CPaaS for the Enterprise: It’s About More Than APIs

If you’ve been following industry news lately, there are a lot of headlines and coverage around CPaaS. With developer focused APIs and third-party integrations, CPaaS is the next wave of innovation in communications and anyone from pure play providers to UCaaS companies are getting in on the action. Having the capability to embed communications into applications is helping companies of all sizes improve the functionality of those applications. However, today’s enterprises need more than just open APIs and basic enablement to solve business challenges with communications. According to Raúl Castañón, Senior Analyst at 451 Research, “CPaaS 1.0 has traditionally been targeted at providing APIs for developers and digital native companies. To meet emerging demand from enterprises, CPaaS 2.0 supports communications APIs and provides the flexibility and customization enterprises need to embed communications in their workflows and applications.” The problem is that most providers are missing the mark when it comes to delivering the functionality enterprises truly need to fully benefit from CPaaS.  Until now.  At IntelePeer, we deliver CPaaS 2.0; a full solution to accomplish digital transformation and create a better customer experience. Here’s what you’ll get from Atmosphere® Communications Platform: Developing applications without having to code While open APIs are a must-have with CPaaS, they are targeted towards the developer who is embedding real-time communications into applications. That’s simply what you need if you are building a communications-enabled application. But, the ability to solve day-to-day business challenges and improve customer interactions should not be limited to those that know how to code. With our out-of-the-box applications and plug-ins, end users can create and integrate workflows without needing to access development resources. Solving business challenges with automation Once you put the ability to build applications into the hands of non-developers, you empower them to solve issues they face daily. Marketing, HR, Finance, and Customer Service teams can use communications and automation to increase productivity, improve customer engagement, and reduce costs. Teams can set up automated workflows that are triggered based on inbound or outbound interactions and integrated with the applications they are currently using. This frees up their time to become more proactive and strategic instead of reacting to things that can be handled through self-service options. For some specific examples of how your teams can use CPaaS in their workflows, check out this  recent blog post. Creating a consistent customer experience across channels You already know that today’s consumers want more options to reach your business other than by phone. You may be providing SMS, email, chat, and social media but are you providing the same experience through  all channels? Is there a way to seamlessly move from a chat bot to a live call with an agent? By simply adding other communications APIs to your applications without a way to bring it all together, you may be causing more frustration for your customers and additional steps for your internal teams. A platform like Atmosphere® CPaaS is built for the enterprise and makes it easy to orchestrate all of your communications no matter the channel and ensure you are providing the best experience for both customers and employees. Accessing analytics. Lots of them. It goes without saying that analytics are the backbone of any company, especially for marketing and customer service teams who live and breathe campaign results, call traffic patterns, and customer feedback. When it comes to customer interaction metrics, many communications analytics solutions only show a snapshot of the interaction (the call completed/did not complete, the message sent/did not send, etc.) If you have more than one provider for your communications solutions, you then have to piece together the information from multiple systems. Another obstacle is that most CPaaS providers only offer analytics through third-party integrations, potentially adding more costs and time to get up and running. We do things differently because we understand that not only do enterprises need analytics, they need the full picture of customer interactions to see and react faster to changing business conditions. Plus, with AI functionality such as sentiment analysis, you can better manage communications flows, how calls are routed, and gain a deeper understanding of your customers’ needs and the experience they are having with your company and products. As you can see, there is a difference between the legacy CPaaS (CPaaS 1.0) and CPaaS that is built for the enterprise (CPaaS 2.0). If you need more than just APIs to truly take advantage of all that CPaaS has to offer: enable your team to create their own communications-enabled workflows, and use analytics and AI understand trends, you need to go with the next generation. IntelePeer understands how important it is to tackle digital transformation and are here to help. Contact us to get started today! Still not convinced?  See why Frost & Sullivan highlights us as a trusted CPaaS provider.