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While Next Generation Networks
(NGNs) have promised the delivery of new, high-margin enhanced
services, the NGN reality today is mainly one of basic services
competing on price, and unsustainable opportunistic services
like dialup internet offload. Now many NGN deployments are
indefinitely delayed. Carriers are looking for “killer
apps” that realize the promise of the NGN technologies.
They are also recognizing that NGN infrastructure can be understood
not as a complete replacement for the current circuit infrastructure,
but as a complementary overlay that enables specific new services.
Contact Center On-Demand (sometimes also known as hosted
contact center or network-based contact center) is just
such an opportunity. Contact Center On-Demand might just
be that “killer app.” There is a strong need for
contact center solutions, especially among small and mid-sized
enterprises looking to retain business through high-touch
customer care. To survive, they need service that is on
a par with or better than the service of large competitors
with complex in-house contact centers. But they often cannot
afford the high investments and on-going maintenance costs
of such a system. They can, however, afford reasonably priced
hosted services from a trusted carrier paid for in manageable
monthly increments. And that is a completely new revenue
stream for carriers.
Today’s consumers want to choose how they interact
with a business. While call centers are a product of the
telephone industry, they have matured to include new communication
channels, such as voice mail, voice and video over IP, online
chat, SMS text messaging, and email. To be successful, carriers
will need to provide both the traditional telephone capabilities
and the new interaction channels in a single managed offering.
With an IP-based contact center platform, carriers can provide
such a multi-channel service and reclaim the call center
as a network-based entity.
Several leading carriers, including BT, Cable & Wireless,
France Telecom, NTT, KT (formerly Korea Telecom), NTT, PLDT,
TeliaSonera, have already deployed or are in the process
of deploying contact center on demand offerings. Many were
able to leverage their existing network infrastructure to
provide hosted contact center services. Other carriers should
consider this offering to sell to their current enterprise
clients, and to attract new ones. This is one important
way to counteract revenue drain: create new high-margin
services that fill the market need for affordable, manageable
customer care solutions.
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