• Home
• Articles
• Solutions
• Partners
• Resources
• 866.965.7227

inContact Named 2012 'Cloud Contact Center Company of the Year' for Strong Global Platform

By Amanda Ciccatelli, TMCnet Web Editor

Today, cloud/hosted software delivery has emerged as an alternative to traditional premise-license software installations, growing faster than premise solution sales. Frost & Sullivan (News - Alert) estimates that cloud/hosting revenue will surpass that for premise contact center solutions in 2013, and that the hosted market will reach $2,981.2 billion by 2017.

In the past, most suppliers only offered cloud/hosting for IVR-based call direction, directory assistance and BC/DR, but now, its application has expanded to ACD, outbound, chat, analytics, call recording, workforce management (WFM), and in customer relationship management (CRM) applications. Vendors offered hosted versions as an option to premise-licensed products to SMBs that could not afford the licensing, installation and server resources of premises products.

This is changing now, as more hosted solutions have the same capabilities as premises offerings and are equally scalable to enterprises. Many newer products like chat, EFM and eLearning are predominantly-hosted or hosted-only.

Recently, Frost & Sullivan named inContact the 2012 North American Company of the Year Award in Cloud Contact Center Solutions. The award is a prestigious recognition of inContact’s accomplishments in the Cloud Contact Center Solutions sector as it represents the innovation of inContact. For the award, inContact’s performance in Growth Strategy Excellence, Growth Implementation Excellence, Degree of Innovation with Products and Technologies, Leadership in Customer Value and Leadership in Market Penetration was ranked. By researching and ranking companies that deliver excellence, Frost & Sullivan hopes to inspire, influence and impact investors, customers and employees.

Frost & Sullivan recognizes that customer contact organizations face challenging dynamics in improving their quality, performance, productivity and growth prospects such as cost pressures, product commoditization, a shrinking middle class, customers as influencers, changes in communication, paying heed to core customers and an ever-changing business landscape.

inContact, which began as a voice communications reseller in 1997, entered the hosted market in 2005. The firm began supplying IVR and call routing, and then added outbound, chat and APO, EFM, eLearning, training and hiring solutions, along with integrations with CRM applications.

Additionally, inContact realized that flexibility, scalability and reliability are key to gaining and keeping cloud/hosted customers. The firm promotes its flexibility and scalability as being of interest to companies looking to institute or expand home-based agent programs. Frost & Sullivan’s research shows that this combination of all-in-one cloud/hosted services and communications services allows inContact to make a competitive, compelling offer.

Initially, inContact focused on midsized companies and the North America market, but has since widened its focus to enterprises and global and non U.S.-located businesses, while also expanding from direct sales to partnerships to reach new markets. Frost & Sullivan confirms that this combination of unique offerings and agility separates inContact from its competitors.

inContact’s total revenue increased to $89 million in 2011 from $82 million in 2010, benefitting mostly from its hosted contact center solutions.

Anticipating market needs and delivering innovative services is vital for technology company growth. It is critical for cloud/hosted providers because today’s customers can easily switch suppliers. Frost & Sullivan finds that inContact continues to select, develop and execute hosted contact center solutions in 2011 as it introduced inContact Reports 2.0, which provides an intuitive dashboard view of contact center results. Also, it developed its Plug-in Agent, which enables integration with CRM systems.

Into 2012, this technology momentum continues as inContact released a set of platform enhancements including Enhanced Agent Scripting, Click to call, Unified Agent Desktop Tools, Expanded Blended Dialer, Branded chat, and Enhanced Reporting. inContact’s competitors also have innovated, but in different directions. This reflects its longer time in the market and their having incorporated many of the solutions that inContact is bringing on board.

Markets for new solutions like cloud/hosted delivery do not just grow by themselves. They require marketplace evangelism by the companies offering them, which is critical for cloud/hosted providers. While the numbers of companies accepting the message are growing, many more need to be sold on it. inContact is a customer contact cloud/hosting evangelist and has been open about industry challenges and how its solutions can help resolve them.

These days, customer contact centers must replace obsolete applications and incorporate new ones into their infrastructure, while effectively serving and retaining demanding customers. More contact centers are sourcing cloud/hosted delivery so as to provide a cost effective and flexible alternative to premise-licensed installations as hosting provides affordable access to a means of improving service and performance. Frost & Sullivan’s research shows that inContact has assembled an expanding cloud/hosted global contact center platform backed by a communications backbone.

inContact is rising in the cloud/hosted market in terms of revenue and market share. Frost & Sullivan believes that it will continue to gain share in 2012.

Follow Us On: