Thanks to myriad benefits, such as lower cost of ownership and flexibility, more organizations are shifting contact center technology from on-premises systems to the cloud, according to a new study from DMG Consulting. While this might spell gold for cloud-based solution vendors, there are still pain points to overcome.
DMG surveyed 169 enterprise, contact center, IT, operations, sales and marketing executives, managers, and leaders in organizations of all sizes, from 47 countries and 40 U.S. states. The number of organizations deploying cloud-based solutions skyrocketed from 38.1 percent in 2010 to 62.4 percent, according to DMG findings.
Of those companies that are not using cloud-based solutions, 45.4 percent said that they are planning to use them within the next 18 months. DMG said that it expects 2014 to be the best year for making contact center investments since the end of the recent Great Recession.
The primary channels contact centers are using are led by the phone (97.1 percent), followed by email (90.4 percent), Web chat (66.3 percent), and self-service (47.1 percent).
When companies were asked what channels they planned to add in the next 18 months, DMG found that Web chat, voice, email, instant messaging, and Twitter made up the top five.
The survey also asked respondents why they wanted to purchase cloud-based solutions. The top reasons for implementing cloud-based solutions were: ease of scaling up and down, avoidance of major capital investments, and decreased total cost of ownership. “With cloud-based solutions you pay by the drink…with a cloud-based solution you pay for what you use,” Fluss says.
Other reasons respondents were looking to buy cloud-based solutions included the resulting decreased reliance on internal IT resources.
As far as the biggest concerns organizations have about purchasing cloud-based solutions, security, reliance on vendors, and connectivity and quality of service were cited the most.
Since so many companies of all sizes are adopting cloud-based solutions, vendors need to do a better job of addressing issues such as security and platform reliability, says Fluss.
In a Q&A, IDC analyst Melissa O'Brien talks about the adoption surge in the cloud contact center services market.