Call Center Software: What is better? Hosted vs On-Premise

To survive in this economy, businesses must deliver fast, reliable and efficient service in order to retain existing customers as well as acquire new ones. For this reason customer centric businesses must put even greater focus on the quality of service delivered through their call centers. Traditionally this has meant providing good training to call center agents, so that they have the skills in place to deliver prompt and courteous service over the phone but today, deploying the very latest call center technology has become critically important, as it allows organizations to deliver faster, more effective customer service at a lower cost.

For this reason, it is important to better understand the benefits of software-as-a-service or "cloud"-based virtual call center solutions or conversely, the benefits of an on-premises or "hardware based" systems. With a cloud-based call center solution, organizations get immediate and automatic access to the latest and most advanced call center technologies. Cloud solutions tout the benefit of not have having to bear the expense, hassle and potential disruptions that come with on-site upgrades. Through the deployment of a cloud-based call center solution, an organization can upgrade its traditional call center to a full-featured, state-of-the-art multi-channel contact center in just a matter of days, as opposed to months, and at much lower up-front cost compared to purchasing or upgrading an on-premises system. These costs savings are not necessarily the guiding force for some organizations. Data security, software update timelines and custom integrations often trump the savings of cloud base solutions.

Advantages:Hosted vs On-Premise Call Centers

Today's cloud-based call center solutions hold numerous advantages over on-premises systems:

Easy to Deploy - All that is needed are the computers and high speed Internet connection Reduced Ongoing Costs - Because our call center software is delivered via the Internet, as a managed service, a company doesn't have to make a huge up-front capital investment in new hardware, network architecture or software licenses instead it can simply "lease" the call center software on a "pay-as-you-go" basis Call Center Management - The call center software is delivered as a managed service. Hosted call center software providers takes on responsibility for application performance, including the maintenance and upgrades of all related hardware and infrastructure, which in turn greatly reduces the strain on the company's IT department for inbound call centers Scalability - The software is hosted in a data center, where there are ample server resources. You can rapidly scale up your call center operations without having to invest in new hardware or architecture. This is particularly advantageous for companies that experience seasonal business cycles

Advantages:On-Premise Call Centers vs Hosted

Data Security - Many call center operations executives have business requirements that mandate strict data security and access typically not cost effectively available or viable for hosted solutions. Custom Integrations Integrations of third party software or custom software that had been purpose built for the enterprise may be difficult to integrate to hosted solutions. Integrations really depends on the program interface and environment configuration to be reviewed in great detail to better understand the effort. Software updates Hosted solution providers will process software updates based on their best estimate of their pooled customer usage. These updates may not be suitable for all customers and may cause operational issues that are not acceptable.

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