies, their deployment methods, the monitoring tools they use, and so on. The more exhaustive your evaluation process, the better your cloud solution and the service experience you provide your customers.

As the great equalizer, the cloud can help your small center play big and turn customer service into a competitive weapon. It is therefore definitely worth exploring.

Visit www.inin.com to read more about moving your small contact center to the cloud in "A Practical Guide to Understanding if the Cloud is Right for your Small Contact Center," from which this article is adapted. Then learn more about the Interactive Intelligence Communications as a Service^SM Small Center Edition, CaaS Small Center^SM.