Hosted services experience a growing demand

"A couple of years ago the demand was mainly from clients dealing with inbound calls, such as customer service centres," says Von Maltitz. "But we're now seeing a lot more interest from outbound contact centres, especially those in the financial services sector. Security and compliance are critical issues for anyone dealing with sales or payments of any kind. More and more people are realising that using a hosted solution can get them better security than going it alone."

1Stream, which recently expanded its national footprint and now has a full-time presence in both Cape Town and Johannesburg, builds its hosted services based on technology supplied by US-based Interactive Intelligence.

Hosted service offers multiple advances

"Buying a hosted service means you're always operating on the most up-to-date systems," says Von Maltitz. "Any security enhancements made to the global platform are instantly available to every user - there is no waiting to install upgrades, or to pay additional licence fees."

Hosting also offers major efficiency gains, says Von Maltitz. "Running a successful outbound contact centre is all about operating at maximum efficiency. Features like predictive dialling, click-to-dial, campaign management and seamless integration with customer information databases mean less wasted call time."