Cloud based managed service providers are rapidly growing. The most recent financial statements from inContact and Interactive Intelligence point to this trend. Most call center software vendors are making a concerted effort to move from selling hardware and software as a product to selling an on-demand service. This move is being thrust upon them by the rapid change in networking and infrastructure. But the biggest threat to their survival comes from technology companies that leverage Asterisk and other open source elements for the technology stack.
The per seat cost for establishing a sophisticated call center ACD with IVR, skills-based routing, multi-channel ACD, and outbound predictive dialing, had dramatically decreased in the last decade. The use of VoIP, especially SIP, and hosted infrastructure grew during the same decade. With the evolution of hosted infrastructure, organizations were able to establish a geographically distributed workforce through centralized cloud contact centers. This was made possible by the adaptation of many associated technologies that make up the necessary stack for cloud computing. Many of these technologies are open source driven and are becoming more sophisticated by the day, exerting downward cost pressure on players with proprietary legacy technology.
Linux, Asterisk, MySQL, and Apache are open source technology heavyweights that directly impact the economics of cloud contact centers. Call center software leveraging this technology stack will exert tremendous pressure on legacy firms. The open source driven innovation in telephony will drive growth in cloud contact center services. This can be seen at asteriskexchange, the market place promoting products and service revolving around Asterisk.