In a July 2008 survey of 187 end-user organizations on the topic of contact center disaster recovery (DR) and business continuity (BC), DMG Consulting found that the majority of contact centers are at risk of avoidable failures and disruptions. Surprisingly, only 36.7% of companies are confident that they can operate without serious impact on service quality and the customer experience during a disaster. This is because most contact centers either do not have a disaster recovery and business continuity plan, or are not keeping it up to date. Only 4.7% of companies test their DR and BC plans on a monthly basis. This leaves 95.3% of contact centers at risk of a severe meltdown in an emergency situation. See Figures 1 and 2.
Figure 1: Confidence level that current DR and BC plan would allow your contact center to operate without serious impact?
Source: DMG Consulting LLC, July 2008
Figure 2: Testing frequency for DR and BC plans?
Source: DMG Consulting LLC, July 2008
Even more worrisome, only 45.6% of companies test or monitor their contact center’s routing and queuing capabilities at all. Of these companies, only 39.8% test or monitor monthly. This means that 60.2% of companies are not routinely testing their core contact center infrastructure. This leaves them open to unexpected but avoidable failures. And, when contact centers implement a new or enhanced solution, only 49.7% are confident that the new capability is thoroughly tested and will not disrupt their operation. See Figures 3 and 4.
Figure 3: Contact center routing and queuing cradle-to-grave testing/monitoring?
Source: DMG Consulting LLC, July 2008
Figure 4: Frequency of testing/monitoring contact center routing and queuing?
Source: DMG Consulting LLC, July 2008
These numbers point out that too many contact centers of all sizes, around the world are not taking appropriate actions to minimize the impact of disasters or even system and process changes in their own environments. Planning, combined with limited investments in disaster recovery, business continuity and ongoing internal testing and monitoring, can greatly reduce the risk and impact of failures.
To obtain a free copy of this Report, Business as Usual? A Benchmarking Study of Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity for Contact Centers and learn how to assess your operations and prepare your contact center for unexpected disruptions, visit the DMG Consulting Website.