highlighting that the words Telco and Telecoms are different. I gave lots of examples of how the democratization of telecoms is enabling a DIY movement across enterprises and services providers in solving problems in their businesses. All based on telecom app development. I then highlighted the challenges Telcos (network operators) have faced in harnessing this movement.
[2024]Digital Global Overview Report 2024 Meltwater.pdf
IIT RTC 2016 Telecoms is now Democratized
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7. Improving Business Operations
• Aeris – Global M2M/IoT MVNO using open source telecom app server and APIs for
enterprise use cases
• Banque Casino – Global bank using click to call to increase customer engagement
• Criteo – global marketing company using telecom APIs / platforms to improve internal
communications
• Delivery.com – online food ordering, using telecom APIs in process with local stores
• Evaneos – online custom travel planning using WebRTC to improve communications and
lower costs
• HireIQ – call center recruitment using telecom APIs to improve multi-lingual hiring and
retention
• Home Depot – online trade-person portal for home owners – improve call center operations
• Hulu – IP video service, deliver unique call center experience on telecom APIs
• Intuit – one of the first 2FA services using APIs giving an 18 month lead in SMB payroll
services
• Jamko Force Networks – SIP trucking that enables small businesses to offer hosted voice
services
• Liveperson – Adding contextual based calling to better route customer communications
• Pinig – Amazon Mayday like service upgrade to their easy to use tablets
8. Improving Business Operations
• Protivit – Using telecom APIs for corporate compliance
• Questar – Using telecom APIs for sales receipt feedback
• UK City Transfers – using telecom APIs for local phone numbers and
connecting travellers and local car services
• USA Contact Point - SIP trucking to support a call center’s specific
needs
• Viber – SMS support for two factor authentication
• Zanox – Voice API (cloud voice services) to support call tracking for
advertising
9. Made Possible…..
• BetterVoice – re-inventing business class phone system using open source and
telecom APIs
• BlueLight – enhanced security and emergency calling using telecom APIs
• Burner – using telecom APIs to make money out of all the unused phone numbers
• Extrogene / OfferHut – business focused on creating telecom API enabled services
• Fone.do – moving the SMB phone system into the browwer using open source and
telecom APIs
• KISST – SMS based CRM using telecom APIs
• Mercury Flight – broadcast messaging using telecom APIs
• Mobisec - business focused on creating telecom API enabled services
• RogerVoice – enabling deaf people to use the phone with VoIP redirect and speech to
text
• Speak2Leads – lead response management using telecom APIs
• Textizen – citizen engagement using SMS
• TimeForge – employee scheduling using telecom APIs
10. Delivery.com.
Description: Delivery.com provides a
simple online service: see who delivers in
your neighborhood. Across food, alcohol,
groceries and laundry. They are based in
the US with 150 employees and
revenues$50M-$100M.
Application: A customer places their order
online at delivery.com. The order is faxed to
the merchant, and then the merchant is auto-
dialed to confirm the order is OK and that it will
be ready or delivered on time using the
confirmation code on the fax, and hence the
credit card payment can be made.
Awareness: We’d seen vendors like
Voxeo and the recently funded Twilio
talking about Telecom APIs. We needed a
network partner with 24 by 7 up-time,
that had control over their infrastructure.
We also talked with their larger
customers.
Impact: Moving to a telecom API removed
a major headache in our growth. We can
scale instantaneously, from 50 to 100 calls
per minute. Our operating costs are about
50% lower, but the big gain is in
management focus, its focused on core
operations not telecoms.
Why: They had 8 voice servers with primary rate
PSTN network connections. They used Asterisk and
Dialogic cards. It required significant support, when
problems arose they were dependent on either the
Asterisk community or themselves to solve
problems. When a line card failed it took time
(weeks) to replace. Their business had reached a size
that every minute of lost service resulted in
hundreds if not thousands of dollars of lost revenue.
Plans: Many of these stores are not online, but SMS is
amazingly powerful. We can confirm orders not by the
fixed phone line in the store, but by SMS to the store
owner’s mobile phone. We maintain a ‘connection’
between the customer and the merchant. Say an
order is going to be delayed by 10 minutes, the
merchant lets us know by SMS and we let the
customer know.”
11. Evanos
Description: Evaneos is a custom
travel agency, founded in 2009,
employing roughly 100 people, with
revenues of about $20-50M.
Application: Customers can review available
vacations / destinations, then customize and
discuss the itinerary with the local agent.
Monitoring the quality of these connections
was critical using the trial phase. We found they
were rated better than traditional PSTN calls.
Awareness: We met Apidaze at a developer
event in Paris, and from that meeting we were
able to trial and build out our agent
communications using WebRTC to avoid
international call charges and more
importantly improve the quality of the calls
with local agents around the world
Impact: Apart from the cost savings from all
the international calls, it’s the improvement in
sales from the higher quality voice. People
communicating drive our business, and making
that experience as good as possible has a
significant (>10%) impact sales.
Why: English tends to be the language used
on the calls, and often both parties are using
English as a second language. The quality of
that call is essential to a successful deal.
International PSTN calls are often expensive
as well as low quality. Using WebRTC from
Apidaze has transformed our business in
lowering cost of operations and improving
sales.
Plans: We are expanding the using of Apidaze
communication services and features across all
our communications (both internal and
external).
12. HireIQ
Description: HireIQ’s SaaS-based on demand
interviewing and assessment solutions improve
hiring efficiency, lower attrition, and improve
workforce performance. Founded in 2009,
based in the US, employs about 20 people,
revenues of $5-10M.
Application: We automates the initial interviews.
The potential recruit simply clicks on a link or makes a
call to answer some prerecorded standard questions
whenever and wherever is convenient for them. The
answers are recorded and sent to the recruiter for
review. This is all provided by Tropo.
Awareness: Our CTO had worked with Tropo in
the past and was confident on their ability to
deliver a reliable platform with first class
support. Telecom APIs make it so easy to
automate many tasks in business. We avoid the
costs of running a call center, dealing with
carriers, and other operational distractions.
We’re at about 15 to 20% of the cost of
running it ourselves.
Impact: We reduce hiring effort by 80%, hiring
time by 40%, retention by 60-100% and agent
performance by 35-60%. This is saving our
customers between $100k to well over $1M
per year. Some of out customers employ over
35k agents. Simply through automating the
front-end recruitment process.
Why: We need a trusted partner to run our
business on. I can not stress this more highly.
Trust and reliability of your API provider are
mission critical. If their service fails we are
loosing revenue, our business credibility is
impacted. Problems do happen, and this is
where immediate open communications are
critical to help us manage situations.
Plans: Our focus remains on greater
automation and accuracy of candidate
selection, through further tests and
assessments. This focus would not be possible
without all the backend technology being
outsourced thanks to telecom APIs.
13. Home Depot
Description: Redbeacon (owned by Home
Depot) connects qualified pros with
homeowners who are looking for a pro to help
with their home-service projects. Since the
acquisition in 2012 no details are publicly
available, team is estimated at 50 people with
$50 M in revenues.
Application: The IVR is the crux of our business, we
have vetted professionals, we gather the home owner
project details, then informing the professionals, and
then connect the selected professional and home
owner. Our process is tightly bound to our systems
and IVR, no off the shelf commercial system could
deliver.
Awareness: Became aware of Telecom APIs
through efforts of Twilio, Tropo, Plivo and
Programmable Web. The problem we faced
was scaling our CRM to serve Home Depots
2200 stores in 2 months, on a limited budget.
We were now a P&L center within a big
corporation, cash was as tight as being a start-
up.
Impact: Could communications is the only cost
option. It avoids scaling risks, it converts a
multiple million dollar investment into about
$50k per month. We can customize and refine,
we have control. All the traditional IVR
solutions resulted in expensive platform and SI
lock-in.
Why: ACD (Automatic Call Distribution) centers
come in at $1k-$2k per agent. CTI (Computer
Telephony Integration) can cost $2k to $5k per
seat. IVR can cost up to $1M. And adding simple
features like quality monitoring or voice
recording were $500 per seat. Using Twilio meant
we could meet the goal with minimal upfront and
month fee of about $50k per month (almost
same opex as other options).
Plans: Would not share plans as confidential
21. Food for Thought
• Telecoms is becoming democratized, open / closed source platforms and APIs
o Telecoms and the web continue to merge and evolve
o DIY is on the rise – your customers are doing it themselves
o Discovery comes from people talking to people and publishing vertical industry
solutions
• Channels are on the rise as Apple/Android app stores pass their peak. Within
platforms (A2P), at the edge of networks, and on devices other than
smartphones.
• Technology is moving fast – watch the decentralized web
• Innovation is everywhere – the skill is in finding your role in the emerging
landscape – it is localized
o Focus on where you can create and/or deliver unique value within your country’s
ecosystem
• Now let’s discussion North America….