I’m an aging hipster with an extensive vinyl record collection. Recently, I read with interest a news article proclaiming that, “Vinyl Is Poised to Outsell CDs For the First Time Since 1986,” which admittedly made me smile. However, while technically accurate, the headline is misleading in that vinyl records only account for about 4% of all music sold today. The reality is that most people prefer to stream their music from the Cloud.
Sure, there are reasons why audiophiles prefer vinyl. The sound is “warmer”, whatever that means. Record jackets contain beautiful artwork and liner notes. And you can still listen to your Hi-Fi records even if your Wi-Fi goes down. But let’s be honest: vinyl is impractical and the fact that people are still buying records at all is impressive.
For example, you can’t listen to your albums in your car, at the gym, or while walking through the park. Yet, it seems there is still a sizeable cohort of die-hards who, despite these disadvantages, still prefer their music “on prem” rather than in the Cloud. Okay… but what does this have to do with contact centers you ask?
Well… unlike vintage audio equipment which is worth more today than when it was originally purchased, aging on-premise contact center hardware only gets worse with age. Most on-prem contact center systems become outdated in as quickly as five years as newer features are introduced in the market. In addition, older systems often have unpatched security vulnerabilities that can potentially expose your valuable customer data to bad actors.
On-Prem versus Cloud considerations
There are of course legitimate reasons why some companies may still prefer to run their contact-center operations on premise rather than in the Cloud – whether it be for data privacy concerns, regulatory reasons, or CapEx versus OpEx considerations. But these exceptions notwithstanding, most companies today are better served implementing a modern Cloud-based contact center platform.
Why are organizations moving their contact centers to the Cloud? Well, not only are Cloud-based systems quicker, easier, and less-costly to deploy, but they also provide frequent automatic updates, so your system always has the latest features and never falls behind.
Additionally, Cloud-based contact centers are usually quicker to adopt new communication channels, new technologies, and new security protocols. For example, modern Cloud-based contact center products – such as Sinch Contact Center – support modern messaging channels such as SMS, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Viber, and more.
Another benefit of Cloud-based systems is that they can be accessed anywhere an Internet connection is available, allowing organizations to create “virtual” contact centers leveraging work-at-home agents, remote branch-office employees, or back-office professionals seated outside the walls of the contact center.
Finally, Cloud-based contact centers are also easier to integrate with complementary CX and CRM solutions thanks to their cloud-based API architectures.
Benefits of moving to the Cloud
Moving to a Cloud-based system makes sense if your existing contact-center infrastructure is already more than five or years old and in need of upgrade or replacement. Similarly, if your organization is thinking about rolling out digital communication channels such as SMS or WhatsApp, you may find that your old on-premise legacy contact center system doesn’t support the requisite API based integration.
Additionally, companies with multiple contact-center locations and/or companies who heavily rely on work-at-home agents or other remote agents will benefit from migrating to a single Cloud-based system. Remote agents can access Cloud-based systems from anywhere in the world, using just a standard Web browser, USB headset, and Internet connection.
Finally, consolidating disparate contact-center technologies onto a single Cloud-based platform provides unified reporting – giving supervisors and call center managers a clearer picture of how the contact center is running. Which means, managers can spend less time staring at custom spreadsheets trying to find out what’s going on… and instead relax and listen to “What’s Going On” 😊.
