Following the rapid growth of unified communications as a service (UCaaS) and contact centre as a service (CCaaS) over the last few years, businesses have begun to look for the next level of improvements in communication and collaboration. As a result, a new trend has emerged: the convergence of UCaaS and CCaaS platforms.
Converging UCaaS and CCaaS brings the features of both platforms into one environment, so a company can streamline interactions, drive efficiency, and enhance the experience for both employees and customers. As we explored in our recent Ask the Expert blog, this burgeoning market is being driven by many things, including feelings of digital overwhelm, the need to focus on CX and EX, and the popularity of hybrid working.
But just how much do companies benefit from integrating their UCaaS and CCaaS platforms? We asked the global research company, Forrester, to find out.
Calculating the Total Economic Impact
Forrester Consulting undertook a Total Economic Impact study (TEI), which looked at the potential return on investment (ROI) that could be realised by implementing RingCentral’s integrated UCaaS and CCaaS solutions.
They interviewed five representatives from companies using these solutions (based in the UK, US and Canada) and aggregated their experiences and cost savings into a single composite organisation. Here’s what they found.
Savings from reduced call-handling timeCall-handling time reduced by 20% with the RingCentral CCaaS on its own, and by up to 45% when integrated with the UCaaS. This was due to cloud contact centre capabilities such as skills-based routing and CRM integration, as well as the ability to quickly transfer complicated queries to other colleagues such as internal experts via the UCaaS solution.
Over three years, this reduction in call-handling time would save the organisation $10.8 million (£8.65 million), concludes Forrester.
Savings on legacy systems
Before adopting the integrated UCaaS and CCaaS, the organisations interviewed used on-premises contact centre solutions as well as multiple UCaaS systems. This approach had several drawbacks, including high maintenance costs, poor scalability, and disconnected systems that couldn’t meet the demands of customers.
By switching to one platform for all communications, Forrester found that the composite organisation could save $2.68 million (£2.15 million) avoiding legacy system costs over three years.
Savings on IT support
IT support tickets decreased by 30% and these tickets took 60% less time to close. This equated to a three-year saving on internal IT support costs of $195,000 (£156,000).
This is down to the fact that RingCentral provides a dashboard to report issues and runs a simple diagnosis to identify the issues and provide solutions. If the organisation’s internal IT support can’t resolve the issues, RingCentral then provides troubleshooting support.
Savings on travel costs and time spent using different software
Forrester calculated a 20% reduction in the number of business trips as a result of the unified communications solution, RingCentral MVP. This would lead to a three-year saving of $3.67 million/£2.95 million.
On top of that, because employees didn’t have to download or log in to multiple applications for conference calls, they saved, on average, 15 minutes before each meeting. This would be worth an additional $48,000/£38,400 over three years.
Savings on the contact centre auditing process
The study calculated that contact centre supervisors would spend 25% less time each month auditing agent performance – a three-year saving of $76,000 or £60,800. This is thanks to the Workforce Engagement Management and Quality Management modules embedded in RingCentral’s CCaaS, which provide real-time tracking of agent performance.
Savings on agent training
Because of the enhanced monitoring of agent performance, the converged platform enabled supervisors to better identify issues and opportunities with particular agents and deliver more targeted training. This represents a saving of more than $139,000 (£111,200) over three years.
An overall ROI of 211%. A payback period of <6 months
When compared to the implementation costs of RingCentral, these savings amounted to a net present value of $11.96 million/£9.57 million and an ROI of 211%. In addition, the payback period would be less than 6 months, concludes Forrester.
So for anyone considering investing in a converged UCaaS–CCaaS platform, the business case looks strong.
4 more business benefits when you connect UCaaS and CCaaS
Of course, there are other likely benefits of bringing your UCaaS and CCaaS together, particularly improvement in the customer experience (CX). These weren’t quantified for the Total Economic Impact study but they were highlighted by the organisations interviewed. These include:
- Process standardisation thanks to the CCaaS solution. This makes operations more efficient.
- Increased revenue from improved agent efficiency, better customer service, and from only having to deal with one communications vendor.
- Better decision-making capabilities. Because of RingCentral’s strong data analytics capabilities, organisations can track performance, identify issues, and work out solutions. This helps managers make clearer decisions.
- Improved CX with callback function. With RingCentral’s callback function, the customer hangs up and receives a callback once an agent is available, freeing up customers’ time.
“From a patient’s standpoint, it is an efficiency thing. We’re efficiently able to route a call, but on the other side of it, it goes back to that patient’s satisfaction in willing to be our patient the next time.” Director of IT infrastructure and operation, healthcare.
- Flexibility. We’re talking here about flexibility as a long-term strategic value. The converged UCaaS–CCaaS platform makes additional investments possible, which realise extra benefits. These will vary between organisations, but the five businesses interviewed pointed out two key opportunities they were considering next:
- the potential to integrate the platform with other technology, including their ERP, for more data richness, and
- the opportunity to run a global contact centre to lower the human capital cost.
Dig into the full report
Forrester’s Total Economic Impact report certainly makes a compelling case for UCaaS–CCaaS integration, but these are just the headlines.
Originally published Oct 31, 2023, updated Nov 29, 2023
