Keith Dawson's Analyst Perspectives

We are happy to share some insights about Talkdesk 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 CCaaS platforms. 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 analytics and business intelligence. We evaluated Talkdesk and 13 other vendors in seven categories, five relevant to the product (adaptability, capability, manageability, reliability and usability) and two related to the vendor (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 Research on analytics and business intelligence.

Talkdesk is a newer entrant to the contact center in the cloud market with significant investment in the last several years. Ranking second overall, Talkdesk was classified as an Exemplary Vendor, and was a Value Index Leader in in Adaptability, Reliability, Manageability, TCO/ROI and Usability. Its Talkdesk CX Cloud platform was developed to be completely cloud-native and built on a microservices architecture. Organizations can configure the interface based on business role, and the platform gets high marks for accessibility and configurability.

Talkdesk performed well across all categories and especially in Adaptability and Usability. Its depth in the configuration and customization and the documentation for the platform is best in class. It provides significant integration across the enterprise, from mobile devices to workflow engines and back-office applications. Its depth in Usability was noted in its ranking above others.

Talkdesk’s main place for improvement was in Capability where it can do more to support unified communications, and continued improvement to its agent workforce optimization offering. Talkdesk could also improve in its communications related to customer commitment and to the level of services it and its partner providers offer.

This assessment was based on Talkdesk’s analytics products available at end of March in 2021. Talkdesk has released several industry-focused packages of its offering since the beginning of the year, the most recent of which is aimed at the retail sector. In April, the company introduced Talkdesk Workspace, a unified single-screen interface that’s customizable based on user persona, and Talkdesk Builder, a set of low-code development tools for building CX applications.

When cloud contact centers first emerged a decade ago, the focus for many was on finding the lowest cost provider. Today’s CCaaS buyers should consider a broader range of criteria in their selection process, which we outline in this Value Index. A modern contact center requires a technology base that provides continuous innovation, flexibility and open integrations. This will help future-proof operations, and better connect centers to the goals of their parent organizations. With this in mind, when buyers begin the process of evaluating their CCaaS plans, they should explore the options on offer from Talkdesk.

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