This post was provided by Phone.com.
It’s been over 20 years since businesses have had the opportunity to shift from legacy TDM systems to IP-based communications. And yet, just two years ago, 72% of companies were still using aging TDM infrastructure as opposed to modern, high-quality VoIP.
One reason that so many companies have been slow to make the move is that they see communications systems simply as a way to make phone calls.
If you’re still taking and making calls on your TDM system, why spend the time and money transitioning to a VoIP solution?
But modern communications are about so much more than phone calls. And with cloud-based unified communications as a service (UCaaS), you get advanced features that help improve customer experiences, increase cost efficiency, and grow your business.
That’s why the UCaaS market will grow to nearly $18 billion by 2022.
One company with an impressive track record and thriving channel partner program is Phone.com.
For channel partners, agents, managed services providers and integrators that want to distinguish themselves in a very crowded market, Phone.com is a comprehensive cloud-based platform that offers UCaaS that is much more than a simple phone replacement.
According to telecom analyst Jon Arnold, “Generally speaking, the strong do survive, but you don’t have to be the biggest. A more valuable trait is adaptability, and when it comes to supporting SMBs, Phone.com does this better than pretty much any hosted provider I know of.”
6 Ways APIs Improve Unified Communications
Every UCaaS provider is going to offer you a similar base set of services—VoIP, presence information, instant messaging, mobility, videoconferencing, desktop sharing, and more.
“In a sense,” noted CEO Ari Rabban, UCaaS is all about breaking down barriers between channels and eliminating silos within your communications stack. But without APIs, UCaaS can quickly become a silo itself.
Rather than investing in a siloed UCaaS solution that doesn’t integrate with business workflows, it’s best to find a vendor with an extensive library of open APIs that deliver:
- Programmatic Integration: Without APIs, you’d need to enlist developers to spend hours coding the specific integrations you want from communications tools. But with telephony APIs, you can give business systems access to UC services without the need for extensive backend development.
- Easy PBX Access: Phone.com APIs help business users take control of UC services by providing easy PBX access. This allows business users to add new phone numbers, configure new devices, establish call routing rules, and more to improve workflows in their specific departments. By taking these functions out of the hands of IT, you can increase productivity across the organization.
- Smarter IVR Systems: Interactive voice response (IVR) systems are notorious for providing sub-par customer experiences. That’s partially because you’re forced to set inflexible rules that fall behind customer expectations. APIs help you configure smarter IVR systems by introducing configuration flexibility to address evolving business needs.
- Business System Integration: One key to unlocking more value from UCaaS is to integrate with your CRM. With Phone.com APIs, you can integrate with Salesforce, Zoho, and other CRM systems to surface customer records during sales and support calls and help your agents create personalized experiences.
- Applications Integration: As you evaluate UCaaS providers, one way to differentiate services is to look for Zapier integration. Phone.com, which offers Zapier integration, empowers customers with myriad possibilities customizing applications for specific workflows. Zapier integration allows Phone.com customers to extend UCaaS features into thousands of cloud-based solutions, delivering automation and significantly increasing workforce productivity.
These are just six examples of the value that APIs can provide within UCaaS solutions. And with the level of maturity in the growing UCaaS market, they should be expectations (not luxuries) when you’re evaluating potential vendors.
Once you’ve determined that a UCaaS provider offers this baseline API functionality, you have to look more closely at whether or not you can customize integrations for your specific needs.
“APIs allows your customers to extend our platform, enabling developers to integrate communications services capabilities in their apps, added Rabban. “By reducing the required lines of code by 10x, Phone.com APIs streamline development; shortened code cuts both developer training time and costs.
“By making it quick and easy to customize deployments, Phone.com helps businesses tailor UCaaS to match customers’ needs, reducing churn,” said Rabban.
Creating Custom Workflows: The API Differentiator
Rabban noted that back in 2017, we saw an explosion of API integrations in the UCaaS market. That’s why, when you’re looking to adopt UCaaS, you can use API functionality as a baseline for vendors on your short list.
But if you’re going to demand more from communications solutions than simply making phone calls, you need to find a vendor that will support business agility and flexibility. Limited API functionality won’t be enough.
Unlocking the value of UCaaS is all about workflows.
For channel partners and service providers that want to create new revenue streams, empower you to create custom workflows, contact Phone.com to learn more about how their UCaaS solutions help businesses get the most out of modern communications.
Founded in 2008, Phone.com is trusted by more than 30,000 businesses is known for providing business communications that are flexible, professional and capable of supporting onsite, remote and mobile employees. The company’s award-winning UCaaS platform makes collaboration by any channel, any location, on any device, seamless and easy.
