SaaS: Bringing call centres within a SMME reach

The Software as a Service (SaaS) trend is revolutionising the call centre industry, as companies of all sizes are now discovering the advantages of going with hosted versus on-premise solutions. With SaaS for the call centre, applications such as integrated voice recognition, automatic call dialing, predictive dialing, workforce management and CRM are hosted on a shared platform in a data centre and delivered to the agents via the Internet or dedicated network.

By Patrick Barnard

12 May 2008

Because they are completely Web-based, these solutions are quick and easy to deploy - and furthermore require very little upfront investment, as there is usually no additional equipment needed. Because the software is delivered over the Internet "as a service", the traditional software licensing model is replaced with a "subscription" model, or "leasing" model where the software is "rented" based on the amount of time it is used, multiplied by the number of seats. This "pay-as-you-go" model makes today's SaaS solutions analogous to a utility: You pay for only the amount you use.

Today, there are even affordable Web-based call centre solutions geared for small businesses with fewer than 12 agents. Despite their low cost, these solutions don't skimp on features: They offer many of the same capabilities found in much larger, much more expensive on-premise enterprise systems. Many small companies are already having great success with these hosted solutions and are realizing ROI (return on investment) in a very short time frame.

If you're running a growing small business and you're thinking about setting up your own in-house VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) call centre to better serve your customers, gain new efficiencies and improve the bottom line, you should definitely consider the SaaS model to meet your call centre software needs. The first and most important step is to determine whether the SaaS model is the right fit - for example, some SaaS solutions are better suited to out-bound call or contact centres, where as others are geared for inbound or blended service.

Let's take a closer look at the advantages today's SaaS solutions for the call centre bring.

Read the full article here.