Getting Your Call Center Up and Running in the Cloud

There are plenty of benefits that come with a move to the cloud, including the potential for big cost savings. Businesses big and small are moving their operations to the cloud, with nearly 40 percent of small businesses already working in the cloud.

If you think it’s time for your call center to be cloud-based but are worried about the impact of a large system change, read on for a road map that will help you get your organization up and running in the cloud smoothly.

Prepare

Take stock of the applications your call center uses and figure out which are essential to running your call center. Those applications should be your first priority in the move to the cloud.

Whenever possible, keep the same applications and directly transfer your information and data. If you need to find a new solution, make sure it’s ready to test out prior to your move to the cloud. Give your call center employees time to test it out and adjust to any differences in functionality, so they’ll be ready to go when the switch goes live.

This is also a good time to make sure your Internet connection is up to the task. A cloud-based call center has greater bandwidth needs, which means you might need to change your service.

“If you’re moving all your data into the cloud, you have to make sure your way of accessing the cloud is reliable i.e. you need to make sure your Internet connection is very solid,” said Richard Thompson, Sales Director and Founder of Central Technology.

Test and Train

Before taking calls using your new cloud-based system, make sure you leave plenty of time for your employees to test and train on the new system. This will also give you the chance to identify any issues and address them.

Have some of your less tech-savvy employees do the initial testing. This will give you the chance to give them more support training, and they can help uncover potential issues and problems that will slow your call center down. This round of testing should only be done on test calls.

Once you’ve addressed initial issues, test out your new system on some live calls. If everything goes well, start training your full team and get ready to go live. Plan for some overlap between the cloud and your legacy system in case of any major, unforeseen issues.

Plan for the Worst

Even though switching to the cloud can be a smooth process, planning for worst case scenarios will help you avoid catastrophes down the road. Anticipate potential problems ahead of time and plan for them. Take proactive precautions against data breaches and lost data by employing security measures and having backups in place.

For more information on the benefits of transitioning into a VoIP call center in the cloud, check out the Top 10 List When Considering a Cloud-Based Contact Center Solution whitepaper.