It’s easy to assume that all contact centers are rapidly moving to the cloud. Gartner predicts that 90% of organizations will adopt hybrid cloud by 2027. And with 98% of enterprises facing scalability issues with their GenAI workloads, continued cloud adoption seems like a no-brainer.
Despite this momentum, an estimated 46% of organizations are still on-premises. And though many leading providers are not prioritizing on-premises solutions, Cisco is, as indicated by its recent release of Finesse 15.
What is Cisco Finesse 15?
Cisco Finesse has long been an application of choice for contact centers on Unified Contact Center Enterprise (UCCE), Packaged Contact Center Enterprise (PCCE), and Unified Contact Center Express (UCCX). Finesse agent and supervisor desktop still enjoy wide usage in on-premises contact center environments. What’s notable here is that Finesse 15 is Cisco’s first major update to the platform in a long while.
The Finesse 15 release speaks to a reality that gets buried beneath all the cloud hype: moving to the cloud should and can be done at a pace that’s set by each individual organization. Its functionality speaks to the persistent demand for solutions that bring 2025 capabilities to customers that are still on-premises.
Finesse 15: Key Features & Functionality
→ AI Integration: Finesse 15 offers trial features that leverage artificial intelligence, including the Cisco AI Assistant and Webex AI Agent. The solution offers new contact center AI gadgets, including Agent answers and Call Transcript, as well as AI-ready infrastructure.
→ Expanded Digital Channels: Finesse 15 now supports the integration of Webex Connect, enabling organizations to seamlessly incorporate modern digital channels like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Apple Messages for Business into their existing contact center operations. While Webex Connect can work alongside Enterprise Chat and Email (ECE) within a single deployment, this flexible approach allows businesses to modernize their customer engagement capabilities at their own pace, creating a natural pathway to cloud-based solutions without forcing immediate wholesale changes.
→ Stronger Security Measures: Finesse 15 includes digital channel anti-malware capabilities and improved cipher management for better encryption. It also includes default HTTPS enforcement, advanced certificate management with X.509 validation enforcement, and HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS).
→ Updated Accessibility: Finesse Desktop has been updated to meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, Level A and AA, and ICT Accessibility 508 Standards, ensuring a more inclusive user experience. These enhancements include improved web accessibility, screen reader support, localization labels, color contrast, and focus indicators.
→ Better Stability: Finesse 15 increases scale to 48,000 concurrent agents and 1000 VVB concurrent calls, while significantly enhancing certificate management. Welcome news for on-premises environments, as these upgrades help reduce downtime, secure systems, and shorter the duration of any outages.
→ Enhanced Agent Productivity: Features like the Notification Center provide agents with a centralized hub for all desktop notifications, including chat, email, social media messages, and system notifications. Agents can further personalize their workspace layout using drag-and-drop functionality, while enjoying multi-tab gadget functionality for better information organization.
What Finesse 15 Means for On-premises Customers
Overall, Finesse 15 makes one thing clear: Organizations using this solution can’t defer security modernization anymore. The most immediate impact will be the HTTPS-only mandate. It forces security best practices but may require infrastructure updates.
The enhanced certificate management requirements will mean that IT teams need to ensure proper SSL/TLS certificate deployment, too.
The new version also makes downtime a priority, a thorn in the craw of many on-premises contact centers. This includes:
- New maintenance mode capabilities (no more weekend maintenance windows disrupting operations)
- 20% faster failover performance (less business disruption during outages)
- Enhanced backup/restore capabilities (faster recovery from disasters)
Maybe the most significant development with Finesse 15 is its prioritization of cloud-ready infrastructure. Cloud Connect integration positions contact centers for gradual cloud adoption without forklift upgrades. Digital channel support enables omnichannel without requiring wholesale infrastructure upgrades. And AI service readiness, including Agent Answers and Call Transcript capabilities, position contact centers for future AI investments.
The hybrid architecture for AI enables IT professionals to enable new technologies much quicker, without forgoing the stability and security of the on-premises environment they’ve relied on in the past.
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Bridge to Cloud: Finesse 15 a Leg Up for On-Premises Contact Centers
Clearly, this release is less about encouraging contact centers to move to cloud immediately, but ensuring on-premises infrastructure can integrate with cloud services when ready.
The fact that Cisco has invested in offering support for WebEx AI Agent, for example, even for on-premises customers, is a strong indicator that on-premises contact centers aren’t excluded from the latest innovations.
Welcome news for on-premises Cisco contact centers with their sights set on eventually migrating to the cloud.
Of course, Cisco is not alone in this renewed support for on-premises customers. At Bucher + Suter, all of our products and roadmaps are still very much being developed with our on-premises clients in mind. Contact us today to unlock the full value of Finesse 15.
