What is a cloud contact or call center?

A cloud-based contact center is a contact hub that handles inbound and outbound calls using software hosted by a third party.

Cloud-based contact centers provide all infrastructure and functionality on a subscription basis. This reduces capital investment and allows businesses to scale up or down easily.

The following table outlines the key differences between on-premise, hosted and cloud call center approaches:

	on-premise	hosted	cloud
Server managing the audio channels	operating on business site	operated on external site managed for the business user	operated on virtualized server instances that can be turned on and off and replicated instantly
Telecoms interconnections	direct interconnection with telecoms services to the business site of the call center	supplier has direct telecoms interconnections to the hosted service explicitly for the business customer	uses large scale telecoms interconnections to global suppliers that can be used by any account
Office telephony device connections	phone devices of employees are connected to the local on-site server	phone devices connected to the hosted server	phone devices connected to a virtual server with a range of SIP connections reserved for the business customer
Integration to CRM or ticketing or support desk solutions (often called CTI for computer telephony integration)	custom software module for on site system to interact with technical interface in the CRM or other system	same as on-premise but hosted on external site	configure a pre-built available on-demand integration connectors for common CRMs and other tools
Where and how is data stored and processed?	your data is processed and stored in servers that are on your site(s)	your data is processed on your behalf in external site managed for your by the vendor	your data is processed in separated vistualized server units. Note that these can be specific to you as a company and not shared resources. The processing can even be done in a specific server location in a specific territory. The details of this processing and storage are what you need to check with the supplier if it is important to your company.

You can find out more about the structure of a cloud call center here