3. Design of the Contact Center Features and Functions – This is a critical area that requires several essential steps that cloud solution providers often fail to perform. Missing these steps opens the door for misaligned expectations as the implementation moves along.
- The first step in any implementation should be a gap analysis by the enterprise customer, performed in conjunction with the cloud solution provider. This critical step will help to ensure that any essential existing features, functions, or reports aren’t missed during the design effort.
- Based on the gap analysis, determine if any of the key performance metrics must be adjusted, based on calculations from the cloud solution provider. If the metrics must remain the same, work with the cloud solution provider to adjust calculations to enable this. If the metrics can change, make sure to communicate the changes to, and set the expectations of, those individuals who are responsible for reviewing the metrics. This should eliminate surprises after the implementation is complete.
- Ensure that terminology is clear. We’ve often seen cloud provider design subject matter experts assume that the contact center team understands the terminology used to describe a solution’s features and functions. Level setting -- i.e., defining terminology and explaining how that terminology relates to the prior solution -- is critical in creating a proper design.
- Educate the contact center staff on the features and functions being provisioned specifically for them. This is an important step that should be done prior to design sessions. This will enable the business to determine how best to utilize these features in its environment.
- As much as is feasible, the design of features, functions, reporting, and routing should be a collaborative effort between the business and the cloud solution provider. On-site is preferred, because this allows for whiteboarding and focused participation.
- Include members of your internal compliance and security teams in the design process, and ensure that they are part of the signoff for the new design.
4. Testing of the Initial Design – As with any new implementation, testing prior to “go live” is critical with the implementation of a cloud solution. However, some elements may be more important to test in this environment than others, because they aren’t under the business’s control. Included in this area may be the need to stress test the environment to ensure that at least the following elements are configured properly, and that responses are timely:
- The connectivity from the cloud solution provider to the business site or sites
- Integrations between the cloud solution and any back-end customer relationship management (CRM) systems
- Agent and supervisor desktop performance and connectivity
Clearly, features, routing, and reporting designs should also be tested thoroughly during this timeframe.
5. Training and Knowledge Transfer – Cloud solution providers don’t always understand the need to properly train the agent and contact center management staff. Standard manuals and remote Web-based training oftentimes aren’t sufficient to make these effective users of the solution. A smart business will ensure that customized training and knowledge transfer is included in the implementation process.
6. On-site Cutover Support – This is also an area where the cloud solution providers often fall short. An effective training and knowledge transfer strategy will help, but having on-site resources to assist the agents and supervisors when the system goes live is as important in a cloud implementation as it is in an on-premises solution. It must be accommodated in the initial contract.
Don’t buy into the “cloud is easy” camp and allow short-cuts in the implementation process. This won’t serve you well and could put the success of your implementation at risk. And if the implementation isn’t successful, its ripple effect impacts your customers… and probably not positively.
"SCTC Perspectives" is written by members of the Society of Communications Technology Consultants, an international organization of independent information and communications technology professionals serving clients in all business sectors and government worldwide.
