A 10 point check list to determine if your Call Centre is ready for the cloud!
As with all our communication and opinion, we try to ensure we talk from hard earned first-hand experience, these are the most common myths made when making a “cloud” decision.
1- IT WILL BE CHEAPER- MORE COST EFFECTIVE
Not always, but it should allow you more flexibility and scalability in your seat numbers- buy want you need, when you need them, for the duration you need them
2- IMPLEMENTATION WILL BE FASTER
Not always, change is always hard and be realistic this is a Huge change
3- SUPPORT WILL BE LESS
Not always, it depends on your IT infrastructure, the business strategy, the IT architecture, the people making the decisions and not just those involved in IT
4- UNLIMITED SEATS
Not always, if your infrastructure cannot support “unlimited seats” then no supplier can deliver it, without you incurring addition cost
5- WORK FROM HOME
Not always a good plan, depends on your business strategy, staff, training and of course connectivity
6- NO HARDWARE REQUIRED
Not always, a number of factors affect this decision- like, Voice recordings, number of seats,back up’s, redundancy
7- TRAINING IS FASTER
Not always, depends on how well the “change” has been communicated, the staff, the management, the working environment, after all a new system is still a new system.
8- NO ANNUAL LICENCE FEES
Not always, depends on the supplier you go with and to be realistic the software development companies cannot continue to develop and be competitive without this recurring income. You are being billed it somewhere.
9- NO SERVICE LEVEL AGREEMENT
Not always, why would you not want a service level agreement, is this call centre of yours not critically important to your business?
10- WE WANT TO OWN OUR SOFTWARE
Not always, software development, PBX’s, networks, Internet, Social media and the way in which communicated and how we will communicate in the future is very different. The Y Generation who is our future customer is so very different to our customers of the past. We will need to be “fluid” in our approach to software ownership/use in the future and be able to adopt new technologies as our customers’ demands change.
Now that I have dispelled some myths, let me be the first to tell you, that cloud is the way to go, it is here for the near future and probably a little while longer than that. All of the above statements are true and each holds its own merit when made as part of a company strategy. However don’t be fooled by glib sales people as buy CBD products all change it is always about the “people” and a company’s ability to adopt change, no matter in what form that comes.