Contact Center Platform Migration Considerations

Many on-premise customers are considering moving their Contact Center functionality to the Cloud.

PTP has spent the last several years helping clients do just that. One of the differences in a Cloud migration is that large firms often perform this in a phased approach. Thus, it is imperative to build a strategy and timeline that makes sense from a business perspective.

In building this strategy, many questions must be answered:

1. Which lines of business should go first?
2. What is the ideal order for other lines of business to be migrated?
3. How will employees, operations, and customers be impacted?
4. What factors should be considered when developing a migration strategy and timeline?

Properly evaluating these questions can have a significant impact on the success (or lack of success) of your Cloud migration. This blog presents critical evaluation criteria to consider in strategy development. Although this is not meant to be an exhaustive list, it is intended to get you thinking about your operations and the importance of considering these factors.

Once you have compiled your own list, you need to prioritize the criteria and then determine which lines of business fall into each category. This should help you develop the appropriate strategy as well as the overall timeline for the migration.

Let’s take a look at the list of criteria we’ve compiled to support our clients as they develop their migration strategy:

Community of Interest:

These would involve lines of businesses that perhaps:

• Deal with a similar customer base
• Work closely together
• Are dependent upon one another operationally
• Potentially are managed by the same Workforce Management team
• Share resources (agents, business analysts, supervisors, managers, etc.)
• Utilize the same systems, and thus require similar integrations

Size of the Group Migrating:

Larger staffs will likely require longer implementation timelines, particularly for training purposes and process and procedural documentation.

Operational Considerations:

Lines of business should be operationally evaluated based on some of the following factors:

• Is there a strong operational presence in this line of business? Is strong management in place?
• Will the move to a new system require changes in workflows and procedures?
  • If yes, are there sufficient skilled resources to support the operational and documentation changes?
  • Are there training resources available, or will training be dependent on the implementation team?
  • Is there a high turnover of staff?

Potential Vertical Considerations:

Clients with seasonal considerations should migrate at times that work well within these seasons. For example:

• Retail clients should probably not migrate lines of business that are involved in high sales volume seasons (e.g., Christmas).
• Insurance clients need to look at Open Enrollment considerations.
• Sports teams should perform a migration during the off season.

IT-Planned Freeze Dates:

Some companies have defined freeze dates for any type of IT activity, and some lines of business are more subject to adhere to these freeze dates than others. The migration strategy should take this into consideration.

IT System Changes:

Migration to a new platform often involves integrating the existing CRM/other IT systems with the new platform. Thus, lines of business that are planning, or are in the middle of a such a system change, should not migrate until the change is completed.

BPO Involvement:

Many large firms supplement staff with BPOs or third-party providers. Many factors must be considered if this is the case, including some of the following. The answer to these questions may very well impact the migration timeline:

• Is the strategy to introduce universal queuing between the firm and the BPO or to keep agent groups separate?
• If the answer to the above is to use universal queueing:
  • What current contracts are in place between the firm and the BPO, and how will that contract be impacted by this migration strategy?
  • What negotiations need to take place to accommodate the strategy? Can the existing contract be modified, or does a new contract need to be negotiated?
  • Does the BPO currently utilize the Cloud platform that the firm is deploying?
  • If yes, is the connectivity with that platform robust enough to handle the change in the routing of interactions?
  • How will workforce optimization be handled? Will the BPO continue to use its own system and operations, or will this function be combined with the firm’s system and operations?

Complexity:

Some lines of business are very simple and do not require a lot of design effort. On the flip side, some lines of business are extremely complex. Factors that impact the level of complexity can be:

• System integrations
• Multiple languages
• Number of staff with unique capabilities that handle different types of interactions
• Channels that are utilized (chat, SMS, voice, email, etc.)
• Interaction with self-service applications (IVR, chatbots, AI)
• Outbound campaigns

Considering Every Factor in Developing Your Strategy

As you can see, there is a lot to think about in developing a migration strategy for your firm. Input from key constituents in the organization that understand the inner workings of the organization, and can spot potential issues, is critical to developing an effective migration plan through the evaluation of the type of criteria discussed above.

Once the strategy is in place, it is as important to communicate the strategy and timeline to all lines of business within the firm. This gives those lines of business the appropriate time to get ready for the migration and to make potential adjustments to the way they interact with lines of business that will go before them.

While this seems like a lot of work, the time spent is well worth the effort and will significantly contribute to a positive migration experience. If you’d like to learn more or chat about these or other important considerations, PTP would love to help!