Studies are pointing up to 20% growth in the ‘Cloud’ deployment of business communication applications in 2013. This includes the migration of contact centers to the ‘Cloud’. In large measure, this trend of Cloud based contact center ACD deployment is driven by three factors, namely,
- Consolidation of infrastructure and associated services
- Rapid adoption of Voice over IP
- Elimination of Capital cost and expenditures
I will attempt to break this high level characterization into more granular contact center technology benefits and constraints, which will be of assistance in deciding whether a premise based or a cloud based call center deployment is more appropriate for your need.
Cloud implies an infrastructure away from your premise with established data connectivity. This data connectivity will be the key pipeline for transporting both voice and data for any call center application. VoIP and SIP trunks are the primary transport mechanism for phone calls. Therefore, Cloud based installations benefit from very good data connectivity available in large data centers and can take advantage of SIP for their telephony requirements. SIP has the added flexibility of scaling up and down your telecommunication trunk capacity in a cost-effective way.
Some Cloud providers might offer all the services associated with deploying the technology stack required for your call center software. This is beneficial if you can exercise control over the setup without having to support the technology behind it. In other words, a managed service from a Cloud provider can be an economical way as long as you have the required control to setup and run your contact center platform.
Premise based setup can also be a managed service. Here the service provider can offer the same services at your premise. Therefore your business reasons behind wanting a premise based installation out-weighs all other considerations. The up-front capital costs will pay for the installation if the life for the call center operation exceeds two years. Asterisk based call center software stack is a great way to reduce the overall capital cost and still end up with a leading contact center technology platform.