View the entire newsletter for more articles: 2023 – NJAC County Biz – November
by Steve White, VP Government Programs, Yorktel
Most likely your organization has things it wants or needs to convey to a wide audience or even the general public. Although today’s IT makes it feasible to reach a mass audience, gaining the audience’s trust and being able to deliver somewhat personalized services can pose significant challenges. Internet, mobile, and social media provide effective channels for communication, but they’re also afflicted by spam, disinformation, phishing, and malware. Increasingly people ignore, or are downright suspicious of, any unsolicited outreach. To engage their audience and avoid SMS costs, some organizations create their own mobile apps, but this approach can face other obstacles.[1]
The search for ways to improve communication using existing channels while mitigating known problems has led to the emergence of a new class of solution: Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS). These cloud-based applications enable an organization to:
- Meet people ‘where they are’ on their preferred platform and device.
- Transcend individual messaging and communications platforms.
- Create a personalized conversation.
- Support secure, trustworthy interactions.
A CPaaS-mediated interaction between an organization and the individuals is described as a conversation. Once the target audience is identified, a “Conversation Designer” uses the CPaaS platform tools to create one or more points of entry into a conversation (e.g. a QR code) from where the conversation then flows. The client and designer can decide which channels a conversation should use. Leading omni-channel CPaaS solutions support but are not limited to using SMS, MMS, Email, Chat, Phone, Contact Center and Video services available from various platform providers. The CPaaS can help create consistent experience across platforms and use the person’s inputs and responses to steer the conversation. A CPaaS system may also (optionally) dip into institutional data or paid data services to personalize the interaction and outcomes for individual participants.
Being a ‘cloud’ service, CPaaS systems are scalable to manage from tens to tens-of-thousands of personalized conversations simultaneously across different channels. The designer may choose to offer one or more channel(s) for communication and might move between channels in an individual conversation. Though still in its infancy, generative-AI is widely expected to have a major role in CPaaS and is already adding flexibility and an improved user experience. Live-agent contact centers can be incorporated into the conversational design and may be integrated with AI-enabled features.
The applications and outcomes for CPaaS conversations for both public and private sector are limitless. For example, a conversation might provide timely service information (e.g., when will the next bus arrive at this stop), or start trial subscription; or generate a voucher; or mail a statement; or make an appointment.
Generative AI-enabled CPaaS is fairly new but has reached a stage of maturity that Gartner Group recently initiated coverage of CPaaS under a new ‘magic quadrant’. If interested to discuss CPaaS, please contact Steve White at Yorktel: njstart@yorktel.com.
[1] (Market Study: Mobile Customer Experience Issues Highlight Use Cases for iOS App Clips (heady.io)