Communication Platforms as a Service or CPaaS solutions have emerged as the ultimate opportunity for businesses to shape their communication stacks to suit their unique needs. As companies of all sizes continue to embrace the benefits of a flexible cloud infrastructure, CPaaS gives us the freedom that we need to implement everything from real-time communication, to artificial intelligence and analytics into daily workflows and processes.
Unlike UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service), CPaaS uses SDKs and APIs to embed the tools you need for communication into your existing applications. By 2022, the CPaaS industry will already be worth a massive $10.9 billion, and the vendors in this sector are continuing to grow.
Let’s explore the trends that are driving the evolution of CPaaS in 2020.
CPaaS and the Demand for Omnichannel UX
One of the biggest benefits of CPaaS as the foundation of your communication stack, is that you can use this technology to create a truly unlimited omnichannel environment. In the past, omnichannel communication used to refer to a combined strategy for email, voice, and fax. Now, however, vendors are delivering CPaaS solutions that allow businesses to unlock brand-new ways of communicating with their customers.
CPaaS APIs and SDKs can provide access to everything from SMS and text messaging platforms to social media tools like Facebook Messenger. As today’s consumers continue to prize businesses that communicate with them on the platforms they choose, this true omnichannel approach will be essential to business growth.
Heading into 2020 and beyond, CPaaS vendors will continue to add more channels to their platforms, from WhatsApp, to Rich Communication Services (RCS) and video. More importantly, your CPaaS solution will ensure that all of your communication channels are connected, so that you can monitor conversations in a single place.
The Programmable Contact Centre
CPaaS also opens the door for a new age of “programmable” communications. Essentially, this means that companies can have more granular control over every aspect of their communication stack, from their contact centres, to their SMS and voice strategies.
A programmable contact centre, for instance, will allow you to tweak and tailor every aspect of the experience that you give to your target audience. In an age where customer experience is the most important consideration for any business, this control is essential. Programmable contact centres allow business leaders to customize everything from the interface that their agents use, to the communication channels available, and the routing strategies you access.
Through APIs and SDKs, you can also implement strategies that make your contact centre more compliant with the latest security and privacy strategies, by ensuring that information is stored correctly. You might decide to start a call with an IVR message that acquires consent for a call to be recorded, ensuring compliance with GDPR.
The programmable contact centre environment means that businesses of all sizes can create unique and personalised experiences for their audience. What’s more, because you buy the functionality that you need chunk by chunk, you’re not paying for anything that you’re not going to use.
Other Elements of Programmable Communications
As companies continue to outgrow the need for a one-size-fits-all basic environment for communications, programmable communications could be the future. Taking the flexibility and control of programmable contact centres and embedding them into the back end of business communication enhances user experience, cost savings, and business opportunities.
