CPaaS is Taking Call Center Communications into the Cloud

Call centers are turning to Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) firms to provide cost-effective transformation into becoming cloud-based businesses. CPaaS lets any size company operate contact centers, chatbots and AI-supported communications from the cloud.

The benefits of turning to CPaas was the focus of a panel discussion in the Business Communications Solutions track at the ITEXPO in Fort Lauderdale, FL, on Feb, 13. Hosted by Andy Abramson (Moderator), chief marketing officer at SkySwitch, the discussion was titled “Why CPaaS is the Path to Better Enterprise Communications?”

Moving specific parts of your enterprise communications to the cloud makes sense, Abramson says. “CPaaS involves discreet components, it’s not the whole enchilada,” he says. “They really solve problems that businesses have.”

By implementing CPaaS solutions, companies can untether themselves from the office desk. “Premise based telecom goes away when you move to the cloud,” Steve Smith, founder and chief executive office at Fonative. “People can work from anywhere.”

“Standardization is the next step,” says Monnan Miah, product manager at Voxbone. His company helps CPaaS companies go global by providing network connection tools.

He says standards are needed so CPaaS companies can move their growth forward. “It’s about the interoperability of platforms,” Miah says.

Scaling is no problem for CPaaS purveyors, says Travis Hinton, product marketing manager at Bandwidth. “You’re never going to outgrow a CPaaS company that’s interested in working with you,” he says.

“The scalability is a big factor,” Smith says. “When something starts to take off, (CPaaS) scales with you.” Smith says a company can grow from 10 to 100 to 1,000 clients “and you don’t have to change a line of code.”

Hinton also noted that using APIs in the cloud means no buildout and no infrastructure to maintain. “It’s the nuts-and-bolts, core functionality of telecom, just modernized,” he says.

Why is it critical for contact centers to make the move to CPaaS critical for today, Abramson asked.

Full omnichannel support, Smith responded. CPaaS allows users to choose which channels they want. “You can mix and match these things,” he says.

How does CPaaS complement UPaaS, Abramson asked.

Miah says companies can use UCaaS internally, while deploying CPaaS externally. Smith says the lines between the two services are blurring. “Everyone’s always looking for adjacencies,” he says.

“They’re 100% complementary,” Hinton says. He says companies can leverage their direct connections to a carrier from CPaaS to UPaaS.

Smith says the move to CPaaS is part of the opportunity inherent in the ongoing digital disruption. “It’s the gold rush as far as the change in how telecom is bought, sold and used,” he says.

Edited by Maurice Nagle