CPaaS vendors are transforming how companies approach customer experience in the modern world. These innovative companies produce flexible technology to help organizations deliver seamless, omnichannel experiences with minimal cost and complexity.
Currently, the market for Communication Platform as a Service solution is expected to reach a massive $130.8 billion in 2032, driven by increasing demand for simple, cloud-based CX technology. However, while many vendors offer CPaaS technologies today, they aren’t all created equally. Finding the right CPaaS vendors requires a strategic approach.
Here’s your step-by-step guide to finding the right CPaaS solution for your business in 2024 and beyond.
Step 1: Assess Your Business Goals
CPaaS vendors offer companies straightforward platforms with SDKs, APIs, and tools that embed new technology into existing workflows. With the right vendor, companies can bring real-time communication capabilities into their apps and tools. Plus, business leaders can take advantage of innovative tools for marketing, sales, and even enhanced security.
The right CPaaS vendor will be the one that offers all of the APIs and toolkits you need to address your business goals. This means you’ll need to think about:
- Which communication channels do you need? Do you want to embed voice, video, SMS, messaging, email, or other solutions into your existing technologies? Assess your customer journey map to find out which channels you need.
- Existing tools and resources: Do your CPaaS solutions need to integrate easily with specific platforms, such as your contact center, UCaaS tools, and CRM systems?
- Additional APIs: Alongside communication tools, what other API solutions might you need to access? Options range from tools for creating chatbots to multi-factor authentication options.
Step 2: Consider Ease of Implementation
One of the reasons CPaaS is such a compelling option for companies investing in contact center transformation is its simplicity. CPaaS vendors give businesses all of the tools they need to implement new technologies into their ecosystem without the need to pay for developers. However, the platforms available today can vary in complexity.
Some offer an entirely no-code experience, ideal for those with limited IT and technology teams, while others require a little coding knowledge. Make sure you know what kind of languages the company uses for APIs, such as PHP or Java. Check out much support you can expect to get from the team when implementing these tools into your workflows.
Some companies will even offer bespoke step-by-step onboarding services, access to a success manager, or support from a vast developer community.
Step 3: Look at the CPaaS Vendors’ Infrastructure
CPaaS vendors don’t just give you the tools you need to implement new forms of communication and new technology into your CX stack. They’re also often responsible for offering the infrastructure that ensures you can deliver a reliable and consistent service.
When assessing possible vendors, check whether they share any uptime guarantees on their website. An uptime guarantee of around 99.99% is standard for most communication leaders. You may also want to check if they have any failover mechanisms in place to help improve reliability.
Depending on your business, it may also be crucial to check your vendor has a wide geographic presence. This means checking to see whether they have data centers and teams available in all regions you might serve.