In the contact center space, Microsoft has been driving much attention to its Lync contact center as it provides for a standalone, Unified Communications platform to better support collaboration, engagement and deliver a more accessible experience. While the Lync contact center may sound appealing to those with heavy PBX investments, can this platform hold its own against market leaders such as Five9, inContact and Contactual?

Can Lync Contact Center Compete with Five9?

The Lync contact center aims to provide a more connected end user experience. Microsoft promises that it can help your customers to find and communicate with the right individual, make every interaction as close to face to face as possible, and even communicate with context from the company’s Office applications.

Five9 has built a powerful reputation in the industry, offering key contact center functionality through an on-demand platform. The company’s solutions cater to the outbound, inbound or blended contact center environment. Five9’s Virtual Call Center has been recognized as a product of the year by leading publications and the contact center capabilities can be easily deployed as a standalone or blended solution.

inContact Offers Powerful Opposition to Lync Contact Center

inContact is another powerful player in the contact center space that the Lync contact center will have to overcome to claim market share. While inContact offers many of the same call center capabilities offered by Five9, it is the only contact center vendor to offer network connectivity along with its software offering.

The all-in-one solution is designed to deliver an integrated approach for companies seeking to support call centers in a distributed workforce environment. inUnison is a differentiator for inContact as this ecosystem offers alliances with proven solution providers, supporting an intelligent workflow between your applications and your platforms to optimize the contact center.

Contactual and its Comparison to the Lync Contact Center

While Contactual does not focus its positioning in the market on the Unified Communications platform, the company does offer a powerful value proposition when it comes to replacing the PBX. Contactual, as a competitor to the Lync Contact Center, does offer a PBX overlay that allows you to continue to leverage this call center technology, while also enjoying the benefits of the on demand contact center.

This migration strategy is much like that offered by Lync contact center, with one key difference: Contactual also offers all the features and capabilities companies are accustomed to in their on-premise contact center solution, without relying on industry partners for support.

The Lync Contact Center – How Does it Stack Up?

Microsoft will promise that its Lync contact center can readily meet the needs of any provider seeking an optimized contact center platform. The challenge here is that Lync must rely on industry partners to provide the capabilities of the standard inbound, outbound or blended contact center.

Alone, Lync contact center cannot compete effectively with Five, inContact or Contactual. When paired with leading partners, however, the Lync contact center offers a valuable proposition. The difference for your environment is whether or not you want to have to rely on a blended solution.

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