The CCaaS (Contact Center as a Service) sector is expected to see an acceleration in migrations throughout 2023. The main drivers for this are the benefits that CCaaS can offer organizations, such as speed, ease of integration, and greater scalability.
However, there is another major factor at play: vendors are slowing their legacy innovation efforts and pushing for on-premise contact centers to move to the cloud.
In 2022, this push became more evident as Genesys formally announced that it would focus all future “innovations, investment, and resources” on Genesys Cloud CX while ending sales of its Maxcloud CX and Genesys Engage on-premise platform to new customers. Avaya is also encouraging customers to migrate to either a public or private cloud.
Although on-premise customers can still expect maintenance and support in the short run, long-term support for on-premise CX platforms seems unlikely.
Due to these moves, the market seems to have reached an inflection point, and organizations are speeding up their migration plans. However, the transition can be tricky.
Common pain points organizations experience during contact center migration
The post-pandemic economic troubles, poor budgeting, and compliance restrictions that block the movement of particular data loads between geographies are pain points that organizations face, which can stall their contact center migration projects.
In addition, many rip-and-replace transformations can become problematic when cloud features work differently from the functionality that organizations have grown accustomed to in their legacy on-premise platforms.
Furthermore, many legacy operations now work with multiple vendors and have built a complex patchwork of systems. Any disruption to these can impact CX delivery and lead to system failures.
Finally, CCaaS customers sometimes fail to realize that some solutions are more scalable than others and struggle to move hundreds of agents to the same platform simultaneously. Without foresight and testing, this can considerably slow the cloud’s launch.
Effective strategies for overcoming these pain points
To avoid the disconnect between CCaaS perception and reality, organizations should research and plan for migration. This starts by identifying key technology ecosystems and pinpointing those that support service experiences daily.
Reliable pre-migration forensics can significantly increase an organization’s success at this phase. Organizations can then use orchestration tools to redesign customer journeys and the architecture that supports them to decide on the ideal platform.
Testing tools can also help streamline the migration process and prevent overruns that add significant costs to transformation initiatives.
According to findings from a study conducted by The Customer Experience Foundation, “poor or no testing increases delays and costs in 79% of all projects.” Therefore, it is crucial to test the migration process to prevent delays and additional costs.
Additionally, organizations should also consider the use of migration tools, which can help automate the migration process and reduce the complexity involved.
Navigating contact center migration is key to future success
CCaaS migration is becoming increasingly prevalent due to the benefits it offers, and vendors are pushing for on-premise contact centers to move to the cloud.
Organizations may face pain points during the migration process, but effective strategies such as research, planning, testing, and the use of migration tools can help ensure a smooth transition.