Microsoft Solutions for CCaaS – Contact Center as a Service

A key strategic dimension of the UCCaaS portfolio is the opportunity to address ‘CCaaS’ requirements.

CCaaS (Contact Center as a Service) is a cloud-based solution that provides businesses with the tools and infrastructure to manage their contact center operations.

It offers features such as automatic call distribution, interactive voice response, workforce management, and analytics. CCaaS allows organizations to handle customer interactions efficiently, improve agent productivity, and deliver exceptional customer experiences.

Strategy

The critical insight is the opportunity to address contact center requirements through UC applications as the component building blocks. It used to be that this market was addressed by specialized solutions, ones quite distinct from UC and purpose built for contact centers, typically utilizing proprietary hardware and software.

A key facet of the Cloud-based UCCaaS world is that it’s a capability that can be achieved simply extending the standard products to address this use case. CX Today explores this trend, comparing Google, Zoom and MS Teams and how they are vying for emergent domination of the segment.

Benefits for Channel Partners

Cloud Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) solutions have gained significant traction in the business world due to their scalability, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness. For channel partners, this presents a lucrative opportunity to offer cutting-edge communication solutions to their clients while driving revenue growth.

• Recurring Revenue Streams: CCaaS solutions typically operate on a subscription-based model, providing channel partners with recurring revenue streams.
• Expanded Service Offerings: By adding CCaaS solutions to their portfolio, channel partners can offer comprehensive communication services to their clients.
• Increased Customer Retention: Providing CCaaS solutions can enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty, leading to improved customer retention rates.
• Access to Advanced Technology: Partnering with CCaaS vendors gives channel partners access to cutting-edge technology and innovation in the contact center space.

List of Vendors Offering CCaaS Solutions

The sector is still dominated by the more established sector specialists, as the Gartner Magic Quadrant defines, listing Genesys, Five9, Cisco, 8×8 and Vonage as the leaders.

• Five9: Five9 is a leading provider of cloud contact center software, offering a comprehensive CCaaS solution that includes omnichannel capabilities and advanced analytics.
• Twilio: Twilio offers a flexible and scalable CCaaS platform that enables businesses to build customized contact center solutions using APIs and programmable communications.
• Genesys: Genesys provides an AI-powered CCaaS solution that helps businesses deliver personalized customer experiences across all channels.
• 8×8: 8×8 offers a cloud-based contact center solution that integrates voice, chat, and video communications to enhance customer interactions.
• RingCentral: RingCentral’s CCaaS platform combines contact center capabilities with unified communications to streamline customer engagement processes.

Partnering with these reputable vendors can empower channel partners to tap into the growing demand for CCaaS solutions and drive business growth through innovative communication offerings.

Microsoft CCaaS

A key strategic dimension of the Microsoft UCCaaS portfolio is the opportunity to address ‘CCaaS’ requirements.

CCaaS (Contact Center as a Service) is a cloud-based solution that provides businesses with the tools and infrastructure to manage their contact center operations. CCaaS is a key segment for UC partners as it offers the potential for strategic level of engagement with customers.

Of course there is always a market demand for internal communications tools, but these are typically considered a commodity, driven by more junior IT buyers. In contrast how customers are engaged through the contact center is of top most strategic priority, presenting the opportunity for business / senior Director level relationships.

Dynamics Contact Center

A keynote case study example of this scenario is Aberdeen City Council. They have has pioneered the use of Azure AI to streamline the online citizen contact experience. They were the first local authority in Scotland with a virtual assistant when it launched its AB-1 chatbot with Microsoft in 2020.

As Dynamics users they highlight the logical context of the newly launched Dynamics Contact Center offering. this standalone Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) solution enables customers to maximize their current investments by connecting to preferred customer relationship management systems (CRMs) or custom apps.

Azure Communications Services

Microsoft’s key strength is their holistic enterprise Cloud platform and complete suite of services, and especially potent is the developer tool set Azure Communications Services, multichannel communication APIs for adding voice, video, chat, text messaging/SMS, email, and more to all your applications, which positions them powerfully for the CCaaS (Contact Center as a Service) use case.

For example as this case study explains how ABN Amro uses Microsoft Teams and Azure Communication Services to bring fully customized Teams meeting capabilities directly into the bank’s own digital banking portal for customers, creating a streamlined meeting experience where they can book meetings without having to leave the portal.

Empowering developers to work with these communication components makes possible an array of dynamic innovation scenarios. Lynk and Co even brought meetings into the car, highlighting the diversity of opportunities for UCCaaS niche specialisms.