What Type of Businesses Need an Enterprise CPaaS?

CPaaS — Communications-Platform-as-a-Service — is viable for nearly any business. Almost any business communication need, from texting and video calls to prototyping and affordable telecom for a startup, can be met by a CPaaS provider or communications API.

However, CPaaS providers are not created equal, and enterprise businesses have more rigorous demands than smaller organizations. Enterprise level companies need a CPaaS provider that delivers the reliability of legacy telecom with the flexibility and convenience of Internet-enabled communications.

So, what traits does a CPaaS provider need to be enterprise ready? And, how do you know if you need an enterprise CPaaS?

What Makes a CPaaS Enterprise-Grade?

There are specific criteria that CPaaS providers must meet to be considered enterprise ready. In a single statement, an enterprise CPaaS needs to deliver consistent communications architecture with support and service capabilities for cloud tooling, integrated platforms and global commerce.

To meet these criteria, a CPaaS must deliver:

• High-reliability service. The average enterprise experiences 87 hours of network downtime a year at a cost of $3.7M. The cost of even minutes of downtime can be high. An enterprise CPaaS should promise and deliver 99.999% uptime. This is less than 5 minutes of downtime a year.
• End-to-end security. Cyber crimes cost enterprises $400M annually. Whenever your data is traversing the CPaaS network, it should be encrypted. End-to-end security also means transmitting data over private fiber as much as possible and avoiding contact with the public internet, where your data is exposed to attacks and bad actors.
• Measurable impact on productivity. An enterprise CPaaS should offer precise configuration options and communications API integration that tailors the platform to specialized enterprise needs and automates processes that can kill productivity in large-scale operations. At Telnyx, we’ve found that our customer onboarding features can shorten our clients’ sales cycles by 1 month.
• Advanced integration and interoperability. The average enterprise uses 508 applications. An enterprise CPaaS should work with your tech stack, not require you to build a new one. Self-service configuration and APIs have become the industry standard for an enterprise CPaaS.
• Responsive support. An enterprise CPaaS should be more than an application or platform. A CPaaS provider needs to be a technology partner. This means educating clients’ employees and innovating ways to improve services and make service delivery easier. This can only be accomplished with a well-developed support team that is responsive, proactive and available around-the-clock.
• Lasting Business Model. Enterprise businesses need long-term partnerships. It’s important that an enterprise CPaaS relies on their own private architecture as much as possible and diversifies their third-party providers to minimize the impact of external circumstances on their services and longevity.

This is a fairly extensive list. However, a true enterprise CPaaS can easily demonstrate how they meet each of these requirements and lay out their plan for long-term viability and expanding to meet the growing demands of their enterprise clients.

If you’re not sure if you need an enterprise CPaaS, you can clear the waters with a few simple questions.

Are You Ready for an Enterprise CPaaS?

Are your communications mission-critical?

Businesses that need an enterprise CPaaS and communications API rely on their communications to deliver service to a large user base and need a CPaaS provider that’s a long-term strategic technology partner.

If this sounds like your business, then you’re ready for an enterprise CPaaS.

An enterprise CPaaS provider is right for these types of businesses:

• Managed service providers (MSP) with a telephony product line and internet telephony service providers (ITSP).
• VoIP and unified communication application developers.
• Marketing platforms that manage telephone numbers.
• Global enterprises with in-house communication teams.

You can use these requirements to build a pool of potential CPaaS providers and run small-scale proof-of-concept tests to see how each CPaaS provider meets the specifications of your technology and supports your business development.