The combined penetration of today’s premier Over The Top (OTT) applications – such as Skype, WhatsApp, and Google Hangouts – in terms of sheer number of users is unprecedented. While each of them is great communication solutions, they have their own strengths and weaknesses as well and there is no one perfect solution that fully satisfies the needs of their target audience.
For example, while Skype is good for desktop-based calling, it requires an inordinate amount of data for a voice call. WhatsApp has optimised the mobile user experience, but the quality of its voice calls is far from ideal over a 3G or 4G network. Google Hangouts’ video calling is of good quality, but its file-sharing capabilities are limited to only image sharing. It also does not support sending or receiving SMSs.
Then there are hundreds of other video and audio communication solutions, each trying to achieve the same success by winning a large user base.
However, when it comes to developing a B2B or a B2C application, the challenges are quite different. the paramount concern of an enterprise application is on improving customer experience and user stickiness as these have a direct business impact.
Therefore, it is vital that customers can initiate an In-App Real-time Communication (RTC) session involving video, voice or messaging for an omnichannel experience. Imagine a scenario where customer while navigating on you customer-facing application would have to exit your enterprise app to hop on to a separate app, such as Skype or WhatsApp, to open a communication channel with you. In addition, for customers on the move, using Skype or WhatsApp would likely face call drops or jitter voice quality and this aggregates further with a video call. Most users will finally resort back to the traditional way of calling – A telephone call! This is disruptive to the customer experience, detrimental to the application user stickiness, and simply not advisable.
It will not do just to have RTC capabilities within the enterprise app. It must also have an impeccably designed user interface as well as a robust backend functionality. Nothing is worse than a disappointing UI or an app that is constantly breaking down.
Would it not be great to be able to have the best-in-class RTC capabilities embedded directly within your enterprise application? Better yet, to be able to offer your end-users the flexibility to connect over HD video, audio, PSTN, or messaging, with the whole system built within a week? Furthermore, this will not require your customers to download another external application.
All these can be done with a full-stack Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS), which provides APIs to integrate RTC capabilities into existing applications and business workflows.
As with all things PaaS, CPaaS offers the advantage of low-cost and rapid scalability with easy integration to enterprises looking for the following benefits:
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Designing your own UX/UI into your enterprise app with RTC capabilities
Utilising CPaaS to embed RTC capabilities into your enterprise applications means you do not have to compromise any part of your branding, allowing you to retain your app’s unique user experience and user interface.
It is, after all, your application. CPaaS value adds to your customer experience will a full stack of communication options, rather than requiring you to make do with an UX/UI designed by someone else. Retain control of your customer experience journeys with your own UX/UI.
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Customise your own app’s communication requirements
Instead of having to choose one communication channel or the other, or having to settle for a preselected communication channels, customise your application’s communication requirements with the full range from a full-stack CPaaS player. Developers can choose which call functions are to be included, and even connect calls to offline users (who prefer SIP or landlines) through PSTN.
EnableX provides these 10 core pieces of communication for you to mix and match, to perfect your customer communication experience:
- HD audio/video in-app calls
- App to PSTN/Soft phone calls
- SMS – Short codes / Long codes / Transactional / Marketing
- Screen share
- Intelligent Muting solution
- File sharing
- Annotation of live video
- Dynamic and Static IVRs
- SMS and Voice marketing campaigns
- Virtual numbers
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Access to code libraries, tutorials and documents for easy DIY integration
You do not have to be a communication specialist to provide high quality RTC for your end users. With just a few lines of code, application developers can easily integrate communications APIs with your enterprise apps.
Developers can access EnableX’s code libraries, tutorials and documents for help with the integration effort. There are also demonstrations and Do-It-Yourself guides to understand and experience how the CPaaS APIs work. You can also access numerous publicly available code repository at https://github.com/enablex/.
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Ensure high quality and flexible RTC
EnableX’s core voice and video platform technology ensures that you can host multiparty sessions (with more than 100 participants each) in the same RTC room. At the same time, voice and video quality is not compromised. Proprietary algorithms ensure that users get the best quality experience their bandwidth can afford.
The support for SMS/PSTN/SIP allows developers to build M2M (Machine To Machine), A2P (Application to Person), or P2A (Person to Application) communications.
At the same time, the platform is continuously evolving to ensure you get high quality enterprise-grade real-time communication services. The pay as you go model further ensures that there is no customer lock-in.
Using CPaaS allows you to focus on the core aspects of UI and application design while leaving the challenge of real-time communication to the CPaaS solution provider. This way, you can create a comprehensive customer experience, customised and branded application UX/UI, and enhanced application user stickiness for a greater
