A traditional, on-premise contact center has been the go-to customer service solution for many organizations for years.
When employees traveled to the office daily, it made sense to have all the hardware and infrastructure — including servers, networking equipment, databases, telephony systems, and applications — on-premises.
But today, cloud technology offers numerous advantages over legacy systems, including contact center solutions. But which is the better choice for your operations, and why?
On-premise vs. cloud contact centers: A quick comparison
An on-premise contact center is a traditional model where the organization hosts and maintains all related hardware and software infrastructure— within its physical facilities or data centers.
On the other hand, a cloud contact center is a modern customer service solution that leverages cloud-based technology. Typically, a third-party service provider hosts all contact center resources in this arrangement.
Let’s look into several of the core differences between the two:
Control: With an on-premise contact center, organizations have complete control over their infrastructure and settings, allowing them to customize solutions based on their needs. Cloud contact centers offer partial control, where the service provider manages and controls the backend infrastructure. That said, businesses can still customize user-facing settings and interfaces.
Deployment: On-premise contact center deployment can be lengthy and complex. This is unlike cloud contact centers, which can be set up and operational quickly, as they typically require minimal physical configuration.
Cost: On-premise contact centers often come with high upfront costs due to necessary investments in physical hardware, software licenses, and the infrastructure needed to support them. Cloud-based centers operate on a pay-as-you-go pricing model, significantly lowering initial investments and converting capital expenditure to operational expenditure.
Scalability: On-premise center scalability is generally more challenging and costly than cloud solutions. Cloud contact centers are known for their scalability and capacity to facilitate the adjustment of resources on-demand to accommodate varying levels of traffic without needing physical upgrades.
Accessibility: On-premise solutions typically offer limited remote access and are mostly confined to office settings. Cloud contact centers cater more to remote work, as cloud technology allows agents to log in from any location with internet access.
Data security: While on-premise centers allow data to stay within the company’s controlled network, cloud contact centers rely on the service provider to implement robust security measures and ensure compliance with data protection regulations.
Uptime: The reliability and uptime of an on-premise contact center heavily depend on the company’s infrastructure and capacity to handle disruptions. Conversely, cloud providers usually guarantee higher uptime by utilizing multiple data centers and offering redundancy to ensure service continuity.
Maintenance: Maintenance in an on-premise setting requires a dedicated in-house IT team to handle all updates, patches, and technical issues. Unlike cloud service providers, which manage maintenance, updates, and patches, they reduce the burden on internal IT resources and ensure that the latest technologies are always in use.
Today, modern cloud contact centers increasingly use artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). AI is a key differentiating factor between on-premise and cloud-based solutions, facilitating improvements that, otherwise, in a non-cloud environment, are heavily manually intensive and resource-constrained.
For example, Webex Contact Center is a cloud-based solution that uses AI for:
- Aggregating and synthesizing customer data.
- Offering predictive analytics for customer behavior.
- Providing real-time speech analytics and sentiment analysis.
- Automating routine tasks with virtual agents.
- Intelligently routing calls based on agent skills and customer needs.
- Optimizing workforce management. It enables personalized customer interactions with comprehensive AI-driven insights.
- And more.
On-prem vs. cloud: What are the benefits for customers?
On-premise contact centers can offer heightened control over data security and privacy. For industries that handle sensitive information, keeping customer data within the company’s infrastructure can help enhance trust and meet stringent compliance requirements.
That’s not to say that cloud contact centers lack security, though. Reputable cloud service providers implement advanced security measures that meet or exceed industry standards. They invest heavily in robust security protocols, including data encryption in transit and at rest, multi-factor authentication, regular security audits, and other compliance functions to ensure adherence to local and international regulations.
Moreover, cloud providers have dedicated security teams that continuously monitor and update their systems to protect against emerging threats. This level of security expertise and resource allocation is something that individual companies may find challenging to maintain on their own.
Beyond offering third-party, advanced security solutions, there are additional benefits to cloud contact centers for customers.
Digital-first customer experiences: Customers can connect through their preferred channels, whether text/SMS, social media, chat, email, or phone calls. That way, they can engage in a way that suits them best.
Self-service: Advanced cloud contact centers offer customers fast and easy self-service options through AI-powered virtual agents for both voice and chat. Utilizing touch-tone (DTMF) and speech-enabled interactive voice response (IVR) systems, customers can use natural language to retrieve information or navigate to the appropriate department without speaking to a live agent. Moreover, advanced features like Text-To-Speech (TTS), Automated Speech Recognition (ASR), and Natural Language Understanding (NLU) further enhance the self-service experience.
Proactive outreach: Many cloud contact center solutions provide outbound campaign tools that enhance customer satisfaction. With preview dialing modes, for example, agents can review contact records before making calls to ensure they’re well prepared. Moreover, agents can tailor their customer support outreaches to meet customer preferences and regulatory requirements through features like contact list segmentation, scheduling, Do-Not-Call list filtering, real-time and historical reporting, and others.
9 ways that cloud contact centers help agents
Similar to how cloud contact centers offer a variety of benefits for customers that aren’t available through their on-prem counterparts, agents also benefit from the next-generation capabilities of cloud solutions.
Here’s how.
1. Real-time access to customer data and interaction history: Cloud contact centers provide agents with immediate access to comprehensive customer profiles, including past interactions across all channels. Agents can view key details like previous support tickets, purchase history, and communication preferences. Using this functionality, agents can offer personalized service, anticipate customer needs, and resolve issues more efficiently without requiring customers to repeat information.
2. Unified omnichannel interface: Agents manage all customer communications — voice calls, emails, live chats, SMS, and social media — within a single, integrated platform. This eliminates the need to switch between multiple systems and, in turn, streamlines workflows and reduces response times.
3. AI-powered assistance and suggested responses: Integrated artificial intelligence — a next-gen solution that’s changing how contact centers operate — analyzes customer inquiries in real-time and provides agents with suggested responses, relevant knowledge base articles, or next-best actions. As a practical example, during a live chat, the AI may suggest solutions based on customer keywords or phrases — helping agents respond quickly and accurately. Similarly, real-time AI-driven sentiment analysis gauges customer emotions during interactions.
4. Intelligent skill-based routing: Cloud contact centers can automatically route customer inquiries to the most suitable agents based on specific skills, expertise, or language proficiency — ensuring agents handle issues they are best equipped for.
5. Integrated collaboration tools: Agents can access built-in communication features like internal chat and messaging, allowing them to consult with supervisors or colleagues without leaving the platform. If agents encounter a complex issue, they can quickly seek guidance or escalate it. Moreover, agents can seamlessly pass detailed context and interaction history to the next agent or department when transferring calls or escalating issues.
6. Quick access to knowledge bases: Agents can swiftly search and retrieve information from centralized knowledge bases, FAQs, and troubleshooting guides within the platform. Moreover, contextual search features — a cloud contact center solution — function by suggesting relevant articles based on the customer’s issue. In this vein, cloud contact center technology offers automated after-call Work (ACW) summaries. Post-interaction, the system automatically generates summaries and updates records. That way, agents spend less time on administrative wrap-up tasks and can promptly move on to assist the next customer.
7. Real-time performance metrics and dashboards: Using cloud contact center technology, agents can access personalized dashboards that display KPIs, such as average handling time, customer satisfaction scores, and resolution rates. Agents can personalize their interface by arranging tools, widgets, and information panels according to their preferences. Such insights are further facilitated by cloud platforms’ seamless integration with Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, allowing agents to easily access and update customer information, manage tickets, and utilize business applications within a unified interface.
8. Flexible remote work capabilities: As remote work isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, cloud contact centers allow agents to securely log in and handle customer interactions from any location with internet access.
9. Regular software updates and access to the latest features: Agents benefit from automatic updates delivered by the cloud provider, ensuring they always use the most current tools and features without downtime or manual installations. This keeps agents equipped with the latest technology to perform their duties effectively. Cloud providers’ updates also ensure a robust infrastructure with redundancy measures, resulting in higher reliability and uptime. That way, agents experience fewer technical disruptions and system outages.
Getting customers the help they deserve when and where they need
With Webex Contact Center, agents and customers can benefit from the next-generation cloud technology capabilities.
Webex Contact Center utilizes a cloud-based, microservices architecture to deliver a cohesive experience across all customer interaction channels. From omnichannel communication and AI-powered virtual agents to intelligent routing and real-time analytics, Webex Contact Center offers advanced cloud contact center functionalities.
Moreover, with capabilities in customer journey orchestration, workforce optimization, and comprehensive reporting, businesses can streamline operations, maximize productivity, and propel their business to new heights.
Webex Contact Center is at the forefront of contact center AI innovation. Customers enjoy intelligent, conversational self-service options that resolve issues faster, while agents benefit from AI-driven assistance like suggested responses and coaching.
Learn more about Webex Contact Center’s AI capabilities here. To discover Webex Contact Center’s full solution, click here.
The post On-premise vs. cloud: which is the better contact center solution? appeared first on Webex Blog.