In a previous blog post I talked about why it’s so easy for a contact center to become obsolete. Advances in contact center technology have created specialized capabilities like omnichannel, advanced reporting and analytics, automation, quality and workforce management and more. And I introduced a simple decision framework consisting of three questions to help you simplify your evaluation. This decision framework will help you identify the clear solution requirements your contact center needs, and focus your time and resources on a smaller number of “best fit” technology solutions.
Question 1 was: “Do I have clear solution requirements?”
This process starts with determining if you need a new phone system. Many mistakenly assume that modernizing the contact center starts with a new phone system. But this is not the case. In fact, buying a new phone system may not solve the problems you want to solve.
This is a critical decision point for two reasons. First is cost. You can modernize the contact center for far less money without replacing the phone system. Second is scope. If you limit the change to the contact center, then the overall process will be faster and simpler.
There are many contact center solutions that are designed to work with your existing phone system. Regardless if you do or don’t need new features like omnichannel routing, better reporting, call recording, workforce management right now, the ongoing demands and requirements of your contact center will change must faster than those of your telephone system. So, think about how you can respond to those needs with agility in the future.
In my next post, I will discuss the second question in this decision framework “Is owning and managing technology the best use of our resources?” If you want more information on this post or to move ahead, please download this paper.
