5 Cloud Call Center Software Pricing Models to Consider

In a recent article, Nancy Seby discusses how contact centers use cloud software to reduce costs and also as a backup for disaster recovery. Seby discusses the following times when using cloud software can help contact centers with data recovery:

1) Call abandonment due to poor call routing or bad agent allocation during spikes in call volume.

2) When disasters occur and a technical team would be necessary to work on ACD, CRM, and other systems.

3) When data becomes lost due to natural or man-made disasters.

Seby’s article goes into detail on how exactly cloud call center software can help during these crises. To read more, check out her article here.

5 Cloud Call Center Software Pricing Models to Consider

Many companies utilize cloud software; but some might still be considering it and are curious of the pricing options available. Cloud-based software solutions offer a variety of contact center pricing models. While the models are usually based on the number of users, they also offer elasticity to dynamically add and subtract users based on actual demand. Monthly fees typically include licensing, maintenance, and basic product updates. Pricing and service is locked in for periods of one year or longer. The following are five cloud-based call center software pricing models to consider:

1) PER USER/PER MONTH PRICING: This is the traditional Software as a Service (SaaS) pricing model where each user added increases the total cost.

2) PER PRACTICE/PER MONTH PRICING: Allows a maximum number of users (e.g., 15). Adding or reducing users does not impact the price you pay if you are at or under the limit.

3) PER TRANSACTION OR PER MINUTE PRICING: In this contact center pricing model, volume rather than users drives the total cost.

4) PEAK SEAT PRICING: This pricing is based on the highest number of seats utilized in a given period, keeping pricing in line with volume.

5) SCALED-BACK LICENSES: This contact center pricing model is available for certain users who do not use all aspects of the solution.

In addition to considering costs associated with vendors and consultants, call center executives need to pay careful attention to the cost of internal administration and business process re-engineering by key employees. At Outsource Consultants, we use the “one-third rule,” where each dollar in licensing costs will equate to one additional dollar spent on business process improvement and another dollar spent on training and adoption programs. Regardless of the complexity of the chosen call center software solution, there will be long-term costs to consider.