The decision to replace a legacy contact center platform rarely comes at a convenient moment. It is usually triggered by a vendor in distress, a support contract running out, or a growing awareness that the current system is holding the organization back. By the time the procurement process begins, the pressure is already on.
That pressure is exactly what causes enterprises to make avoidable mistakes. Martin Taylor, Deputy CEO and Co-Founder of Content Guru, has seen the same patterns repeat across organizations of all sizes. Taylor explained to CX Today five of the most common mistakes buyers make and how to avoid them.
Mistake 1: Writing an Overly-Prescriptive RFP
One of the most common issues is that organizations begin the procurement process by defining requirements around their existing environment rather than their future needs.
“They might be seeking to replicate an existing service, not just what it does but how it does it,” Taylor said.
“They may not be considering the new capabilities that modern cloud technology could bring. They’re trying to make modern technology work like 1990s technology.”
The result is a procurement process that filters out modern, capable vendors and selects for whoever is best at mimicking an outdated architecture. A well-constructed RFP focuses on outcomes, not on replicating the past.
Mistake 2: Underestimating the Task Ahead
At the other end of the spectrum is an organization entering the purchasing process without a clear idea of what it needs to procure. Taylor cited a particularly vague recent procurement that elicited so many clarification questions from vendors that the organizations halted the process. “They concluded that they didn’t really know what it was they wanted. And I’d imagine we’ll see them come back to market in a couple of months,” Taylor said.
Enterprises often underestimate their current platform and the likely migration costs.
“It’s almost a given that they will underestimate the cost of running their existing service,” Taylor said. “They will just leave out whole slabs of cost. The people involved, the cost of telephone lines, how much power they are consuming, the square foot cost of the server room.”
“Without that baseline, you can’t really compare what’s being proposed or build an ROI case when you’re not quite sure what the cost was before.”
And by not thinking broadly enough, leaders may not consider opportunities to make additional sales or reduce customer churn.
Mistake 3: Not Getting Executive Buy-In Early Enough
Leadership teams need to be clear on the strategic objectives of undertaking a migration program.
“If the requirement has been prepared too low down in the organization, it’s not really addressing strategic objectives. The bids come in, but they don’t go ahead with any of them because it’s too expensive or the CEO doesn’t really understand what it’s for.”
Without executive alignment on the strategic case, even a technically sound procurement process can fail at the point of decision.
“You can’t just focus on the cost of a license and the feature set. The question should be around how cohesive the technology stack is. Is it a single architecture, or has it just been assembled from multiple sources or acquired through piecemeal M&A over time, and no one really understands the architecture? Are the different channels only connected at certain points?
Mistake 4: Migrating Bad Data
A collaborative approach to managing data migration can help enterprises to avoid the cost and complexity caused by migrating bad data.
“Very often the customer doesn’t have much by way of data specialists in the business. The data has been built up over many years, and people aren’t quite sure where it came from or whether it is important,” Taylor said. “We always make a point of working with the customer to cleanse their data before migrating it.”
“Bad, repeated, stale data has no place moving to the new house; it needs to go in the skip.”
There is a related error around consolidation, and “Thinking that everything should be migrated into one data platform,” Taylor added. “The fact is, organizations need to have multiple systems of record. It’s not reasonable to think you’re going to mash all those together into one. You need to have a data orchestration layer in order to deliver a coherent customer experience.”
Mistake 5: Underestimating the People Side of Migration
Organizations often underrate the importance of change management in the migration process.
“People are well over 90 per cent of the cost of your contact operation, and if you don’t get their buy-in and hopefully excitement about the change, then you’ve got an uphill task ahead of you.”
“Build the excitement that we’re moving on to something better,” Taylor added. “Because of course humans don’t like change, and you’re asking them to change the way they’re working… you have to bring them with you on that journey.”
What to Do If You Recognize One of These Mistakes
Identifying a problem mid-process is not a reason to stop, but instead a reason to recalibrate.
Taylor’s starting point is straightforward. “Stop and look around. I would bring it back to defining your objectives, baselining your current way of doing things accurately, with all the costs, and mapping the processes so that you can track the return on investment.”
If the RFP is already live and too prescriptive, go back to the objectives rather than the specification. What does the organization actually need to achieve? That question is more useful than any list of technical requirements.
If the cost baseline is incomplete, completing it is worth doing even mid-procurement. A more accurate picture, even a late one, produces better decisions than a comfortable but incomplete one.
On the people side, the most important intervention is early engagement. “Identify the base that you’re going to start with, and reframe the business case around how the procurement is going to improve your effective adoption of AI.”
Waiting until a vendor is going out of business and scrambling to find a replacement is the wrong starting point, Taylor noted.
“Chat to the vendors, chat to the resellers, the partners, and chat to other people in your industry… they like to share their stories and best practice. You’re not alone.”
Read next: Enterprises Still Running On Outdated Platforms Face Risks They Can No Longer Afford To Ignore
Watch next: Moving Beyond Legacy Contact Centers to Future-Proof CX: What Enterprise Buyers Need to Know
For more insights, visit contentguru.com
