Managing a complex on-premises IT contact center ecosystem — especially an aging one — on a fixed budget is an all-too-familiar challenge for many organizations. In fact, 32% of contact center leaders in one CCW Market Survey cited lack of budgetary support as the steepest challenge facing the long-term success of their contact center IT strategy. For most organizations, moving to the cloud is the logical remedy to the IT management headache. But for a handful of reasons, it doesn’t always make sense for an organization to drop their on-premises solution overnight and immediately begin investing in a cloud contact center.
Here are a few factors that might make you think twice about a contact center cloud migration:
- Significant contact center capital expenditure requires additional years to fully depreciate
- The organization already has achieved an economy of scale in its IT environment
- Security compliance requirements mandate an organization steers clear of multi-tenant clouds
In contact center environments where one or more of these factors are present, a jump to the cloud may need to be delayed or even pushed off indefinitely.
So, what is an organization to do? The benefits of cloud contact center platforms — such as automatic software updates and solution support, as well as continuous platform innovation — make them a particularly alluring option for organizations who are feeling the weight of IT and platform management.
In situations where cloud is not immediately a viable option, contact center managed services can help you strike the right balance between cost containment and IT efficiency.
What do managed services look like in the contact center?
The managed services model is the practice of contracting a partner to monitor and support functions related to the IT technology ecosystem. In the contact center, this approach can help address a number of challenges, including IT staffing costs, platform and hardware updates and issues, and effectively planning for the future state of your contact center.
Unlock similar IT and cost benefits to the cloud with contact center managed services
Fortunately, many of the features that draw organizations to the cloud can be achieved in on-prem environments by handing off day-to-day management to a third-party provider with the right experience and vision to drive your contact center operation.
For example, here are a few of the “cloud-like” benefits our clients tend to see from a custom managed services solution from TTEC Digital:
- Fixed monthly costs: With managed services, there are no unforeseen expenses like you might find in a self-managed on-prem environment. For organizations operating on a fixed IT budget, or those planning for a large long-term expenditure (such as an impending cloud migration), this can be particularly useful.
- Reduced operating expenses: Organizations can minimize their need for a large, highly-skilled IT team.
- Reduced risk of downtime: An experienced provider can help you keep up with important updates and eliminate patching issues or other critical errors.
- Streamlined license management: Across the largest IT ecosystems, managing a multitude of licenses can create opportunities for major system errors, especially if an internal IT team doesn’t have the bandwidth to manage it effectively.
- Enhanced security: Most leading-edge managed services solutions take the weight of maintaining security by providing systems monitoring, disaster recover, and data backup.
