What are Hosted Services?

In a hosted services arrangement, an organization contracts with a vendor to host technical solutions in the vendor’s data facilities. This allows the client to leverage the vendor’s technical infrastructure and avoid capital expenditures associated with hardware and, in some cases, software.

Web hosting, in which a third party hosts a company's website, is an example of a hosted service. Organizations also commonly have their email hosted. Hosted service arrangements are also frequently used for off-site data backup and disaster recovery contingency plans.

There are many variations of hosted service arrangements. For example, the vendor may only take care of the servers, leaving the software management to the client organization. However, in software as a service (SaaS) situations, the vendor provides and maintains both the servers and the software, for a full-service solution.

Hosted services, especially SaaS, are often a beneficial option for contact centers to choose for all or part of their contact center technology. Cloud-based services, which are a subset of hosted services, offer contact centers flexibility, scalability, security and economy. For example, with cloud-based solutions, contact centers can easily scale up and down to match the seasonality of their volume. Additionally, new channels can be added quickly and seamlessly. And, perhaps best of all, with hosted services contact centers can worry less about technology and more about their primary function – delivering exceptional customer service.