The Dutch business community is a leader in the use of cloud applications. But what about the customer contact area? Which sectors are leading the way? And what are the arguments for bringing contact center applications to the cloud or not, now or later? Reason for Ziptone to conduct research together with knowledge partner Frontline Solutions.

 

Dutch organizations, together with British and American companies and institutions, are leaders in the use of cloud computing. Worldwide, the corona pandemic has a further acceleration in cloud adoption taken care of. Globally, the cloud computing market is expected to reach over 1,4 trillion dollars. In 2019, the market for cloud-based contact center solutions was worth $11 billion, and it is now estimated at over $56 billion by 2027.

“Cloud is the new normal”

There are many arguments for placing applications and infrastructure (data center) in a cloud environment. Or vice versa: “The number of arguments for completely ignoring the cloud is getting thinner and thinner,” says Marco Gianotten, CEO of IT research and consultancy guitar. “Sooner or later, the business will be faced with the choice to renew applications. Sometimes that moment of choice is forced by the supplier: a serious upgrade of an application can mean that users have to invest in new servers or in network adjustments. If the IT department has already decided not to do the technical application management in-house and to phase out its own data center, that is a logical time to switch.”

Join the survey of cloud adoption in contact centers

The Dutch business community is a leader in the use of cloud applications. But what about the customer contact area? Which sectors with customer contact are at the forefront? And what are the arguments for bringing contact center applications to the cloud or not, now or later?

To better understand the cloud usage trends and considerations of companies and institutions in the Netherlands, Ziptone asked MarketResponse to conduct a study on cloud adoption in contact center routing software.

The research is being carried out in collaboration with Front Line Solutions. Those who complete the questionnaire will later receive the research report free of charge. This provides insight into the choices and arguments of peers from your sector or contact centers of a comparable size.

UPDATE – The investigation has been closed, the results have been processed. Read about the results of the research here

 

The established suppliers who previously marketed on-premise solutions for contact center routing have recently gradually converted their application to the cloud. Such a switch often leads to necessary adjustments in processes. An alternative is for companies to start the search for a replacement routing solution. In other cases, it is the IT department that proactively – for example as part of a cloud-first strategy – asks the contact center to come up with a plan for the cloud migration.

Is the cloud inevitable?

In the first place, there are no longer any suppliers who still provide new on-premise solutions for routing. The traditional players have now almost all developed and marketed a cloud variant of their application. In addition, there are dozens of new players who – unhindered by the on-premise history and benefiting from all the knowledge and experience gained – have developed completely new applications. There is a lot of choice when it comes to functionality and the rates also vary quite a bit.

“IT organizations are switching en masse to the cloud because it allows them to flex their costs,” says Marco Gianotten of Giarte. “But cloud applications are not always cheaper. Unclear contracts, overcapacity and oversizing of applications can cause cloud bill shock, as can the intensive use of data applications. Real cloud applications do make scaling up and down easier. In addition, a move to the cloud is a catalyst for innovation and digital transformation. And what almost everyone has experienced in the past two years: cloud applications make location-independent working easy, the stability and security of these applications are optimal, and suppliers provide all kinds of APIs as standard to integrate with other solutions.”

Cloud resistances

In the customer contact sector, cloud is also an important facilitator of data-driven and real-time business: think of real-time speech analytics, self-rostering or managing real-time customer processes.

What is stopping companies from moving (parts of) the application landscape from the contact center to the cloud?
“Sometimes companies want to write off existing systems first, sometimes the need is not seen. With non-accelerated depreciation of old software, companies run the risk of falling behind in innovation,” says Gianotten. “In other cases, there are practical obstacles in the way. Think of laws and regulations in the field of data. Or the infrastructure is not yet in order, there is a lack of knowledge or employment in the IT department is being protected. You often see that too IT end user experience – often a problem with outdated software – is not taken seriously.”

Trend: cloud on the rise

Two years ago, nearly three-quarters (71%) of global respondents were planning to move more of their IT functions to the cloud. Two-thirds (66%) of respondents said they wanted to do so within the next XNUMX months research from data center company Equinix. Came a year later calabrio with research results specific to contact centers (the State of the Contact Center 2021 study) showing that three out of four contact centers had moved some or all of their applications to the cloud during the pandemic. As a result, a year ago a quarter of contact centers are fully cloud-based, where in 2020 it was still one in ten. This volume is expected to increase further by the end of this year. (Ziptone/Erik Bouwer)

Join the cloud research from Ziptone, Frontline Solutions and MarketResponse now.

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