Premise vs. Cloud: Benefits Outweigh Risk

CH Consulting Group was recently contracted by a leading energy and utility company that employs more than 6,000 people while serving customers in 27 states. Our role was to explore options and make recommendations on whether the client should move voice solutions from a traditional on-premise system to the cloud. It’s a decision many businesses are facing today, and one of the most important considerations is risk—specifically security and operational risks. For an organization that has an in-house team supporting a voice system, moving to the cloud can feel like a leap of faith. But when you consider the significant benefits cloud provides, that risk can quickly pale in comparison.

Cost Considerations
Total cost of ownership between cloud and on-premise can be difficult to evaluate. On-premise systems may include hidden costs, and new components can require costly upgrades of current equipment every few years in order to ensure the system works in tandem. Both of these considerations can make the cost of on-premise increase over time, while cloud-based costs stay constant over the term of the contract.

Risk Mitigated
When you choose cloud, you essentially place customer interaction in the hands of a third party, which can be unnerving when you start to consider the risk of downtime. However, all of the cloud providers we analyzed for our energy client had at least 99.99 percent of uptime. Looking at the topology risks for the data connection to the cloud provider, they are similar those of having an outage of the access T1s connected to the on-premise platform. The risk is slightly lower for the access T1s, but very similar either way if there is a cut coming into the building. These risks can also be mitigated by having a VPN backup or redundant MPLS circuits.

Advantages
In 2013, for the first time, more organizations purchasing voice solutions worldwide bought cloud over on-premise. That trend will no doubt continue to gain momentum into the future because the advantages of cloud are significant:

• Provides a full suite of features in one place that include ACD, skills based routing, IVR, virtual hold, call recording, SMS messaging for outages, email queuing and processing, etc.
• Provides the most up-to-date technology without needing to worry about updates and upgrades
• Allows for reduced phone system support staff
• Scalability & flexibility by smoothing peak call volumes across multiple contact centers
• Lowers risk of not meeting SLA requirements
• Reduces agent staffing needs through the use of universal agents and by directing calls to contact centers with lower call volume
• Enhanced business continuity through mitigation of major events by temporarily using remote agents
• Requires management of only one vendor

When taking all of the factors into account, cloud solutions offer a compelling business case. That said, at CHCG we realize every business is unique and therefore has unique needs and goals. We welcome the opportunity to help you determine which voice solution is right for you, premise vs. cloud. Please contact us today for a free consultation.

Further reading:
Navigating All the Monkeys in Cloud Technology
The IoT is a Cx Opportunity You Can’t Afford to Miss