| | December 20198CIOReviewIN MY OPININONSELECTING THE CONTACT CENTER CLOUD VENDOR THAT IS RIGHT FOR YOUR ORGANIZATIONBy, Theresa Tisdale, VP Contact Center Operations, Equity Lifestyle PropertiesWith 60 percent of contact center servicing migrating or planning to migrate to a cloud-based environment, it is not surprising when your organization wants to move in the cloud direction.It is both exciting and daunting. Your organization is open to investing in a cloud platform, but it is daunting as you realize you are not sure where to start. You have heard many good things, and probably some horror stories about migration, and the purpose of this article is to help. Take your time. The migration and integration will be painful, and you want to be sure you select the solution that will deliver the organizations long term goals.1. Gather a cross-functional team to help broaden your perspective. Regardless if the contact center is the business or supports the key business, cross-functional support and input is necessary to ensure project success!- IT ­ key partners with APIs to prem based technology and the new platform- Telecom ­ key savings in 800# per minute rates, routing and skill setups- HR- people and change management- Finance ­ funding, ROI, capital and expense planning- Accounting ­ timing on-prem based contracts and new spend- Operations ­ end users will need to be comfortable with the ease of use and functionality- Brand ­ what will the new customer experience be?- Website ­ chat, customer-facing knowledge base- Marketing ­ how can your organization leverage the new tools- CRM ­ integration into the cloud technology to gather customer touchpoints- Reporting and Analytics ­ ensure export, integration, and migration of data2. Gather information on your existing premise-based solutions from the cross-functional team.- What do you like?- What are the existing contractual obligations?- Are you at the end of life?- What is the cost of doing an upgrade to the premise-based solution?- What services do you not offer but would like to offer?3. Do your homework. There are a lot of articles out there by prominent survey firms that will help you begin the search but look deeper. What is right for the most may not be right for all.- Read user reviews of the potential vendors- What are the SLA's for service and response time- What is the uptime- What new positions do you need to create in your organization to care for this new technology?- Is the training offered onsite or web-based- How long does it take to stand up the platform4. Can you migrate to 100% cloud? If you are in a position to do this, it may be easier for you long term. All integration points interconnected. It sounds like a dream come true!- Will you need to take multiple steps while the ROI (return on investment) on your current premise-based platform has been completed?- Will the disruption to the business be too great to migrate all contact center channels at one time?- Can the prem-based systems connect to the cloud via APIs?- What single component is the most important to your business?o Do you have a premise-based Work Force Management tool that you want to retain?o What are the vendors' capabilities with connecting to that platform?o What products does the vendor offer that may allow you to replace that key technology in the future?5. Narrow the vendor selection- Where do you think you will land?o Full cloud for all contact center channels and interactionso Partial cloud partial premise-based solutions- Customer feedback reviews6. Design RFP with Cross-Functional Team- Have a high-level design of the RFP prior to bringing the vendors on site. This will allow the cross-functional team to be aligned on what they are seeing and looking
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