Innovative add-ons

Looking to 2020 and beyond, CPaaS will get most interesting when it comes to innovations. These include developments embedding artificial intelligence (including voice recording, transcription and analytics for greater insights) and natural language processing (which make bots sound like humans and enable interactions in different languages and dialects). Another major opportunity for CSPs is to offer immersive communications solutions into existing applications, allowing companies to introduce innovations such as “communications-enabled business processes” layered into massive ERP, CRM and other enterprise productivity platforms.

The flexible nature of CPaaS and subscription-based business models means CSPs can enable their customers to start with a trial that can go live in days and grow as they become increasingly comfortable with the technology and services. Having largely transformed their legacy networks into networks based on NFV and SDN, CSPs are in an extremely advantageous position to offer premium CPaaS services that are more resilient, provide higher definition audio and video quality, and are more secure than solutions that rely on other companies’ tier-one networks.

In 2020, CPaaS will continue to grow and, with innovative add-ons, the platforms will only become more valuable. This makes them essential as enterprises continue to invest in improving customer experience and business operations through more automation and business intelligence from data analytics. 

Modular and scalable

The modular nature of CPaaS allows for the addition of new features over time, while the programmability of quality platforms allows features to be developed within a short amount of time. Given the scalable nature of CPaaS, new features and services can be added as business needs dictate and can be removed or replaced with simple software steps. Services can also be ramped up as traffic grows. With CPaaS, adapting to peak times in contact centers during insurance enrollments, campaigns and seasonal online shopping means enterprises don’t need to overbuy to accommodate extra traffic or ensure quality-of-service. Put simply, CPaaS provides the ultimate in flexing up and down.

Compliance solutions

Another huge trend for CPaaS in 2020 will be the emergence of compliance solutions. We are entering an era in which regulation to ensure data privacy seems to be becoming more extreme. Consider GDPR and its initial 2017 rollout, with hefty fines for violations. Because of this regulatory shift, enterprises are turning to voice recording and transcription, which generate data sets that can be easily analyzed in real time and searched in the event of an audit. Some of the most popular CPaaS add-ons enable call recording, which are mandated in some industries, such as financial services and healthcare.

Customer experience edge

Another massive growth area is extending customer experience beyond the traditional contact center definition. With CPaaS services based on data analytics, brands are able to capture and analyze data in the cloud and detect patterns and insights that can improve the fundamental nature of their offering. Data analytics also contributes to highly personalized services for each customer for those who agree that their information can be included in their records.

How CSPs can benefit

The value and benefits of CPaaS are in the mix. CPaaS has a much larger addressable market than just voice and video communications, UCaaS and embedded collaboration.