FAQ - Intratel

Cloud Contact Centre Essentials

What is a cloud contact centre?

A cloud contact centre is a customer communication system hosted online rather than on equipment inside your office. Agents sign in from any location with a stable internet connection. Call routing, queues, reporting, and recordings all run in the cloud, which is why the service is also called a cloud call centre or hosted contact centre.

How does a cloud contact centre work?

A cloud contact centre routes incoming calls through your provider’s hosted platform to whichever agent is available, using rules you set. The call reaches the agent’s desk phone or softphone over the internet. Call data, queue status, and recordings are captured centrally, so supervisors see activity in real time from anywhere.

What is the difference between a call centre and a contact centre?

A call centre primarily handles voice calls, while a contact centre manages customer interactions across several channels from one platform. Intratel’s cloud contact centre covers voice, email, and Internal IM, so an agent can follow a customer issue through to resolution without switching between disconnected systems.

What is the difference between cloud and on-premise contact centres?

A cloud contact centre runs on your provider’s infrastructure and is billed per user, while an on-premise system runs on hardware you buy, house, and maintain yourself. Businesses of every size run cloud contact centres, from small teams to large enterprises, because seats and features can be adjusted as needs change. On-premise PBX suits large businesses and call centres that want to self-host, procure and manage their own hardware, scale to hundreds or thousands of extensions, and retain call recordings long term.

Is a cloud contact centre the same as CCaaS?

Yes, CCaaS stands for Contact Centre as a Service and describes the same delivery model as a cloud contact centre. The platform is hosted by the provider and delivered over the internet on a subscription basis, so there is no equipment to purchase, install, or maintain at your location.

Features & Communications Tools

What are the benefits of a cloud contact centre?

The main benefits of a cloud contact centre are faster scaling, lower upfront infrastructure requirements, and access from any location. Specifically:

Agent seats and numbers can be configured quickly, without new hardware
Agents work from the office, from home, or across multiple sites
Call analytics and recordings are stored centrally for review and coaching
Capacity can be increased for seasonal peaks, then scaled back

What features should a cloud contact centre have?

A cloud contact centre should include intelligent call routing, customizable business hour schedules, call recording, live queue visibility, and reporting on wait times and missed calls. CRM integration and click-to-call matter for teams that log every interaction. Voicemail transcription, now standard with Intratel service, delivers messages as readable text to email.

Can a cloud contact centre integrate with a CRM?

Yes, a cloud contact centre integrates with many common and proprietary CRM platforms, often through one-click setup or API connection. Agents see customer history as the call arrives, and call activity writes back into the CRM record automatically. Click-to-call lets agents dial directly from a contact record rather than keying numbers manually.

What is a blended contact centre?

A blended contact centre lets the same agents handle both incoming and outgoing calls from one interface. When inbound volume drops, agents move to outbound work such as follow-ups and callbacks. This keeps a small team productive through the quiet parts of the day instead of leaving agents idle between calls.

Can contact centre agents work from home?

Yes, agents connect to the same cloud platform from home, from the office, or from a second location, and the contact centre operates as one team regardless of where people sit. Supervisors track agent availability and queue length in real time, and Internal IM messaging keeps a distributed team coordinated.