While cloud contact center solutions have been available for over 10 years, by some estimates less than 15% of global contact center agent seats are currently supported with a cloud solution.

So why are companies finally jumping in? Here are some of the most frequently cited reasons...

• Access to new functionality. While many on-site solution providers continue to offer periodic updates to their applications, those updates, by necessity, require an "upgrade" effort by the IT department. With cloud solutions, updates and new features can be seamlessly distributed to subscribers.

• Future proofs technology infrastructure. Cloud is the future of software, whereas continuing investment in on-site solutions has risks, both financially for the business and in terms of the quality of customer care that can be delivered.

• Improved flexibility. Cloud contact center solutions typically come with web-based interfaces that allow supervisors and managers to make ad hoc changes - often required by changing business demands - without needing IT department support.

• Easier integration and customization. Cloud contact center solutions mean never having to ask for an account number the customer just input into the IVR, or for the phone number the customer just dialed from. Screen pops and more advanced CRM data dips become routine in an API-driven cloud contact center.

• Improves speed to market and ability to test new ideas quickly. Imagine the ability to add a new SMS-based service to support a new campaign within a day or two - when SMS has never even been an interaction channel in the past - and you can appreciate the power of today's cloud contact center solutions.

Five or ten years ago, the lure of the cloud was all about cost savings. Now it is about leveraging new tools in the pursuit of customer-driven business outcomes.

Jeff Nolte is President and CEO of CTS, a leading Voice and IT services provider based in Millersville, Maryland. He may be reached at (800) 787-4848 or jnolte@ctsmd.us. Visit: www.ctsmd.us.