CRM Paves the Way for Cloud Contact Center

Adoption of cloud computing is on the rise, growing at an unprecedented rate as companies look to create business value while reducing costs. Today, CRM has the biggest piece of the cloud pie; according to Gartner, CRM is leading all other enterprise application areas in net new cloud deployments. This massive acceptance of cloud CRM is paving the way for increased adoption of contact center software delivered via the cloud.

As enterprises around the globe use cloud CRM, they have proven time and again the value a cloud delivery model can provide:

• Businesses can focus on their core competency rather than on implementing and maintaining an on premise CRM system (which can be costly and time consuming).

• Deployments are fast and created rapid time to benefit, this is in stark contrast to traditional, on premise deployments that take months and in some cases years to get up and running.

• Companies are better able to control costs with “pay as you go” usage plans that are not capital expenditures, instead monthly cloud solution payments are seen as operating expenses.

• Security in the cloud has increasingly become more sophisticated; security threats in the cloud are no greater, and in many cases much less common, than those faced by on premise systems.

• The cloud offers unprecedented scalability and flexibility. When delivering software in the cloud, the concept of economies of scale is key, so most cloud vendors build their solutions from the ground up with an innate ability to scale. In the contact center world this becomes particularly relevant, as contact centers often need to quickly ramp agents up and down for different seasons or projects.

• Cloud solutions have matured enough to support complex customization and deep integration with other systems. Open APIs enable cloud vendors to deliver low-cost customization and integration options to customers.

So, across the board cloud solutions are being adopted at an incredible pace with CRM dominating the market. At the same time, inside contact centers around the globe, on premise infrastructure has been aging. With a shelf life of 8-10 years, many contact centers are faced with a dilemma: do they simply replace old on premise infrastructure with updated versions from the same supplier OR do they choose a cloud solution that can easily integrate with their cloud CRM and offers all the same benefits of a cloud deployment – rapid time to benefit, pay as you go, and increased flexibility. At Five9, we can confirm that there is a tremendous appetite for cloud contact center software solutions. We have hundreds of clients who have first purchased a cloud CRM solution, like Salesforce, and then replaced aging, on premise contact center infrastructure with our cloud solution.