Flowroute Highlights the Gargantuan Opportunity for APIs

Publisher�s Outlook

Flowroute Highlights the Gargantuan Opportunity for APIs

By Rich Tehrani, Group Editor-in-Chief, TMC  |  August 10, 2016

Flowroute is one of the companies in technology that gets it when it comes to APIs. The company provides carrier communication services enabling developers to integrate calling and messaging capabilities into their digital offerings or applications.

Yes, I know APIs aren’t new; we developers have been using them and function calls since programming progressed beyond punch cards. It’s for this reason that some underestimate how much is happening in this area of technology.

They may not realize just how much opportunity there is in opening up your platform to the world of developers and becoming the hub at the center of a thriving mini-economy you help create and foster.

In 2006, there were only 380 public APIs. Today that number has grown to more than 1,000. As Flowroute noted in a recent email to me, with the number of public APIs having nearly doubled in the past 18 months, enterprises and developers are rapidly beginning to incorporate APIs into their business strategies to improve customer experience, add functionality to existing products and services, and increase profits. The telecom industry is a huge contributor in this API revolution. According to Market Research Engine, the global telecom API market will grow at a CAGR of 24 percent and is expected to reach $325 billion by 2022.

“It’s no secret that innovation with telecom has been stifled due to the walls that have been built around telephony resources. Now, APIs are being used to expose a range of telecom resources, such as call control, location, messaging, provisioning and subscriber information to developers,” Flowroute noted. “This level of accessibility, and speed of integration, makes it easier for developers to add calling and messaging capabilities to their apps, and transform the user experience. What used to take months to code can now be developed almost instantaneously with APIs, enabling developers to quickly complete product integrations.”

I recently spoke with Dan Nordale (News - Alert), CMO of Flowroute, to discuss how the API economy is opening doors for developers to create new services and businesses using telecom, and how APIs are ultimately helping to democratize telecom, and fuel innovation.

What APIs do you have available?

Flowroute provides a single API that enables developers to programmatically control the provisioning and operations of their communication services. Additionally, Flowroute provides SDKs in common programming languages: NodeJS, Python, PHP, and Ruby on Rails with additional language support coming soon.

What are the benefits/solutions they help provide?

The Flowroute API allows SaaS (News - Alert)-based companies to incorporate communication capabilities into their user experience simply, and at scale, by removing the need to manually intervene when onboarding new customers or provisioning additional capabilities for existing customers.

What new business opportunities do they potentially open up for your partners?

Partners can use the Flowroute API to offer turnkey services for SaaS-based or enterprise companies that are looking to rapidly get to market with an improved user experience. This can be accomplished by utilizing a single API to provision phone numbers, enable calling and messaging capabilities through one provider – giving partners access to a broader range of communication services to drive incremental revenue through new and existing customers.

Why should developers/decision makers choose to be part of your ecosystem?

Flowroute gives companies the ability to deliver innovative applications through powerful integrations to carrier networks. Since Flowroute is a certificated carrier, it provides direct access to telephony resources to give developers unparalleled quality, control, and transparency over their communication services.

What are some of the cooler solutions that have been developed using your APIs?

Appointment reminders by ReminderCall, mental health app by CENTRD, and dating app by Type.Me.

How do you market your APIs?

Flowroute sponsors a number of hackathons, developer-specific events, creates developer content and use cases, and evangelizes its capabilities through developer user forums.

Who is the customer for your APIs?

SaaS-based and enterprise developers looking for a simple, yet powerful,  way to incorporate human interaction through calling and messaging into their applications and services. 




Edited by Alicia Young