While Next Generation Networks (NGNs) have promised the delivery of new, high-margin enhanced services, the NGN reality today is mainly one of basic services competing on price, and unsustainable opportunistic services like dialup internet offload. Now many NGN deployments are indefinitely delayed. Carriers are looking for “killer apps” that realize the promise of the NGN technologies. They are also recognizing that NGN infrastructure can be understood not as a complete replacement for the current circuit infrastructure, but as a complementary overlay that enables specific new services.

Contact Center On-Demand (sometimes also known as hosted contact center or network-based contact center) is just such an opportunity. Contact Center On-Demand might just be that “killer app.”fdef09 There is a strong need for contact center solutions, especially among small and mid-sized enterprises looking to retain business through high-touch customer care.

To survive, they need service that is on a par with or better than the service of large competitors with complex in-house contact centers. But they often cannot afford the high investments and on-going maintenance costs of such a system. They can, however, afford reasonably priced hosted services from a trusted carrier paid for in manageable monthly increments. And that is a completely new revenue stream for carriers.

Today’s consumers want to choose how they interact with a business. While call centers are a product of the telephone industry, they have matured to include new communication channels, such as voice mail, voice and video over IP, online chat, SMS text messaging, and email. To be successful, carriers will need to provide both the traditional telephone capabilities and the new interaction channels in a single managed offering.

With an IP-based contact center platform, carriers can provide such a multi-channel service and reclaim the call center as a network-based entity.

Several leading carriers, including BT, Cable & Wireless, France Telecom, NTT, KT (formerly Korea Telecom), NTT, PLDT, TeliaSonera, have already deployed or are in the process of deploying contact center on demand offerings. Many were able to leverage their existing network infrastructure to provide hosted contact center services. Other carriers should consider this offering to sell to their current enterprise clients, and to attract new ones. This is one important way to counteract revenue drain: create new high-margin services that fill the market need for affordable, manageable customer care solutions.