Top 10 Advantages Of Software As A Service For The Call Center, The

Customer Inter@ction Solutions, May 2007 by Barnard, Patrick

Adoption of the software as a service (SaaS) model is rapidly increasing across the enterprise, but particularly in the call center as companies are discovering the advantages todays hosted solutions offer over premisebased systems. Applications such as FVR, ACD, speech analytics, predictive dialing, workforce management, call recording and CRM can be hosted on a shared platform in a data center and delivered to agents via the IP networks, enabling companies to deploy a full-featured contact center system for a fraction of die cost of licensed software. These new solutions, which have much greater power and flexibility compared to the early hosted or ASP-provided solutions of a few years ago, are now opening a new frontier for customer care.

Industry research shows there is increasing adoption of SaaS solutions in practically all the vertical markets. According to a March report from Gartner, the worldwide SaaS market is expected to grow to $19.3 billion by die end of 2011, up from $6.3 billion in 2006. In addition, DMG Consulting predicts that 20 to 30 percent of all new contact center seats will be hosted by the end of 2007.

So how to get your feet wet with SaaAï The first and most important step is to determine whether the SaaS model is the right fit for your company and men carefully select the solution that best meets your overall needs. Let's take a look at the advantages SaaS brings to the call or contact center:

1. Lower Upfront Costs

In general, the biggest factor driving adoption of SaaS is lower up-front cost. Companies that adopt the SaaS model save initially by avoiding die need to shell out capital for premise-based equipment and installation services. Widi most of todays hosted solutions, all you really need to launch a new center are agents with headsets and broadband-connected PCs - and these agents may be either in a physical call center or in remote locations distributed around die world.

Also, companies that go with a SaaS solution avoid having to pay for the licensing of new software - instead, they simply "lease" the software on a "pay-as-you-go" basis. Not only is this pricing model more economical, it's easier to predict and manage, and affords simplified financial reporting: Rather than paying out chunks of capital for upgrades or replacements of on-premise systems, call centers now have the ability to include the cost of their SaaS service in monthly expense reports as a recurring line item.

"Hosted solutions enable call centers to add new technologies quickly and at a low startup cost," said Donald Koosis, Chief Training Officer of hosted solutions provider ISC. "In this respect, premises-based hardware and software just can't compete. For example, in an extreme case, an outsourcer can add a complete suite of call center resources to support a new customer within a matter of days without any additional hardware. This includes support for CRM, workforce management, IVR and ACDs."

2. Reduced Ongoing Costs

SaaS solutions also deliver lower ongoing costs because the hosted provider takes on die maintenance of die system, including software upgrades, equipment replacement and troubleshooting. This reduces die strain on existing IT staff and also lets companies avoid having to hire specialized IT teams. In addition, services can be added or customized quickly via a single, Web-based interface, without adding significantly to die overall ' cost of die service.

"The call center can use a hosted solution without having to purchase and manage die IT infrastructure required to host a service desk solution themselves," said Mark Krieger, W of product development for Numara Software. "Often, die IT department, which would need to help set diis up and manage it for the call center, has other priorities, so having die hosting center take care of all operadons - including setup, backup, hardware and software configurations - can save die call center enormous time and money."

3. Faster Time To Market

Rapid deployment is another advantage SaaS offers. Setting up a new on-premise system can be cosdy and time-consuming. One large headache for licensed software is that of integration with existing CRM and other business systems (and furthermore carrying out that integration without disruption to customer service).

Today's hosted solutions, however, offer fast integration with existing IT systems and support for service-oriented architecture (SOA). Most vendors are now providing pre-integrarion for legacy CRM and business systems. Plus, support for service-oriented architecture (SOA) helps companies save money because they can keep their existing legacy software and servers, yet they can access their customer data the same way they always have.

Steve Kowarsky, executive W of CosmoCom, points out that with today's SaaS solutions, a contact center can be set up within minutes: all you need is the PCs and an Internet connection. The software, he said, is delivered "almost like electric service - like a utility. AU you need to do is add hot agents."