Better Constituent Services Without Breaking the Budget

Agencies know they need to modernize their contact center operations. Although voice communications remain predominant, a growing number of constituents are turning to other channels, including email, web chat, text messaging and self-service applications. Agencies also must adapt to legislative and policy changes governing security, privacy and other requirements. Those relying on legacy infrastructure struggle to keep pace with these changing dynamics. But given current budget constraints, modernization is often not a viable option.

However, while agencies can’t change fiscal realities, they can adopt a different budgeting approach. Rather than funding modernization through capital expenditures (CapEx), which involve buying and maintaining equipment, they can shift to operational expenditures (OpEx) either by outsourcing operations or acquiring technology-enabled services through the cloud. Either way, OpEx funding is more reliable year to year than CapEx. It also frees agencies from having to maintain the underlying infrastructure.

“Shifting to more of an operational expense model helps agencies address some of the constraints they might have from a budgetary perspective, while also giving them the ability to rapidly deploy new capabilities,” said Patrick Hannah, Amazon Connect Practice Lead at Call Center Power.

In this video interview, Hannah discusses how a services-based approach can help agencies deliver a better constituent experience within their current budgets. Topics include:

• Delivering better service to constituents across channels
• Providing better tools to contact center employees
• Best practices in citizen-centered modernization