Often considered a cost center and the Rodney Dangerfield of departments, the contact center has historically been overlooked and underfunded during waves of digital transformation. But doing nothing today means driving costs even higher—to the tune of millions of dollars—as disconnected agents lose time trying to find information. Aberdeen VP and Principal Analyst Omer Minkara estimates that a 200-agent contact center loses $$1.5 million is lost annually in labor costs from siloed agents.

Technology leader Acer has seen its own set of benefits unifying communications across its Americas-based contact centers and corporate offices. At the start of Covid-19, this made all the difference as Acer was able to respond to the pandemic as a transitional event rather than a digital transformation forcing function. Preparedness proved profitable as demand for Acer’s computers and peripheral equipment for professionals, students and gamers skyrocketed.

“We already had everything ready for our contact center agents to have access and operate from anywhere,“ recalls Marcella Prieto, Senior Manager of Customer Service for Acer’s Pan-America Region. “We were able to manage the situation very quickly.”

Mark Groveunder, Senior Vice President of IT and Service for Acer’s Pan-American Region, says that their organization was fortunate to have their unified CCaaS and UCaaS solution in place prior to the pandemic. But this forward thinking didn’t just prepare Acer for 2020; it provided sustainable agility for the future.

“In 2019, we implemented 8×8 Contact Center, and along the way we moved our business users off of old PBX technology and onto 8×8 X Series. Now we have the employees at all seven offices on 8×8 for enterprise communications, and that’s not counting the contact centers,” notes Mark.

“It worked out great for our San Jose office move in 2019 because we didn’t have to move that old PBX,” Groveunder recalls. “During the move, employees used their laptops and the 8×8 Desktop App for calls and chats. 8×8 made our office move a lot easier.”

Thanks to the benefits of UCaaS and CCaaS, leaders like Acer have been able to extend their lead. “Acer, like many other companies, now sees the potential to reduce operating expenses by reducing their office footprint,” says Groveunder.

Consolidation is also leading to more seamless communication and collaboration. “We’ve pretty much eliminated our conference bridge technology. We were using Zoom for virtual meetings. We’ve now eliminated Zoom. We’re also moving to chat with 8×8.”