Keith Dawson's Analyst Perspectives

We are happy to share some insights about Five9 drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.

Earlier this year we published the Ventana Research Value Index: Contact Center in the Cloud 2021, the distillation of a year of market and product research efforts. It is an assessment of how well vendors’ offerings will address buyers’ requirements for contact center software. The index is structured to replicate an RFI/RFP process by incorporating all criteria needed to evaluate, select, utilize and maintain technology, and maintain relationships with vendors.

In all of our Value Indexes we utilize a structured research methodology that includes evaluation categories designed to reflect real-world criteria incorporated in a request for proposal (RFP) and vendor selection process for contact center in the cloud. We evaluated Five9 and 13 other vendors in seven categories, five relevant to the product and experience (adaptability, capability, manageability, reliability and usability) and two related to the customer experience (TCO/ROI and vendor validation). To arrive at the Value Index rating for a given vendor, we weighted each category to reflect its relative importance in an RFP process, with the weightings based on our experience and on data derived from our benchmark research. Five9 performance rating in the Value Index is overall at 84.6% and for customer experience is 71.7% and product experience is 87.1%.

Five9 has been a dedicated provider of CCaaS for many years. Five9 is ranked eighth overall and categorized as an Innovative Vendor. It performed best in Manageability and Usability. The Intelligent Cloud Contact Center offering is distinguished by its ability to tailor the user experience to people in different roles, and the ongoing investments the company is making in its interface design.

Five9 was ranked sixth in Product Experience due to its consistent approach across many categories. The breadth of its in approach to the requirements of administration, privacy and security led to a high Manageability ranking, while the level of information easily found on its approach to support contact center requirements earned a consistent ranking in Reliability and Usability.

Five9 needs to improve in Customer Experience where its lack of depth in information and methods for TCO/ROI and Validation significantly impacted its overall ranking. Five9 could improve in its approach to Adaptability and its integration to areas across the business, processes, applications and data.

This assessment was based on Five9’s products available at the end of March in 2021. Since then, Five9 announced a multiyear partnership with Mitel to feature Five9’s platform as Mitel’s exclusive contact center in the cloud offering.

When cloud contact centers first emerged a decade ago, the focus for many was on finding the lowest cost provider. Today’s organizations should consider a broader range of criteria in their selection process, which we outline in this Value Index. A modern contact center requires technology that provides continuous innovation and a product and customer experience to meet their long-term goals. With this in mind, when organizations begin the process of evaluating their efforts, they might consider Five9.

This research-based index is the most comprehensive assessment of the value of contact center in the cloud software in the industry. Technology buyers can learn more about how to use our Value Index by clicking here and included vendors that wish to learn more can click here. Read the report here.

Regards,

Keith Dawson