STAMFORD, Conn., Sept. 15, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Enterprises that use and operate contact centers are rapidly adopting cloud-based services as they rethink their technology strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new report published today by Information Services Group (ISG) (Nasdaq: III), a leading global technology research and advisory firm.
The 2020 ISG Provider Lens™ Contact Center as a Service – CX Global Report finds many cloud contact center providers moving to a work-from-home model, with benefits including productivity gains, cost savings and flexibility to tap into a larger pool of talent. The pandemic also is causing contact center providers to accelerate their move to cloud solutions, which enable high levels of customer service across multiple channels, including voice, SMS, email and social media.
The move to cloud-based contact center services comes as many enterprises are struggling with demands on traditional contact centers, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the report says. In some cases, wait-and-resolution time has increased from about 18 seconds to more than 20 minutes, and in other cases, contact centers have asked customers to call back later.
At the same time, many customers are turning to non-voice channels to resolve their issues, and customer expectations for an improved contact center experience and a seamless shift between voice and other channels are increasing, the report says.
“During the pandemic, enterprises are challenged to deliver high-quality, personalized customer experience to maintain brand loyalty and keep their customers,” said Jan Erik Aase, director and global leader, ISG Provider Lens Research.
Cloud-based contact center solutions are embedded with a multitude of technologies that provide new benefits to traditional contact centers, the report says. Analytics and single-screen management functionalities enable contact center agents to deliver highly personalized services, as do artificial intelligence and machine learning tools.
Cloud-based solutions also come with a suite of workforce management capabilities that give supervisors information about their teams, allowing them to more effectively manage agents, the report adds.
“With a range of benefits that cloud contact centers provide, more enterprises are moving to cloud platforms and are taking full advantage of the available technology stack,” Aase said.
Other advantages of a cloud contact center include easy deployment, easy integration, scalability and pricing flexibility, the report says, noting that the work-from-home contact center model is likely to be adopted over the long term.
The 2020 ISG Provider Lens™ Contact Center as a Service – CX Global Report evaluates the capabilities of 14 providers. The report names 8X8, Five9, Genesys, NICE inContact, Odigo and Talkdesk as leaders in the sector.
A customized version of the report is available from Odigo.
The 2020 ISG Provider Lens™ Contact Center as a Service – CX Global Report is available to subscribers or for one-time purchase on this webpage.
About ISG Provider Lens™ Research
The ISG Provider Lens™ Quadrant research series is the only service provider evaluation of its kind to combine empirical, data-driven research and market analysis with the real-world experience and observations of ISG's global advisory team. Enterprises will find a wealth of detailed data and market analysis to help guide their selection of appropriate sourcing partners, while ISG advisors use the reports to validate their own market knowledge and make recommendations to ISG's enterprise clients. The research currently covers providers offering their services globally, across Europe and Latin America, as well as in the U.S., Germany, Switzerland, the U.K., France, the Nordics, Brazil and Australia/New Zealand, with additional markets to be added in the future. For more information about ISG Provider Lens research, please visit this webpage.
The series is a complement to the ISG Provider Lens Archetype reports, which offer a first-of-its-kind evaluation of providers from the perspective of specific buyer types.
Starting this year, each ISG Provider Lens™ study will include a Global Summary to help enterprise subscribers better understand provider capabilities across all geographic markets covered by that study. All ISG Provider Lens™ reports also will now include an Enterprise Context feature to help executives quickly identify key insights related to their roles and responsibilities.
About ISG
ISG (Information Services Group) (Nasdaq: III) is a leading global technology research and advisory firm. A trusted business partner to more than 700 clients, including more than 75 of the world's top 100 enterprises, ISG is committed to helping corporations, public sector organizations, and service and technology providers achieve operational excellence and faster growth. The firm specializes in digital transformation services, including automation, cloud and data analytics; sourcing advisory; managed governance and risk services; network carrier services; strategy and operations design; change management; market intelligence and technology research and analysis. Founded in 2006, and based in Stamford, Conn., ISG employs more than 1,300 digital-ready professionals operating in more than 20 countries—a global team known for its innovative thinking, market influence, deep industry and technology expertise, and world-class research and analytical capabilities based on the industry’s most comprehensive marketplace data. For more information, visit www.isg-one.com.
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