CCaaS is a crowded market, with vendors announcing massive release waves, moving into adjacent markets, and rolling up competitors to differentiate and grow. That’s before we consider the evolution of these platforms with self-service and AI.
Each of these trends has expanded the definition of a CCaaS platform. Instead of offering core communication channels, routing, and a dialer, they're now often expected to cover workforce engagement management (WEM), conversational analytics, knowledge management, and more.
As that trend continues and additional AI use cases bubble to the surface, it’s fascinating to consider what the CCaaS platforms of tomorrow will look like.
Throughout the year, prominent industry analysts and thinkers have shared their thoughts in conversation with CX Today. Here are five of our favorite takes.
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- CCaaS Platforms Will Evolve In the Face of New Competition
Pureplay CCaaS providers face increasing competition from CRM and Customer Engagement Center (CEC) vendors, which can provide a deep and rich experience across all kinds of use cases.
Any CCaaS vendor following them in a demo should expect the customer to often ask: "Where's the rest of it?" because what they just saw was likely so much broader.
Salesforce is a great model, with Service, Sales, Marketing Cloud, which you can start using immediately via a browser.
If it's not quite right, you can grab an app from the marketplace and customize it. If that's still not enough, you can go on force.com and build what you envision.
This model, in my mind, should be pervasive across the entirety of the CX application ecosystem. It encourages co-innovation and partnership, making buyers feel secure.
If CCaaS vendors don’t adapt to this approach, they risk becoming marginalized as voice plug-in providers to CRM or CEC systems.
- Simon Harrison, Founder & CEO of Actionary
- CCaaS Platforms Will Converge with the Broader CX Tech Stack
We will see more co-innovation and partnerships between CCaaS and broader CX vendors that recognize the necessity of integrating their offerings to provide comprehensive solutions.
It's concerning, however, when CCaaS vendors claim they can replace other CX solutions outside of customer support, particularly those aiming to become marketing automation tools or handle multi-channel communications entirely. It’s unrealistic to think a CMO will suddenly adopt a contact center solution as a comprehensive marketing tool.
Similarly, CRM vendors shouldn't attempt to handle global voice networks, which would significantly impact their licensing margins. The broader lesson here is the importance of realistic, strategic partnerships that complement rather than compete.
The key question is which partnerships will prove most powerful: those with CRMs or workflow engines like ServiceNow?
The future will reveal which strategy - focusing on customer journey workflows or transactional records - will lead to deeper CCaaS integration into the overall tech stack and business processes.
- Liz Miller, VP & Principal Analyst at Constellation Research
- CCaaS Platforms Will Come with More Prescriptive Telemetry and Handholding
Ecosystems will become crucial. But, CCaaS can't just be about delivering new software capabilities, especially for contact center managers who aren't accustomed to constant updates.
Instead, CCaaS needs to be instrumented so that managers can understand the benefits they're getting from the software and identify areas for more value. Telemetry is crucial here, and so is handholding.
In the contact center, it's not enough to simply build and deploy new features. Managers need to be guided on how to leverage these features, helping them understand and activate the value.
Also, it's essential to support agents in using the software effectively, ultimately improving their interactions with customers.
This process involves more than just pushing out new capabilities every quarter; it requires ongoing support and engagement.