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Choose a Right-Sized Contact Center Solution

“On-premises vs. cloud” is a false dichotomy.

  • IT needs a method to pinpoint which contact center solution best aligns with business objectives, adapting to a post-COVID world of remote work, flexibility, and scalability.
  • Scoring RFP and RFQ proposals is a complex process, and it is difficult to map and gap without a clear view of the organization’s needs. SOWs can contain pitfalls that cause expensive headaches for the organization in the long run. Guidance through a SOW is required to best represent the organization’s interests.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

  • “On-premises versus cloud” is a false dichotomy. Contact center architectures come in all shapes and sizes, and organizations should discern whether a hybrid option best meets their needs.
  • Contact centers should service customers – not capabilities. Capabilities must work for you, your agents, and your customers – not the other way around.
  • Deliverables and responsibilities should be a contract’s focal point. While organizations are right to focus on avoiding unanticipated license charges, it is more important to clearly define how deliverables and responsibilities will be divided among the organization, the vendor, and potential third parties.

Impact and Result

  • Assess the array of contact center architectures with Info-Tech’s Contact Center Decision Points Tool to select a right-sized solution.
  • Build business requirements in a formalized process to achieve stakeholder buy-in.
  • Use Info-Tech’s Contact Center RFP Scoring Tool to evaluate and choose from a range of vendors.
  • Successfully navigate and avoid major pitfalls in a SOW construction.
  • Justify each stage of the process with this blueprint’s key deliverable: the Contact Center Playbook.

Choose a Right-Sized Contact Center Solution Research & Tools

Start here – read the Executive Brief

Read our concise Executive Brief to examine the current contact center marketspace, review Info-Tech’s methodology for choosing a right-sized contact center solution, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

Choose a Right-Sized Contact Solution – Executive Brief
Choose a Right-Sized Contact Center Solution – Phases 1-3

1. Assess Contact Center Architectures

Establish your project vision and metrics of success before shortlisting potential contact center architectures and deciding which is right-sized for the organization.

Choose a Right-Sized Contact Center Solution – Phase 1: Assess Contact Center Architectures
Contact Center Playbook
Contact Center Decision Points Tool

2. Gather Requirements and Shortlist Vendors

Build business requirements to achieve stakeholder buy-in, define key deliverables, and issue an RFP/RFQ to shortlisted vendors.

Choose a Right-Sized Contact Center Solution – Phase 2: Gather Requirements and Shortlist Vendors
Requirements Gathering Documentation Tool
Lean RFP Template
Contact Center Business Requirements Document
Request for Quotation Template
Long-Form RFP Template

3. Score Vendors and Construct SOW

Score RFP/RFQ responses and decide upon a vendor before constructing a SOW.

Choose a Right-Sized Contact Center Solution – Phase 3: Score Vendors and Construct SOW
Contact Center RFP Scoring Tool
Contact Center SOW Template and Guide

About Info-Tech

Info-Tech Research Group is the world’s fastest-growing information technology research and advisory company, proudly serving over 30,000 IT professionals.

We produce unbiased and highly relevant research to help CIOs and IT leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. We partner closely with IT teams to provide everything they need, from actionable tools to analyst guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organizations.

What Is a Blueprint?

A blueprint is designed to be a roadmap, containing a methodology and the tools and templates you need to solve your IT problems.

Each blueprint can be accompanied by a Guided Implementation that provides you access to our world-class analysts to help you get through the project.

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Guided Implementation 1: Assess architectures.
  • Call 1: Introduce project, defining vision and metrics of success.
  • Call 2: Begin assessing potential architecture.

Guided Implementation 2: Gather requirements and shortlist vendors.
  • Call 1: Start collecting business, nonfunctional, and functional requirements.
  • Call 2: Review business requirements and decide whether to issue RFP/RFQ. Shortlist five vendors.

Guided Implementation 3: Score vendor proposals.
  • Call 1: Review RFP/RFQ for issuance.
  • Call 2: Score vendor proposals and narrow down options.

Guided Implementation 4: Build a SOW.
  • Call 1: Walk through SOW template.
  • Call 2: Review contract and wrap up project.

Author

Thomas Randall

Contributors

  • CJ Aulisa, Contact Center Consultant, okiBoe Group
  • Lindsay Galeste, Analyst Relations Specialist, Cisco
  • Veronica Krieg, Senior Content Writer, Sharpen
  • Michelle Lighton, Partner Marketing Manager, Aceyus
  • Vijay Ponnada, Senior Manager, Technology, Cognizant
  • Ben Ringshall, Content Manager, Fonolo
  • Colin Taylor, CEO, The Taylor Reach Group, Inc.
  • Zack Taylor, Director – Strategic Communications Customer Journey Solutions, Cisco
  • Further thanks to two anonymous contributors

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