CPaaS: Why Innovation + Integration = Monetisation

In today’s complex world, it pays to have all the bases covered. 

Contracting, licensing, support, communication: every customer touchpoint is a moment in which an enterprise can disappoint or impress. 

Unsurprisingly, there can be a lot riding on either outcome. 

Throw into the mix all of the opportunities to capture, analyse and act upon data generated by those touchpoints and it’s easy to understand why the effectiveness of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is now so high on the agenda. 

Problem is, there are many more different CRMs out there than there are communication channels; which makes for a challenging backdrop against which enterprises must somehow always ensure they are seeing the whole picture.   

And that makes integrating them about as important as it gets. 

“There are three components of brilliant customer relationship management – a single platform through which all of an enterprise’s communications flow; a feature-rich CRM platform which provides a single view of that activity; and the seamless integration of them both,” says Andriy Zhylenko, CEO of global provider of telco billing, cloud PBX platforms and CPaaS, PortaOne, which is helping deliver excellence in this space.  

Its white-labelled Communication Platform-as-a Service (CPaaS) solution ‘PortaSwitch’ is deployed and monetised by, among others, innovative partner CloudCall – smart, fast-growing provider of intelligent phone systems that integrate calls, chats, and the resulting data directly into customers’ CRM platforms.  

It is a potent collaboration which began 11 years ago and which is delivering growth on both sides.  

CloudCall made a decision to differentiate itself from other telcos selling phone services, bundles, minutes or PBX seats. 

Their value proposition for SMBs was simple: a service that will make sales, recruitment and marketing more efficient. Higher closing rates, increased revenue and reduced operating expenses – all for a highly-affordable monthly subscription. 

CloudCall picked a market-leading CRM in a specific niche vertical – such as travel agencies and auto-dealerships etc. – and created a tailored, integrated package. Success followed, so it expanded into other sectors with other integrated CRMs.  

Having started many years ago (the business was called Synety back then) with an entry-level PortaSwitch, it grew significantly and currently serves thousands of subscribers and operates two powerful, high-availability PortaSwitch systems in the UK and US.  

“CloudCall’s in-house team leverages the open architecture, power and flexibility of PortaSwitch to build customised, seamless CRM integrations for its end user organisations,” says Zhylenko.  

“As a result, they are able to quickly create new integrated packages that provide customer organisations with a single, bundled package of CRM, calls, visibility and analytics. 

“It has a growing team that’s completely in-house and dedicated to designing vertical-specific CRM functionality so it is clear that demand is increasing. 

“We provide the tools to make it easy for them – one system; one licence; open architecture; and lots of close, technical support whenever they need it. 

“It is a win-win relationship for us both, but the benefits are even greater for the end user organisations as they are able to bring their communication channels and their CRM together into one place. They get to turn telephony into a sales enablement tool” 

Indeed, CloudCall itself describes its CRM integrations powerfully and succinctly as “turning conversations into insight.” 

They work with 21 of the most popular CRMs on the market including Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Bullhorn and many more. 

As well as taming sales and service teams into managing customers in an efficient and standardised way, they enable users to capture calls, chats and collaborations with a single view of multi-channel customer interactions. 

They enhance efficiency and productivity with single-click-to-dial functionality plus call recording and transcription. 

And they boost calling activities by uploading and automatically dialling prepared contact lists, ensuring more time is spent talking to contacts. 

The resultant data is rich with frequency, duration and quality metrics which enable users to analyse caller performance, detect the use of competitor brand names and, ultimately, support the design of improved processes. 

“Effective CRM saves time because all relevant information is located in one place and one click reveals everything,” says Simon Cleaver, CEO of CloudCall Group. 

“That is an easy conversation for a service provider to have with an end user enterprise because the upsides are obvious. 

“When those integrated customer management benefits are combined with the advantages that come with the deployment of a high-performing, feature-rich communications platform, it is a match that has the capability to deliver big.” 

In January this year, UK-focused private equity investors Xplorer Capital Growth acquired CloudCall in £39.9m deal with a plan to significantly expand its integrated CRM, ERP and other business applications.  

To learn more about how the ‘PortaSwitch’ CPaaS platform can help your and your customers’ businesses thrive, visit PortaOne.