Cloud Contact Center vs On-Premise: Which one is better for your Contact Center?

When a company decides to implement a Contact Center Solution, one of the most important decisions that they have to make is whether to select cloud contact center or on-premise. A decision that doesn’t come easy in a world where even the meaning of cloud-based and on-premise call centers is not well established in the start-up community. 

Since the intent of this article is to understand which out of the two options is best suited for a business, let us start from the very basics – the guarding concepts. 

When a business opts for an on-premise contact center, they take on the full responsibility of every stringed customer care task. They own their software, hardware and network to simply manage all the calls. And, it is up to them to purchase, evaluate, install and maintain all the systems. While, when companies choose Cloud Contact Center Solution, they get the leverage of not investing in the whole purchase and maintenance of the local servers on their premises. 

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In the case, Cloud Based Contact Center Software customer care system integration, all they have to do is a partner with a skilled team of cloud contact service providers, who then set up the complete contact center services within a short time. There on, everything from the dialers to the CRM is present over the cloud and agents get full access to the contact center services, anytime anywhere. This is also called Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS), analogous to SaaS.

With the concepts and extended definitions of both on-premise contact centers and cloud contact centers now attended to, it is now time to look at what differentiates them from each other, before we move on to the factors that you must keep into consideration when making the choice for your business

Well. First thing first.

The differentiating factors that we just saw are sufficiently hinting at the fact that cloud-based contact centers are in many ways proving themselves to have come at a stage where it is time for on-premise contact centers to face the same future that all legacy systems eventually face – extinction. 

So, to answer the question that we started the piece with – Is it time for businesses to let go of their on-premise contact center –
Yes. It is time.
To back the now-becoming-a-fact further, let us look at some of the benefits that the on-cloud customer care system provides, in the next section.

While the primary reason that businesses across industries quote for switching to cloud customer care systems is that its mechanism helps them offer something that is a key differentiator in any business – Real-Time State of the Art Customer Experience. 

• 73% of Cloud Contact Center Solutions cite that the cloud provides increased uptime, which is a primary driver of adoption.
• 72% of survey respondents cite that access to applications that would be much more costly is a chief motivating factor for moving to the cloud contact center model.
• 70% of contact center users state that security and compliance are motivating factors for investing in cloud technology.
• 16% of contact center buyers indicate they will move their contact center systems to the cloud in the future.

Sources: Forrester, Aberdeen, GetVoip

The cloud solution help businesses move with relative ease in the direction of an Omnichannel Contact Center Solution customer care center which links all the touch-points of a customer, giving them the opportunity cum ease of moving from one channel to the other, while on the other hand, the agents to receive contextually relevant information at all times. Let us delve into the list of benefits a little further.

1. Fast Deployment – Since there is no infrastructure required for the deployment of the cloud contact centers, the complete setup process can happen at a much faster speed. 

2. Flexibility and Scalability – Unlike the on-premise contact center system which has to be upgraded and downgraded manually as and when the business requirement changes, the case of scalability and flexibility is a lot easier with a cloud system, which only takes a couple of clicks to scale up or get down. 

3. Focus on the Agent’s Performance – Through the incorporation of cloud-based contact centers, companies can keep their focus on their sales agents’ performance instead of focusing on the system or hardware maintenance, which eventually leads to greater productivity.

4. Enhanced Speed to Market – Because of the complete lack of hardware installation, businesses can get their Contact Center Software up and operational in a very small time frame. Therefore, the complete contact center can get operational in a very short span of time. This, in turn, helps organizations in achieving their goals by taking advantage of the cloud infrastructure and cloud computing systems.

5. Competitive Cost – The cloud-based contact centers offer a pay-as-you-use option, meaning you only get billed for what you use. Also, if you consider the digital aspect of the mechanism, businesses will be able to save a high amount in the name of installation costs. 

The answer is yes.
To understand the benefits, let us consider some of these facts below

1. Call Charges – This is a recurring cost that is not significant for low call volumes but starts spiraling out with higher call volumes. For on-premise contact centers with SIP trunk termination, telcos provide unlimited calls for a monthly rental, which is a huge saving over a 3-year period. However, if the business opts for a cloud contact center every call is charged by the service provider.

2. Customization – The workflow of businesses differs even if they are from the same sector. What it means is that there is always a need of custom workflow. Mostly in a multi-tenant cloud contact center the room for customization is limited. This is where an on-premise or a private cloud contact center has a big advantage.

3. Data protection – This is debatable as data is equally secured in an on-premise Contact Center Solution as well as cloud contact center. But, organisations do feel more comfortable if it is in their premise or their own data center.
So, an on-premise contact center has some advantages which have to be weighed against the advantages provided by cloud contact center to make a right decision for your business.

Well, now that you have seen the different benefits both type of contact center solutions have to offer, it is now time to make a decision. If you are having a contact center either on-premise or on cloud, you should be able to quantify the advantage of either solution.

Get in touch with the world’s leading contact center service providers (be it on-premise or on-cloud) and make the migration to cloud or set up your on-premise contact center in the way it is supposed to be – convenient, real-time, and prepared to scale. Contact our team of experts, today!