All-in-one suites have been getting better, and costs may be lower. But best-of-breed may allow companies to differentiate their offerings from competitors or fit better within a corporate culture.

This Wednesday at 2 PM Eastern/11 AM Pacific, join us for a web discussion of this hot topic. Joe Staples, Chief Marketing Officer for Interactive Intelligence and I will be discussing this subject and the key trends that are influencing how enterprises are viewing these infrastructure alternatives today.

All-in-one suites have been getting better, and advocates claim that costs are lower. At the same time, best-of-breed solutions may allow companies to differentiate their offerings from competitors or fit better within a corporate culture.

Joe and I will discuss how contact center solutions have been changing over time, and the various ways that suppliers are meeting evolving customer requirements. We will discuss costs of deployment and ownership of different solution architectures, whether functionality differences are sufficient to influence the decision, and some of the deployment options that are available. We will also discuss the key questions and issues that an enterprise evaluating all-in-one vs. best-of-breed should consider.

Joe and I each have some opinions about these alternatives and where each makes sense. My view is that all-in-one suites are gaining ground as "good enough" functionality becomes more widely available from more and more suppliers. And certainly avoiding integration hassles and having one-throat-to-choke has its advantages for smoother operations. However, there are times when the ability to uniquely customize how a contact center can respond to customer requirements may be an overarching consideration. Can a best-of-breed solution, especially with some specialized functionality built in, offer a distinctive method of how a contact center responds to its customers? Can it be different enough that it’s a sustainable customer advantage? Companies need to really understand whether their overall business strategy and potential benefit can warrant such an approach.

Finally, we will be very interested in the comments and questions coming in from those calling into the webinar. What's on your mind, and what do you see are the critical issues? Are there clear winning strategies for all-in-one or best-of-breed? What fits best in what sort of environment?

Have your questions ready and join in the discussion. We look forward to your participation. Register here!