As digital customer experience technologies continue to take center stage at many organizations, business leaders are faced with numerous questions about their contact center platforms.

This holds especially true for companies that are at, or nearing, end of life with their on-premises platforms. Many such companies have used these platforms for decades — even before cloud services were available or widely used.

Today, about 45% of companies are using a Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS), citing a variety of benefits, including agility, cost savings and feature innovation. As they move to the cloud, it also presents an opportunity to explore additional services, such as omnichannel integration, artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled chatbots and agent analytics.

In fact, we’re seeing significant increases in both omnichannel and AI:

  • 21% used omnichannel in 2018, jumping to 31% in 2019
  • 6% used AI for digital customer experience initiatives in 2018, jumping to 60.9% in 2019

I recently had the opportunity to interview 10 Genesys contact center customers to discuss what their drivers were for selecting Genesys and benefits they’ve uncovered. During these one-on-one interviews, customer experience leaders were forthright about their challenges, experiences and benefits.

The most pressing issues causing companies to evaluate other providers and ultimately choose Genesys included: end of life of existing contact center platform, execution of a global strategy, customer experience transformation initiatives, and the need to scale — sometimes very quickly.

Along with the vendor selection, they had to decide on architecture, including cloud (CCaaS or single-server hosted), on-premises, or a bit of both with hybrid. Nine of the companies in the study switched to a Genesys cloud-based solution; one selected an on-premises solution.

After switching to Genesys, their results, compared to their previous solutions, were compelling. In summary, we found:

  • 52% reduction in staff required to manage the solution
  • 31% drop in overall operational costs
  • 23% improvement in first call resolution
  • 13% reduction in call handle time
  • 6% boost in customer ratings

You can learn more about this research project in two ways. First, register for our webinar, where I’ll discuss key findings and offer some colorful comments from this six-month research project, followed by real-world insights from Fernando Egea, VP of Strategic Solutions at Genesys.

Second, download the issue paper, which provides details about the companies’ experiences. I hope you’re able to join the webinar!

Nemertes is a global research-based advisory and consulting firm that analyzes the business value of emerging technologies. Since 2002, we have provided strategic recommendations based on data-driven operational and business metrics to help organizations deliver successful technology transformation to employees and customers. Simply put: Nemertes better data helps clients make better decisions.