Call Center Solutions Featured Article

The current global market is presenting significant challenges for companies in nearly every industry. At the same time, in order to effectively compete, companies must invest in new technologies.

But how do companies make these technology investments in light of lower revenues and tighter budgets? The answer could be in software solutions that require lower up-front cost and better flexibility.

 

With these ongoing challenges, the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model has gained rapid acceptance and adoption throughout the world in nearly every industry. A new report from Datamonitor, however, finds that the call center industry is actually lagging behind other markets in terms of adoption of the SaaS (News - Alert) model. This is due to several factors, including the fact that so many hosted platforms are former on-premises solutions that are simply being hosted through a data center, and thus have limitations compared to those systems which are fully Web-based.


Datamonitor’s 2009 Trends to Watch: Call Center Markets and Technologies report, however, predicts that 2009 will be the year that this trend turns around. The market research firm is predicting that this is the year hosted call center solutions finally gain a significant foothold in the industry.

With the right platform in place, those organizations with distributed and virtualized environments will have access to the right tools to simplify the management of a distributed workforce and customer interaction organizations. The hosted model allows for centralized management of the call center network and thus allows enterprises to realize efficiencies in costs and personnel, while also improving the customer experience.

The change in the economy is also pushing for an increase in work-at-home agents. With a hosted model governing the management of the call center, home-based agents can be used to expand the quality of the available workforce beyond traditional geographic barriers. In addition, it allows for the hiring of agents who live and work in the same area as customers, eliminating the stigma of outsourcing and offshoring.

Datamonitor has also highlighted the technological benefits of the on-demand model. Call centers do not always have access to the latest on-premise technologies as they can often be outside of allowed purchases. Or, budget restraints only allow for purchases every few years. With an on-demand platform, call centers can constantly update, gaining access to the latest technologies as soon as they are available.

VoltDelta (News - Alert) is a hosted call center solutions vendor on the forefront of hosted call center technology offerings. The company, which has established a strong foundation for its battle-hardened solutions due to its roots in the directory assistance solutions market, understands the challenges call centers face in the market today. By offering such advancements as speech automation, system integration, switching and intelligent call routing in a hosted environment, VoltDelta ensures that all customers have access to the latest technology solutions in order to effectively compete in an intense market.