How to choose the right partner for your cloud migration

When it comes to contact center innovation, one thing is clear: the future is in the cloud. But that’s where the easy decisions stop. Choosing the right partner for cloud migration in the modern cloud era comes with greater nuance and more powerful platforms to choose from than ever before. That’s great news for organizations looking to establish a solution that meets their exact needs, but it also means that due diligence upfront is crucial.

There are several important considerations to keep in mind during this initial decision-making phase, especially if you’re looking for a platform that meets both your short-term and long-term goals. We sat down with Chris Condon, our Chief Revenue Officer, who has over 20 years of cloud solutioning experience, to learn the most important factors in evaluating and selecting a cloud migration partner.

On choosing the right partner

Q: How does an organization make sure they’re choosing the right partner — not just for the technology’s potential, but also ensuring they have the support to maximize its value.

A: Because organizations will be evaluating multiple platforms for use in their cloud migration, they know that they're facing a transition regardless. They must start with a strategic partner whose implementation experience spans the leading platforms in the marketplace. A strong cloud migration partner can not only help them with the practical comparisons of the pros and cons specific to their business, but can also be with them through the implementation because they have the experience – no matter which platform they choose, rather than having to choose a new implementation partner for each set of new technologies implemented.

On narrowing down the options

Q: What challenges do most organizations face when they're trying to narrow down their options for choosing the right cloud migration partner?

A: One of the things that's always a consideration is if there are any preexisting enterprise relationships with GSIs (Global Systems Integrators). So, one of the first things that they'll face is possibly a proclivity to try and consolidate services to an enterprise GSI relationship they have. While GSIs have deep practices around systems like Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and other enterprise infrastructure systems, in the case of CX systems and particularly Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS), a business must select a services partner that has deep experience in that space that's informed with the practical realities about the technologies and operational delivery for CX.

On what to ask potential partners

Q: What are some of the questions an organization should ask when contemplating partners for cloud migration?

A: I would recommend asking questions like:

• What is your experience integrating with other platforms we have in our environment, including things like WFO platforms and CRM experience with the CCaaS platform itself?
• Do you have a few reference clients who went through similar implementations that we can talk to?
• What certifications do you have in the platform we’re looking to migrate to?
• What other relevant experience can you bring to help us with the migration?
• How long has your company been in business?
• What is the average tenure of your employees?
• How many cloud migrations have you completed, and in what timeframe were they finished?

On being proactive with your cloud migration

Q: So how can you plan to be more proactive rather than reactive with a cloud migration?

A: For the most part, the cloud has solutions that are going to continually evolve at a much faster pace than a legacy platform. The legacy perpetual license buyers have been used to much larger significant groupings of functionality updates and much further spread-out version updates. With the cloud, they're going to have agility they didn't have previously, and they will continually benefit from that agility as that cloud platform enhances instead of being beholden to large-scale version increases. They'll be able to focus their IT resources on innovation and capability versus infrastructure management. That's a huge shift in terms of their IT expenses. In the past, there was a disproportionate amount of IT investment focused on managing data centers and infrastructure. The organizations that do invest with a partner, but also invest in their own internal IT organizations and services organizations, need to have an innovation and capability mindset versus an infrastructure management mindset.

On making data easier to organize and analyze

Q: How does a cloud migration make data easier to organize and analyze?

A: The answer to this varies by platform because different platform publishers may be leveraging the power and scalability of the cloud differently. The power of the cloud is more around analyzing that data because now you can leverage cloud computing and take advantage of AI, machine learning, and other high-intensity services from a computing standpoint. It's just easier to apply those kinds of tools across your data set when you're leveraging cloud.

At TTEC Digital, we have the purview across multiple of the leading cloud CCaaS platforms in the marketplace, so we can move with our clients where they move. We also understand how to focus on capability versus platform because we sit across multiple platforms. We’re informed by over 40 years of contact center operating reality that we bring to our technology design.

Because we have experience with all the other major platforms that make up a CX technology environment at any given client, all those things have to work together: CRM workforce tools, data analytics tools, journey orchestration tools. Some are within the cloud CCaaS platforms, and they may use third parties, some must be brought in as an additional capability. We understand how to choose which components to use for what, and how to make them all work together. TTEC Digital has tremendous intellectual property in the marketplace, specifically focused on integration and connectors across CX platforms. We built that business based on things that we saw our clients needed over the years to accomplish their cloud goals.

On IT strategy shifts and hyperscalers

Q: What do you see shifting in organizations' IT strategies and relationships with hyperscalers?

A: We’re finding a systemic shift in the IT strategy at most enterprises that has to consider their relationship with hyperscalers. But we're in a unique position to help clients think through managing to their enterprise intentions in terms of their hyperscale strategy, or commitments from data storage and compute. But translate that into the practical realities of optimizing their CX technology platforms. We're uniquely positioned to help ensure that that strategy translates into the CX technology environment, but not at the expense of running a best-in-class CX technology environment.

On how TTEC Digital can help you migrate

Q: Why is TTEC Digital uniquely positioned to help organizations with their cloud migrations?

A: One of the many advantages of technology is how TTEC Digital works with the leading CCaaS platforms in the market. We bring the know-how across multiple platforms informed by TTEC's unique position of over 40 years of operating experience.

We can help organizations mitigate risk and optimize outcomes in the investment they're making on the move to cloud. Particularly in a case where they're moving from a legacy platform to new cloud offerings from those partners, it's really advantageous when they work with the services partner that has a deep understanding of the current state platform that the client's working with as well as having been first mover and a go-to market partner on their new cloud offerings. We can help de-risk that migration from the legacy state to the future state, while also ensuring they optimize the outcomes from the investment they're making in cloud because we were among the first to go with that publisher to market with their new cloud offering.