Moving ACD Systems to the Cloud? Here’s Your Pitch

Moving ACD Systems to the Cloud? Here’s Your Pitch

Everyone wants to move services to the cloud. It’s a cloud bonanza. 

And it’s cloud-based ACD systems which offer some of the biggest gains for the inbound call center

But a few objections – real and imagined – still get in the way.

We’re going to take apart those objections.

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Objection 1: ‘We’ve already invested’

Here’s a quick history lesson. (Stay with me)

In 1670, French politician Jean-Baptist Colbert planted hundreds of oak trees. 

The trees wouldn’t mature for 200 years, but once grown, they could supply the French navy with wood.

Have you ever seen a politician plan ahead like that? There was just one hiccup in Colbert’s scheme. 

By the time those oak trees matured, navy ships were made of iron and steel.

Here’s the lesson: The world doesn’t stand still just because you made an investment. Wooden ships can’t compete in an age of steam. Legacy solutions can’t compete with the cloud. 

Objection 2: ‘We’re worried about migration’

Fear of migration is a big one. 

Sure, you should be cautious about changing anything in your core business processes. ACD systems are about as core as it gets. 

They’re also complicated systems; a mid to large call center might have 1000+ call routes configured. What happens to all that work?

*Nothing* is usually the answer. 

Ok – five years ago, migrating 1000 routes might have been a challenge. But now? It’s a pretty standard request.

In fact, you’ll probably end up with a better approach – you’ll most likely get an upgrade

Best-in-class ACDs have more flexible approaches to routing. It means that 1000 routes can sometimes become *10 more dynamic routes*.

Here’s the lesson: Challenge the naysayers on what they think they know. The tech moves at breakneck speed – yesterday’s barriers are gone. 

Objection 3: ‘It’s too disruptive’ 

You want cloud-based ACD. 

But you don’t want disruption. You don’t want to get stuck in a hands-on project for the entire year. 

In practice, disruption isn’t a real concern.

In the cloud world, a large migration typically takes five weeks or less. And it’s not like you have to shut up shop in the meantime. (You can keep sailing the schooner while the steamship is under construction.)

After your migration, disruption will go down because you’ll benefit from the greater flexibility.

The lesson: The migration happens in the background. If you’re concerned about disruption, you’re talking to the wrong vendors. 

Why even bother moving to the cloud?

The objections don’t stand up to scrutiny. But what are the positive reasons to move ACD systems to the cloud?

Call centers want more reliable systems and a greater choice of providers. 90% want more financial flexibility. All good things.

But we can go one better and talk about something truly transformative: integration and automation. When you move your ACD systems to the cloud, integration and automation are what you open them up for.

  1. Integration: linking your ACD with other communication solutions so you can create new, smart processes across them
  2. Automation: letting your new processes work in the background with less human input

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What does integration/automation mean for you?

It’s not just a better version of what you’ve already got. It can be the chance to roll out basically any service upgrade you’ve ever dreamed of.

For example… integration between ACD and CRM means you can identify callers and route the call based on what you know about them. (Are they a VIP? Do they have a live Helpdesk ticket? Is this their tenth call today?)

Most of the call center’s thwarted ambitions come down to what they can’t integrate or automate. Remove that obstacle and you’ll watch a lot of your big plans become possible.

Here are a few things call centers would like to do, but can’t:

  • Personalized call routing 
  • Zero waiting
  • Virtual queuing
  • Automated peak management
  • Personalization in IVR
  • Data-driven, automated classification of cases

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So… moving to the cloud makes anything possible

Yes… and no. Migrating your ACD systems to the cloud is the first step. But it’s not the full story. 

The next challenge is the lengthy software projects you need to actually do anything from the list. That’s what you need to get rid of.

How much work would it take for an IT team to achieve anything we’ve listed? The answer is ‘too much for it to be realistic’. 

That’s why babelforce has always (and will always) advocate for a No-Code approach.  

At the moment, under one-quarter of call centers have full collaboration on process design. That’s something we intend to change.

Research findings show that companies recognize the benefits of relieving IT from managing contact center applications. Sixty-two percent (62%) cite reducing reliance on IT helps the IT team focus more on strategic activities — such as building a single view of customer insights — that are needed to deliver omni-channel customer interactions.

Omer Minkara, Vice President, Principal Analyst at Aberdeen 

Creating new processes without any coding means getting agile with call center processes. If you’re ready to start launching major improvements to your service every few weeks, this is the way to do it.

Are your ACD systems taking on water?

The oak trees that Colbert planted were never used. It was a neat idea, but when the times changed, shipbuilders changed with them.

As we’ve seen, the question is more than ‘are our ACD systems failing?’ It’s ‘are they doing everything possible to help us succeed?’

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