The Forrester Wave™: Contact Center As A Service, Q1 2023
CCaaS has evolved from cloud-based copies of premises systems into its own category that makes advanced customer service practical. CCaaS systems simplify omnichannel communications, provide critical customer data on agent desktops, and tightly integrate with WFO tools to improve agent performance and CX. AI now permeates every element of differentiated CCaaS offerings, from self-service to post-contact analytics. The market has been validated by COVID-19's acceleration of remote work, which demonstrated CCaaS flexibility and agility. Contact center buyers now seek providers with comprehensive AI integration, broad tightly-integrated suites, and capabilities to personalize customer experiences using detailed interaction data.
No common features specified.
Vendors must, among other requirements:
A: This research evaluates the 11 most significant CCaaS providers across 34 criteria grouped into current offering, strategy, and market presence. It assesses vendors' capabilities in omnichannel routing, platform architecture, integrations, outbound capabilities, WFO tools, AI integration, customer self-service, data management, reporting, and agent desktop functionality. The evaluation also examines each vendor's market approach, performance, partner ecosystem, product vision, innovation roadmap, and commercial model.
A: Contact center professionals and decision-makers should use this research to select the right CCaaS provider for their needs. It helps buyers understand how each vendor measures up in terms of capabilities, strategy, and market presence. The research is particularly valuable for organizations looking to implement or upgrade their contact center technology, compare vendor strengths and weaknesses, and align provider capabilities with specific business requirements such as AI integration, global scalability, or vertical industry solutions.
A: Vendors must have critical cloud contact center components including interaction routing, IVR, an agent desktop, reporting and analytics, supervisor tools, and WFO capabilities. They must demonstrate a strong focus on CCaaS with at least 50% of usage via inbound voice interactions, generate significant revenue from CCaaS offerings, and be able to support agents across multiple geographic regions. Additionally, vendors must have garnered mindshare among Forrester clients through frequent mentions in inquiries, briefings, and consulting engagements.
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A: Current Offering evaluates the strength of a vendor's existing product capabilities including technical architecture, functional breadth across routing, WFO, AI, analytics, and agent tools. Strategy evaluates forward-looking elements including market approach, product vision, innovation roadmap, partner ecosystem, and commercial model. Offering focuses on what the product can do today, while Strategy focuses on the vendor's direction and ability to execute on future opportunities.