CCaaS platforms are gaining momentum for many significant reasons.
They make AI innovation more accessible, expand the scope for integrations, and increase scalability for better demand management.
Meanwhile, legacy contact center providers are becoming more explicit in their aim to move customers to the cloud.
With all these factors coming together, more businesses are likely assessing their CCaaS options alongside each vendor's specific strengths and cautions.
The Forrester Wave is one report that aims to support service leaders in this endeavor, evaluating the "11 providers that matter most."
In doing so, the analyst used a set of 34 criteria to group each vendor into three categories: leaders, strong performers, and contenders.
Here is how they performed, alongside some of the top takeaways from Forrester's report.
NICE (Leader)
NICE leads the industry with its "superior vision," according to Forrester. With this vision, it aims to play a role in the "entire CX journey," leveraging AI and accelerating its digital focus.
So far, this objective hasn’t hindered the vendor’s ability to focus on its core contact center customers. Indeed, the analyst notes that NICE’s comprehensive solution provides capabilities that deliver on "whatever a contact center leader may need."
AWS (Leader)
Forrester notes that AWS "smothers the market in many ways" before highlighting its impressive speed of innovation, contact center expertise, and global partnerships.
Meanwhile, the vendor fixates on innovating around four product areas: omnichannel, analytics, agent productivity, and self-service configuration.
Across each, it wields AI capabilities that its customers "laud" – as per Forrester. The analyst concluded that contact centers willing to invest in development resources will "get good results."
Genesys (Leader)
Genesys receives acclaim from Forrester for being one of the few legacy contact center vendors to successfully navigate the transition from on-premise to the cloud.
Yet, according to the analyst, the vendor did drop its hybrid CCaaS solution in 2022, which "diminishes its differentiation" at the highest end of the market.
Despite this, Genesys retains its "leader" status with its broad set of capabilities, customer journey analytics, and WFO tooling.
As such, Forrester notes that Genesys still makes for a "great fit" for brands that require expansive contact center capabilities at scale.
Talkdesk (Strong Performer)
Talkdesk harnesses a multiservice core, which allows it to innovate quickly. It has taken this approach to its sector-specific CCaaS platforms, with which it has enjoyed "early success," according to Forrester.
Meanwhile, the analyst praised its AI solutions, agent desktop, and "downright elegant" configuration tool for CRM integrations.
Nevertheless, it noted how customers reported challenges using some of its recently released capabilities, including its ticket-handling solution.
Five9 (Strong Performer)
Since the breakdown of its failed takeover by Zoom, Five9 has harnessed widespread publicity and increased its CCaaS market presence.
Its flexible approach to building AI models, ease of deployment, and the quality of its support team are also likely contributors to its growth. Indeed, Forrester summarizes that it is a "mature and reliable" platform.
Although, it did suggest that Five9 should expand its vision further beyond the confines of the contact center and further develop its native WFM tooling for larger enterprises.
Content Guru (Strong Performer)
Content Guru is often implemented in highly complex environments, working with organizations from the NHS to the US government.
For this reason, Forrester indicates that the vendor is a good option for medium-to-large enterprises and multinational corporations.
These businesses are likely to place the most value on high availability, scalability, and support for complex functional requirements. This is where Content Guru excels.
Yet, it has been slower than its competitors in embracing microservices, which may compromise its speed of innovation.
Cisco (Contender)
On the cusp of the "strong performer" wave, Cisco has gained ground in the CCaaS space thanks to its Webex Contact Center platform.