A popular leading provider of cloud communication solutions for businesses, Vonage recently received seven brand-new patents given by the US Patent and Trademark Office. Towards the close of the first quarter for 2017, Vonage had more than 150 patents to offer, and an additional 160 US patent applications pending too. Vonage was also holding onto a range of foreign patents and applications that were pending across worldwide jurisdictions.
Within the patents recently issued is one that will allow for the creation of carefully-defined and user-created SMS groups. In these circumstances, group account settings will be configured to offer features that specify which group members see which outgoing messages. Alternatively, group identifiers could be set which are then displayed to users through outgoing messages. This feature is particularly essential to businesses that want to provide group identity to customers, for instance, in the case of customer support or help desk functions.
Creating Pathways to Engage with Customers
According to Vonage, the new patents come as a way to help them achieve their goals in the world of business service. For Vonage, the new age is all about improving the customer journey, whether it’s through using group or personal messages across SMS to clients and client groups, or simply making it easier to identify the right recipients.
Today, Vonage is focusing on creating pathways that will allow companies to engage with customers in ways that they regard to be more meaningful. According to the CEO, Alan Masarek, Vonage will be able to offer businesses the technology they need to provide a more effective overall experience. Whether it’s for service and delivery, or customer support, connections will be made easier and more effective to support business goals.
The New Patents
Besides the latest SMS developments, Vonage’s new patents will also include:
- Two solutions that cover advanced features for call processing, including the option to automatically identify and notify users that a call is no longer on hold, (Patent number 9,560,197), and another feature for users using international roaming, wherein incoming calls can be re-routed over the internet for cost-savings (Patent number 9,603,115)
- Two improvements to QoS, or quality of service, including techniques that allow service providers to make better route selection decisions for a network based on cost and quality (Patent number 9,560,180). The second patent also covers conference call solutions that offer improvements to system redundancy and scalability (Patent Number 9,538,134)
- Two improvements to communications security, including solutions intended to mask VoIP traffic movements by transmitting the data from voice connections through separate streams (Patent number 9,560,085), and solutions for enhanced verification solutions before a user can be authorised to make charged calls on any account (Patent number 9,565,220)
