Keith Dawson's Analyst Perspectives

We are happy to share some insights about Cisco drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.

Earlier this year we published the Ventana Research Value Index: Contact Center in the Cloud 2021, the distillation of a year of market and product research efforts. It is an assessment of how well vendors’ offerings will address buyers’ requirements for contact center software. The index is structured to replicate an RFI/RFP process by incorporating all criteria needed to evaluate, select, utilize and maintain technology, and maintain relationships with vendors.

In all of our Value Indexes we utilize a structured research methodology that includes evaluation categories designed to reflect real-world criteria incorporated in a request for proposal (RFP) and vendor selection process for contact center in the cloud. We evaluated Cisco and 13 other vendors in seven categories, five relevant to the product and experience (adaptability, capability, manageability, reliability and usability) and two related to the customer experience (TCO/ROI and vendor validation). To arrive at the Value Index rating for a given vendor, we weighted each category to reflect its relative importance in an RFP process, with the weightings based on our experience and on data derived from our benchmark. Cisco performance rating in the Value Index is overall at 87.4% and for customer experience is 80% and product experience is 89%.

Cisco is a well-established provider of networking and connectivity technology across the globe. Cisco was ranked sixth overall and categorized as an Innovative Vendor and a Value Index Leader in both the Manageability and Usability categories. Its platform, Webex Contact Center Enterprise, is a fairly new offering, debuting in late 2020 as a retooled effort to build a cloud-native platform.

Cisco ranked fourth in Product Experience due to its overall performance in the five specific categories. Its ranking as Usability Value Index Leader is due to a focus on the digital and user experience in its contact center platform. This comes from its approach in the overall Webex portfolio, and benefits from a high degree of ongoing investment in the platform. Cisco’s focus on administration, security and licensing contributed to its high Manageability ranking.

Cisco could improve its ranking in Adaptability through a focus on customization and business integration to support a range of platform requirements. It also could provide more depth in information related to Reliability, and needs to invest further in TCO/ROI to help organizations assess its approach and the information, tools and services it provides.

This assessment was based on Cisco’s products available at end of March in 2021. Since then, Cisco has updated numerous elements of the offering, including parts of the agent desktop environment, and a component that helps administrators or support engineers manage platform configurations.

When cloud contact centers first emerged a decade ago, the focus for many was on finding the lowest cost provider. Today’s organizations should consider a broader range of criteria in their selection process, which we outline in this Value Index. A modern contact center requires technology that provides continuous innovation and a product and customer experience to meet their long-term goals. With this in mind, organizations begin the process of evaluating their efforts, they might consider Cisco.

This research-based index is the most comprehensive assessment of the value of contact center in the cloud software in the industry. Technology buyers can learn more about how to use our Value Index by clicking here and included vendors that wish to learn more can click here. Read the report here.

Regards,

Keith Dawson