Yankee Group Reveals Contact Centers Reluctant to Implement VoIP; Measured Migration Driven by Application Needs, Not TCO

Business Wire, March 14, 2005

BOSTON -- Yankee Group, the global leader in communications and networking research and consulting, today announced that contact centers have been cautious in their adoption of VoIP technology. In cases where penetration has occurred, the switch has been driven solely by application needs and, in isolated cases, reduced infrastructure costs. These results prove the lower total cost of ownership (TCO) metric is not driving migration of circuit-switched agent stations to voice over IP (VoIP).

The culmination of research conducted with more than 1,000 contact center managers, the report entitled VoIP in Contact Centers Is Inevitable but Not Imminent highlights five current "use cases" where contact center managers are seriously weighing VoIP deployments. SMB contact centers emerged as the clear early front-runners in adopting packet switched infrastructures.

"Contact centers are reluctant to consider VoIP unless there is a clear use case and ROI", according to Art Schoeller, senior analyst at Yankee Group. "Although the SMB sector is where the significant volume has been through 2004, larger centers are seeing advantages for distributed operations because the technology facilitates increased agent utilization over traditional circuit switching."

VoIP technology creates more efficient data routes to seize full advantage of dispersed agents. Contact centers with packet switched technology could generate cost savings of 7% from additional utilization.

NOTE TO EDITORS

For interviews contact:

--Art Schoeller, Yankee Group, 617-880-0244, aschoeller@yankeegroup.com

--Thomas Ford, Racepoint Group, 781-487-4607, tford@racepointgroup.com

CORPORATE CONTACTS

--Stacy Santo, Vice President of Marketing, 617-880-0333, ssanto@yankeegroup.com

--Kelly Lowell, Vice President of Marketing, 617-880-0332, klowell@yankeegroup.com

The Yankee Group (http://www.yankeegroup.com)

The Yankee Group is the global leader in communications and networking research and consulting. The company helps businesses understand the opportunities, risks, and competitive pressures of developing, deploying, and consuming products and services that drive communication or information exchange. Now in its fourth decade, the Yankee Group is based in Boston with offices throughout North America, Europe, Latin America, and the Pacific Rim.