Sometimes an organization needs enhanced customer experience (CX) capabilities – but they’re not ready to invest in a comprehensive solution or move their entire CX infrastructure to the cloud.
Enter: Standalone point solutions.
Point solutions give organizations the flexibility to address specific needs. They also provide Sales Partners with an entry point for future AI and CX deals. That makes them an enticing part of the Intelisys catalog.
Below, we’ll explain how to make the most of point solutions – both for yourself and your customers.
What Is a Standalone Point Solution?
A standalone point solution is a product that’s designed to address a specific problem or function for a business. It’s a focused tool that doesn’t rely on being part of a broader platform to perform its intended task – meaning it doesn’t require integration into a larger suite or system.
Point solutions are becoming increasingly popular in the AI and CX spaces. Virtual AI agents are a major part of many CX playbooks, automating customer interactions and support. And in the area of CX quality management, point solutions can monitor customer interactions – helping raise standards and fine-tune practices for human agents.
3 Strategic Paths When Replacing Telephony Platforms
When it comes to upgrading CX infrastructure or telephony platforms, implementing point solutions represents just one of three strategic paths. Let’s break down all three options – highlighting the main benefits of each.
Full UCaaS and CCaaS Cloud Migration
One option is to entirely decommission the organization’s existing PBX, moving all voice, video, messaging, and collaboration to a cloud-based Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) platform. This “rip and replace everything” method produces future-proof infrastructure with predictable costs, enhanced scalability, and cutting-edge features – but it comes with significant up-front costs and short-term disruptions.
Keep PBX, Move Contact Center to Cloud (CCaaS)
Some organizations opt to keep their existing PBX for internal telephony, but migrate their customer-facing contact center operations to a cloud-based Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) platform. This strategy provides rapid CX improvement through access to advanced features without the disruption of a full-scale migration. The main drawback is that the organization will have to manage two systems – with integration between the PBX and CCaaS platforms often proving difficult.
Keep All Platforms, Add AI Point Solutions
Sometimes, an organization’s best option is to maintain their current PBX and contact center infrastructure, then use AI point solutions to provide specific efficiencies. This allows the organizations to target specific areas for operational improvement without making major investments or causing disruptions.
Deciding When Point Solutions Are the Right Choice
CX point solutions can be hugely beneficial for both organizations and Sales Partners, but they’re not always the right option.
After all, point solutions have real limitations. They solve for specific, smaller-scale problems, and so they’re not adequate stand-ins for full contact center solutions.
And when you’re adding point solutions over the top of existing platforms, you run the risk of overcomplicating the CX/telephony landscape. Remember, the organization will have to integrate all those disparate tools.
So when are point solutions the right choice?
- When they’re complementary to full contact center solutions, addressing specific needs that the comprehensive solution fails to meet.
- When they’re acting as a transition aid, providing incremental improvements as an organization shifts its CX infrastructure from on-prem to the cloud.
As a Sales Partner, you can assess your customers’ situation, helping to determine whether a point solution or a comprehensive contact center solution is the right fit.
The Benefits of Point Solutions for End Customers
As our supplier Observe.AI notes, point solutions offer several key advantages – especially for scaling business.
“As organizations grow and have different needs than what their current solution provides, they evaluate other point solutions and platforms that can integrate with their existing systems. This allows multiple benefits, depending on their need to scale with additional options (i.e. Call Summarization, Knowledge AI, Screen Recording, Real-Time QA, Auto QA, and Virtual Agents, among others). Having a point solution allows a customer to crawl, walk, and run with their automation strategy.”
Here’s a closer look at some of the specific benefits that point solutions can provide with Observe.AI.
The Ability to Meet Specific Needs
Point solutions are ideal for filling small gaps in an organization’s CX infrastructure. For example, a company might be perfectly happy with their contact center solution – but they want AI to automate just a certain segment of customer support. An agentic AI point solution can meet this need.
Increased Flexibility
Large-scale CX solutions come with a wide variety of features and capabilities, some of which an organization might not need. With smaller-scale point solutions, companies can shop “à la carte,” adding only the features that will provide genuine business value.
Enhanced Scalability
In the midst of rapid growth, a business might need additional CX capabilities immediately. With that type of urgency, a major investment in a comprehensive CX solution can be too slow-moving. Point solutions give organizations a way to ramp up their capabilities – and fast.
Integration With Legacy Systems
Let’s say a company wants to leverage AI without moving all their CX infrastructure to the cloud, a plan that will minimize disruptions. A point solution gives them access to the latest features, even while they stick with their on-premise system.
Workflow Enhancement
Employees at an organization can often identify places in their workflow where their existing CX infrastructure leaves gaps or creates bottlenecks. Point solutions can patch up these inadequacies, resulting in major productivity and efficiency boosts.
Cost Savings
By addressing key needs on a smaller scale, point solutions offer a pinpointed, cost-effective method for enhancing CX capabilities. Is a more comprehensive CX solution often worth the investment? Yes – but not always. By examining a customer’s current IT infrastructure and discussing their business needs, you can help determine whether a point solution is the most sensible choice.
Benefits of Point Solutions for Sales Partners
Point solutions don’t just provide flexibility to customers. They also represent an incredible opportunity for Intelisys Sales Partners. By leveraging this portion of the Intelisys catalog, you lay the groundwork for lasting and lucrative customer relationships.
Providing Entry Points for Other CX Solutions
Yes, point solutions solve specific problems – but they also give Sales Partners a way to introduce further CX opportunities to customers. Imagine an organization that’s still using an on-premise CX solution. For now, they might just want a standalone point solution to solve for a specific need. But further down the line, they could be ready to move their CX infrastructure to the cloud – and you’ll be there to help with the transition.
Displaying AI Expertise
AI is top-of-mind for key stakeholders across industries. As of 2024, 78% of organizations were using AI for at least one business function. In this environment, positioning yourself as an AI expert is a great way to set yourself up for future opportunities. When you provide an AI-based point solution, you become an “AI person” in the company’s orbit – which could be highly lucrative down the road.
Establishing a Route to Market
The “route to market” (RTM) for point solutions is relatively straightforward: The customer has a specific need, and you provide a product that meets it. This dynamic then opens the door to further cross-selling and upselling opportunities.
Next Steps for Sales Partners
Here are 3 steps to follow as you leverage the standalone point solutions in the Intelisys portfolio.
Step 1: Identify Customer Needs
By their very nature, point solutions are designed to meet specific customer needs. That means the first step is to discover what those needs are.
Ask about:
- Any shortcomings in their existing CX infrastructure
- Where team members are experiencing logjams in their workflows
- Where AI could raise CX standards – either through automation or quality management
Step 2: Determine Desired Business Outcomes
Before you can decide which point solutions would be best for a customer, you need to know exactly what business outcomes they’re after. Not only will this help you offer the right solutions, but it will also allow key stakeholders within the organization to justify the investment.
Step 3: Consider Solution Fit
Alongside needs and desired outcomes, you need to consider how potential solutions would fit into the organization’s existing CX infrastructure. Ideally, the chosen solution will solve for key pain points while seamlessly filling gaps in the existing system.
Step 4: Consider Technology Fit
Before implementing a point solution, Sales Partners should assess the customer’s available APIs – including both closed and REST APIs. Having the right API infrastructure in place will go a long way towards facilitating a seamless integration.
Learn More
For further insights into CX solutions, watch our SE Webinar “AI-Driven Personalization in CX” – or read the webinar recap. To enroll and learn more about our CX and AI resources, visit our iU Learning AI Course or CCaaS Sales Journey page.
Also, reach out to your Regional Intelisys SE to learn more about CX point solutions.