Contact center as a service (CCaaS)

Contact center as a service (CCaaS) is contact center software that a provider operates in the cloud and a business uses over the internet, instead of installing and running telephony and routing systems on its own premises.

The cloud model. NIST SP 800-145 defines software as a service as using a provider’s applications that run on cloud infrastructure, reached through a browser or a program interface, without managing the underlying servers, network or storage. CCaaS applies that model to the contact center.

What is usually included. Vendor documentation describes similar building blocks:

• Channels: voice, chat, SMS, email, web and video calling, and tasks.
• Routing: queues and skills-based routing that send each contact to a suitable agent.
• Self-service: IVR flows and virtual agents.
• Agent and supervisor tools: a workspace for handling contacts, and dashboards for managing teams.
• Recording and analytics: call and screen recording, real-time and historical reports.

AWS lists these for Amazon Connect Customer, the current name of the product previously called Amazon Connect, and says customers pay only for what they use. Google describes its Contact Center AI Platform as a CCaaS platform for queuing and routing interactions across voice and digital channels, built to work alongside a CRM. Microsoft describes Dynamics 365 Contact Center as a cloud-based product with unified routing across voice and digital channels.

Where agent traffic lands today. When a customer’s AI agent phones or chats with a business, it enters the same queues, IVR flows and transcripts as a person. That makes the CCaaS platform the natural integration point for handling structured requests from agents, and for handing them to people when needed.

Neighbouring terms. A contact center is the operation; CCaaS is one way to run its software. Omnichannel describes routing every channel through one engine, which most CCaaS platforms offer.