As service offerings are on the rise.
In an environment where every business is relying on the cloud for ongoing business continuity, tools like UCaaS, CPaaS, and CCaaS deliver unbridled flexibility.
Contact Centre as a Service, or CCaaS solutions are experiencing a particularly large uptick right now. The events of 2020 showed companies that no matter what happens in the business landscape, clients will always demand quick, effective, and personalised service.
According to the Gartner Magic Quadrant for CCaaS, the cloud will be the only way forward for businesses in the years to come, with at least 50% of contact centres adopting it by 2022. So, how much has CCaaS grown since 2020, and what’s pushing it forward today?
Overcoming the Issues of 2020
All industries, communication or otherwise, experienced an economic slowdown during 2020. The CCaaS industry was no exception here. However, despite the lack of access to technology and tools, CCaaS technology maintained a relatively optimistic growth in the last couple of years.
Experts agree that the sector for CCaaS will be worth around $28.6 billion by 2025. What’s more, the potential for growth is global, with CCaaS standing as the heart of flexible customer service. Although Covid caused strain for many parts of the communication company, it also shone a light on the lack of flexibility and agility that contact centres had.
Companies quickly discovered a new need for CCaaS.
Fortune Business Insights released a report in 2020 stating that the CAGR of CCaaS should sit at a minimum of 16.1% up to the point of 2027, and this report was largely conducted before the influence of the pandemic had set in.
Another report on Cloud-based contact centre solutions takes these predictions even further, suggesting that the global size for cloud-based contact centres will reach a value of at least $36.1 billion by 2025, rising from only $11.5 billion in 2020. According to the publishers of this report, Markets and Markets, part of this growth comes from the growing need to deliver competitive customer experiences.
Where Will the Biggest Areas of Growth Be?
While many companies in various locations around the world can benefit from CCaaS technology, some sectors seem to be growing faster than others. For instance, Markets and Markets say that SMEs could generate excellent results by accessing the right cloud technology.
The SME segment has been adopting cloud-based solutions for contact centres and communication at a rapid pace, taking full advantage of the cost-effective scalability of the offerings. Several vendors are also beginning to offer solutions on a pay-per-use and subscription model, which makes the solutions more appealing to SMEs.
Geographically, the North American market is expected to experience some of the most significant growth in the next few years, thanks to the high adoption of advanced technology and a large number of vendors in the region. Major vendors in CCaaS focus heavily on the North American region, though growth in EMEA and the APAC region is also beginning to catch up. Primary drivers of this geographical growth appear to be an increase in awareness and expanded demand for scalability.
Another growth trend in CCaaS revolves around the reporting and analytics solutions included within many of these software solutions. The cloud-based contact centre market is home to a range of powerful tools including workforce management services, omni-channel routing, customer engagement management, and telephony solutions. Reporting and analytics are expected to have some of the strongest growth going forward as companies strive to deliver the best possible customer experiences to their clients.
Notably, the retail sector is particularly poised to witness significant growth for CCaaS solutions too. According to experts, the growth in demand throughout the retail sector stems from a wider set of expectations from customers in the modern digital markets. In 2020, the pandemic pushed a lot of retailers to begin changing the way they interact with customers. Clients will expect this innovation to continue going forward.
Through CCaaS, retailers have access to a range of features that can help them to thrive with better compliance, support, and customer service. From live call monitoring and analytics, to call recordings, cloud-based contact centres offer a host of ways to access valuable, but secure information.
Did Covid Drive Demand for CCaaS?
Contact Centre as a Service, like many of the as-a-service products in the communication environment, has been experiencing growth for quite some time. For years, the benefits of moving to the cloud have been evident. Cloud technology provides increased flexibility, lower costs for technology, and greater scalability.
However, until recently, contact centres have often struggled to make the shift into a full cloud environment. The pandemic pushed many companies to begin shifting to a CCaaS model faster than expected, simply because they could no longer afford to rely entirely on legacy equipment any longer. When the pandemic hit, employees needed to start working from home, and contact centres had to hire teams from around the globe to scale to demand.
In order to create an efficient and compliant contact centre team, companies of all sizes had to leverage the power of the cloud. CCaaS became a table-stakes solution for keeping the lights on in many organisations. It’s unlikely that any business will completely turn away from this new structure as offices re-open. Many organisations have already discovered the benefits of CCaaS for themselves, including reduced costs, and access to more talent.
What’s more, CCaaS paves the way for companies of all industries to invest in more disruptive solutions for long-term customer service improvements. CCaaS provides easy access to things like integrations with other aaS tools, AI implementations, and even the Internet of Things.
As companies strive to offer a higher level of personalization in their conversations with customers, CCaaS will open the door to everything from sentiment analysis to easier video-first communications with team members. Though not every business will necessarily move to the cloud all in one go, many will be starting their hybrid transitions this year.
