New Survey Shows Accelerating Expectations for Contact Center Change
In 2019, Gartner predicted that by 2022, Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) will be the preferred model of adoption for 50% of all contact centers.
In its Future of the Contact Center research note, the analyst firm also predicted that by 2025, the contact center “will be exploiting the benefits of an application ecosystem and tools to better equip staff to work in teams.”
A new 2020 survey conducted by 8x8 shows business professionals certainly support Gartner’s near-future predictions for the contact center - but also think change will be happening sooner than anticipated. When asked for their thoughts on Gartner’s prediction that Contact Center as a Service would be the preferred technology model in half of organizations by 2022, 62% said they believed CCaaS would be the preferred model in more than 50% of companies, with only 17% saying that just half sounds about right.
In regard to Gartner’s second prediction that by 2025, the contact center would be leveraging an application ecosystem to better work in and across teams, respondents to 8x8’s survey voiced that the time is actually now for contact center agents to be better connected through technology.
When asked how important it is for organizations to have a unified digital communications platform that spans corporate offices and the contact center, 75% said they thought that this is very important, and in fact, a competitive advantage. Just 25% it was only somewhat important - with zero respondents answering that this is not important in today’s business environment.
No small change
The necessary move to a digital workplace versus a physical one in 2020 may have been the catalyst to accelerate long-term change for contact centers. Historically, contact centers have been overlooked and underfunded when it comes to digital transformation initiatives. Click here to read how this change is paying off.
Want to learn more about Contact Center as a Service capabilities? Click here. Looking for more information on unified communications that includes the contact center? Click here.
