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Wave

For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

The Forrester Wave: Contact Center Interaction Management For


Midsize Contact Centers, Q3 2016
The Eight Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up
by Art Schoeller [2659]
with Christopher Andrews [1883], Ian Jacobs [8124], Meredith Cain, and Peter Harrison
September xx, 2016

Table Of Contents Notes & Resources


Midsize Contact Centers Require Simpler Forrester evaluated contact center interaction
CCIM SaaS Suites management software vendors in June and July
2016. We only considered products that were
The Market Is Buffeted By Acquisitions And
Varying Product And Channel Maturity generally available as of June 1, 2016, while
reference checks and analysis extended into
CCIM For Midsize Contact Centers Evaluation July. We interviewed eight firms: Aspect
Overview Software, Avaya, Cisco Systems, Enghouse
Interactive, Genesys, Interactive Intelligence,
Evaluated Vendors And Inclusion Criteria
Mitel Networks, and Unify.
Vendor Profiles
Related Research Documents
Leaders
The Forrester Wave: Contact Center
Strong Performers Interaction Management For Large Contact
Centers, Q3 2016 [134841]
Contenders
Increase Customer Service Agility With Cloud
Supplemental Material Contact Centers [121402]
Vendor Landscape: Contact Center Interaction
Management [115304]
Vendors Battle For The Heart Of The Contact
Center [116489]
Why Read This Report Key Takeaways
Connecting customers to the right agents over the
right channel is key to an excellent, differentiated Genesys And Mitel Networks Lead The Pack
customer experience. In our 40-criteria evaluation Forresters research uncovered a market in which
of midsize contact center interaction management Genesys and Mitel Networks lead the pack.
(CCIM) providers, we identified the eight most Enghouse Interactive, Cisco Systems, Aspect
significant ones Aspect Software, Avaya, Cisco Software, and Avaya offer competitive options.
Systems, Enghouse Interactive, Genesys, Unify and Interactive Intelligence lag closely
Interactive Intelligence, Mitel Networks, and Unify behind.
and researched, analyzed, and scored them.
This report shows how each provider measures up AD&D Pros Are Looking For SaaS Delivery
and helps application development and delivery And Comprehensive, Integrated CCIM Suites
(AD&D) professionals make the right choice. The CCIM market is transforming because more
AD&D professionals see CCIM as a way to
address the need for differentiated customer
experiences with more agile contact centers.

SaaS And Depth Of Suite Integration Are Key


Differentiators
Providing seamless access to customer service
agents across all channels is harder to accomplish
on legacy, voice-based on-premises systems.
Midsize contact centers need an easy-to-manage
CCIM system to accomplish this goal.
Midsize Contact Centers Require Simpler CCIM SaaS Suites
Todays demanding customers have little patience to wait in a queue for customer service agents to
answer their questions. They will try to find answers on their own and then use a multiplicity of
channels (e.g., phone, email, web chat, or social) to contact companies if self-service tools fail to
satisfy their requests.1 Midsize contact centers cannot afford to split customers across technology
silos that each serve a specific channel because its simply beyond their capacity to manage best-of-
breed components.2 CCIM suites simplify the task of delivering superior customer service for midsize
contact centers. AD&D professionals supporting midsize contact centers increasingly expect the
following characteristics from their vendors:

A common software suite for interactions across all channels. The CCIM market is
slowly evolving away from best-of-breed solutions devoted to one or two channels and
toward integrated software suites that span all channels and manage the real-time status of
agents, guide customer contact flow, and facilitate interaction analytics. This is especially
important for midsize contact centers that wish to offer seamless customer journeys across
all channels. Key components include a solidly designed, modern user interface across the
system for all roles; out-of-the-box CRM integration; integrated interactive voice response
(IVR); and outbound dialing.

The simplicity of software-as-a-service (SaaS) deployment and pricing. Procuring,


installing, and maintaining multiple components, even with the assistance of a channel
partner, impede the ability of midsize contact centers to operate as agile businesses.3
Companies with seasonal traffic must purchase and maintain a system designed for peak
periods. SaaS delivery allows for more agility to design and manage differentiated customer
journeys and be responsive to market changes. Midmarket CCIM suites delivered via SaaS
support these requirements, and vendors are continuing to simplify their bundles including
options that deliver integrated workforce optimization (WFO) as well.

Standardized reporting and analytics along with more WFO bundling. Midsize contact
center managers largely lack the resources to design and construct custom reports. The
CCIM market has always supported a common library of standardized reports coupled with
business intelligence tools for customization. These standard report packages now include
activity across all channels. We also see a trend of vendors bundling WFO reporting along
with speech and text analytics, allowing midsize contact centers to alleviate the integration
and customization required in the past.

Sales, service, and support from an extensive channel of partners. The technology
management model for small and midsize businesses leans more heavily to local and
specialized service providers than direct support from CCIM vendors themselves. SaaS
disrupts this partner network, so CCIM vendors have to transform their channel partners
business models to subscription-based revenues while still serving customers who choose
an on-premises deployment. Adding in customer success consulting aligns with the growing
trend of tying midsize contact center performance to technology investments.

The Market Is Buffeted By Acquisitions And Varying Product And Channel Maturity
Moving to a full omnichannel software suite and, in parallel, transitioning to cloud have challenged
the established CCIM vendors weve evaluated in this report. Due to their longevity in the market,
the vendors bring relatively large installed bases to the table that provide ripe opportunities for
maintenance and upgrade revenues. Contact center managers tend to resist change, so shifting to a
new platform takes a lot of effort by competitors looking to capture market share. Yet, over the past
five years, the small and midsize contact center market has proved to be receptive to newer, cloud-
only vendors. In this evaluation, we see that:

The path to SaaS is varied, wide, and tortured. SaaS is not just retooling or creating a
new, multi-tenant CCIM software suite. The subscription model cuts across all elements of
sales, marketing, and service within a technology company.4 Cisco Systems has engaged
mostly carrier partners to host its existing system as a service. Interactive Intelligence chose
to create a new product that runs on Amazon Web Services (AWS). Avayas IP Office is not
multi-tenant, but some partners will host it. Cloud-only vendors like Five9 and inContact
inherently have solved these challenges but cannot serve the customer who wants an on-
premises solution.

CCIM suites are maturing and starting to include fries with that WFO. Every vendor in
this evaluation has the ability to support the common channels: voice, email, and web chat.
But their depth of support varies (e.g., support for multiple simultaneous web chat sessions
and the ability to transfer them). This will improve as vendors acquire more nonvoice channel
experience in the market. Midsize contact center purchases are now increasingly including
WFO, as CCIM vendors supply either native or OEM versions in their packaging. In fact,
many vendors now include call recording in their base, voice-only packages.

The lines between CCIM, WFO, and CRM are blurring. CRM vendors have added
nonvoice channels like social and web chat, and this is creating a digital divide in contact
centers between voice and digital interactions. Creating more overlap, some CRM vendors,
like Zendesk, are adding voice capabilities as well. Inquiries with Forrester clients indicate an
increasing level of confusion as to which vendors to choose for which capabilities.5 CCIM
vendors in this evaluation are anchored in voice, but they need to ensure that they are
proactively positioning themselves for nonvoice channels.

Mergers and acquisitions are on the rise. The move to suite and cloud models stresses
the financial health and market position of the CCIM vendors, which creates a ripe
opportunity for consolidation, mergers, and acquisitions. NICE purchased the cloud-only
vendor inContact; Genesys announced the acquisition of Interactive Intelligence (which is
still covered separately in this analysis); and the industry continues to speculate about the
sale of the Avaya contact center business to help restructure its debt.

CCIM For Midsize Contact Centers Evaluation Overview


To assess the state of the CCIM market and see how the vendors stack up against each other,
Forrester evaluated the strengths and weaknesses of top midsize CCIM vendors. After examining
past research, user need assessments, and vendor and expert interviews, we developed a
comprehensive set of evaluation criteria. We evaluated vendors against 40 criteria, which we
grouped into three high-level categories:

Current offering. All of the CCIM vendors weve included in this evaluation come from a
strong legacy of handling voice communications. We looked closely at how they have
applied the same queueing, routing, and reporting strengths to nonvoice channels in a fully
integrated manner. We interviewed customer references and reviewed specific screen shot
sequences to see how they have modernized the user interface for agents, supervisors,
business analysts, system administrators, and individuals defining contact flows. In addition,
we evaluated out-of-the-box CRM integrations, outbound notifications and dialing, IVR, rich
APIs, and software development kits (SDKs). Finally, we heavily weighted the vendors
capabilities and experience with SaaS deployments.

Strategy. The midsize CCIM market will see further consolidation and maturation of suites.
To score well, the firms we evaluated needed a clear vision and road map focused on
deepening the capabilities of their suites and more deeply embedding WFO. We also
checked to see if vendors have a broad, geographically widespread channel that is able to
readily support SaaS delivery. Finally, as more bundling and consolidation into suites occurs,
our evaluation includes vendors pricing models to assess their level of simplicity and
competitiveness.

Market presence. The vendors weve evaluated primarily have large installed bases of both
systems and agent positions. This is the classic way to measure the market, but the new
twist is to add SaaS customers and the number of existing subscriptions. In this evaluation,
we used all deployment models to compute installed base, so there is more weight and
presence for the legacy on-premises vendors that have had years to establish larger bases.
Forrester will continue to monitor the market growth of cloud-only vendors for potential
inclusion in future midsize CCIM Wave evaluations.

Evaluated Vendors And Inclusion Criteria


Forrester included eight vendors in the assessment: Aspect Software, Avaya, Cisco Systems,
Enghouse Interactive, Genesys, Interactive Intelligence, Mitel Networks, and Unify. Each of these
vendors has (see Figure 1):
An installed base of greater than 500 customers. The midsize CCIM market is comprised
of well-established vendors that have a track record and base upon which to draw
maintenance and upgrade revenues. A robust sales and support channel is necessary to
support higher volumes of sales around the globe. Cloud-only vendors are gaining share in
this segment, but not at the level to meet this criteria.

A top eight installed base rank. There is a sharp drop in installed base after the top eight in
this analysis of midsize CCIM vendors. A larger base also attracts more support from
channel partners, which are critical to sustain global coverage for sales and support.

Agent seat count over 65,000 and support for 100 to 500 active agent positions. The
midsize CCIM market is defined as companies supporting systems with 100 to 500 seats.
Avaya and Cisco Systems reported seat counts greater than 1 million due to the large
volume of midsize systems they ship.

Substantial interest from Forrester clients in the form of questions or mentions.


Forrester clients are an important, but not exclusive, source for assessing a vendors
importance in a market. All of the vendors we included in this midsize CCIM Wave have
been topics of multiple inquiries during the past two years.

FIGURE 1 Evaluated Vendors: Product Information And Selection Criteria


Vendor Profiles
This evaluation of the midsize CCIM suites market is intended to be a starting point only. We
encourage clients to view detailed product evaluations and adapt criteria weightings to fit their
individual needs through the Forrester Wave Excel-based vendor comparison tool (see Figure 2).

FIGURE 2 Forrester Wave: Contact Center Interaction Management For Midsize Contact Centers, Q3 16
FIGURE 2 Forrester Wave: Contact Center Interaction Management For Midsize Contact Centers, Q3 16 (Cont.)

Leaders
Genesys provides extensive capabilities and deployment options. Genesys Business
Edition support for nonvoice channels like email, chat, and SMS approaches that of best-of-
breed vendors. Genesys does not provide its own private branch exchange (PBX) or unified
communications (UC) solution, but it utilizes its SIP Server for out-of-the-box integrations
with a wide array of systems, including Microsoft Skype for Business. Proactive notifications,
predictive dialing, and native WFO round out the system. Genesys extensive library of G+
adapters provides out-of-the-box integrations with CRM and other WFO packages.

Along with capability comes complexity, so Business Edition requires more training and
resources to operate. As a market leader, Genesys also commands a price premium. While
Genesys offers Business Edition in the cloud, it is not yet fully multi-tenant, so Genesys
offers Premier Edition for smaller configurations. Clients looking for longer-term planning find
that Genesys road map varies. While that is an indication of market responsiveness, it
places some pressure on customers planning. Customers who want a system that
approaches best of suite, a broad global support partner network, and integration with other
UC and telephony systems should consider Business Edition.

Mitel Networks integrates key acquisitions for omnichannel and WFO. Mitel Networks
acquired long-term contact center software partner prairieFyre and WFO provider Oaisys to
round out its contact center portfolio. Over the past two years, the company has integrated
these two acquisitions into a solid CCIM solution for midsize contact centers. Mitel Networks
was one of the first vendors to virtualize its software, and this gave the firm a head start on
the path to cloud-based offerings. Mitel Networks has a strong channel and position in some
vertical markets such as the public sector and hotels.

The depth of integration across Mitel Networks MiContact Center Business is still a work in
progress. Clients' feedback indicates managing across the system on top of the MiVoice
PBX is harder than they anticipated. The company has a strong focus on mergers and
acquisitions in order to gain scale in the market. This is helping grow the company from a
scale and reach perspective, and integration of the companies it has acquired is going well.
But any changes can be disruptive, so clients considering this product should monitor the
impact on staffing, product road maps, and channel relationships. Customers using Mitel
Networks for UC and telephony should consider MiContact Center Business either hosted
or on-premises.

Strong Performers
Enghouse Interactive provides extensive integrations and omnichannel capabilities.
Geared to the lower end of the midsize market (up to 250 agents), Enghouse Interactives
Communications Center has very strong integration capabilities with a wide array of CRM
and PBX systems, including Microsoft Skype for Business. The company added a new
interface two years ago that spans all user roles in the system. The system supports
proactive notifications across channels along with voice, email, and chat.

Enghouse Interactive is not as much of a known name in the market, so it struggles with
brand recognition. At the same time, it has a solid reseller network for Communications
Center and is competitive with its pricing. Communications Center is not multi-tenant, so
Enghouse Interactive sells a competing SaaS-based product through carriers for the small
and midsize market. The company supplies its own broad library of integrations, but it does
not offer a broad API or SDK publicly. Communications Center can provide a smaller contact
center on-premises that requires integration with existing PBX systems and a number of
CRM applications on the agent desktop.
Cisco Systems benefits from customers that are Cisco shops. Cisco Systems
dominance of unified communications and data networking gives customers volume
purchasing advantages when they add Contact Center Express (CCX) for midsize contact
centers. CCX supports voice, email, and chat as well as the ability to capture contextual data
in the bundled Context Service in the cloud. The companys extensive partner ecosystem
uses the Finesse agent desktop to integrate multiple functions and systems into an agent
portal. Cisco Systems provides a workforce optimization suite as a part of its CCX offering,
while integration and technology partners flesh out the CRM capabilities.

CCX is not multi-tenant and is largely sold on-premises. Cisco Systems broad partner
ecosystem adds capabilities but those add complexity. For integrations, CCX provides a
number of different APIs and SDKs (e.g., Finesse for desktop, but a separate one for
MediaSense-based recording). Customer feedback from our reference calls indicated that
the CCX reporting has limitations, such as the inability to see agent activity across channels
in one report. CCX is a natural choice to add to a Cisco Systems-supported data network
along with Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CallManager) for telephony.

Aspect Software leverages strong outbound and WFO integration in the cloud. Long-
term acquisitions of WFO and dialer companies coupled with a cloud-only omnichannel
system provide Aspect Softwares Zipwire with a full breadth of capabilities for midsize
contact centers. The product supports inbound voice, email, chat, and social, and outbound
dialing is set up and managed in the same system. Aspect Software used design firm frog
design to redesign its WFO user interface and carried that across to all roles in Zipwire. Out-
of-the-box integrations with leading CRM vendors are part of the system.

As a newer product (introduced in 2014), Zipwire has a more limited base and level of
maturity. Incremental nonvoice capabilities typical of best-of-breed point solutions are lacking
along with breadth and depth of reporting and analytics. Customer Experience Platform
provides strong proactive notification, self-service, and contextual data-capture capabilities,
but it is a separate system from Zipwire. Aspect Software is still ramping up broader channel
and developer support for Zipwire as it gains more market traction. Zipwire is best suited for
companies that want a standalone, cloud-based, integrated, omnichannel system that also
includes WFO from the same vendor.

Avaya offers broad channel capabilities. The acquisition of Nortel Networks combined
with its own extensive midmarket base provides Avaya channel partners with the entre to
migrate customers to Avaya IP Office and its associated contact center package Avaya IP
Office Contact Center (IPOCC). A single-configuration environment and agent desktop
provide voice, email, and chat interactions. Avaya sells its own WFO package, Avaya
Workforce Optimization Select, with IPOCC. A future release will provide deeper reporting
and analysis integration. Avaya has broad global sales, distribution, and support channels for
IP Office and IPOCC.
Avaya IP Office has less integration capabilities because its API is limited to agent desktop
functions. The companys road map includes an update to a modern web-based interface
across all roles. More advanced IVR, self-service, and proactive outbound notifications
require Avayas Aura Experience Portal. The system is limited to preview, progressive, and
power dialing. Salesforce is the only CRM integration that Avaya provides out of the box,
while partners do others. Partners can host IP Office, but it is not a multi-tenant system. A
large majority of IP Office Contact Center is sold on-premises. Choose Avaya IP Office if
youre looking for local partner support for an on-premises telephony, UC, contact center,
and WFO solution all from one vendor.

Contenders
Unifys OpenScape Contact Center adopts Circuit. Unify led the market two years ago by
bringing mobile team messaging capabilities to Unified Communications. Design firm frog
design defined the Circuit user interface, and now, that approach is being migrated across
OpenScape Contact Center. Unify has provided OpenScape Voice and OpenScape Contact
Center as hosted solutions for a number of years, and some deployments support global
enterprises with over 50,000 stations. Atos purchase of Unify provides the company with
additional global reach into large, multinational accounts. OpenScape Contact Center has a
good library of off-the-shelf CRM integrations and provides omnichannel agent capabilities.

During the past few years, OpenScape Contact Center fell behind in the race to add channel
support, analytics, and notifications. The acquisition by Atos throws another overlapping
cloud-based contact center solution (Atos Worldline) into the mix. Clients considering
OpenScape Contact Center need to investigate the Unify road map not only for omnichannel
enhancements and deeper WFO integration but also for the positioning versus Worldline.
Customers who are using OpenScape for Unified Communications or Circuit should consider
OpenScape Contact Center. Unify is price-competitive and has won a number of public
sector contracts, leveraging its global systems integration capabilities.

Interactive Intelligence makes the leap to AWS. Over the past year, Interactive
Intelligence has led the dialogue in the CCIM market about moving to a microservices
architecture based on AWS not simply using AWS as a hosting service, but leveraging it
as a global distributed operating system. Interactive Intelligence PureCloud has a clean,
modern, and well-organized interface across all roles, and, along with native WFO
capabilities, provides a full omnichannel system for clients from midsize to large. PureCloud
pricing is straightforward, published openly, and aggressive. PureCloud also has its own
seamlessly integrated UC capabilities that help connect agents to experts outside the contact
center.

PureCloud is in its early stages of market growth, so it comes with some limitations. The
product is still new to sales and support partners, so many of them lack the years of
experience they have with the older Customer Interaction Center. Reporting is limited, but it
will grow over time with the addition of new reports such as supervisor dashboards.
Cobrowsing is on the product road map for a future release. As a SaaS-based product, it
supports a modern architecture, but the API and SDK are in their early stages. PureCloud is
SaaS-only, so on-premises deployment is not an option. PureCloud is suited to clients who
want the agility of SaaS from an established and experienced contact center vendor as well
as optional native unified communications capabilities.
Supplemental Material

Online Resource
The online version of Figure 2 is an Excel-based vendor comparison tool that provides detailed
product evaluations and customizable rankings.

Data Sources Used In This Forrester Wave


Forrester used a combination of three data sources to assess the strengths and weaknesses of each
solution. We evaluated the vendors participating in this Forrester Wave, in part, using materials that
they provided to us by August 2016.

Vendor surveys. Forrester surveyed vendors on their capabilities as they relate to the
evaluation criteria. Once we analyzed the completed vendor surveys, we conducted vendor
calls where necessary to gather details of vendor qualifications.

Product demo screen shots. We asked vendors to conduct screen shot demonstrations of
their products functionality. We used findings from these product screen shot demos to
validate details of each vendors product capabilities.

Customer reference calls and surveys. To validate product and vendor qualifications,
Forrester also conducted reference calls with three of each vendors current customers.

The Forrester Wave Methodology


We conduct primary research to develop a list of vendors that meet our criteria to be evaluated in
this market. From that initial pool of vendors, we then narrow our final list. We choose these vendors
based on: 1) product fit; 2) customer success; and 3) Forrester client demand. We eliminate vendors
that have limited customer references and products that don't fit the scope of our evaluation.

After examining past research, user need assessments, and vendor and expert interviews, we
develop the initial evaluation criteria. To evaluate the vendors and their products against our set of
criteria, we gather details of product qualifications through a combination of lab evaluations,
questionnaires, demos, and/or discussions with client references. We send evaluations to the
vendors for their review, and we adjust the evaluations to provide the most accurate view of vendor
offerings and strategies.

We set default weightings to reflect our analysis of the needs of large user companies and/or
other scenarios as outlined in the Forrester Wave evaluation and then score the vendors based
on a clearly defined scale. We intend these default weightings to serve only as a starting point and
encourage readers to adapt the weightings to fit their individual needs through the Excel-based tool.
The final scores generate the graphical depiction of the market based on current offering, strategy,
and market presence. Forrester intends to update vendor evaluations regularly as product
capabilities and vendor strategies evolve. For more information on the methodology that every
Forrester Wave follows, go to http://www.forrester.com/marketing/policies/forrester-wave-
methodology.html.

Integrity Policy
We conduct all our research, including Forrester Wave evaluations, in accordance with our Integrity
Policy. For more information, go to http://www.forrester.com/marketing/policies/integrity-policy.html.

Document Keywords
contact center interaction management, CCIM, midsize contact centers, software-as-a-service,
SaaS, suite integration, Forrester Wave, Art Schoeller

Figure Keywords

Figure 1
contact center interaction management, CCIM, vendor selection criteria, installed base, agent seat
count, Forrester Wave

Figure 2
keyword, contact center interaction management, CCIM, Forrester Wave graphic, leaders, strong
performers, contenders, Forrester scores, market presence, current offering, strategy

Endnotes

1Customers are increasingly using web and mobile self-service as the first point of contact with customer
service, and then they escalate harder questions to agents. See the Your Customers Dont Want To Call
You [131922] Forrester report.

2For more information on the technology management capacity of small and medium-size businesses,
see the Demand Insights: The SMB Software Market 2015 [119184] Forrester report.

3 CCIM software continues to evolve into integrated suites that vendors offer as a service. The need to
connect consumers with contact center agents on their channel of choice is rapidly becoming a
requirement to compete in the age of the customer. For AD&D pros, cloud delivery can provide an Agile
platform so that they can focus their energy on customer journeys, not technology. See the Increase
Customer Service Agility With Cloud Contact Centers [121402] Forrester report.

4Source: J.B. Wood, Todd Hewlin, and Thomas Lah, Consumption Economics: The New Rules of Tech,
Point B, 2011.
5 The heart of the contact center is comprised of a set of complex, unintegrated technologies, which firms
must leverage to deliver quality service. But AD&D pros supporting customer service operations need
cloud-ready, deeply integrated technology suites. For more information on the market dynamics and
buyer requirements for contact center technologies, see the Vendors Battle For The Heart Of The
Contact Center [116489] Forrester report.

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