3 Phases of Moving to a Cloud-Based Contact Center

“Change is the only constant in life.” –  Heraclitus

We’ve all heard this quote a number of times — and we’ve experienced this reality. Right now, we all can recognize that an unprecedented event is impacting everything — and we still don’t know how deep this will change our future. Fortunately, technology is available to help us adapt to these changes and how we connect with our customers and partners. And the cloud contact center is a new model that’s bringing simplicity and continuous innovation to the table.

In this article, I’ll outline three phases you’ll encounter when moving to a cloud contact center so the project is pain-free, smooth and maximizes your value.

1. Start simple and migrate fast to the cloud.

Whether you’re planning to migrate your existing on-premises contact center to the cloud or you’re deploying a new one in the cloud, envision where you want to be and plan accordingly.

• Impact on your organization. Analyze what impact this move will have on your organization and internal processes, how the new platform will be managed, and if you need to realign part of your team. You should also identify key players who will run and sponsor the project and make sure that your systems and networks are ready to support a shift to cloud.
• Existing features, applications and data. If you’ve been operating your contact center on-premises for several years, you might be concerned about moving to the cloud without disrupting the business. You also might want to keep your current tools. Using a prescriptive methodology, a developed migration plan and automation tools, the process is quick and simple.
• Agile, incremental value approach to deployment. Look at the big picture, but create a plan to proceed in waves. Combining an Agile approach with the prescriptive use case methodology allows you to implement your cloud projects in cycles of incremental value. Don’t be overwhelmed trying to do a big bang deployment; move quickly but choose where to go first carefully. You might want to start with a specific line of business or a group of users with a number of required channels and features — and then grow from that point to add volume and complexity.

2. Get used to the new platform and solve initial resistance problems.

Change is constant; however; it’s also human nature to resist change. It’s well-known and supported by data that most failures in achieving expected business outcomes when deploying a new system don’t occur because of the technology. They occur because of issues what integrating human beings with the technology. This is also the biggest concern for most of the companies when facing the change of migrating to the cloud.

Adopting a new contact center solution goes well beyond the initial deployment. Everything must start at the planning phase. By reviewing this step with an experience professional, you’ll get a better sense of how prepared your company is and what changes you need to implement within your organization, your processes and with your employees.

Executing on that plan is really critical after the first wave of your rollout. This is one of the reasons why you want to start small and simple. After that, we can work together to gain better control and manage the change. We’ll start by working with your workforce to help them better understand new features and tools, reinforce their training and enablement until the moment they’re proficient on the new cloud platform, and realize the actual business outcomes. In this process, you can avoid any initial resistance and show the benefits of the change.

People are more open to accept change when they can clearly see the benefits of that change — and when they feel supported during the process.

As a partner in your migration to the cloud, Genesys is with you all the way. By combining success planning with expert guidance and engagements, you can continually drive your goals and grow your skills. You’ll learn how to be proficient in the Genesys Cloud™ platform and can continue to improve and operate by yourself. Or you can let us to do it in your behalf — it’s your choice.

3. Introduce new features and innovation to maximize value.

You’re now at the point where most of your plan — or the entire rollout plan — has been executed. The initial adoption phases has been passed and your team is efficiently using the Genesys Cloud platform, its features, tools, and data insights. You can see the business outcomes and the value of the platform.

This is when you’re ready to go even further; you can add sophistication on how to improve the interactions with your customers, including automation or predictive behaviors to gain advantage or being totally disruptive in your market.

• With an incremental value deployment approach, you have the flexibility to implement new functionality whenever it’s necessary for your Genesys Cloud environment — from adding new digital channels, tryout bots or workforce management, up to including artificial intelligence (AI) or more sophisticated reporting capabilities.
• Take advantage of Genesys Cloud open APIs. Once your team is familiar with how to use the APIs to build integrations, custom interfaces or embedded functionality from other applications, there are no limits to what you can do with the Genesys Cloud platform. You also can choose to easy expand your capabilities via preexisting and tested apps from the AppFoundry Marketplace. We can work with you on enabling your team or on developing customized solutions on your behalf.
• Efficient contact centers are truly dynamic — and they’re evolving all the time based on market and customer needs. If you aren’t where the conversations are happening, you’re out of the conversation altogether. Be sure you’re using the capabilities you have in the right way; designing how your customers should interact with your organization to make the experience richer and more efficient is key. Genesys can also help design, review and optimize customer journeys based on the particular business outcomes you want to achieve.

Genesys has the experience and use cases for helping companies move to a cloud-based contact center — across all market segments, company sizes, and cultures. We have the expertise to help you obtain desired business outcomes and maximize the value on your investment. To learn more, email us at consulting@genesys.com with your questions.