A Contact Center Software Buyer’s Guide for 2026

Many organizations are currently considering modernizing their contact center environments. 

According to 2025 research, more than two-thirds (69%) of CX leaders and executives believe their contact center technology is no longer meeting expectations.

However, the trigger for procuring new contact center software isn’t the same for every organization. In some cases, IT leads the procurement process. In others, support leaders push for a new platform to meet evolving objectives. And sometimes, an impending platform end-of-life date accelerates decision-making altogether. Each of these scenarios shapes not only how organizations buy, but also how much time they have to do it.

That said, let’s consider what an ideal contact center procurement process looks like, one that’s thoughtful, structured, and built for long-term success.

This expert-led guide breaks it down, with practical insights from seasoned contact center consultants at every stage.

Types of Contact Center Software

Contact center software falls into four architectural models:

1. Public CCaaS – Most CCaaS solutions run in the public cloud, where infrastructure and services are owned, managed, and operated by a third‑party cloud provider. This model offers lower upfront costs, easier scalability, and the ability to adopt the latest innovations quickly.
2. Private CCaaS – Dedicated to a single organization, private CCaaS can be hosted locally or via a provider, giving companies closer control, deeper customization, and enhanced security.
3. Hybrid CCaaS – Many contact centers hesitate to move complex workloads entirely to the cloud but still want to innovate. A hybrid model lets organizations combine existing on-premise systems with cloud capabilities, balancing stability with agility.
4. On-Premise Infrastructure – Traditionally, organizations ran contact centers on their own physical servers. While innovation may lag, larger enterprises often remain on-premise to maintain complete control over sensitive data and security.

Most contact centers ultimately aspire to end up in the public cloud. However, as organizations make their way through the following buying process, the best-fit model and vendor will emerge.

6 Steps to Buying Contact Center Software

Here’s a skeleton process for buying contact center software, with crucial best practices and considerations to take on board. 

Step 1 - Build the Right Buying Committee

A CCaaS decision is too critical to sit within a single function.

IT must play a central role. After all, CCaaS impacts AI, CRM, UCaaS, WEM, security, and networks, and architectural coherence is essential.

However, technology ownership should not outweigh operational ownership. Contact center directors, support leaders, and operations teams understand what the platform must enable in practice. When they are sidelined, implementations slow, adoption declines, and ROI suffers.

“In one case, an account executive was selling into an existing CRM user to upsell a new CCaaS platform. But they never invited contact center staff to meetings to find out how they actually handle customer conversations. If implemented, it would have caused much more clicks, tabs, and work.”

Kathryn Simons-Porter

Founder of Flourish AI

Overall, a buying CCaaS committee should include:

• IT (architecture, security, integration)
• Contact center and operations leaders (workflow reality)
• Marketing and sales (customer journey alignment)
• HR (employee wellbeing)
• Compliance and InfoSec (risk and governance)

Each stakeholder will have their unique requirements and priorities, which beckons step two… 

Step 2 - Define What Needs Fixing

Before evaluating vendors, contact center leaders and IT must diagnose the current operation. 

In doing so, Sean Keane, co-Founder & Managing Director at Service Economics, recommends they should identify:

• Sources of failure demand and avoidable contacts
• Agent pain points
• Process frictions

As they do so, it’s critical to engage the agent population. They understand where processes waste time and customers struggle. 

With this information, the buying committee can create IT specifications that match the operational reality, not just feature lists. 

From there, go into meetings with the buying committee to add new perspectives. Derek Lewis, CX Strategy Consultant at Lewis CX Consulting, recommends aligning everyone around:

• Where are we now?
• Where do we need to be in 12–18 months?
• What must change to get there?

Do this before opening a CCaaS market report from Gartner or Forrester. Vendor comparisons only make sense when measured against a company’s requirements, not generic market grids.

Step 3 - Conduct Market Research

The CCaaS market is crowded and noisy. However, not all providers are built the same. As Keane highlighted:

• Some are legacy ACD vendors.
• Some are digital-first platforms.
• Some are CRM overlays.
• Some are acquisition-driven “buy-and-build” stacks.

Without understanding these nuances, organizations may unknowingly lock themselves into overly expensive approaches.

That said, most vendors can deliver 80% of what a contact center needs, and by following the clearly defined requirements from step two, brands can quickly narrow down prospective vendors. 

In doing so, they should also assess the following criteria, according to Diego Segura, Owner and Principal at CXONE Consulting:

• Availability - Not all cloud technologies deliver the same level of reliability. Some platforms maintain near-continuous uptime, while others experience multiple service outages each year. Even sporadic disruptions can have significant operational impact and should not be underestimated.
• Partner Ecosystem - A strong local commercial presence and a robust ecosystem of partners and integrators remain essential, even in cloud environments. Organizations benefit from proximity, choice, and partners who understand their context and can provide responsive support.
• Roadmap - While product roadmaps are not binding commitments, they offer valuable insight into a vendor’s strategic direction. Even in an era heavily focused on AI, the structure and priorities of a roadmap reveal how innovation and investment are likely to evolve.
• Openness to Third-Party Technologies - All-in-one solutions can be attractive, but certain functionalities may lack depth. Careful evaluation is required to ensure flexibility, avoid vendor lock-in, and maintain the ability to integrate best-of-breed capabilities when needed.
• Reporting Capabilities - Some otherwise strong platforms provide only basic reporting out of the box. More advanced analytics may require custom development or dedicated data initiatives, which can add complexity and cost.

Just remember, the objective isn’t to find the “top” vendor. It’s to find the right fit.

Step 4 - Write an RFP That Drives Outcomes

A strong Request for Proposal (RFP) isn’t long. It’s clear.

Instead of 200 feature questions, provide context into:

• Company and project background
• Operational challenges
• Customer, employee, and business objectives
• Success criteria
• Constraints (budget, IT resources, timeline, etc.)

Once the bigger picture is clear, vendors can demonstrate solutions against real-world outcomes instead of abstract features and checkboxes. 

Three to four focused pages are often enough, plus commercial parameters, submission guidelines, and terms and conditions.

The goal is clarity. Ultimately, that produces better proposals than volume.

Step 5 - Prove the Software Works in the Real World

Demos and feature lists are helpful, but curated. Proof matters.

With that in mind, shortlist lead candidates and validate their solutions under real conditions before getting to the negotiation table. 

Here are three tests to run. 

i. Pressure-Test the Commercial Reality

Consider post-implementation development and ongoing service costs, covering:

• Training and change management
• Integration effort
• Continuous maintenance

A key part of this is speaking directly with reference customers. They can share their experience with the software, offer deployment best practices, and highlight any additional costs they encountered.

ii. Test Integrations and Data Availability

There’s often hidden complexity in integrations and data quality. Ian Nevin, Co-Founder & Director of GAIA-CC, recommends buyers dig into:

• CRM integration depth (custom objects, workflows, data hygiene)
• Identity, security, and compliance nuances
• Reporting and data latency realities
• AI dependencies on clean, structured data

In doing so, build two or three simple replacement workflows designed to reduce failure demand. This validates real functionality, not slideware.

iii. Run User Acceptance Testing 

Almost half of contact center reps avoid adopting new technologies, according to Gartner study.  

User acceptance testing, where the team gets their hands on the prospective tech and handles simulated conversations, helps reveal usability gaps early.

Step 6 - Negotiate & Sign

Prices that software vendors list are starting points. Doing competitor research, speaking with experts, and leveraging competitive tension can lower the price.

Also, be careful to avoid sneaky CCaaS vendor ploys. For instance, they may try to enforce mandatory seat-increases, which result in the brand paying for more seats than they use, if the deployment stalls. 

Some vendors will also play tricks to make it harder to switch solutions in the future. An example here is that they may ask the contact center to port their numbers to them. However, this can make it tricky to test rival solutions in the future. 

Experienced consultants and independent experts can help to avoid such costly missteps, and navigate organizations through the entire process from start to finish. 

Avoid These Mistakes Along the Way

Sean Keane has overseen numerous CCaaS transformation projects. Based on his experience, these are the top five mistakes to avoid during the contact center software buying journey.

1. Losing Faith in the Process

Stakeholders sometimes second-guess the methodology or push personal preferences ahead of operational realities. When this happens, clarity is lost. Successful outcomes depend on allowing operational needs, not individual opinions, to drive requirements.

2. Skipping Redesign

Many organizations simply replicate existing processes or lean too heavily on vendor marketing narratives. In doing so, they miss the opportunity to fundamentally rethink how service is delivered and to design something better.

3. Focusing on Tech Over User Needs

Deploying a new platform without aligning it to operational goals and user outcomes often results in underutilization. Technology alone does not improve multi-channel capability, thoughtful integration with real-world needs does.

4. Carrying Over Unnecessary Complexity

Too often, systems are migrated “as is”, complete with convoluted IVR scripts, outdated call flows, and layered configurations. This preserves inefficiency, increases cost, and adds avoidable effort during platform transition.

5. Overlooking Commercial Traps

While less common in today’s competitive market, some vendors may still attempt to lock organizations into mandatory seat increases or inflexible commercial terms. Without careful scrutiny, these constraints can erode long-term value.

Good Luck with Your Contact Center Procurement!

The key to a successful contact center procurement is quickly distilling down what matters most.

When priorities are clear, conversations with suppliers shift. They become grounded in operational reality, measurable outcomes, and architectural fit,  not marketing narratives or visionary slide decks.

While vendors like to sell possibility, the organization must demand practicality. The selected technology must work in the real world, with clear ownership, defined success metrics, and structured post-deployment iteration driven by stakeholder feedback. 

That final point is critical, as procurement is not the finish line, it is the starting point.

Organizations that build accountability into every stage of procurement, and sustain it long after deployment, transform a platform investment into lasting competitive advantage.

Those that do not stall. Capabilities go underused, adoption plateaus, and the promised gains never fully materialize. They then become disillusioned and start evaluating other vendors. Don’t fall into that pattern. 

Thanks to the GAIA-CC community of contact center consultants for contributing to this article.