Forrester, the leading analytics company, recently released its latest Forrester Wave report for the Contact Centre as a Service environment in 2020. The Forrester Wave is a guide for companies considering new purchases in the as-a-service marketplace.
During the 33-criteria evaluation of CCaaS providers this year, Forrester identified 10 of the most important choices and scored them according to their impact on the environment. Five9, Talkdesk, Genesys, and NICE inContact emerged as leaders. Aspect was a “strong performer,” while Vonage, Lifesize, Amazon Web Services, 8x8, and Cisco are contenders.
Here’s your guide to the CCaaS Forrester Wave 2020:
The CCaaS Leaders
Forrester highlighted a selection of leaders for the CCaaS market this year, including:
NICE inContact
Forrester commends NCIE for its broad channel mix, unprecedented scale, and leading WFO technology. The strong vision and comprehensive NICE roadmap empower various partners in the ecosystem. NICE is guiding businesses on a journey away from a voice-centric architecture into new digital channels. NICE is also investing in RPA capabilities, deeper analytics, and AI solutions.
CXOne has sensational channel support and a robust WFO offering. Forrester recommends NICE inContact for innovative customer experiences across various channels.
Genesys
Genesys is a leader in the Forrester Wave for it’s global and large-scale deployments. Genesys offers best-of-breed contact centre technology to global partners and channels, alongside an extensive portfolio of products. Though there are some gaps in the WFO functionality from Genesys, the company is investing in new opportunities, including AI.
Genesys Cloud strengths include everything from a robust orchestration layer to CRM integrations. Forrester recommends shortlisting Genesys if you need a full feature set with native CRM integrations, global reach, WFO, and an extensive partner ecosystem.
Talkdesk
Talkdesk delivers well-rounded and newly-developed capabilities for CCaaS, powered by various rounds of investments and offshore growth. The Talkdesk vision centres on a complete selection of WFO capabilities, including agent assistance, self-service, and AI. Talkdesk CX Talent offers powerful agents for hire in the landscape. Professional services include assessment and benchmarking services too.
Talkdesk’s key strengths include a streamlined UI for all contact centre roles, proven scale based on recent wins, and the impressive addition of various functions. WFO applications are still new and require improvement. Forrester recommends Talkdesk for navigable solutions that scale and innovative support.
Five9
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Forrester Wave CCaaS Q3 2020 - Click to enlarge (opens in new window)[/caption]
Five9 delivers solid growth, an innovative roadmap, and brilliant outbound capabilities. The company acquired Whendu for low-code integrations and Virtual Observer for WFO. The global coverage of Five9 lacks compared to other leaders, however.
Five9 has some of the outbound capabilities in the industry, an incredible agent desktop, out-of-the-box voicemail, voice, chat, and email support, and more. The company also supports integrations with leading CRM integrations. Five9 doesn’t have a virtual agent assistant, but it’s on the vendor’s roadmap. Forrester recommends choosing Five9 when searching for a solid contact centre offering on the path to innovation with new levels of workflow automation, AI, and native WFO integration.
Forrester’s Strong Performers: Aspect
Aspect is the only company on the Strong Performers list for Forrester this year. The company offers state-of-the-art WFO and outbound contact centre, but it lacks in app store functionality and market presence. Aspect offers excellent outbound technology, best-of-breed WFO, and a sizeable base of on-premise contact centres.
The Via CCaaS offering has a lot of potential, though uptake is a little slow. Via can run on various platform-as-a-service environments. However, the company is limited on geographic coverage and channels. Aspect plans on expanding deployments across all PaaS and adding more AI capabilities and channels. Aspect combines a strong environment for orchestration with best-of-breed tools for WFO and a slick user-interface.
Outbound dialling is still a strength for Aspect, and Forrester recommends considering this company if you’re looking for better feature utilization for all roles.
The CCaaS Contenders
Forrester’s list of CCaaS contenders contains 5 big industry names this year, including: