CPaaS is one of the fastest-growing technology sectors, so it is well worth keeping your finger on the pulse of the trends shaping it at the moment.
According to Gartner, the CPaaS market grew by nearly 40% in 2021, with a compound annual growth rate forecast of around 30% until 2026. Juniper Research estimates that the North American CPaaS market alone will rise to $15bn by 2026.
Fuelling the growth of CPaaS is the demand for business efficiency and digital transformation, particularly in the critical areas which CPaaS covers: communication, interaction, and engagement with customers.
Sudarshan Dharmapuri, VP Products, Webex CPaaS Solutions, spoke about the reasons behind market growth:
“Customer expectations have changed rapidly over the last 10 years, driven by smartphones, faster networks and automation enabled by APIs and AI. Recent events have accelerated digital transformation and technology adoption by several years. This has changed thought processes around how businesses serve customers better.”
What is CPaaS?
CPaaS (Communications Platform as a Service) is a cloud-based platform that provides the necessary building blocks for users both within and outside IT to rapidly automate customer interactions across digital channels.
The building blocks are made up of APIs (application programming interface), SDKs (software development kits), low-code or no-code tools, and documentation. Together, these provide communication channels, capabilities, and solutions, including voice, SMS, and rich messaging.
Key advantages of implementing CPaaS are improved customer interactions and experiences and faster time to market. CPaaS also saves companies time and money on development, maintenance, and engineering.
Organizations no longer need to build their own communications infrastructure from scratch, nor do they need to remodel their back-end systems to incorporate communications capabilities. They can leverage specialist CPaaS providers, who can provide ready-to-deploy solutions. Enterprise CPaaS providers in particular will offer the level of technical support needed for business-critical applications.
Emerging CPaaS Trends
Here is a rundown of some of the latest trends to watch out for in the CPaaS sector.
Omnichannel expansion: There are multiple ways in which omnichannel solutions are set to expand. Chatbots are likely to be increasingly implemented to deal with customer requests and provide basic support, freeing up time for agents. Furthermore, the number of companies creating their own bots in-house is also expected to increase.
Businesses are also now demanding single integrated APIs to make it easier to access omnichannel service providers. From the perspective of CPaaS providers, there is a growing trend for acquiring visual builders, which is set to continue.
Tailored CPaaS solutions are another area which has been getting more attention. Instead of creating solutions targeting the needs of a business, tailored CPaaS solutions analyse and cater to customer preferences. Another customer-centric channel improvement is brand verification, which is gaining popularity as it provides security assurance to customers that they are speaking to the right people.
Advanced messaging apps: As customer communication channel preferences change, CPaaS messaging solutions need to change with them. This not only includes a change in communication behaviour, say a cultural shift to or from one or more channels of communication, but it also includes new channels which enterprises will see increasing demand for. This will then be passed on to CPaaS providers, who will need to find new and innovative ways to include them.
Low Code, No Code: Low-code, no-code is expected to grow exponentially going forward. Enterprises are realising the reduced time and costs which go into creating low code, no code applications. Not only that, anyone from a company can become proficient at low code, no code app creation in a relatively short amount of time. Developers will not be out of a job any time soon, however, as more complex issues remain beyond the scope of these platforms.
New video features: As technological improvements continue to be made, CPaaS is able to offer more and more high-quality in-app video solutions that better the end-user. By incorporating video into a business workflow, companies can add real value to their portfolio, as the boom in video conferencing has led to a consistent demand for CPaaS video integrations.
Privacy improvements: End-to-end encryption (E2EE) has entered the mainstream lexicon thanks to companies like WhatsApp. Security and privacy are vitally important to any modern-day business, and E2EE can provide greater data protection, making security and compliance key decision factors in the evaluation of CPaaS providers.
If you would like to find out more about CPaaS, you can visit Webex CPaaS’ website.
