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12/18/2017 Gartner Reprint

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Magic Quadrant for Contact Center as a Service, North AmericaPublished: 18 October 2017 ID: G00319079

Analyst(s): Drew Kraus, Steve Blood, Daniel O'Connell, Simon Harrison

SummaryNorth America's CCaaS market has matured to provide application leaders and customer serviceorganizations with a range of competitive offers to consider substituting for traditional on-premisescontact center infrastructure. This Magic Quadrant assesses 11 vendors to help you make the rightchoice.

Market Definition/DescriptionContact center as a service (CCaaS) solutions offer similar functional capabilities to those of on-premises contact center infrastructure (CCI). The key differences are that, with CCaaS, connectivityto other cloud-based applications may be easier, consumption is paid for via monthly subscription,and there is a stronger focus on service capabilities, not just product functionality.

CCaaS solutions are used by customer service and telemarketing centers, employee service andsupport centers, help desk service centers, and other types of structured communicationsoperation.

Functions and abilities that organizations consider when reviewing their contact centerrequirements include:

Automatic call distribution (ACD) and interactive voice response (IVR).

Universal routing and queuing of voice and internet channels, such as email, web chat, ShortMessage Service (SMS), social media and video.

Proactive contact, including outbound dialing, SMS, as well as push text and email notifications.

The ability to access customer data by connecting to existing web-based applications or CRMsolutions via a built-for-purpose adapter or web technology toolkit.

The ability to support virtual operations, remote agents and subject matter experts that resideoutside the traditional contact center operation.

Customer relationship tracking, management applications and operational support applications,including reporting, analytics, sentiment analysis, self-service portals and workforce engagementmanagement (WEM).

Some of these functions and abilities are provided by CCaaS providers using their own software.Others are provided in partnership with specialist providers (see "Magic Quadrant for WorkforceEngagement Management" ). The desire to manage multiple communications channels together, to

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provide a holistic, omnichannel customer experience, requires a strong focus on understanding thecomplexity of the associated interactions (see "How to Successfully Navigate CRM and CCIProcurement on the Route to Omnichannel Success" ).

There are generally two types of architecture deployed in the CCaaS market:

Multitenant — all users share a common (single) software instance.

Multi-instance — each user receives its own virtualized software instance on shared hardware.

Both types possess the cloud characteristics of shared infrastructure (for example, provisioningtools, portals, data centers, racks, common equipment and servers); per-user, per-month, per-transaction and/or per-minute pricing; and the elasticity to add and subtract users dynamically.

In terms of ongoing support, multitenant architectures can offer a lower total cost of ownership(TCO), as providers manage only a single software instance to support all customers. A keychallenge, however, is that this can mean services are more "vanilla" — the result of a one-size-fits-allapproach that delivers economies of scale to a large number of customers.

Multi-instance architecture is likely to cost more to support, as there is one software instance percustomer. But it can also support more customization, where required.

CCaaS suppliers must have attributes that match Gartner's definitions for cloud services (see"Market Definitions and Methodology: Public Cloud Services" ). As customers have started toexpress a desire for global consolidation, we have also taken this into account in this year'sevaluation.

We use four categories to classify CCaaS providers:

Application specialists include companies that are both platform provider and service provider,such as 8x8, Evolve IP, Five9, Nice inContact, Serenova and Talkdesk.

Communications service providers (CSPs) are legacy network service providers with corestrengths in voice and data services. There are no CSPs in this Magic Quadrant.

System integrators include companies such as TeleTech (through its acquisition of eLoyalty) andWest. They usually provide CCaaS by running commercial unified communications applications(often from Avaya, Cisco or Genesys) from their own data centers.

Software technology providers include companies such as Aspect, BroadSoft and Genesys. All ofthese established vendors now provide a CCaaS offering, and many market their solutions directlyto end users.

Magic QuadrantFigure 1. Magic Quadrant for Contact Center as a Service, North America



Source: Gartner (October 2017)

Vendor Strengths and Cautions

8x8

8x8, which is based in San Jose, California, U.S., is an application specialist. The 8x8 Virtual ContactCenter (VCC) service is based on the vendor's purpose-built multitenant software platform. In 2017,8x8 also launched the U.S. deployment of its team- and small and midsize business (SMB)-focusedContactNow offering, which is sold through an e-commerce interface and designed for customerself-configuration and administration. 8x8 offers multiple editions of VCC, packaged in accordancewith users' requirements for size and complexity. It sells VCC primarily to midsize contact centers;VCC can scale down or up, to over 1,000 agents, as needed. Services are provided from data centers



in the U.S. (three), Canada (two), the U.K. (four), the Netherlands, Hong Kong, Australia, Singapore,India and Brazil. All VCC editions support prebuilt integrations to Microsoft (Dynamics), NetSuite,Salesforce and Zendesk; they also support custom integrations to many other CRM systems andother third-party systems using 8x8's web-services-based API tools. 8x8 began offering CCaaS inNorth America in 2011.

Consider 8x8 if you are looking for multichannel contact center functionality for midsize contactcenters. Its solutions are particularly suited to those wanting to procure CCaaS and unifiedcommunications as a service (UCaaS) from a single provider; however, its solutions may also beconsidered for stand-alone CCaaS deployments.

STRENGTHS

8x8 can provide both CCaaS and UCaaS functionality natively. It supports single sign-on, sharedpresence and directories, extension-to-extension dialing, and instant messaging through its ExpertConnect integration.

8x8 uses georouting to the nearest data center to enable global voice quality guarantees. Theseare based on mean opinion score (MOS) measures and backed by service-level guarantees.

8x8 has seen strong early uptake of its ContactNow offering by organizations with relatively smallcontact centers that want to be more self-sufficient and less dependent on their corporate ITdepartment to configure and make changes to their call flows.

CAUTIONS

8x8 has limited experience of supporting large and very large contact center environments.

8x8's VCC does not natively support a number of key contact center capabilities, includingworkforce management (which it offers through a third party) and SMS routing. This means itdoes not control development of these important capabilities, which could delay identification andresolution of the root causes of any integration problems in multivendor deployments.

8x8 lacks the strong brand recognition of some of its competitors in the North American CCaaSmarket.

Aspect

Aspect, which is based in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S., is a software technology provider. It offers threeCCaaS solutions: the Aspect Via multitenant platform, built on refactored components of itspremises-based offering, the Unified IP platform; the Aspect Hosted multi-instance service, basedon Unified IP; and the multitenant Zipwire service, provided on a platform that combines thecompany's own technology stack with technology from a third-party provider. Aspect Via is hosted inAmazon Web Services (AWS) data centers, and software is deployed redundantly across multipleAWS Availability Zones. Aspect Hosted services and Zipwire are provided from data centers in theU.S. (five), the U.K. (two), India, Hong Kong, Australia and Singapore. Aspect's Via and Hostedsolutions support prebuilt integrations to Microsoft (Dynamics) and Salesforce. Zipwire supportsprebuilt integrations to Microsoft (Dynamics), Oracle (Service Cloud), Salesforce and Zendesk.Aspect began offering CCaaS in 2013.



Consider Aspect's Via and Hosted services if you are looking to deploy feature-rich, CCaaScapabilities, particularly in large and very large contact centers, and when looking for multitenant(Via) or multi-instance (Hosted) solutions. Consider Aspect Zipwire if you are looking for a broad setof CCaaS functions for midsize deployments.

STRENGTHS

Aspect has established a global sales and support presence, based on its history in the on-premises CCI market.

Aspect's Via and Hosted offerings support a broad and rich set of native CCaaS functions,including omnichannel self-service, workforce optimization (WFO) and dialer capabilities. There isa common user interface for system administration and management, and common real-time andhistorical reporting across all capabilities.

Aspect uses its own natural-language understanding functionality, in combination with itsomnichannel self-service engine, to deliver some of the market's first chatbot capabilities in itsInteractive Text Response offering.

CAUTIONS

In various technology markets, not just CCaaS, vendors often find that the transition from providerof primarily on-premises solutions to "cloud first" provider creates financial and organizationalchallenges that can take years to overcome. Aspect is still in the early stages of this transition.

Despite good brand awareness for its on-premises CCI solutions, Aspect lacks a high profile in theCCaaS market.

Supporting three different CCaaS products could spread Aspect's resources thinly. Following the2017 introduction of Aspect Via, some Gartner clients have voiced concerns about Aspect'scommitment to its midmarket Zipwire offering.

BroadSoft

BroadSoft, which is based in Gaithersburg, Maryland, U.S., is a software technology provider. Itoffers multitenant and multi-instance CCaaS on its own purpose-built software platform. BroadSofthas historically focused on selling UCaaS and CCaaS platforms to service providers that then usethese platforms to offer services to their own customers. BroadSoft offers its CC-One Express,Business and Salesforce editions from data centers in the U.S. (two), the U.K. and Germany. It offersprebuilt integrations to NetSuite, Oracle (Service Cloud), Salesforce, SugarCRM and Zendesk. It alsosupports RESTful APIs for integrating with a variety of third-party systems. BroadSoft began offeringCCaaS in North America in 2016, although through its acquisition of Transera, its service offeringsdate back to 2007.

Consider BroadSoft for CCaaS deployments across a variety of deployment sizes, including largeand very large, complex environments, and particularly for integration with BroadSoft-based UCaaS.

STRENGTHS

BroadSoft can use its established position in the UCaaS market to help it sell CCaaS solutions.



BroadSoft can analyze and exploit structured and unstructured enterprise data to supportbusiness-intelligence-driven contact-routing decisions in real time. For example, it can prioritizecalls from customers who had previously abandoned a call while waiting in a queue.

BroadSoft's CC-One Salesforce edition offers tight integration to Salesforce CRM. It is deployed asan extension of Salesforce's software, using Salesforce's management and administrativeinterfaces (including single sign-on) and reporting database.

CAUTIONS

BroadSoft's reputation in CCaaS is that of a provider of low-complexity solutions designed to beeasily sold and provisioned by its service provider customers. This is a very different profile fromthe solutions sold by Transera, which BroadSoft acquired as the basis for its CC-One offering. Thismay lead to challenges in terms of meeting the functionality and ease-of-use requirements of verydifferent target markets.

BroadSoft is not well known as a CCaaS provider. It is still working to develop the necessaryawareness of its solution among potential customers and channel partners.

BroadSoft does not control the product development path for some key technology components,including WFO and speech-enabled IVR, as these are delivered through partnerships. This meansthat BroadSoft does not control the development of these important components, which coulddelay identification and resolution of the root causes of any integration problems in multivendordeployments.

Evolve IP

Evolve IP, which is based in Wayne, Pennsylvania, U.S., is an application specialist. It offers theEvolve Contact Suite (ECS) solution on its own multitenant software platform. It sells primarily tosmall and midsize contact centers, but can also be suitable for larger ones. In addition, it canprovide services as stand-alone offerings or in conjunction with its UCaaS service. Evolve IP offersservices from data centers in the U.S. (two), the U.K., the Netherlands (two) and Australia. ECSoffers prebuilt integrations to GoldMine, Microsoft (Dynamics), NetSuite, Sage, Salesforce andZendesk. It also supports an open, REST-based API to integrate with a variety of other systems.Evolve IP began offering CCaaS in 2008.

Consider Evolve IP if you want multichannel functionality for price-sensitive small or midsize contactcenters, either for stand-alone deployments or in conjunction with the company's UCaaS offerings.

STRENGTHS

Evolve IP can provide both CCaaS and UCaaS functionality natively, with support for single sign-on, shared presence and directories, extension-to-extension dialing and instant messaging.

Evolve IP offers global voice quality guarantees based on MOS measures, and service-levelguarantees.

Evolve IP can provide competitively priced, yet fully featured solutions.

CAUTIONS

Evolve IP lacks the brand recognition of some of its competitors in the North American CCaaSmarket.



Evolve IP lacks experience of supporting global CCaaS deployments, compared with somevendors in this Magic Quadrant.

Evolve IP does not offer its own WEM offering. This means that it does not control thedevelopment of this important capability, which could delay identification and resolution of theroot causes of any integration problems in multivendor deployments.

Five9

Five9, which is based in San Ramon, California, U.S., is an application specialist. It offers itsmultitenant Virtual Contact Center (VCC) solution on its own cloud platform. The company hashistorically focused on the small-to-midsize contact center market, but it continues to gain tractionin larger accounts. Five9 offers services from data centers in the U.S. (three), the U.K. and theNetherlands, and recently invested in global voice infrastructure with AWS voice points of presencein strategic locations around the world. VCC supports prebuilt integrations to Desk.com, Microsoft(Dynamics), NetSuite, Oracle (Service Cloud), Salesforce, ServiceNow, Velocify, Zendesk and Zoho. Italso supports an open, REST-based API to integrate with a variety of other systems. Five9 beganoffering CCaaS in 2003.

Consider Five9 for multichannel CCaaS, particularly for small, midsize and large environments, andthose needing inbound, outbound and blended functionality.

STRENGTHS

Five9's Premium Support offering helps it to address the more demanding needs of large andcomplex contact center deployments.

Five9 uses its native natural-language understanding engine to augment its customer journeyanalytics. These deliver real-time insights and context to predict customers' behavior andrecommend next-best actions.

VCC supports deep integration with Salesforce CRM systems. Five9 has a strong partnership withSalesforce's development and marketing teams and a close working relationship with manySalesforce channel partners.

CAUTIONS

Five9 has less experience of supporting very large contact center environments than somevendors in this Magic Quadrant.

VCC does not have WFO functionality natively integrated into its software stack. Although Five9supports integrations to many market-leading third-party WFO suites, it does not control thedevelopment of this important functionality, which could delay identification and resolution of theroot causes of any integration problems in multivendor deployments.

Five9 lacks resources for, and experience of, supporting global CCaaS deployments, comparedwith some vendors in this Magic Quadrant.

Genesys



Genesys, which is based in Daly City, California, U.S., is a software technology provider. It offersmultitenant and multi-instance CCaaS, based on a variety of platforms and aimed at differingcustomer requirements. These platforms include PureEngage Cloud, based on Genesys' traditionalpremises-based platform, and PureConnect Cloud and PureCloud, based on offerings from Genesys'December 2016 acquisition of Interactive Intelligence.

PureEngage Cloud supports multi-instance solutions aimed at large and very large customerstypically requiring support for 750 agents or more, and those requiring advanced customization.PureEngage Cloud solutions are provided from data centers in the U.S. (two), Canada (two), the U.K.,the Netherlands, Australia, Singapore and India. PureEngage Cloud supports preconfiguredintegrations to NetSuite, Oracle (Service Cloud), Salesforce and Zendesk, and provides REST- andSOAP-based open APIs for integrating with a variety of third-party systems. Genesys began offeringPureEngage Cloud in North America in 2013.

PureConnect Cloud supports multi-instance solutions aimed at midsize and large customerstypically supporting 150 to 750 agents, and those requiring moderate levels of customization.PureConnect Cloud solutions are provided from data centers in the U.S. (two), Canada (two), theU.K., Germany, Australia (two) and Japan (two). PureConnect Cloud supports preconfiguredintegrations to Microsoft (Dynamics), Oracle (Service Cloud), Salesforce, SAP and Zendesk, andprovides REST- and SOAP-based open APIs for integrating with a variety of third-party systems.PureConnect Cloud services have been available in North America since 2009.

PureCloud supports multitenant solutions aimed at small or midsize customers typically requiringsupport for fewer than 250 agents and requiring limited customization. PureCloud solutions areprovided from AWS data centers in the U.S., the U.K., Australia and Japan. PureCloud supportspreconfigured integrations to Microsoft (Dynamics), Oracle (Service Cloud), Salesforce, SAP andZendesk, and provides REST- and SOAP-based open APIs for integrating with a variety of third-partysystems. PureCloud services have been available in North America since 2015.

Consider Genesys for CCaaS solutions across a wide variety of deployment sizes and requirementsfor solution customization and integration.

STRENGTHS

Genesys supports CCaaS services for a wide range of customer sizes and levels of complexity. Ofthe vendors in this Magic Quadrant, it supports one of the largest installed bases of agents.

Genesys' PureEngage Cloud and PureConnect Cloud use similar code bases to their respectivepremises-based offerings. This enables customers to migrate from premises- to cloud-basedsolutions, or vice versa, at their own pace.

Genesys uses its strong brand recognition and global presence to provide broad geographicsupport for its CCaaS solutions.

CAUTIONS

An increasing number of Gartner clients have expressed frustration about the quality of Genesys'CCaaS deployments and support across its offerings.



Some Genesys channel partners indicate that their relations with Genesys have become lesscooperative and increasingly contentious over the past 12 months. This could impact theexperience of customers of those channel partners.

Gartner clients have expressed concern about Genesys' long-term ability and commitment tomaintain three separate CCaaS platforms with separate engineering and support organizations.

Nice inContact

Based in Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S., inContact was acquired in October 2016 by Nice of Ra'anana,Israel. Nice inContact is an application specialist that offers the multitenant Nice inContact CXoneCCaaS solution, which uses Nice inContact's purpose-built customer interaction managementplatform, along with cloud-based WEM functionality from its parent company. Historically, inContactfocused on the midsize contact center market, but now Nice inContact regularly also wins deals inlarger environments. Nice inContact offers its services from data centers in the U.S. (two) andGermany, as well as from AWS data centers in the U.S. (two) and Europe. It offers prebuiltintegrations to Microsoft (Dynamics), Oracle (Service Cloud), Salesforce and Zendesk. It alsoprovides REST- and SOAP-based open APIs for integrating with a variety of third-party systems. NiceinContact began offering CCaaS in North America in 2002.

Consider Nice inContact if you are looking for multichannel CCaaS, particularly for midsize or largerdeployments, and when looking for CCaaS with native integration to enterprise WEM.

STRENGTHS

Nice inContact has strong brand recognition in the CCaaS space, particularly for deliveringmidsize solutions. Of the vendors in this Magic Quadrant, it supports one of the largest numbersof agents.

Nice inContact has access to greater corporate financial assets than inContact had, and to aglobal sales network. This may enable the company to expand its global footprint and enhance itscustomer support capabilities.

Nice inContact has aggressively expanded its market presence by establishing channelpartnerships with telcos such as AT&T and Verizon, as well as UCaaS providers such as Fuze,RingCentral and Vonage.

CAUTIONS

Although we believe that Nice's acquisition of inContact will bring a variety of benefits to thecombined company, we also expect the continued integration of the two businesses to createoperational challenges in the short term.

Nice inContact has yet to leverage the global reach and large account base provided by Nice toestablish a strong global sales and marketing presence.

Some Gartner clients report frustration when working with Nice inContact, due to a lack ofaccount management attention or the use of less-skilled customer support staff. These problemsappear to be largely due to the company's rapid growth.

Serenova



Serenova, which is based in Austin, Texas, U.S., is an application specialist. It offers its SerenovaCxEngage multitenant CCaaS solution on its own purpose-built platform. Serenova has experienceof supporting customers of all sizes, but is particularly good at supporting large and very largedeployments. It supports its CxEngage service on AWS's global network of 84 data centers across12 regions worldwide. Serenova provides prebuilt integrations to Infor (Infor CRM, formerlySaleslogix), Microsoft (Dynamics), Salesforce, SugarCRM, Zendesk and Zoho. It also supports openAPIs for integrating with a variety of third-party systems. It began offering CCaaS in North Americain 2000.

Consider Serenova for CCaaS solutions across a wide variety of deployment sizes, including thosewith more than 1,000 agents.

STRENGTHS

Serenova's offerings are designed for ease of deployment, even for large and very largedeployments. Many deployments are completed using only phone support, with no professionalservices required.

By routing calls directly through a telco, and not rerouting them through its own data centers,Serenova provides good call quality while removing some of the telco costs associated with call-rerouting topologies.

Serenova bundles CSP services with its core offering. This enables services to be activatedquickly and supports environments that experience significant bursts in call volume.

CAUTIONS

Serenova lacks the brand recognition of some of its competitors in the North American CCaaSmarket.

Serenova relies on technology partners to deliver functionality in areas such as predictive dialingand analytics. This means that Serenova does not control the development of these importantfunctionalities, which could delay identification and resolution of the root causes of anyintegration problems in multivendor deployments.

Despite its focus on large and very large customers, Serenova lacks the global sales and supportpresence that help some of its competitors address the needs of North America-basedmultinational companies.

Talkdesk

Talkdesk, which is based in San Francisco, California, U.S., is an application specialist. It offers itsCCaaS solution on its own purpose-built multitenant platform. It typically supports midsize contactcenters, but can scale down or up as required — Talkdesk has several customers that support morethan 1,000 agents. Services are provided from AWS's U.S.-based data centers, with agents outsidethe U.S. being supported by regional media servers. Talkdesk supports prebuilt integrations toContactually, Highrise, Infusionsoft, Kustomer, Microsoft (Dynamics), Nimble, OnePageCRM,Pipedrive, Radius, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Zendesk and Zoho. It can also use software developmentkits and open APIs to integrate with other third-party systems. Talkdesk began providing CCaaSservices in North America in 2013.



Consider Talkdesk for CCaaS when you strongly desire rapid implementation, and when you wantthe option to trial additional functionality from third parties.

STRENGTHS

Talkdesk takes an innovative approach with its AppConnect partner program, as partners mustagree to offer one-click installation, pay-as-you-go billing and a 30-day free trial. This makes iteasy and low risk for customers to add functionality such as workforce management, speechanalytics and business intelligence.

Talkdesk can provide global voice quality guarantees based on MOS measures and backed byservice-level guarantees.

Talkdesk offers tight integration to Salesforce CRM, including single sign-on, single usermanagement, automated workflows, integrated live and historical reporting, omnichannelintegration and integrated SMS.

CAUTIONS

Talkdesk lacks the brand recognition of some of its competitors in the North American CCaaSmarket.

Talkdesk has limited experience of supporting large and very large contact center environments.

Talkdesk does not natively support a number of key contact center technologies, includingworkforce management (provided through a third party) and SMS routing. This means thatTalkdesk does not control the development of these important technologies, which could delayidentification and resolution of the root causes of any integration problems in multivendordeployments.

TeleTech

TeleTech, which is based in Englewood, Colorado, U.S., is a system integrator. It offers the HumanifyCustomer Engagement as a Service (Humanify) multi-instance CCaaS solution, based largely onCisco Hosted Collaboration Solution for Contact Center technology. TeleTech primarily serves themidsize to very large contact center market. In 2017, it began offering its Experience andExperience+ offerings to lower the cost and complexity of its solutions in an effort to better addressthe small and midsize CCaaS markets. TeleTech can also provide contact center business processoutsourcing (BPO) services either separately or in conjunction with its CCaaS services. Thecompany offers its services from three U.S.-based data centers, plus communication hubs in datacenters in the U.K., Singapore and Australia. TeleTech supports prebuilt integrations to Microsoft(Dynamics) and Salesforce. It also uses custom integration tools from Cisco and its partners tointegrate with a variety of third-party systems. TeleTech began offering CCaaS in North America in2012.

Consider TeleTech if you are looking to access Cisco contact center technology on a CCaaS basis,particularly in midsize, large and very large contact center environments.

STRENGTHS

TeleTech has strong consultative sales and system integration capabilities through its acquisitionof eLoyalty (a significant Cisco channel partner).



TeleTech is expanding its channel partnerships with companies such as AT&T, IBM, Telstra, andVerizon to broaden its market reach.

TeleTech has experience of bundling CCaaS and UCaaS services for customers requiring a greaterbreadth of functionality, scale and reliability.

CAUTIONS

TeleTech's ability to grow its CCaaS business is hampered by a lack of brand awareness.

TeleTech's Experience and Experience+ offerings, though promising, do not yet have a track recordof meeting the needs of companies with small or midsize contact centers.

TeleTech's Cisco-based solution does not natively support functionality in areas such as advanceddigital channel support, WFO, campaign management and analytics.

West

West, which is based in Omaha, Nebraska, U.S., is a system integrator. It offers multitenant andmulti-instance CCaaS services on proprietary and partner-based technology platforms. The mostnotable of its solutions is Cloud Contact Pro (CCPro), which is based on the company's 2015acquisition of U.K.-based Magnetic North, and is offered in both CCaaS and fully managed versions(CCPro Managed). West also offers Cloud Contact CE, based on Cisco's Hosted CollaborationSolution for Contact Center platform; Cloud Contact GE, based on Genesys' PureEngage platform;and Cloud Contact, based on a legacy Smoothstone platform (from its 2011 acquisition ofSmoothstone IP Communications). West sells CCaaS solutions to small, midsize and large contactcenters. Its CCPro offering is supported by data centers in the U.S., the U.K. (three) and Singapore,while Cloud Contact CE and Cloud Contact GE are each supported by two U.S.-based data centers.CCPro offers prebuilt integrations to Microsoft (Dynamics) and Salesforce CRM systems, whileCCPro Managed offers prebuilt integrations to Oracle (Siebel), Salesforce and SAP, and supportsRESTful APIs for integrating with a variety of third-party systems. West began offering CCaaSservices in North America in 2003.

Consider CCPro and Cloud Contact for small-to-midsize contact centers. Consider Cloud Contact CEor Cloud Contact GE if you are looking to access Cisco or Genesys PureEngage contact centertechnology on a CCaaS basis for large contact center environments.

STRENGTHS

West's flagship CCPro platform is a feature-rich, all-in-one solution.

West supports a wide variety of enterprise communications offerings, including CCaaS, UCaaS,IVR, conferencing, notification services, network services and enhanced 911.

West has a reputation for delivering strong consultative services for the designing of contactcenter solutions.

CAUTIONS

West's ability to grow its CCaaS business is impaired by a lack of brand awareness.



West offers services on several platforms. This approach may create uncertainty for customersas to whether product and support investments will be maintained on the Cisco and Genesysplatforms, especially as West has said that CCPro and Cloud Contact will be its primary offerings.

West does not control the product development path for its WFM offering, as this capability isdelivered through a third-party partnership. This means that West does not control thedevelopment of this important capability, which could delay identification and resolution of theroot causes of any integration problems in multivendor deployments.

Vendors Added and Dropped

We review and adjust our inclusion criteria for Magic Quadrants as markets change. As a result ofthese adjustments, the mix of vendors or providers in any Magic Quadrant may change over time. Aprovider's appearance in a Magic Quadrant one year and not the next does not necessarily indicatethat we have changed our opinion of that provider. It may be a reflection of a change in the marketand, therefore, changed evaluation criteria, or of a change of focus by that provider.

Added

Evolve IP

Talkdesk

Please note two changes of name:

BroadSoft (Transera) now appears as BroadSoft.

inContact now appears as Nice inContact.

Dropped

Interactive Intelligence, following its acquisition by Genesys.

Inclusion and Exclusion CriteriaTo meet Gartner's definition of CCaaS and be included in this Magic Quadrant, providers had to fulfillall of the following requirements:

They must support a minimum installed base of 20,000 enterprise CCaaS agent seats in NorthAmerican enterprises (not including BPO/contact center outsourcing customers) and a minimumof $20 million in annual subscription license revenue in the region (excluding network/telecomservice and professional services revenue).

They must supply proof of commercial deployments that support more than 300 concurrentCCaaS agents, and demonstrate use of a broad range of the contact center functions and abilitiesdefined in the Market Definition/Description.

Services may be offered on multitenant platforms (the provider operates a single softwareinstance on which all customers are supported) or be multi-instance (the provider uses separateserver software instances for each customer, but supports them on shared system serverhardware). Contact center seat license ownership must be retained by the service provider.



Customer contracts must allow for elasticity of usage (enabling customers to scale agent licensecounts up or down as usage demands change, and contracts may define minimum agent countsthat must be maintained).

At least 50% of CCaaS seats and/or subscription revenue must be inbound voice agent licenses(ACD). Other licenses may include outbound voice (predictive, progressive or preview dialing),routing of nonvoice interactions (including email, web chat, SMS, social media, video or otherchannels), IVR/voice portal, workforce management, call and/or desktop recording and analytics,knowledge management, workflow routing of noninteraction work items, integration withcustomer tracking (CRM) and other enterprise databases, and real-time and historical tracking andanalytics.

Hybrid services — in which some applications or components (most notably voice gateways) areoperated on customer-owned on-premises equipment, while other applications meet the othercriteria described herein — are included. However, only the licenses and revenue that meet Gartner'sCCaaS definition are considered as part of this evaluation.

Gartner's definition of CCaaS does not include:

Hosted contact center services, in which system hardware and software are dedicated toindividual customers and the right-to-use licenses are assigned to customers.

Managed services, in which the hardware and software are dedicated to a particular customer andrun on the customer's premises, but are managed by a third-party service provider.

Honorable Mentions

The following vendors did not fulfill the inclusion criteria for this Magic Quadrant, based on the sizeof their operations in terms of installed base and/or revenue. They are, however, appropriate forcertain situations, and they sometimes compete against vendors included in this Magic Quadrant:

Bright Pattern

CenturyLink

NewVoiceMedia

Noble Systems

Spoken Communications

Evaluation Criteria

Ability to Execute

The CCaaS market in North America is in the early stages of its growth, and this has influenced thecriteria weightings given below. We regard all Ability to Execute criteria as important at this stage inthe market's evolution. The criteria are as follows:

Product or Service: The product platform should encompass the ability to offer (on aconsumption basis) all contact center services expected in a suite platform (for example, IVR andspeech, inbound and outbound multichannel contact routing, WFO and analytics). This should be



encompassed in a self-service capability to implement, manage, revise and report on operationalperformance.

Overall Viability: Currently, few cloud service providers are profitable. They report strong growth indeferred revenue, because of the utility license model, but need to have enough capital to build theinfrastructure necessary to support new customers.

Sales Execution/Pricing: The market for CCaaS is still emerging, so there are many opportunitiesfor new sales. We expect suppliers to be able to demonstrate better than 20% annual growth, witha good selection of references from large or well-known organizations.

Market Responsiveness/Record: With a number of new entrants to the CCaaS market takingmarket share, being an established player is not a major advantage in terms of securing newbusiness.

Marketing Execution: Providers with strong brand awareness tend to be invited to compete formore opportunities than those without strong brand awareness. This helps them win morebusiness. A comprehensive marketing program is important to attract invitations to bid foropportunities.

Customer Experience: Delivering a differentiated customer experience can help suppliersmaintain and grow a CCaaS business.

Operations: Customers expect to hand over the management of CCI to a partner that will deliver aservice that is as good as, and ideally better than, what they themselves can deliver. Contactcenters provide critical front-office operations, and organizations need strong operations tosupport their customer service needs in all countries in which they compete.

Table 1. Ability to Execute Evaluation Criteria

Evaluation Criteria

Product or Service

Weighting High

Overall Viability

Weighting High

Sales Execution/Pricing

Weighting High

Market Responsiveness/Record



Weighting Medium

Marketing Execution

Weighting Medium

Customer Experience

Weighting High

Operations

Weighting Medium


Completeness of Vision

The CCaaS market in North America is in the early stages of its growth, and vendors will require astrong vision if they are to succeed in the long term. We regard all Completeness of Vision criteriaas important at this stage in the market's evolution. The criteria are as follows:

Market Understanding: Understanding the role that a contact center plays in organizations'customer service strategies, and how it relates to other capabilities, is important for success.

Marketing Strategy: Communicating a differentiated strategy in an emerging market wheretechnologies are largely similar is crucial to win early mind share.

Sales Strategy: Striking the best balance of direct and indirect approaches to the market isimportant when the cost of sale can be very high and compensation impacts cash flow.

Offering (Product) Strategy: The approach to product and service development and delivery thathighlights industry requirements, and the speed at which differentiated or innovative services areadded to the platform.

Business Model: The relevance of the commercial model to how a vendor proposes to use acombination of direct sales and channel distribution to scale the availability of its service.

Vertical/Industry Strategy: A specific focus on industries is an opportunity to increase mind sharein key target markets, in contrast to a horizontal, all-encompassing market vision.

Innovation: The vision to see opportunities to differentiate services for customers, either throughin-house development or collaboration with innovative partners.

Geographic Strategy: The vendor's strategy for growth outside its home market in order to attracta larger audience is key to meeting the contact center needs of global organizations.



Table 2. Completeness of Vision Evaluation Criteria

Evaluation Criteria

Market Understanding

Weighting High

Marketing Strategy

Weighting Medium

Sales Strategy

Weighting Medium

Offering (Product) Strategy

Weighting High

Business Model

Weighting Medium

Vertical/Industry Strategy

Weighting Medium

Innovation

Weighting Medium

Geographic Strategy

Weighting Medium


Quadrant Descriptions

Leaders



Given that the CCaaS market in North America is still maturing, Leaders are best described assuppliers with a strong multichannel product and service capability that have already amassed alarge installed base of large and small customers. Leaders also benefit from being able to supportvarying levels of deployment complexity, including multichannel deployments and integration with avariety of third-party systems.

Challengers

Challengers may also have large installed bases of customers, although typically not as large asthose of Leaders. They may have more recognized strength in serving customers in particular sizesegments. They generally lack the CCaaS brand awareness of Leaders.

Visionaries

Visionaries have strong multichannel product and service capabilities and a clear strategy for sales,marketing and business development. They differentiate themselves by adding unique functionalityand/or delivery capabilities.

Niche Players

Niche Players may be quite large, but have decided to focus on a particular market opportunity, a setof solutions or certain vertical markets. Their products and services may still be undergoing productdevelopment, or they may rely heavily on partners to complete their service proposition. NichePlayers are likely to be either new, or relatively recent, market entrants or suppliers that have yet tobuild a large customer base.

ContextCCaaS is discussed in approximately 40% of the inquiries Gartner receives from end-user enterpriseclients in North America. A review of these inquiries suggests that demand in the CCaaS marketshows stratification (based largely on deployment size), as follows:

Small deployments (typically five to 20 agents). These deployments are typically very basic —requiring only phone-based "call center" functionality (using basic menu trees to make call routingdecisions and first-in, first-out call queuing), sometimes basic call recording, and possibly simpleemail and/or web chat routing. Customers may or may not require the ability to support basiccomputer-telephony integration (CTI) screen-pop, but they rarely require call routing based oncustomer data. Although most of the providers in this Magic Quadrant have the ability to servethese customers, most do not focus on them; there is typically little profitability in serving thesecustomers, due to heavy price competition resulting from the lower technological barriers to entry.

Midsize deployments (typically 21 to 300 agents). These deployments typically have moresophisticated requirements than those seen in small deployments — they often require support formore feature-rich multichannel routing and broader WFO functionality. They also frequently needto embed their contact-handling functionality for agents within a CRM vendor's agent desktopinterface. Although these are typically North America-only deployments, it is not uncommon forthem to have some level of requirement to support agents in other regions. Often, these



deployments also require some level of customization of contact routing schemas in order toaccommodate business rules unique to their particular environments. The level of customizationis, however, typically less than that seen in the larger strata.

Large deployments (typically 301 to 1,000 agents). These deployments tend to have traits similarto those seen in midsize deployments, although they often require greater levels of customizationand more frequently require multinational support. It is important to note that the 301 agent countdefining the lower end of this stratum is largely influenced by the level of comfort shown byGartner clients in considering CCaaS solutions relative to on-premises ones. We expect to see theboundary between midsize and large deployments rise as CCaaS solutions continue to gainacceptance and as providers are increasingly able to supply reference customers with higheragent counts.

Very large deployments (more than 1,000 agents). These deployments are typically similar tothose seen in large deployments, although often with even greater requirements for customizationand multinational support. As with large deployments, there appears to be a psychological hurdlefor clients to overcome — that of becoming comfortable with trusting CCaaS providers to supportenvironments of this size.

The CCaaS market is still in the early phases of mainstream adoption, so few providers can offersales and support presence in multiple regions. As such, although many vendors can supportcustomers with agents in multiple regions, they typically do so for companies whose multinationaloperations are really extensions of a primary center serving a primary geographic market — such asa company with agents in multiple regions to provide 24-hour coverage for its main contact center.Companies needing to support significant operations in multiple regions typically make separateregion-specific vendor choices.

Note that Gartner is not currently seeing significant differences in demand by vertical market.Architecturally, the elasticity and scale of cloud computing favor organizations that have to manageunplanned contacts. A key area where CCaaS is proving advantageous is the public utilities sector,where it aids communication in the event of service outages.

Market OverviewAs the contact center market in North America is starting to mature, we have again increased theminimum annual revenue inclusion criterion, to $20 million, and the minimum enterprise seat count,to 20,000.

Over the past 12 months there has been an increase in inquiry activity from Gartner clients regardingglobal deployments of contact center solutions in the cloud. Although this Magic Quadrant focuseson North American capabilities, the ability to serve more regions has been taken into account in thisyear's assessment. What we find is that most suppliers have data center infrastructure in LatinAmerica, Europe and Asia (in addition to North America), but are not yet fully engaged in activelyselling their services outside North America.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a hot topic in most industries, and the questionnaire we presented tosuppliers who agreed to participate in our research effort included questions about the maturity ofservices that include AI. The concept of AI for contact centers is not new. Conversational speech for



customer voice interfaces has been used successfully for some 10 years (see "Market Guide forVirtual Customer Assistants" ). Judging from the responses to the questionnaire, most of the focuson AI is at an early developmental stage in relation to supporting chatbots and introducingautomation to web chat in much the same way as it has been introduced to voice calls. Although AIdevelopments are promising, it is too early to regard this technology as a leading contributor toCCaaS technology.

Customer interaction desktops are another subject that has attracted a notable increase in clientinquiries. A "single view of the customer" through multiple digital channels is something that mostorganizations recognize would improve the customer experience. However, with multipletouchpoints for customer contact across disparate application platforms, it is difficult to achievewithout significant development effort by the customer service organization. Many CCaaS providersare demonstrating a customer interaction desktop capability designed to augment a CRM capability,to provide a more immediate solution to the problem of disparate digital channels — as long as thecustomer service center routes all the digital channels into the CCaaS provider. There is demand forthis capability, and developments look promising, but we expect it will be another nine to 12 monthsbefore services materialize.

Market Drivers and Inhibitors

The drivers and inhibitors of demand in the North American CCaaS market are similar to those seenin other markets that are shifting to "as a service" delivery models.

Drivers

Move from capex to opex. Many companies currently operate older on-premises platforms thatrequire expensive upgrades. Shifting from a capital expenditure purchase model to an operatingexpenditure purchase model can make replacing the system more affordable than performing anupgrade.

IT department's focus on core business. As contact center systems become more feature-rich,they often become more complex to manage. Many corporate IT staff are opting to focus theirefforts on managing core infrastructure (Mode 1 services), while looking to outside expertise tosupport departmental applications (Mode 2 services).

License count elasticity. For contact centers that experience significant seasonality in theirstaffing requirements, the ability to make monthly adjustments to agent license counts can deliversignificant cost savings in some cases.

Rapid deployment. Some enterprises find that they need to start a new contact center at shortnotice — perhaps to support a new business demand, or because they have delayed criticalinfrastructure upgrades to the point where their current system will not be supported much longer.Deployment times for CCaaS solutions, including environments requiring customization, aretypically much shorter than for on-premises deployments or major upgrades.

Ability to trial new functionality. For on-premises deployments, deploying new and unprovenfunctionality (such as new communications channels) on a trial basis is often too expensive andtoo much work. By contrast, trialing new capabilities in a CCaaS model is frequently quicker and



less expensive; also, because licenses are committed to for only short periods, the cost of a "fastfail" deployment can be significantly reduced.

Support for discrete contact center operations. Some enterprises need to support discreteoperations, such as a small help desk or collections team whose operations and technologyrequirements differ from those of the larger core customer service operations. CCaaS can be alower-cost, lower-effort way to support smaller and more independent contact center operationswithin a larger environment.

Inhibitors

Total cost of ownership (TCO). Some contact center decision makers presume that although theinitial acquisition costs of CCaaS solutions will be lower than for on-premises solutions, in thelong term CCaaS solutions will prove more expensive as monthly recurring charges add up.Although this will be true in some situations, it will not always be the case — such as inenvironments with significant seasonality in their staffing requirements, or environments where IThead count can be significantly reduced by shifting responsibilities to the CCaaS provider's staff.

Customization. Some contact center decision makers believe that CCaaS offerings are inherentlystandardized and cannot be customized to the extent implemented in the on-premises systemsthat they typically replace. But the ability to customize CCaaS functionality in order to meet aspecific enterprise's needs varies by provider; some can provide highly customized solutions.

Scalability. Some contact center decision makers may presume that CCaaS solutions cannotscale to meet the demands of large contact centers. However, we are now seeing CCaaSdeployments that support several thousand agents.

Security. Some contact center decision makers presume that CCaaS providers cannot support thestringent levels of security required for the handling of sensitive customer data. However, Gartneroften finds that CCaaS providers support more rigorous security practices than enterprise ITorganizations.

Operational disruption. Enterprises can often minimize disruption to their operations by upgradingexisting on-premises systems, rather than replacing them with other vendors' systems (whetheron-premises or CCaaS-based). In large deployments, this can be a compelling argument forstaying with an existing vendor. However, this benefit must be evaluated in the context of otherdrivers and inhibitors, because this approach may impede a contact center's ability to adapt tochanging customer and enterprise requirements in the long term. In some cases, an enterprisecan minimize disruption by staying with its existing vendor but moving from its on-premisessolution to its CCaaS solution.

Acronym Key and Glossary Terms

ACD

AI

automatic call distribution artificial intelligence



AWS

automatic call distribution Amazon Web Services

BPO

automatic call distribution business processing outsourcing

CCaaS

automatic call distribution contact center as a service

CCI

automatic call distribution contact center infrastructure

CSP

automatic call distribution communications service provider

CTI

automatic call distribution computer-telephony integration

IVR

automatic call distribution interactive voice response

MOS

automatic call distribution mean opinion score

SMB

automatic call distribution small or midsize business

SMS

automatic call distribution Short Message Service

TCO

automatic call distribution total cost of ownership

UCaaS

automatic call distribution unified communications as a service

WEM



automatic call distribution workforce engagement management

WFO

automatic call distribution workforce automation

Evaluation Criteria Definitions

Ability to Execute

Product/Service: Core goods and services offered by the vendor for the defined market. Thisincludes current product/service capabilities, quality, feature sets, skills and so on, whether offerednatively or through OEM agreements/partnerships as defined in the market definition and detailed inthe subcriteria.

Overall Viability: Viability includes an assessment of the overall organization's financial health, thefinancial and practical success of the business unit, and the likelihood that the individual businessunit will continue investing in the product, will continue offering the product and will advance thestate of the art within the organization's portfolio of products.

Sales Execution/Pricing: The vendor's capabilities in all presales activities and the structure thatsupports them. This includes deal management, pricing and negotiation, presales support, and theoverall effectiveness of the sales channel.

Market Responsiveness/Record: Ability to respond, change direction, be flexible and achievecompetitive success as opportunities develop, competitors act, customer needs evolve and marketdynamics change. This criterion also considers the vendor's history of responsiveness.

Marketing Execution: The clarity, quality, creativity and efficacy of programs designed to deliver theorganization's message to influence the market, promote the brand and business, increaseawareness of the products, and establish a positive identification with the product/brand andorganization in the minds of buyers. This "mind share" can be driven by a combination of publicity,promotional initiatives, thought leadership, word of mouth and sales activities.

Customer Experience: Relationships, products and services/programs that enable clients to besuccessful with the products evaluated. Specifically, this includes the ways customers receivetechnical support or account support. This can also include ancillary tools, customer supportprograms (and the quality thereof), availability of user groups, service-level agreements and so on.

Operations: The ability of the organization to meet its goals and commitments. Factors include thequality of the organizational structure, including skills, experiences, programs, systems and othervehicles that enable the organization to operate effectively and efficiently on an ongoing basis.

Completeness of Vision

Market Understanding: Ability of the vendor to understand buyers' wants and needs and to translatethose into products and services. Vendors that show the highest degree of vision listen to andunderstand buyers' wants and needs, and can shape or enhance those with their added vision.



Marketing Strategy: A clear, differentiated set of messages consistently communicated throughoutthe organization and externalized through the website, advertising, customer programs andpositioning statements.

Sales Strategy: The strategy for selling products that uses the appropriate network of direct andindirect sales, marketing, service, and communication affiliates that extend the scope and depth ofmarket reach, skills, expertise, technologies, services and the customer base.

Offering (Product) Strategy: The vendor's approach to product development and delivery thatemphasizes differentiation, functionality, methodology and feature sets as they map to current andfuture requirements.

Business Model: The soundness and logic of the vendor's underlying business proposition.

Vertical/Industry Strategy: The vendor's strategy to direct resources, skills and offerings to meet thespecific needs of individual market segments, including vertical markets.

Innovation: Direct, related, complementary and synergistic layouts of resources, expertise or capitalfor investment, consolidation, defensive or pre-emptive purposes.

Geographic Strategy: The vendor's strategy to direct resources, skills and offerings to meet thespecific needs of geographies outside the "home" or native geography, either directly or throughpartners, channels and subsidiaries as appropriate for that geography and market.

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