A call center is a business function that handles inbound and/or outbound phone calls with customers. A cloud call center, or cloud-based call center, is one that has its call center technology in the cloud, hosted and supported by a third-party vendor. A cloud call center typically includes core technologies consisting of the automatic call distributor (ACD) and the interactive voice response (IVR) system.In addition a cloud call center can also include other modules, such as workforce management, analytics, and more.
Scalability: Many call centers have significant seasonal swings in call volume. For example, candy manufacturers may have a big spike in call volume during the holiday season and again around Valentine's Day, and then low, steady volume the rest of the year. Using older “on-premises” technology, they would have to purchase hardware and software licenses for their peak call volumes. This is wasteful because they would be paying for unused licenses and underutilized hardware during the rest of the year. In contrast, with a cloud call center they would only pay for the seats being used in practice, making it a more cost effective model.