Navigating industry disruption can be a challenge for the channel’s contact centre MSPs, and with a major transformation on the horizon Sabio’s Chief Innovation Officer Stuart Dorman unravels what lies ahead.
The words ‘market transformation’ have become a staple of the comms industry’s lexicon but its strength of meaning is most profound in the CCaaS environment. According to Dorman, the contact centre market is on the cusp of an unprecedented shift in the next three to five years – tantamount to an upending. He pointed out that 70 per cent of solutions are currently on-premise/private cloud, with 30 per cent using CCaaS. “However, this ratio is expected to reverse within five years,” commented Dorman. “The market is dominated by voice and email interactions (80 per cent) with current automation efforts focused on minor channels like webchat. The real growth opportunity lies in addressing cost-intensive voice and email demands through AI-based automation. This data-led, quick-start methodology promises to drive significant growth and efficiency for Sabio and the wider market.”
Dorman also observed that the market remains competitive with established players and innovative start-ups vying to make gains. “This competition is no longer just about offering the latest features, it’s also about providing comprehensive support, optimisation and expert services guidance to help clients make the most of their existing investments,” he added.
Dorman is also witnessing a number of market drivers manifest in different ways across Sabio’s customer base – often in combination. “We’re seeing more interest in AI, but with a cautious approach,” he explained. “And there’s growing interest in AI-powered tools such as chatbots, virtual assistants and predictive analytics. There’s also a growing need for omnichannel integration and contact centre solutions that can seamlessly integrate with other business systems like CRM, ERP and marketing automation tools. This is driving investment in more comprehensive and interoperable CCaaS platforms.
The real growth opportunity lies in addressing cost-intensive voice and email demands through AI-based automation
“Data-driven decision making is also key with advanced analytics and customer journey orchestration technologies gaining traction as businesses seek deeper insights into customer behaviour across all touchpoints. These tools, coupled with increasingly sophisticated Voice of the Customer (VoC) and sentiment analysis capabilities are providing extraordinary levels of understanding and personalisation in customer interactions.”
AI evolution
At the forefront of these trends is the rapid evolution of AI, particularly Generative AI, which is reshaping how contact centres operate by enabling more sophisticated, human-like automated interactions, enhancing everything from virtual agents to real-time agent assistance and predictive analytics. “The ongoing convergence of contact centre technologies is another area of significant interest,” added Dorman. “We’re seeing AI, data analytics and CRM systems overlapping to create a more holistic ecosystem for customer engagement. This integration is leading to more informed decision making, seamless handovers between AI and human agents, and ultimately a more cohesive customer experience.”
Dorman believes that Sabio’s position at the intersection of these trends enables it to offer forward-thinking solutions and expert guidance as a consulting-led digital CX transformation specialist. “We are at the heart of the data-powered contact centre, AI and CRM convergence, and this enables us to advise, implement and manage complex CX deployments,” he added. “We also have a greater breadth and stronger consulting capability that local or regional contact centre specialists that tend to be focused on vendor relations and are often mid-market centric. This is what sets us apart as a partner for more than 650 customers globally.”
Sabio remains a vendor agnostic organisation and has diversified so as not to rely too heavily on one particular vendor or partner. “Diversification has not only enhanced our technological capabilities but strengthened our position in the market,” commented Dorman. “As such, we now work with technology providers such as Microsoft, Genesys, Avaya, Twilio, Amazon Connect, Google Cloud, Salesforce and Verint among others – complementing their technologies with our own IP and services.”
Dorman noted that Sabio’s capacity to build on partner technologies and capabilities with its own IP, in addition to its consultancy, professional and managed services support, remains the most profitable avenue for the firm. He also reaffirmed that a key growth opportunity lies in addressing the cost-intensive voice and email demands through AI-based automation. “Our strategy aligns with this trend, offering an AI model and platform agnostic approach to automate these primary channels,” he emphasised. “This data-led, quick-start methodology promises to drive significant growth and efficiency in the evolving contact centre landscape.”
Market change
In terms of market evolution, the UK contact centre space is currently in a state of flux, characterised by rapid technological advancement and a growing sense of caution among buyers, noted Dorman. “While we’re observing a continued shift towards cloud-based solutions, driven by the need for greater flexibility and scalability, a recent Gartner report has highlighted an emerging trend of ‘buyer remorse’ in the tech industry which is also manifesting in the contact centre space,” he said.
According to Gartner, many organisations are now questioning the large technology investments they’ve made as they struggle to realise the full potential of their systems. This scenario is equally prevalent in the cloud contact centre industry. “We’re witnessing a high number of our customers approaching us for consultancy and guidance, choosing to optimise their existing infrastructure rather than immediately shifting to new technologies or making fresh investments,” added Dorman.
“This trend underscores a growing emphasis on maximising return on investment and fully leveraging current capabilities before embarking on new technological ventures. It also highlights the critical importance of expert implementation, training and ongoing support to ensure that businesses can extract maximum value from their contact centre technologies.”
Dorman cited business change adoption as a big industry challenge. And he says that in the wider industry many migration projects to an expensive and disruptive tech platform result in no corresponding operational improvements.
“Taking advantage of a CCaaS platform requires a transformation programme at the point of implementation and an ongoing commitment to take advantage of the new features that have been added,” he said. “Otherwise you fall behind the wider market and fail to capitalise on the investment.”
Key points...
• The contact centre market is on the cusp of a big shift.
• Easing cost-intensive voice and email demands through AI-based automation is key.
• Interest in AI-powered tools like chatbots, virtual assistants and predictive analytics is growing.
• Demand is intensifying around solutions that integrate business systems such as CRM, ERP and marketing automation tools.
• Data driven decision making is also key.
• Business change adoption remains a big industry challenge.
• More organisations are struggling to realise value from their tech.
• Enhanced consultancy, implementation, training and ongoing support is vital to ensure maximum value is gained from contact centre investments.