Contact center migration is the process of moving from on-premises infrastructure to a cloud-based system, including software, data and services. This shift allows companies to offer secure communications for remote teams with less complexity compared to traditional on-site setups.
A cloud or virtual contact center offers cost savings, scalability and improved reliability, making it the ideal choice for companies seeking greater efficiency and flexibility. It also supports remote workforces and streamlines operations and customer engagement.
A successful migration requires a comprehensive plan that includes management buy-in, operational changes, and employee training. Below you will find the most important steps for a smooth transition.
1. Distribute a contact center migration BRD
As the name suggests, a business requirements document (BRD) describes in detail what is required for the success of the business or project. This sets out the goals and objectives of the project, the desired expectations during its life cycle and the resources required for implementation.
In the case of a contact center migration, a BRD should include how you plan to perform the migration, along with expected transition timelines if you have a phased rollout plan that requires a transition period.
The BRD should outline what things your contact center already does well and how you plan to replicate and improve them after migrating to the cloud. It should include key performance indicators (KPIs) that serve as benchmarks and allow stakeholders to evaluate whether the cloud migration process can be considered successful.
While it is important to share this document throughout the organization to gain buy-in from stakeholders and key decision makers, disseminating the BRD throughout the organization allows you to identify the needs of different departments in terms of equipment, functionality, and expectations.
Essentially, a FRG brings to the fore conflicting expectations and forces everyone to grapple with the compromises that must be made. Starting BRD early in the contact center migration process is important to spot potential issues and opportunities while allowing time for course corrections.
Keep in mind that this step is intended to be iterative and requires a lot of back-and-forth communication between relevant stakeholders. You will likely move on to the next steps before this document is truly finished, incorporating what you have learned.
2. Match the requirements to a type of contact center solution
Before selecting specific providers, you should use the opportunity of a contact center migration to select the best possible infrastructure for your company’s future.
UCaaS, CCaaS and CPaaS, which have emerged as the preferred models for contact centers to implement cloud-based communications. However, they each relate to different communication needs.
UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service) is aimed at internal communication within the call center. It combines common communication methods such as live chat, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), SMS, social media, file sharing and video conferencing into a single interface or cloud-based platform.
SEE: Find out the most important things Things you need to know before signing a VoIP contract.
By unifying all of these different tools, UCaaS offers the simplicity and flexibility of a single solution for inbound communications. For outbound communications, UCaaS also eliminates the need for contact center agents to frequently switch between platforms.
As a central communications hub, UCaaS is also ideal for distributed and remote workers and provides the focal point that keeps a contact center workplace integrated.
CCaaS (Contact Center as a Service) is basically another name for a Contact center solution which is hosted in the cloud. It includes all channels: social media, live chat, VoIP phone services, social media. CCaaS typically has tools to facilitate CRM integration, if not pre-built integrations with popular CRM providers.
As a hosted service, CCaaS provides secure online communications for remote workers without the complexity of large numbers of VPN users On-premises and cloud security issuesor have to maintain a telephone system around the clock.
Typically, CCaaS is best suited for external communications as it has the capacity for high volumes in both inbound and outbound. Unlike UCaaS, CCaaS is more optimized for improved customer experience, while UCaaS is better for internal collaboration and communication.
CPaaS (Communications Platform as a Service) enables companies to integrate voice, messaging and video directly into their workflows via APIs. Companies can easily integrate these new functions into an existing solution.
Therefore, you don’t need to worry about backend infrastructure to integrate CPaaS capabilities into your cloud-based contact center. Unlike traditional real-time communications (RTC), CPaaS provides the development framework to build your own RTC capabilities without having to build everything from scratch.
CPaaS offers features such as two-factor authentication, video conferencing, interactive voice response (IVR), call center chatbots, SMS, and AI capabilities. Cloud-based contact centers may be particularly interested in CPaaS applications that can help them offer a video-enabled help desk.
SEE: Check this out latest IVR upgrades And Examples of call center chatbots to find out more.
Overall, the cloud offers numerous features to optimize contact center performance. However, you need to weigh your options and choose a platform that fits your company’s goals and business needs.
3. Perform SIT and UAT
Once you have a contact center migration solution in place, you can begin testing to ensure you can perform a complete migration without any downtime, technical issues, or security vulnerabilities.
The testing phase of a contact center migration should include some form of system integration testing (SIT) and user acceptance testing (UAT). SIT is focused on ensuring that the new system integrates smoothly with existing software and meets technical requirements. UAT validates that the system works as expected from the end user’s perspective and meets business needs.
The test scope should cover key contact center workflows, system performance, scalability, etc Integration with other platforms such as CRM systems. Stress testing, IVR testing, compliance and security audits are also essential to identify potential risks before go-live.
SEE: Discover Six ways to automate your call center workflow.
To avoid business disruption, testing is often performed in a sandbox or staging environment. The goal is to make the staging environment as close to a replica of the live system as possible. The idea is to test features without affecting the performance or uptime of the overall system.
In addition to ensuring that the contact center migration is technically sound, you should also perform UAT to ensure that the new contact center system works well for real users before it is fully rolled out.
For example, during UAT, agents could test whether it is easy to switch between customer information and communication channels. Supervisors may also consider whether the reports provide them with the information they need. UAT ensures that the system is suitable for everyday use and contributes to the smooth running of business.
4. Project implementation and training
The most Software implementation plans Use a phased delivery strategy, ideal for reducing downtime. Plan your move with a release schedule that prioritizes the features you need most. That means migrating them first.
In this step you may want to adopt that agile development method for deployment through quick sprints to accelerate deployment. Additionally, you may also want to perform a deployment Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Agents to assist with crossover functions such as data migration. Because of the risk of typographical errors, this is often better than having employees do the data transfer manually.
To ensure success, plan an achievable schedule and train your employees to use the new cloud platform. Training is important to ensure that your call center agents can adapt to the new system and use it competently. They should ensure that they understand the new platform and the new features that come with it before they have to use it. Make sure your knowledge base is up to date so that agents have a single source of information to answer their own questions when they encounter unknown issues.
SEE: Learning How to create a knowledge base that agents actually use.
5. Monitoring and analysis
The final step of contact center migration is to assess whether your key performance indicators are being implemented. This helps in two ways: first, you can provide management with feedback on the overall status of the migration, and second, you can find out if adjustments are needed.
In other words, you need to know whether the tactical and strategic goals you identified and proposed at the beginning of the cloud migration in your BRD are on track to be achieved. Even when goals are achieved, there is always room for improvement, so continuing the monitoring process can lead to finding new ways to optimize positive results.
In addition to quantifiable statistics, feedback from employees and agents should also be part of the ongoing evaluation and reevaluation of the new system. Although their views may be subjective, they are still an invaluable source of information.
