Legacy Contact Center: Is It Time to Jump from a Sinking Ship?

Benjamin Franklin once said, “Watch the little things; a small leak will sink a great ship.” For IT leaders, struggling daily with limitations of a legacy contact center, while mapping out an increasingly murky future, can feel like navigating an ill-fated voyage. Uncertainty abounds when you’re dealing with outdated technology from a vendor with financial and roadmap uncertainty. Whether your contact center is just beginning to list or sinking fast, it’s time to take action.

Recently, I hosted the webinar How Large Contact Centers Are Managing Risk as CCIM Vendors Struggle with guest speaker Art Schoeller, Vice President and Principal Analyst for Forrester Research and Chris Madden, Contact Centre Technologies Manager at Sasktel. In the webinar, we discuss the complex challenges of being asked to innovate the customer experience while running a legacy contact center on what feels like a sinking ship.

IT leaders know they must take action to mitigate both short-term financial risk and long-term customer experience implications. With customer expectations and business requirements continuing to rise, it has become critical to invest in a more modern, proven customer experience platform. Whether this involves completely replacing a legacy contact center platform or adding to it, making this move requires one to act outside of their comfort zone.

Overcoming the Challenges of Moving to a Modern Customer Experience Platform
In a real-time survey conducted during the webinar, participants were asked what challenges they identified with most when thinking of investing in a new modern, customer experience platform. A significant portion of the participants identified their biggest challenge as not having expertise on a new platform. Another top challenge identified was shifting away from being an advocate of the legacy provider. The survey results highlight that there is often a reluctance to move away from familiar technology and a long-term relationship with a vendor. There is a comfort factor in the familiar that can lead some to not want to take action. Yet, there are times when change must be made.

Changing Course
The good news is going down with the ship isn’t inevitable. IT leaders have multiple options when it comes to changing course and moving forward. For some, the right approach is a complete transformation from a legacy contact center to a modern customer experience platform. This is a significant step to reduce contact center vendor risk and speed up customer experience innovation.

For others with legacy systems that still have multiple years of useful life, a phased approach is a viable alternative. This involves adding functionality, such as digital or self-service capabilities, to the existing system. Not only does this approach minimize risk, it also provides optimal positioning to shift to a modern CX platform down the road.

During the webinar, participants were asked which CX transformation option appealed most to them. Of those who responded, 40% chose a total transformation to a modern CX platform with 40% preferring to add self-service to a legacy platform. During the webinar, I share considerations to help determine the best path forward. This includes evaluating the benefits of shifting to a cloud-based customer experience platform.

I encourage you to watch the complete on-demand replay of the webinar to learn more about mitigating your risk of running a legacy contact center and navigating your transformation to a modern customer experience platform that will drive your success today and tomorrow. And, don’t forget to check out the Forrester Wave to see how vendors stack up across 40 criteria.