Hosted Contact Center (Strategic Focus)

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

Usagebased 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, 20062012 (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 20062012

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