When setting up a contact center, one of the first choices you’ll need to make is whether you should deploy an on-premise or cloud-based contact center. This is a vital decision, as it will affect your daily operations tremendously. So, it’s essential to understand the differences between the two.
On-Premise Contact Centers
On-premise contact centers are hardware-based, which means that all infrastructure remains onsite. Obviously, this translates into higher costs. You’ll have to get dedicated communication servers, and you’ll need to hire an IT team to install and maintain everything from servers to headsets.
Cloud-Based Contact Centers
As the name implies, these kinds of contact centers are hosted in the cloud, meaning your support agents only need to have an internet connection to use it. In this case, your contact center software provider is the one responsible for ensuring your contact center doesn’t go down. Up-front costs are almost zero and you only need to pay a periodic fee.
Selecting the Best Solution
There’s a reason why many traditional contact centers are becoming cloud-based: they’re the best option overall. Instead of hiring an IT team to set up and maintain your communication servers, cloud-based contact centers take just a few minutes to configure. Moreover, software providers are the ones responsible for the server’s upkeep, so you don’t even need to worry about that.
While on-premise contact centers imply a large upfront investment, many cloud-based contact center providers offer free trials that allow you to set up everything before you pay the first installment. Moreover, unless you’re running a massive contact center with hundreds of support agents, monthly fees for cloud-based platforms are usually more affordable than buying all the necessary hardware to deploy an on-premise contact center.
As these contact centers are cloud-based, it’s easier to interact with customers through digital channels, such as social media and email. Not only that but integrating the platform with third-party software, such as CRM, is much more straightforward. When you consider all of these factors, it’s easy to understand why cloud-based contact centers are the best option for most companies.
More FAQs
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