Transitioning to the Hybrid Cloud
A Strategic Approach toContact Center Innovation

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Sponsored by:Ventana Research: Migration to the Hybrid Cloud

Table of Contents
Navigating The Cloud Debate ......................................................................................................... 3
Realizing the Advantages of a Hybrid Model ............................................................................... 4
Visualizing a Hybrid Contact Center ............................................................................................. 6
Increasing Agility with Hybrid Deployments ............................................................................... 7
Charting a Hybrid Course ................................................................................................................ 8
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Ventana Research: Migration to the Hybrid Cloud

Navigating The Cloud Debate
Contact center platform vendors are transitioning to cloud offerings, but what if an enterpriseis not ready to move all of its operations off-premises? According to our research, 57% ofenterprises prefer approach to move applications to the cloud with minimal changes, leaving
the core existing architecture unchanged. But
when an enterprise or its IT department is
confronted with advances in technology thatare perceived to be competitive, there can bepressure to adopt a complete, end-to-end
inimal changesolution to stay current. This can lead toto architecture
unnecessarily throwing out what works.
igni cantly
rearchitect apps

etire legacy apps
Some enterprises have legitimate concerns
ewrite apps
about the pace and consequences of making afrom scratchwholesale cloud migration. Migrating to theove as is withno changes
cloud requires a complete assessment ofprivacy and data configurations: where thedata is stored, if it crosses borders and thequality of a cloud provider’s assurances about
security and governance. Enterprises may havecustomers in one part of the world, data inanother, and contact center operations in a third, complicating the process immensely. Large
enterprises and those operating in multiple verticals may see variations in security and privacy
requirements among industries, or even among customers. Regulations and compliancepractices that cover even a portion of operations can be seen as a hindrance to a full-scalemigration.

When considering cloud versus on-premises as an all-or-nothing decision, it becomesconsiderably more complicated to make the decision because the ramifications are broader
across the enterprise, and the consequences are harder to foresee. These uncertainties canstop consideration of the cloud in its tracks.
Most contact centers have existing investments that work just fine. On-premises call routing
systems—specifically, automated call distributions (ACDs)—can have a very long lifespan,commensurate with the enormous investment businesses make over time. ACDs can also betightly linked to back-office systems, and this interconnectivity can complicate migration
issues. Even though technology has advanced rapidly across the contact center space,providing new operational resources and best practices, contact centers retain a conservativeand risk-averse outlook. Even if a new feature derived from the cloud is desirable or attractive,
it is often simpler to adopt a “wait and see” attitude. There are rarely negative consequencesfrom not acting. Points at which new cloud technology can improve existing processes—likeself-service—can be adopted individually as either a proof-of-concept project or as atemporary bridge to a fuller cloud approach.
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Ventana Research: Migration to the Hybrid CloudA “rip-and-replace” move to the cloud is disruptive. When an enterprise considers a wholesale
cloud move, the depth and complexity of the technology switch often sends planners intorequest-for-proposal mode, opening the selection process to multiple vendors instead of justrelying on the on-premises vendor to handle the transition. That extra layer of complexity
adds time to the transition process and forces deep assessment of existing technology needs
and agent processes that may stretch out the time it takes to achieve value. With a full cloudswitch, agents will likely have to be retrained on a newinterface and different feature sets. Migration candisrupt existing processes for how work is handled, andA hybrid model
how different systems outside the contact center
integrate with agent-facing applications. This can take agives enterprises
temporary toll on productivity and customer
access to innovative satisfaction and can require some retraining of agentsfeatures without
and supervisors.

the disruption ofthrowing away
what works.

Fortunately, there is a middle ground. A hybrid model
gives enterprises access to innovative features without
the disruption of throwing away what works. Existing
investments can be enhanced with new cloudcapabilities at a measured pace, according to organizational preferences. That allows anenterprise to capture incremental gains in a “step-migration” fashion, accelerating time-tovalue. It also minimizes the negative impacts of change management processes. In essence, ahybrid deployment can be seen as a migration, rather than a transformation.

ealizing the Advantages of a Hybrid

odel

When deciding which model is right for an enterprise, buyers should define the desired
outcomes and ask a series of hard but critical questions: Do we want to continue business as
usual, but with increased capacity? Are we missing growth opportunities in finding talent andrevenue if we try to expand only on-premises equipment, since those projects take longer toplan and implement? Are we missing out on the benefits of new technologies like artificial
intelligence (AI) and workflow automation? Do we want to maintain current systems, but gain
better operational outcomes based on KPIs? Or do we want to adopt a different model for
how costs, resources and planning are managed? Each of these stances is nuanced enough tomake the simple cloud/on-premises binary unhelpful.
Hybrid deployments provide a balanced approach to dealing with issues of control,
performance and scale in a way that can be customized to an enterprise’s specific situationand needs. A primary benefit of hybrid deployment is added flexibility, allowing an enterprise
to take advantage of the known benefits of the cloud. For example, new features and tools
such as AI-based knowledge management or agent guidance applications can be paid for as
operating expenses rather than capital expenses. With a hybrid approach, an enterprise canharness new and future technology advances that have growth-related impacts on employee
and customer experiences. It becomes possible to future-proof without causing disruption.

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Ventana Research: Migration to the Hybrid CloudAs in traditional cloud, with hybrid cloud an enterprise can quickly scale capacity up or down
to accommodate demand, evaluating the efficacy of the cloud model in stages. Enterprises
can use the cloud to accommodate a more diverse workforce by location and personas,
especially by adding back-office or knowledge workers to the mix without adding capacity to
the ACD. That connects the contact center to larger structures within the enterprise, allowing
it to share platform functions like AI and automation without affecting call control on the voicechannel. As the business takes on more customers (and the resulting interaction volume),
gains in efficiency come sooner than they would with an “all-or-nothing” approach to thecloud.
Additionally, many companies have a serious investment in existing on-premises processes,
often developed at great expense over time. A hybrid approach lets an organization preserve
what works while still experimenting with new ideas. The enterprise retains control over key
systems, and resources are dedicated to the organization
rather than shared among many companies, as in a
public cloud.

Dividing
capabilities among
cloud and onpremises or private
cloud can improvereliability by
distributing
services acrossdifferent data
centers andsystems.

Dividing capabilities among cloud and on-premises or
private cloud can improve reliability by distributing
services across different data centers and systems. IT
teams can maximize the value of existing investments bymanaging technology until it legitimately reaches the endof its useful life span or plan a staged transition over alonger period of time. On-premises systems are often
customized and configured with details that are uniqueto an organization’s business situation. Hybridizing
preserves these customizations in existing call flows,
processes and staff training. Existing voice infrastructure
can remain in place while integrated digital channels areadded to the mix. These new channels can then be tested
in the customer base without fear of abandoning them ifthey prove ineffective.

An enterprise can use the cloud to add layers of extra capacity or advance front-end selfservice by including chatbots/conversational AI, agent guidance and knowledge tools onto theexisting infrastructure. The usefulness of an on-premises ACD does not diminish when
extending a team’s capabilities with cloud-based digital channels or AI tools. In fact, it is usefulto think about the voice channel and voice-routing infrastructure in general as one
component of a broader, connected system with software elements that are both hosted in
the cloud and on-premises. A hybrid, staged approach enables a business to concentrateefforts on improving customer and employee experience, ultimately aiming towards betterbusiness outcomes.

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Ventana Research: Migration to the Hybrid Cloud

Visualizing a Hybrid Contact Center
Although a hybrid deployment could mean any mix of on-premises and off-premises
technologies, the most common mode is to retain call control and telephony components via
the call-routing engine on-premises or in a private cloud or managed services environment.
Another option is to tie call routing directly into the public cloud, but route the calls
themselves into an on-premises system in a two-way mode. That lets an enterprise preserve
contextual information and even test out new lines of business without forcing a complete
replacement of technology infrastructure. It is essential to preserve context as information
moves around the business. That is the only way to ensure that everyone who touches aninteraction or works on a customer-related problem stays aligned and on-goal. Consistent
data flowing across complex processes is a key to organizational competitiveness.
From the point of view of line-of-business managers, benefits accrue from preserving effective
existing processes and from being able to direct technology investments towards specificproblems, rather than to a generalized (and disruptive) transformation effort. At the C-level,
decision-makers have better visibility into the impact on growth and revenue. They can makemore targeted resource allocation decisions.
There are many software components used in contact centers that can be deployed in
multiple modes and do not need to be part of a single platform. It is common to see cloudbased interactive voice response or intelligent virtual assistant tools for digital channels suchas email and chat, and some analytics tools—especially those that originate in departments
like marketing or sales.
The alternative to full-blown contact center
cloud computing is a hybrid model in whichcore elements remain on-premises or in a
managed private cloud, while ancillary or nextgeneration components are provided via public
cloud and connected to the on-premises
system through open application programming
interfaces and integrations. The cloud-based
components are often purchased separately oron an ad hoc basis rather than as part of a
combined but diversified platform, whichallows an enterprise to put individualcomponents on its own sites, self-managed ornot, or on a vendor’s servers.
Contact center planners—everyone from IT toline-of-business to the C-suite—should think about unifying purchases rather than going forpoint solutions. With that in mind, they should consider hybrid systems not just as a mix-andmatch collection of software from different vendors, but as a way of unifying applications into
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Ventana Research: Migration to the Hybrid Clouda coherent platform that can be deployed in varying ways depending on the needs of thebuyer and the restraints of the technology. Our research has led us to assert that by 2027, 6 in
10 organizations will have moved all or part of contact center technology into the cloud toattain greater flexibility and scalability.

Increasing Agility with Hybrid Deployments
Enterprises must be agile enough to support spikes and shifts in the business landscape andtechnological advancements. A diversity of agents and skills can be brought online quickly sothat, if an existing skill becomes overrun with contacts and cannot support the volume, acustomer service organization can overflow into the cloud. Enterprises can decide to separate
agents into groups for voice and digital, with each being on a different routing system. Or,
integrate digital channels with the capacity to overflow to cloud agents when on-premises is
not sufficient, or as demand requires.
New line-of-business activities can be added quickly to support new products or a changed
business condition, such as expanding into a new geographic region or coping with economic
variations that affect labor costs or make it difficult to find new customers. Cloud is also seen
as an opportunity to free up IT resources from direct management of contact centertechnology, shifting focus to more strategic projects like building analytics that integrate
across different systems and departments or producing sophisticated workflows that connect
different customer experience processes.
Migrating a segment like digital channels to thecloud also allows enterprises to integrate backoffice workers who are not phone
representatives but touch customers or handle
contact center tasks. Flexibility like this canimprove agent satisfaction and the generalemployee experience. That will show up in key
metrics like retention, and downstream from
that, in customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Hybrid models enable businesses to bettersupport separate user communities.
Geographic units often have specific privacy
rules for where data must be held that may bedifferent than other locations. Some groups ofworkers, such as claims processors andappointment planners require more advanced digital tools and must be connected directly tocustomers—just not continuously and not always by voice. When it comes to transitioning tocloud for important applications related to analytics and data, more than one-half ofenterprises have already chosen the hybrid model.

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Ventana Research: Migration to the Hybrid Cloud

Technology is moving so quickly that capital expenses do not make sense for mostenterprises. By using the cloud to run a proof of concept or test a new technology or process
in the cloud, an enterprise does not incur the capital expense of adding the process to an onpremises system or ditching the on-premises system altogether. It becomes possible to run a
short-term campaign testing a new offer, service or promotion where customers use voice ordigital to contact the hybrid system for agent handling. This flexibility also allows enterprises
to utilize tools and technologies that have a limited life cycle or do not meet requirements forcapital expenses, such as deploying a chatbot/conversational AI or analytics applications.

Charting a Hybrid Course
The cloud is not a monolithic entity that provides only one option. By incorporating a hybrid
element, an enterprise retains control while leaving the door open to full-scale migration on
its own terms and at its own pace.
Create a case for a hybrid model by:•First, understanding the overriding organizational objectives that will be impacted (andhave an impact on) this model. Asking questions beyond the contact center is critical:
Who are the stakeholders and what do they need? What would teams in IT (forexample) expect to see from a hybrid cloud project in terms of resources or metrics?

•

Examining your existing technology stack to determine, piece-by-piece, whether itmakes sense—financially, operationally and technically—to move to the cloud.

•

Building a picture of which internal stakeholders are eager or reluctant, and which
factors go into their stances.

•

Identifying flexibility options, such as choosing which technology to migrate to and how
quickly.

Importantly, a hybrid model affords the opportunity to be innovative without being disruptive.
Consider this type of project as a way to move your business forward, but at a pace that fits
best with its objectives and culture. Keep what works, innovate where possible, and use key
business goals (like NPS, retention or customer effort) as critical mileposts along your journey.
Enterprises can migrate without having to completely transform, and gain the benefits of thecloud without losing existing investments.

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Ventana Research: Migration to the Hybrid Cloud

About Ventana esearch
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