Beyond the dots: A critical look at Gartner's 2024 CCaaS Magic Quadrant
As the 2024 Gartner CCaaS Magic Quadrant makes its rounds, I want to add my perspective to the discussion.
Many posts have already dissected who is included and the positions in the quadrant to the point that I thought about skipping my commentary.
However, the quadrant has ‘garnered’ significant influence over which vendors are considered for enterprise contact centers, warranting a deeper examination.
Rest assured, I won’t be “Picasso-ing” the quadrant or rehashing the placements of contenders; my listings will follow alphabetical order. And yes, I'm honoring Gartner's copyright by featuring El Lissitzky's masterpiece from "About Two Squares" – quite fitting for this post.
On to my takeaways, starting with the CCaaS definition.
The inclusion of the long list of workforce engagement management (WEM) features in the mandatory capabilities is noteworthy. It is a bit of a surprise given that most are still often purchased as best-of-breed.
Meanwhile, self-service and outbound capabilities remain optional. Given today’s importance of customer service automation and proactive service, I would like to see their importance elevated.
AI seems to be assessed through the lens of features added to these suites. I’d like to see the system aspect of AI and the data platform capabilities—two essential elements for the future—take a more central role in the evaluation.
In the evaluations, I noted two things: the importance of having a solid service-level management program—an area where I’ve observed growing scrutiny from customers—and the continuous need for improvement in reporting.
With that said, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Five9, Genesys, and NICE placement in the top right quadrant aligns with market realities. Cisco is clearly reasserting its presence in the space and its position reflects that strengthening. I have less to say about the four other players listed (8x8, ContentGuru, Talkdesk, and Vonage), as my updates on them have gotten somewhat dated.
A couple of hurdles and missing players are worth highlighting.
Gartner requires at least 50% of CCaaS service revenue to come from inbound voice licenses. It's time to lower this threshold to welcome new players from the digital and CRM arenas. Providers like Sprinklr, along with some participants in Gartner's Customer Engagement Center quadrant, are conspicuously absent. In fact, combining the CCaaS and CRM CEC quadrants would better align with the modern CX landscape.
The revenue threshold has been raised from $60M to $72M, which may explain why we don't see RingCentral or Zoom here. Both providers have been building robust CCaaS solutions that are not just mere extensions of their UCaaS platforms. Their market traction suggests they deserve merit being included, as well as possibly Dialpad.
One last thought. The market is placing too much weight on the quadrant and vendor placements. The research includes an important accompanying report that defines critical capabilities and provides detailed vendor rankings. It's an essential part of Gartner's toolset, yet too often, the importance of tailoring these rankings to specific contexts is overlooked.
You can grab a complimentary copy of the report on the sites of AWS, Five9, Genesys, or NICE.