Vonage is opening an R&D Centre of Excellence in India to drive innovation and strengthen its expansion into the Asia Pacific region.
Vonage India’s R&D team aims to innovate new solutions across its business communications portfolio, particularly its Vonage Communications Platform (VCP). The Centre will be based in Bengaluru, the heart of India’s thriving tech and communications industry.
Manjunath Lakshminarayanan, Vonage Vice President of Engineering and India CoE Lead, said:
With this new centre and major talent acquisition, Vonage will gain significant technology expertise for the development of the programmable, flexible and intelligent capabilities of our Vonage Communications Platform and robust portfolio of APIs. The opening of this centre emphasises our commitment to continue driving innovation that transforms the way businesses operate and engage with their customers.”
Through its VCP, Vonage develops cloud APIs to refine CPaaS solutions whose functions can encompass messaging, conversational voice, AI and video. This empowers developers to introduce advanced capabilities into applications, workflows and systems without complex back-end infrastructure. The R&D Centre
“In an age where customers expect ultra-fast, dynamic engagement, Vonage is meeting customer needs now and is positioned to meet their evolving needs well into the future,” added Savinay Berry, Vonage Executive Vice President, Product and Engineering. “We are delighted to have opened this Center of Excellence in the IT capital of India.”
VCP has more than 120,000 business customers and a global community of more than one million registered developers. Alongside Bengaluru, Vonage invests in R&D in international hubs for digital talent, including Tel Aviv, Wroclaw, London and San Francisco.
“Our new talent acquisition in Bengaluru will help Vonage to continue delivering solutions that help customers in India and around the world create innovative solutions that drive more meaningful engagement across any channel,” Berry added, “in service of our product vision, ‘turning notifications into conversations wherever you are, enabled by the world’s largest immersive engagement platform.'”
Vonage’s 2023 and Video APIs
Much of Vonage’s year has focused on launching innovative solutions around its video APIs.
In March, the vendor revealed AI-powered features for its Video API, based around audio, media processing and end-to-end encryption security.
The AI capabilities could be embedded into customers’ existing applications for real-time connections and more seamless video interactions. Vonage said the service aims to “leverage technology in their digital transformation journeys to accommodate growing consumer expectations to engage on their channels of choice”.
Later this March, Vonage released a no-code and customisable video conferencing API which could be embedded into user workflows without requiring aid from developers.
Meetings API could be integrated into internal and external workflows with any website or platform. This provides visual engagement capabilities built to improve customer and employee interactions. Meetings API will be quicker and easier to implement than traditionally complicated integrations, speeding up the time to market.
India’s IT and Comms Boom
Vonage isn’t the only prominent communications vendor to announce expansion in India this week.
RingCentral revealed it would begin offering a cloud telephony service in India, which it says makes it the country’s first global cloud provider to offer compliant enterprise-grade cloud telephony.
RingCentral initiating a cloud phone service in India allows multinational organisations with a basis in India to access cloud phone capabilities, enabling accessible communication with customers, partners, leaders and workers.
Vonage and RingCentral’s announcements maintain India’s growing IT and communications market, with Gartner estimating that IT communications services spending in India would reach $24.7B in 2023.
With the number of global businesses opening satellite offices and tech hubs in India growing alongside its IT and communications boom, their requirements accumulate for enterprise-grade and compliant cloud communications solutions.
In addition to RingCentral and Vonage, Nureva entered the Indian market in 2021, appointing Nvincy Solutions as a distributor. Nvincy had already begun to bring Nureva technology, like the HDL200 system, into the Indian market, where there was a demand for solutions to support hybrid work.
Earlier this year, Zoom received a Pan-telecom license from the Indian government to offer Zoom Phone to India-based businesses.
Zoom received a Unified License with Access – All/PAN India, NLD National Long Distance, and ILD – International Long Distance from India’s Department of Telecommunications. This meant Zoom Phone’s cloud PBX application service could be offered to India-based multinational corporations (MNCs) and businesses, enabling them to have a UC platform to serve their global workforces.
