ISG Research is happy to share insights gleaned from our latest Buyers Guide, an assessment of how well software providers’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. The Contact Center Basic: ISG Research Buyers Guide is the distillation of a year of market and product research by ISG Research.
The market for contact center technology is changing to accommodate a broader set of functions and a wider range of software providers offering novel ways of deploying and
Historically, centers would select an ACD provider and configure the surrounding and supporting software tools around that ACD decision. Advanced platforms do not necessarily require the ACD to be central to the decision, and many providers offer contact center capabilities that rely on partners to supply the ACD. Because of this split between providers with and without ACD functionality, ISG Research has chosen to evaluate the two sets of provider tools separately. This Buyers Guide evaluates what we consider a “basic” configuration in which the provider directly delivers the ACD and the routing software that supports it. This fundamental configuration is the most common in legacy centers. It differs from the alternative mode (which we are calling “advanced”) in that it focuses on the routing and essential capabilities needed to maintain a traditional contact center with voice and some digital interaction handling. It is notable that a basic ACD configuration can be either on premises or cloud based; having a basic system does not mean it is not a cloud-based offering. It can be.
The bifurcation of the market is a recognition that different kinds of businesses run different kinds of contact centers, and those centers increasingly handle different kinds of customers and interactions. A basic configuration is sufficient to equip an enterprise with the tools to triage incoming interaction volume across key channels like voice, chat and email. It provides tools for scheduling agents based on projected volume and for assessing the performance of those agents against essential benchmarks. Many buyers will find the basic capabilities adequate for their needs. Many of the providers that supply centers with a basic scenario are also capable of upgrading buyers to a more advanced configuration down the road, one that maximizes advanced developments in artificial intelligence (AI), data management, different kinds of analytics and other functions that are more in the realm of “enterprise customer experience” than pure contact center operations. That distinction—between running a contact center as an independent, isolated entity and running it as part of an enterprise CX project—is one of the most important elements in weighing whether a basic configuration is appropriate.
Contact centers have increasingly transitioned essential digital and telephonic infrastructures from on-premises to cloud-based platforms. ISG Research predicts that by 2027, the distinction between on-premises and cloud-based provisioning of contact center resources will be a peripheral concern for most enterprises.
This shift has been underway for more than a decade, with the assumption among technology providers and buyers that the cloud is the best deployment method to manage software and the interactions between agents and customers. However, contact centers in a post-pandemic world need to adopt a hybrid approach that engages an enterprise’s technology where it operates and in whatever way agents and customers interact with it. As the industry moves away from the binary “cloud vs. on premises” approach into a more realistic, situation-based model, enterprises are exploring hybrid deployments that mix cloud and on-premises applications based on each enterprise’s comfort level.
The role of a contact center is to respond to, answer or escalate every request for service or information that an enterprise’s customers generate. This has long forced centers to operate in a defensive stance, usually in a reactive position, subject to variations in customer demand. It is also largely seen as a cost burden for businesses, although that view is beginning to change as people learn how to maximize centers for revenue and other organizational goals. The focus on cost control is still the main driver of operations, which encourages buyers to adopt a conservative, risk-averse approach to technology assessments. More often than not, when new technology appears on the scene, there is a delay of several years before industry practitioners are comfortable enough with the cost, benefits and capabilities to deploy it. Even then, contact center buyers are generally wary of disruption because centers are seen as mission-critical operations.
The slow pace of the transition from on-premises-based systems to cloud platforms is an example of that wariness in action. Some providers have spent a decade or more slowly migrating installed bases to the cloud while continuing to serve existing on-premises customers. The situation has been costly to some legacy providers as newer competitors pick off clients. This drawn-out transition period has allowed newer, cloud-native providers to stake out significant market positions while being liberated from the constraints of having to develop and maintain multiple platforms.
The heart of a contact center platform is the ACD, a software engine that moves voice interactions from the public network to an agent based on many varied criteria. ACDs used to be the pinnacle of business telecom systems: high-volume, high-velocity switches that were extremely expensive compared to the common business alternative, the private branch exchange. This is no longer true. ACDs have become software applications, reducing the development and purchase costs. This has allowed other parts of the contact center stack to emerge as potential differentiators between providers. Most important today is the ability to handle digital interactions across contact channels, including voice, chat, SMS, different kinds of messaging and, increasingly, video.
The contact center market is now divided into four camps: legacy, on-premises providers that have migrated some or all platforms to the cloud; legacy cloud providers that focus on voice routing; newer cloud providers that are more agnostic about the channels delivered; and providers from outside the contact center space that entered the market with either platforms for developing contact center applications or broad interdepartmental suites that integrate contact center tools into those used by sales, marketing and back offices.
The diversity of providers makes it difficult to continue to use “CCaaS” to describe the market. Usually, it is shorthand for cloud-based centers, but the breadth of providers offering tools in this space renders that term incomplete at best. While the industry discusses what comes after CCaaS, or beyond CCaaS, or even what CCaaS really means, the underlying transition marches on: contact centers are becoming hybrid entities that handle voice as one of many digital channels.
Going forward, we expect that contact center technology will differentiate on factors like the availability of application programming interfaces to connect more dispersed tools, ease of integration and administration, and the ability to automate more processes across the customer life cycle. This evaluation pays special attention to these factors, as well as to how providers have readied operational software tools for more advanced use cases involving analytics, AI and automation.
Technology providers that did well in this research are characterized by several features, including:
For basic contact center platforms, our research found that success is often correlated with a provider’s ability to quickly pivot and redirect development resources to new areas. This does not necessarily mean cutting edge; rather, investing in best practices consulting and training is an area that can differentiate a provider in an increasingly confusing and complex marketplace. Providers that articulate benefits and return on investment, describe specific use cases that provide value and help buyers with sensible, non-disruptive transitions to new tools that will prosper in the coming years.
In this Buyers Guide research, we examine the offerings of 30 providers: some cloud-only, some on-premises and some hybrid. The common element among the providers is the centrality of the ACD or call routing engine. This contact center research had specific product evaluation criteria for capabilities that included interaction routing (voice and digital) via an included ACD; interaction volume forecasting and agent scheduling; minimal agent evaluation and tracking tools; a core of necessary dashboards and reporting; interactive voice response and chatbot functionality; and connectivity to a variety of external software applications.
In addition to the core platforms starting with voice and digital interaction routing systems, our research examined issues important to contact center buyers: self-service and related capabilities, including AI, chatbots and intelligent virtual assistants, remote workforce management, migration from on premises to cloud, automation and workflow creation, data and integration capabilities. We also evaluated agent-related applications as part of those platforms, but minimally. An assessment of dedicated agent management provider offerings is available in the Agent Management Buyers Guide, and one of advanced contact center solutions, including those without an ACD, is in our Contact Center Advanced Buyers Guide.
The ISG Buyers Guide™ for Contact Center Basic evaluates products based on agent desktop; agent experience and feedback; agent performance; automation and self-service (IVR, knowledge management); data and integration; interaction handling analytics; interaction routing (voice and digital); migration path and hybrid deployments; quality measurement; recording and capture; remote workforce; workforce management (agent forecasting and scheduling); and investment. To be included in this Buyers Guide, products must include key components of above, including an ACD (on premises or cloud).
This research evaluates the following software providers that offer products that address key elements of Contact Centers as we define it: 8x8, Aircall, Alvaria, AWS, Avaya, Cisco, Content Guru, Dialpad, Emplifi, Enghouse Interactive, Evolve IP, Five9, Genesys, GoTo, IntelePeer, Microsoft, Mitel, net2phone, Nextiva, NICE, Odigo, Ozonetel, RingCentral, Talkdesk, TCN, Twilio, UJET, USAN, Vonage and Zoom.
This research-based index evaluates the full business and information technology value of customer experience software offerings. We encourage you to learn more about our Buyers Guide and its effectiveness as a provider selection and RFI/RFP tool.
We urge organizations to do a thorough job of evaluating basic contact center offerings in this Buyers Guide as both the results of our in-depth analysis of these software providers and as an evaluation methodology. The Buyers Guide can be used to evaluate existing suppliers, plus provides evaluation criteria for new projects. Using it can shorten the cycle time for an RFP and the definition of an RFI.
The Buyers Guide for Contact Center Basic in 2024 finds NICE first on the list, followed by Genesys and Content Guru.
Software providers that rated in the top three of any category ﹘ including the product and customer experience dimensions ﹘ earn the designation of Leader.
The Leaders in Product Experience are:
The Leaders in Customer Experience are:
The Leaders across any of the seven categories are:
The overall performance chart provides a visual representation of how providers rate across product and customer experience. Software providers with products scoring higher in a weighted rating of the five product experience categories place farther to the right. The combination of ratings for the two customer experience categories determines their placement on the vertical axis. As a result, providers that place closer to the upper-right are “exemplary” and rated higher than those closer to the lower-left and identified as providers of “merit.” Software providers that excelled at customer experience over product experience have an “assurance” rating, and those excelling instead in product experience have an “innovative” rating.
Note that close provider scores should not be taken to imply that the packages evaluated are functionally identical or equally well-suited for use by every enterprise or process. Although there is a high degree of commonality in how organizations handle basic contact centers, there are many idiosyncrasies and differences that can make one provider’s offering a better fit than another.
ISG Research has made every effort to encompass in this Buyers Guide the overall product and customer experience from our basic contact center blueprint, which we believe reflects what a well-crafted RFP should contain. Even so, there may be additional areas that affect which software provider and products best fit an enterprise’s particular requirements. Therefore, while this research is complete as it stands, utilizing it in your own organizational context is critical to ensure that products deliver the highest level of support for your projects.
You can find more details on our community as well as on our expertise in the research for this Buyers Guide.