For many enterprises facing changing customer expectations and technologies, as-a-service offerings are the fastest way forward, ISG Provider Lens™ report says

Rapid changes in contact center technologies are leading more enterprises to outsource these operations to cloud-based as-a-service providers, according to a new research report published today by Information Services Group (ISG) (Nasdaq: III), a leading global technology research and advisory firm.

The global 2022 ISG Provider Lens™ Contact Center as a Service – CX report finds that many enterprises are turning to outside providers to meet growing contact center demands in a time of staffing challenges and increasing complexity. Leading providers are enhancing clients’ customer engagement capabilities with cloud-based operations and advanced AI and analytics.

“AI is redefining the customer experience,” said Wayne Butterfield, partner, ISG Automation. “Automated tools like chatbots can now handle up to 80 percent of customer issues without an agent, so confidence in AI is growing.”

Outsourcing contact centers also helps enterprises acquire omnichannel capabilities, which meet growing customer demand for immediate responses using their medium of choice, the report says. The need to master text, voice, social media and other channels has made customer engagement too complex for many companies to do in-house.

At the same time, the stakes have risen as customer experience becomes a major differentiator for businesses, ISG says. If online customers are dissatisfied, competitors are only a click away, and companies are publicly rated for their customer experience. Some enterprises are outsourcing contact center operations to turn around a declining reputation.

“Customer experience is a boardroom issue now,” said Jan Erik Aase, partner and global leader, ISG Provider Lens Research. “Companies that are not connecting with their customers need to find the best service provider for their needs, and quickly.”

The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically accelerated the trend toward distributed, cloud-based contact centers, which in turn has ramped up demand for new tools to keep remote and home-based work secure, ISG says. The disruption of work during the pandemic also led to high attrition from contact-center jobs, increasing the need for automation and for more real-time customer data to help agents resolve issues.

The report also examines other trends around contact-centers-as-a-service, including the growing importance of workforce training, coaching and performance monitoring.

For more insights into the challenges driving enterprises to outsource contact centers, along with advice on how best to carry out a provider engagement, see the ISG Provider Lens™ Focal Points briefing here.

The global 2022 ISG Provider Lens™ Contact Center as a Service – CX report evaluates the capabilities of 21 providers across one quadrant: Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS).

The report names 8x8, Amazon Connect, Content Guru, Five9, Genesys, NICE CXone, Odigo and Talkdesk as Leaders in the quadrant.

In addition, Avaya is named as a Rising Star — a company with a “promising portfolio” and “high future potential” by ISG’s definition — in the quadrant.

Customized versions of the report are available from Odigo and TCN.

The global 2022 ISG Provider Lens™ Contact Center as a Service – CX 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, as well as in the U.S., Canada, Brazil, the U.K., France, Benelux, Germany, Switzerland, the Nordics, Australia and Singapore/Malaysia, with additional markets to be added in the future. For more information about ISG Provider Lens research, please visit this webpage.

A companion research series, the ISG Provider Lens Archetype reports, offer a first-of-its-kind evaluation of providers from the perspective of specific buyer types.

About ISG

ISG (Information Services Group) (Nasdaq: III) is a leading global technology research and advisory firm. A trusted business partner to more than 800 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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