Price, flexibility and business growth are determining factors when choosing the contact center model.
Making the right decision between an on-premises contact center model or one in the cloud requires sufficient information on the advantages and limitations of these according to the existing technology in the market.
Frequent types of contact center software.
In the contact center software offer, we can identify four common types:
Physical contact center
Both the communication hardware and the software and infrastructure of your contact center are located and operate from your company’s facilities.
Installation and maintenance of servers (PBX or IP PBX), software, and equipment, such as headsets, are handled by your IT team.
Cloud-based contact center
These contact center solutions are hosted virtually in the cloud through a service provider. Users turn to an app from their desktop or mobile device to call.
A cloud solution requires a bandwidth powerful enough to accommodate both all users, as well as other online activities. Your business data storage is in the cloud on servers that may belong to the provider or to a third party, such as AWS.
Hybrid hosting contact center
When we talk about hybrid software, we mean that your contact center software is hosted in a physical location, but is accessed through the internet or an intranet. These hybrid solutions are less common and unique in nature and vary from company to company.
It might seem like the ideal solution by assuming a midpoint of the previous options, however, it also combines the pros and cons of these and a number of possible drawbacks.
The installation cost is lower than an on-premise system and you do not require a physical space to store the servers. Yes, you will depend on a third party to take care of maintenance and technical problems. The call routing structure is not changed at the moment and it is not so easy to add users and numbers. It also has disadvantages in terms of security and overhead.
Browser-based contact center
This is one type of software that could fall into the category of cloud-based. The main difference is that users must access the calling system using an internet browser instead of through an app, although many offer for convenience both the browser option and a downloadable app.
In a next post, we will analyze the differences between an on-premises contact center and a cloud-based one based on the following indicators: installation time; costs and expenses; flexibility; reliability; integrations; collaboration and productivity; dependency on IT staff and redundancy; security and privacy, and care for the environment.
With 30 years of experience in contact centers, at TELNORM we have led, trained and supported our clients through multiple waves of change and technological evolution. Our goal is to boost your business with a comprehensive offer of solutions and services that sets us apart from the multitude of traditional technology partners.
Contact us, we can help you.