How Secure Is CCaaS?

With CCaaS (contact center as a service), your customer service agents can serve customers and access advanced contact center tools from anywhere. And with a work-from-wherever team, you can do more for your customers and boost customer experience (CX).

The problem is, contact center software handles a lot of sensitive data. Whether your users are working at home, in the office, or somewhere else, how do you know your CCaaS solution is protected from a data breach? If your technology is not secure, it could create more problems than it solves.

Let’s look at how a cloud-based contact center platform works and what your organization can do to ensure you’re not sacrificing security for all the flexibility and CX benefits a good CCaaS solution offers.

Who’s Using CCaaS?

As with other customer-related tools such as customer relationship and customer experience management, business leaders are turning to the cloud to get more value out of their contact center software. A 2019 Deloitte survey found that over half of executives believe moving certain parts of their contact center capabilities to the cloud is a “sound technology strategy,” and 25 percent already moved their contact center to the cloud.

According to Gartner, contact center as a service will be a mainstream business solution by 2023. Offering more scheduling flexibility, greater control for managers, and actionable analytics – all at budget-friendly pricing – CCaaS is too practical to overlook.

Drew Kraus, vice president analyst with Gartner Customer Service and Support, says of CCaaS, “The technology offers greater software agility with a lower cost of ownership, making it a key area of investment in innovation and customer service applications that surpasses the offers of legacy premises-based or server technology.”

And with increasing adoption rates over the next couple of years, organizations that miss out on the benefits of a well-built CCaaS platform could fall behind in the most important differentiator for brands today: customer experience. A leading-edge contact center solution empowers agents to serve customers faster and to offer exceptional experiences through tools such as omnichannel routing and dynamic notifications.

The bottom line is, adoption of CCaaS is increasing. Even if most organizations don’t have this tool in place already, they will in the near future.

Security Concerns with a Cloud-Based Contact Center Solution

But what about security? How likely is a data breach if your organization relies on remote customer service agents and cloud-based customer service technology?

There’s no question that data breaches are a concern for remote and hybrid organizations. IBM’s 2021 Cost of a Data Breach Report showed that the cost of a data breach is highest for organizations with a workforce that’s at least 60 percent remote.

The IBM Security report also revealed something surprising about cloud migration. The organizations that are further along in their cloud modernization strategy were able to contain a data breach 77 days faster than those organizations still in the early stages of their cloud journey.

Ultimately, cybersecurity concerns aren’t going anywhere, and as more companies shift to a remote or work-from-wherever model, no one can afford to overlook security.

However, by partnering with a cloud provider that prioritizes security and using robust internal cybersecurity best practices, your organization can take advantage of all the benefits of CCaaS, without worrying about increased cyber risk.

In fact, using cloud servers can be more prudent than using on-premises software. This is because reputable cloud providers can deliver a much more advanced level of security than any on-premises data center can manage.

How to Have a Worry-Free CCaaS Experience

CCaaS enables your customer service agents to provide wherever, whenever customer engagement. But to make this happen without making your organization vulnerable to cyberattackers, here’s what you need to do:

Step #1: Find a good provider

Cloud technology providers aren’t all the same. When doing your research, look for the features you want. Smart routing, real-time insights, customizable reporting, and Interactive Voice Response (IVR) all empower your customer service team to deliver a superior experience to customers.

In addition to the right features, your provider should follow these security best practices:

• Product security – There should be rigorous identity protection measures to guard against unwanted intruders. Role-based admin access to the control panel, granular password management, and two-factor authentication for users should be standard.
• Network security – Your provider should use enterprise-class firewalls, intrusion prevention and detection, and network access control.
• Infrastructure security – Look for comprehensive physical security including security guards, secure access policies, and closed-circuit TV, as well as background checks and two-factor authentication for employees.
• Privacy protection – Ask about their privacy policy and check that they are compliant with all North American and European data protection and privacy standards.

For even more peace of mind, make sure that your CCaaS provider undergoes regular third-party security audits.

Step #2: Train your employees to practice good cyber hygiene

You can choose the most secure CCaaS provider in the world. But, if your employees don’t follow cybersecurity best practices, your organization is still at risk for a data breach.

Create a cybersecurity checklist for your contact center users. They should know how to recognize phishing emails, when to update their passwords, and what to do to keep the devices they use to log on to work safe.

With the Right Provider and Employee Training, CCaaS Is Very Secure

When adopting any new technology, security should always be one of your top concerns. Whether you have fully remote teams, in-office employees, or a hybrid workforce, it’s important to choose a software provider that enables you to get the most out of the technology. You should also set the expectation that your employees follow security best practices. When you do these two things, you can count on a worry-free CCaaS experience.

Find out more about what happens when you remote-enable your contact center.

Rob Oscanyan

Robert Oscanyan is a Senior Director of Product Marketing at Intermedia, where he focuses on helping businesses improve their customer experience using Intermedia's award-winning cloud communications solutions. Rob has over a decade of experience spanning market research, messaging, and elevating the voice of the customer. In his free time, he constantly creating new adventures with his wife, seven kids, and a small army of pets.