Hosted contact center business to touch $ 1.2 billion by 2012

Contact centers that have already deployed their own equipment can still make use of managed services that work in sync with on-site equipment. Technological advances and favorable laws have enabled managed-services providers to offer a wide range of applications to both small contact centers that require self-service applications and large contact centers that operate from more than one location. In a managed services model, the network provider’s site holds significant amount of hardware and software, which frees up valuable space at the client organization.

Calls to the contact center can be delivered from the premises of the business; routing, IVR, and ASR functions can be managed by the network. Such a service made available by a hosted provider can either use IP for both calls and data or use IP for data transfer and route the calls through PSTN. Multiple contact centers linked by a single provider experience better communication amongst themselves and are able to provide better service to their customers. The key benefits of a hosted contact center include exposure to cutting edge communication technology; this is of particular significance for small companies that do not have the resources to access the latest contact center technology.

A business wishing to set up a contact center stands to save a significant amount by opting for a managed service, resources that would otherwise be spent on equipment, bandwidth, and training operatives can be used for improving the core competencies. The managed service provider takes care of upgrades and patches. As against a premise-based solution, a managed service allows a company to leverage economies of scale with respect to setting up the contact center. In a managed setup, intelligent network routing and self-service applications allow callers greater freedom for self-service. The intelligent network routing is quick and it ensures that the calls are answered by the most suitable agent.

In a premise-based scenario, the equipment has to be installed keeping peak usage in mind; as against this, in a managed service a business can pay for extra usage as and when it occurs. Thus, it ensures liquidity in a company, in a premise-based scenario, much of the capital would be blocked as an upfront investment. Considerations in selecting a service provider include the degree of control with the business, usability of the infrastructure already in place, scope of the SLA, time taken to go live, and support for open standards. With an outsourced business function, control over business applications can be difficult at times.

Companies wish to be able to improvise and respond to a business situation with speed, for this to happen they need to have control of the business applications so that changes can be initiated via the browser. A scalable contact center platform that integrates CPE allows businesses to view the managed services model as an enhancement rather than as a replacement for the existing infrastructure. The service level agreement (SLA) should clearly spell out the type and extent of service and penalties in case of under-performance. The speed with which a managed contact center goes live depends upon the functionalities desired; simple functionalities such as call routing can be implemented and used as a stepping stone to more complex functionalities like self-service.

The managed service provider should offer a technology platform that can be used with as many applications as possible; it should support both TDP and IP as well as open standards like VoiceXML. Support for open standards enables integration with applications that are premise-based and network-based. According to Frost and Sullivan, in the field of hosted CRM services, hosted contact centers are the fastest growing category. The study "North American Hosted Contact Center Market" by Frost and Sullivan reveals that the hosted contact center business in North America recorded a business of $ 127 million in the year 2005. The business is expected to be worth $ 1.2 billion by the year 2012. Companies that are doing well as hosted contact center providers include Five9 and Echopass.

Hosted contact center service providers are benefiting from the fact that businesses are realizing profits made from investments in 1999-2000 and are favoring hosted services for their quick deployment and the facility of managing remote operators.