CCaaS or Contact Centre as a Service solutions are some of the most valuable offerings in the communications market today.
Through cloud-based flexible deployments, companies can access the scalable and versatile functionality that they need for their contact centres, without the headache of having to constantly install and provision new technology.
According to Gartner's latest 2019 report, contact centre as a service is set to be the preferred adoption strategy for 50% of contact centres by 2022.
As CCaaS solutions grow increasingly popular around the world, business leaders and buyers turn to lists like the Gartner Magic Quadrant for help determining which vendors can best support their individual needs.
Important Changes to the Gartner CCaaS MQ
Before we look at some of the market leaders, challengers, visionaries and niche players from this year's CCaaS Magic Quadrant, it's worth noting that Gartner has made a few changes to the way it measures CCaaS performance.
For instance, this year, Gartner only included multitenant vendors in their selection, in which all users shared a single software instance. Multi-instance solutions are no longer being included in the report. Additionally, Gartner has also decided to start including only technology providers that sell solutions based on their own intellectual property.
That means that you won't see any providers on the MQ that provide CCaaS through another company's core routing platform. This will still be the case if the provider adds extra functionality to a core platform using its own IP (Intellectual Property).
The Top Performers in Western Europe
Now that you know how the magic quadrant has changed, let's start by looking at the companies that claimed the top spots in Western Europe. This year, Gartner added NICE inContact, Talkdesk, and Telia to the list, while removing BT, Orange Business Services, and Genesys.
Leaders:
The Leaders in the Magic Quadrant for CCaaS are the companies that offer the most completeness of vision, and the greatest ability to execute. This year's leaders in Western Europe were:
- Content Guru
- Odigo
- Vonage (NewVoiceMedia)
Content Guru
Based in Bracknell, in the UK, Content Guru offers the storm CONTACT CCaaS platform powered through data centres around the UK. Since its launch in 2005, Content Guru has built a presence throughout the UK, the Netherlands, Ireland, Italy, the US, Germany, Singapore, and Japan. The company's status as a leader in the MQ this year comes from the market success of its cloud-based suite of contact centre solutions, as well as its strong brand presence throughout Western Europe. Gartner recommends Content Guru for flexible and scalable cloud CCaaS.
Odigo
Formerly known as Prosodie, Odigo is a Capgemini subsidiary that rebranded initially in January of 2019. Odigo is a CCaaS provider independent of the Capgemini brand, with data centres all around Western Europe. Offering direct sales only, Odigo provides out-of-the-box connectors for a range of CRM solutions like Zendesk, Salesforce, and Microsoft Dynamics. Gartner classes Odigo as a leader thanks to the depth and performance of its CCaaS offering, as well as its robust customer base.
Vonage (NewVoiceMedia)
Vonage is based in New Jersey, in the US, and recently purchased UK-based NewVoiceMedia. The NVM platform offering is delivered via clustered data centres in the UK and in locations around the US and Germany too. Vonage offers a range of prebuilt integrations with CRMs like Salesforce, ServiceNow, Zendesk and more, and also provides REST-based APIs for integrations too. Gartner chose Vonage as a leader based on its ability to execute in the cloud, and its strong ties with the Salesforce ecosystem.
Challengers
Challengers in the Magic Quadrant for UCaaS have a higher ability to execute than completeness of vision. This year, there was only one entry to the Challenger section of "Puzzel."
Puzzel
Puzzel is a Norway-based company that came under new ownership in May 2019 this year. The contact centre solution is a vast multitenant and multichannel solution offering primary data centres in Oslo, with backups in London. Puzzel launched its contact centre offering in 2001 and has been building on its functionality since then. There are a host of pre-built integrations available with Microsoft Dynamics, Salesforce, Zendesk, and more. Gartner chose Puzzel as a challenger for its success in providing a full suite of cloud solutions for the contact centre. However, Gartner believes that Puzzel's reach in the global market is limited.
Niche Players
Niche players in the Gartner Magic Quadrant offer a basic level of completeness of vision and ability to execute but may not be able to compete with other players in the market for several reasons. This year's entries were:
- Telia
- Vocalcom
Telia
Based in Solna, Sweden, Telia is a telecommunications company offering the ACE CCaaS platform. The core services of ACE are supported from data centres located in various locations around Sweden, Finland, and beyond. The centres are managed by Telia and complemented by WebRTC support. Telia's position as a niche player comes thanks to its vast and impressive ICT proposition, which includes a contact centre solution with fantastic AI features, networking support, and more. Gartner recommends Telia if you want to access the benefits of a high-performance, innovative company.
Vocalcom
Vocalcom is a CCaaS provider from France that offers CCaaS in two flavours. The first option is a Vocalcom cloud contact centre application and the second is a Salesforce solution deployed via Force.com. The vendor offers an excellent range of features across Europe, based on its enterprise-centric business and its connection with Salesforce. Vocalcom's status as a Niche player is centered around its wide cloud-native suite of contact centre functionalities. Gartner recommends this brand as a flexible, multichannel contact centre solution.
Visionaries
Similar to niche players, visionaries in the Gartner Magic Quadrant don't quite compete with challengers and leaders yet, but they do offer a great degree of completeness of vision. This year's entrants were:
- NICE inContact
- Talkdesk
Talkdesk
Talkdesk is a CCaaS company from California that supports mid-sized contact centres, as well as other bespoke solutions. Talkdesk offers a vast range of integrations with leading solutions like ServiceNow, Salesforce, and Microsoft Dynamics.
Additionally, Talkdesk can use software development kits or APIs to integrate with additional third-party systems. Talkdesk's position as a visionary in the Gartner Magic Quadrant comes from its ability to approach customers with innovative solutions to contact centre solutions. Gartner commends the company's unique partnership ecosystem and customer service.
NICE inContact
NICE inContact is a communications brand headquartered in Israel. Through the CXone offering, NICE provides purpose-built solutions for customer interaction management, alongside exceptional workforce management functionality and more. NICE inContact offers services from a host of reliable data centres around the world and integrates with leading CRMs like ServiceNow, SAP, Salesforce, and Zendesk. NICE also offers REST APIs for integrating with third-party systems. NICE's position as a visionary is based on its strong ecosystem of application offerings for more complex environments, and it's progress in realizing the potential within a growing western marketplace.
