Contact center migration is the process of moving from on-site infrastructure to a cloud-based system, including software, data, and services. This shift allows companies to offer secure communication for remote teams with less complexity compared to traditional on-premises setups.

A cloud or virtual contact center provides cost savings, scalability, and improved reliability, making it an ideal choice for businesses aiming for better efficiency and flexibility. It also supports a remote workforce, streamlining operations and customer engagement.

Successful migration requires a well-rounded plan, including C-suite buy-in, operational changes, and staff training. Below are the key steps to guide a smooth transition.

1. Circulate a contact center migration BRD

As its name implies, a business requirement document (BRD) details what is needed for the business or project to succeed. It outlines the objectives and goals for the project, the desired expectations during its lifecycle, and the resources required to implement it.

In the case of a contact center migration, a BRD should entail how you plan to execute the migration, along with anticipated cutover timelines, if you have a staggered rollout plan that requires a transition period.

The BRD should outline the things your contact center already does well and how you intend to replicate and enhance them once you’ve migrated to the cloud. It should include key performance indicators (KPIs) that act as benchmarks and allow stakeholders to evaluate whether the cloud migration process can be deemed successful.

While it’s important to share this document across the organization to get buy-in from stakeholders and key decision-makers, circulating the BRD across the organization allows you to discover the needs of various departments in terms of equipment, functionality, and expectations.

Essentially, a BRD surfaces conflicting expectations and forces everyone to address the tradeoffs you must make. Starting the BRD early in the contact center migration process is essential for discovering potential issues and opportunities while you have time to course correct.

Keep in mind that this step is meant to be iterative, with plenty of back-and-forth communication among relevant stakeholders. You will likely move on to the next steps before this document is truly done, incorporating what you learn as you go.

2. Match requirements to a type of contact center solution

Before you scope out specific vendors, you should use the opportunity of a contact center migration to select the best possible infrastructure for your business moving forward.

UCaaS, CCaaS, and CPaaS, which have emerged as the preferred model for contact centers to implement cloud-based communications. However, they each pertain to different communication needs.

UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service) is skewed towards internal communications within the call center. It merges popular-use communication methods like live chat, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), texting, social media, file sharing, and video conferencing into a single interface or cloud-based platform.

SEE: Learn the most important things you need to know before signing a VoIP contract. 

By unifying all of these diverse tools, UCaaS provides the simplicity and flexibility of a single solution for inbound communications. For outbound communications, UCaaS also eliminates the need for contact center agents to switch frequently between platforms.

As a centralized communication hub, UCaaS is also ideal for a dispersed and remote workforce, providing the focal point that keeps a contact center workplace integrated.

CCaaS (Contact Center as a Service) is basically another name for a contact center solution that is hosted in the cloud. It includes every channel: social media, live chat, VoIP phone services, social media. CCaaS usually comes with tools to facilitate CRM integration, if not pre-built integrations with popular CRM vendors.

As a hosted service, CCaaS offers secure online communications for remote workers without the complexity of a large number of VPN users, the security headaches with on-premise vs cloud security, or having to maintain a PBX 24/7.

Typically, CCaaS is best suited for external communications because it has the capacity for high volumes, both inbound and outbound. In contrast with UCaaS, CCaaS is more optimized for an enhanced customer experience, while UCaaS is more adept at internal collaboration and communication..

CPaaS (Communications Platform as a Service) enables companies to integrate voice, messaging, and video directly into their workflows via APIs. Companies can simply incorporate these new capabilities into an existing solution.

As a result, building CPaaS features into your cloud-based contact center doesn’t require you to deal with any backend infrastructure. Unlike traditional real-time communications (RTC),  CPaaS provides the developmental framework to construct your own RTC features without having to do it from scratch.

CPaaS offers features like two-factor authentication, video conferencing, interactive voice response (IVR), call center chatbots, SMS, and AI capabilities. Cloud-based contact centers may be particularly interested in CPaaS applications that can help them offer a video-enabled help desk.

SEE: Check out the latest IVR upgrades and call center chatbot examples to learn more. 

Overall, the cloud offers lots of features to optimize the performance of contact centers, but you must assess your options and select a platform that aligns with your organization’s goals and business needs.

3. Conduct SIT and UAT

Once you have a contact center migration solution, you can begin the testing to ensure that you can roll out a full migration without downtime, technical issues, or security lapses.

The testing phase of a contact center migration should include some form of System Integration Testing (SIT) and User Acceptance Testing (UAT). SIT focuses on ensuring the new system integrates smoothly with existing software and meets technical requirements. UAT validates that the system functions as expected from an end-user perspective and aligns with business needs.

The scope of testing should cover key contact center workflows, system performance, scalability, and integration with other platforms like CRM systems. Stress testing, IVR testing, compliance, and security checks are also essential to identify potential risks before going live.

SEE: Discover six ways to automate your call center workflow. 

To avoid disrupting operations, testing is often done in a sandbox or staging environment. The goal is to make the staging environment as close to a replica of the live system as possible. The idea is for features to be tested without affecting the overall system’s performance or uptime.

Along with making sure that the contact center migration is technically sound, you should conduct UAT to ensure that the new contact center system works well for real users before it’s fully launched.

For example, during UAT, agents might test if it’s easy to switch between customer information and communication channels. Supervisors might also check if the reports give them the information they need. UAT ensures the system is ready for everyday use and will help the business run smoothly.

4. Project implementation and training

Most software implementation plans use a phased delivery strategy, which is ideal for reducing downtime. Schedule your move with a release timeline that prioritizes the features you need the most. This means migrating them first.

In this step, you may want to adopt the agile development method for deployment by using fast sprints to accelerate delivery. Additionally, you may also want to deploy robotic process automation (RPA) agents to assist in cross-over functions such as data migration. This is oftentimes better than having employees do manual data transfers due to the risk of clerical errors.

To ensure success, you should plan for an achievable timeline and train your staff to use the new cloud platform. Training is important to ensure your call center agents will adapt and handle the new system competently. You should make sure they understand the new platform and the new features that come with it before they have to start using it. Ensure your knowledge base has been updated so agents will have a single source of truth to answer their own questions as they encounter unfamiliar issues.

SEE: Learn how to create a knowledge base that agents will actually use. 

5. Monitoring and analysis

The final step for contact center migration is to evaluate whether your key performance indicators are being realized. This helps with two things: first, it allows you to provide feedback to management on the overall state of the migration, and second, it helps you figure out if you need to make any adjustments.

In other words, you need to know whether the tactical and strategic goals you identified and proposed in your BRD at the start of the cloud migration journey are on target for being reached. Even with attained goals, there is always room for improvement, so continuing the monitoring process can lead to finding new ways to optimize positive outcomes.

In addition to quantifiable stats, feedback from staff and agents should also be part of the ongoing assessment and reassessment of the new system. Although their views may be subjective, they nonetheless provide an invaluable source of information.