We all now love a softphone, right?
That super-mobile, internet-enabled interaction with all of our contacts is transforming how we communicate.
Whether through mobile app or computer desktop, the seamless ability to connect via voice, video or message means organisation’s desk phones are superfluous and their employees’ physical locations are irrelevant.
Productivity increases because their teams are ‘in’ when they’re ‘out’, and costs are reduced because they are no longer devouring expensive network minutes.
But, despite the game-changing functionality, many organisations have not yet made the switch.
And – although that spells large-scale opportunity for Managed Service Providers everywhere – the rapidly expanding softphone market is providing a level of choice that doesn’t always make things easy.
“Softphone technology is changing everything for the better, but end-user organisations and Managed Service Providers alike understandably look for a differentiator when considering their options,” says Enzo Viscito, Managing Director of the UCaaS division of leading global communications infrastructure vendor PortaOne.
“We believe we provide those differentiators.”
On the evidence of PortaOne’s past innovations, that would seem very much to be the case.
Many traditional softphone vendors developed their apps some years ago – and, as they were mobile-native applications, they needed to implement low-level VoIP protocols such as SIP or RTP in those apps.
Together with the need for testing on a variety of new phone devices and network conditions, this made development and maintenance more difficult every day.
In 2019, PortaOne put their bet on a combination of WebRTC and Flutter technologies for creating softphones.
WebRTC is a global, developer-driven open-source project that enables real-time media communications like voice, video and data transfer to occur natively between browsers and devices without the need for complex plug-ins or additional hardware. And Flutter is a new framework for developing cross-platform apps by Google. It uses a brand-new programming language called Dart and allows the developer to write a single version of a code that later can be turned into pixel-perfect native apps for Android or iOS. Currently, most softphone development projects end up needing to run two separate versions of code, maintained by two different teams.
“Back then, a start-up WebTrit was participating in the PortaOne accelerator program,” explains Andriy Zhylenko, CEO of PortaOne.
“The product they envisioned bringing to market was an online practice platform for business negotiations, which needed a monetization function, a reliable platform for subscriber management, robust infrastructure to handle video calls and flexible tools for building branded customer-facing apps. Soon after the work started, the project was paused because some people were sceptical about whether you could acquire real business negotiation skills through video conferencing”
So, says Zhylenko, the WebTrit team pivoted and started developing the technology on Flutter and WebRTC in order to be able to offer it as an SDK (software development kit) for creating communication apps for other companies, including telco operators using the PortaOne platform.
“COVID-19 happened and now nobody is sceptical,” he says. “Today, it is proven to have been ahead of its time.”
Now, this technology and SDK is at the heart of PortaOne’s latest solution: PortaPhone, a super-simple way to access and leverage cloud-based communications platforms.
PortaPhone can be delivered as a native app for Android or iOS, branded according to a CSP’s wishes. It also can run in a website mode, accessible with a single click in all the major web browsers.
It can be configured to ring simultaneously on both a regular desk phone and in the app or browser.
And it also supports voice and video calls, call recording, call history and other standard hosted PBX functionalities, such as call hold or transfer.
Because PortaPhone uses WebRTC, it works reliably for users connected to any network or behind any router or firewall. And since it uses modern codecs such as Opus, it provides better sound quality than traditional VoIP calls.
As an added bonus, there are no ‘per user’ customer fees, as PortaOne offers a commercially disruptive perpetual licence model.
Unsurprisingly, it’s a bottom-line-boosting USP, a fact which is not lost on MSPs OR their end-user customers.
Accelerated by the pandemic, internet-powered text messaging, chat, voice and video communication is now the default for many organisations, large AND small – and one of the clear leaders is MS Teams.
The traditional way for a CSP to bundle MS Teams into a regular communication service (to allow outbound calls to landlines or mobiles, or inbound calls from customers via a toll-free number) is to offer so called ‘Direct Routing’, when all calls outside of the MS Teams environment are handed over to the CSP. This only works, however, if the MS Teams users have an active Office 365 E3/E5 subscription, which makes it cost-prohibitive for many organisations.
PortaPhone for MS Teams does it differently: as a web application, it can be installed as a free MS Teams app; it runs within a user’s Teams client, adding its own tab to the Teams UI. PortaPhone establishes calls using WebRTC and a WebTrit cloud back end, which then sends the call using the SIP protocol to the provider’s existing VoIP PBX solution (for example, BroadSoft or PortaSwitch). The best part? No Office365 subscription is required.
“Voice-enabling Teams can be very expensive, but PortaPhone does it at no extra cost. The end user benefits because employees can work remotely with no added cost; the MSP benefits because they can deliver a branded and customised application to users; and both parties benefit because now there are custom-tailored PBX products for every country and customer segment,” says Zhylenko.
“Softphone growth is explosive, so the opportunities for our resellers are significant.”
The recent rise in remote work certainly suggests that’s true.
Those organisations who have already made the move are way past marvelling at the functionality – now, they are laser-focused on the consequent potential for increased productivity and efficiency.
“If you think about it, WhatsApp is the biggest softphone in the world,” says Klaus Haertel, Global Channel Director for PortaOne.
“Because of COVID, people turned to it to help solve their remote communication challenges. But softphone technology is no different from WhatsApp. Organisations are now understanding this, and they are turning that experience into a business use case.
“The stigma that used to surround working from home has gone away. Businesses can see that remote working can actually improve productivity, because employees have a better work-life balance.”
In turn, says Haertel, businesses can leverage cost savings on rent, travel, office maintenance and more.
“These are all powerful factors for Managed Service Providers to take into any pre-sales customer conversation,” he adds.
“Then, when the additional financial benefits of PortaPhone are explained, we think the proposition is a compelling one”
Enzo Viscito says that the current era is an “amazing time” to be in our industry.
“Softphone technology really is the next big game-changer,” he says.
“We believe we have a lot to offer our resellers, and we’re looking forward to continuing to help them transform the fortunes of their customers.”
To learn more about PortaOne’s PortaPhone softphone solution, visit www.portaone.com or watch an informative webinar here.
