Communications as a Service (CaaS) operates with the same delivery model as the increasing popular Software as a Service (SaaS (News - Alert)) model, and provides the same enticements ---little or no capital expenditure; established monthly costs in place of a large up-front payment; less information technology overhead; and rapid deployment.

The main difference is the advent of VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) now allows the SaaS model to be applied to communications services, such as the contact center environment, and is referred to as Communications as a Service (CaaS).

Since communications services involve customer calls, CaaS is typically considered more mission-critical than SaaS. Why? Because receiving customer calls with quality connections is the lifeblood of any business.

While a short interruption to data services will be an inconvenience, losing voice communications can be business threatening. That’s one of the factors that cause some potential adopters of CaaS to hesitate. Other factors that deter potential users are fears about loss of control over data as well as the security of voice and data, along with concerns about call quality and the consequences of service outages. While the same concerns can be applied to the public power grid, there are proven ways to minimize them such as using surge protectors, uninterruptible power supplies, and emergency generators.

One vendor, Interactive Intelligence, has devised methods of mitigating these concerns with a hybrid model for communication services that that combines the best of remote service delivery with local control. Its approach allows contact centers to keep their telecommunications vendor; attach their phone lines to a VoIP gateway that sits on their network; connect a local call management device to their network; install an MPLS connection between their network and an Interactive Intelligence (News - Alert) CaaS data center; and deploy VoIP phones that they own.

The model designed by Interactive Intelligence provides a more sophisticated approach than is often found elsewhere. Its uses a powerful communications system based on the SIP standard for voice over IP as well as standards-based gateways, phones and local call management devices that the contact center owns and that stay on the contact center site, offering the benefit of an in-house phone system without much of the hassle and IT overhead.

The architecture allows call traffic to stay on the user’s network and enables the user to continue operating even if the CaaS is temporarily unavailable. By leaving the audio stream on the contact center’s network and providing local processing with a LCM device, the Interactive Intelligence approach assures the highest possible call quality. And just as an emergency generator keeps the electricity on, although perhaps in a degraded manner, the LCM device allows a contact center to continue to make and take calls.

In addition, the Interactive Intelligence with Local Control approach provides the option for the user to store all data in its own database server sitting right on its network.

Contact centers also enjoy the ability to perform advanced functions, such as call recording and real-time supervisory monitoring outbound dialing and workforce management, and they have the ability to set up their own IVR and call flows. Many will find the ability to incorporate mobile workers, stay-at-home agents, and remote sites beneficial as well.

Finally, graphical interfaces enable contact center agents to perform a myriad communications tasks and supervisors to keep track of what’s going on in the contact center while an Interaction Attendant allows administrators to determine how calls are handled in the organization.

Since there are no up-front costs for all of this, the CaaS approach offered by Interactive Intelligence allows ROI to start positively and stay high.