5 Fundamental Disadvantages of On-premise Call Center Software

The-Disadvantages-of-Onpremise-Call-Center-Software

Today, call center is a whopping 22 billion dollar industry and is dominated primarily by on-premise software solutions and legacy players. It is a fact that even today on-premise systems have retained a strong share in the market. However, if you are seriously contemplating about what type of call center software should you invest in, it is worth taking a decision on if an on-premise call center software is apt for you or not.

In recent years, the popularity of cloud-based solutions for call centers is on the rise. However, despite that, a major chunk of the contact center industry has opted to stick to on-premise software. Are you about to set up your first call center venture or planning to expand by opening additional call centers in other locations? Regardless of what you plan to do, it makes sense to know the facts about on-premise call center software for call center and a cloud-based system before that.
Today, cloud-based call center solutions are in great demand. The reason for that is the tremendous amount of benefits offered by it. Some of them include ease of setting up, cost-effective and flexible. At the same time, as mentioned before, many businesses, particularly the large ones are still a bit hesitant to do away with their on-site call center software.
While there are both pros and cons of an on-premise call center software, such as reliability and inertia, the scope of this discussion is to enumerate its key disadvantages.
1. Flexibility
The term on-premise software is self-explanatory. It is local to a call center. This means whenever your administrators, supervisors, representatives, and call center agents are off the premise, they lose access to those tools. If your call center has opted for an on-premise software solution, it means bidding goodbye to the liberty of working from home, remote agents, easy scaling, emergency sign-ons and agents at dispersed locations.

Moreover, on-premise software for your call center needs installation and regular maintenance of the supporting hardware such as direct lines and PBX phones. Though all these things may provide a sense of additional reliability, as far as flexibility is concerned, it is not the best option at all.

On the other hand, a cloud-based system provides all the functionalities of on-premise software and yet is much more scalable. Whenever you need to remove or add agents in your call center based on seasonal factors, you need to simply get in touch with your service provider. Accordingly, the provider will add or remove lines and seats without going for any more on-site installation.
2. Hardware
There is no-doubt about the clumsiness of on-premise contact center software. They require availability of physical hardware. You must invest for the hardware upfront while are easily scalable. They are also easily vulnerable to different types of physical damage and make it necessary to hire additional staffs for their upkeep.
3. Mobility
When your call center is using on-premise software, the agents should be stationed at on-site so that they can log into the system. As a manager or owner of a call center, your physical presence is a must for monitoring calls, checking reports and to keep a close vigil on everyday activities.
On the other hand, a cloud-based call center solution enables managers as well as agents to enjoy working from any location. Since it operates on internet, it means you simply have to log into such a system from anywhere, even using your smartphones, provided there is a reliable internet connectivity. It also means that remote agents can be hired by your call center and save property costs and money on hardware.
4. IT Staff
Any technology needs dedicated technical assistance and IT staff. That is because on-site software can be quite complicated for supervisors and agents to be handled all by their own.
However, advanced cloud-based software for call center can be easily customized through an easy-to-understand interface. You need not have someone else to do the hand holding if you need to delete or add more agents, modify your permissions or alter the existing settings. Since you do not need IT staff, you can save money as you do not have to pay their salaries. You can also save the inconvenience of requesting for their assistance and save your time.
5. Disaster Recovery
On-site call center solutions may seem to provide a high degree of reliability. However, what happens in case a disaster strikes all of a sudden? When any natural disaster such as a fire or a flood affects the direct telephone lines, the call center may face outages.
However, cloud-based contact center software is powered by disaster recovery features. Since the hosting of cloud-based software is done through the internet, there is no need for you to worry about any sudden unforeseen events that may affect or disrupt your phone service. Moreover, many virtual contact center providers provide several layers of redundancy and backup mechanisms so that a failure of a single point will hardly affect your contact center. 

Why-a-Cloud-based-Contact-Center-makes-sense