Telestax Blog

CPaaS For Omnichannel Communications – Coming Soon To Japan

CPaaS is not a well-known IT term in Japan, but in the United States business models utilizing “CPaaS” have become very popular. Even if I select Japan as my “Regional setting” in Google and search for the term “CPaaS”, I cannot find an easy-to-understand explanation. So I would like to talk about “CPaaS” for the Japanese people reading this blog.

First of all, “CPaaS” (Communications Platform as a Service) is a Cloud Communications platform that can provide Omnichannel communication capabilities through a programmable API”. Listening to this statement, I believe some people will ask what the difference is between CPaaS and UC (Unified Communications). In addition, I think that there are also people who think “It must be an expensive solution”. CPaaS solves a very different problem that UC cannot solve

Again, CPaaS is a “cloud communications platform that can provide Omnichannel communication functions through a programmable API”. That’s right , the term API is important. API is an abbreviation for Application Programming Interface. It is a specification intended to be used as an interface by software components to communicate with each other. An API may include specifications for routines, data structures, object classes, and variables. It is through this API that enables CPaaS to provide a means for all communication. Telephones, video, short messages, audio conferences, video conferences, screen sharing, bidirectional whiteboards, call recording, IVR etc. can be implemented within existing applications via the API.

Until now I had to understand the protocol of the phone when trying to make a phone call from an application. For example, to develop a real-time voice application, you will need to understand SIP (Session Initiation Protocol), the standard protocol of real voice communication, and then implement it within the application.

SIP was established as RFC 3261 to RFC 3265 in 2002, since the description of the protocol is text-based and close to HTTP, it has been freed from the complexity of H.323 and it is able to execute quickly. However, implementing SIP communication is still quite a huge task for application engineers. For example, when making a phone call, the caller sends an “INVITE” to the called party, the called party returns “Ringing”, and responds “OK”. Then the sender returns “ACK” to the called party and the session is established. Further bidirectional communication is started by implementing RTP (real-time transfer protocol).

Just making a phone call, you need a protocol description like the above. But when you further consider the implementation of disconnection, hold, transfer, park etc. incredible planning and technical skill are required. It is definitely not for the weak of heart.

Although this is an example of implementing a telephone conversation, the same level of complexity is associated with the other Omnichannel communications. When trying to develop a new communication system that implements video, conference, messaging, etc., the complexity level is the same. It will be necessary to describe various complicated protocols, which will require combining disparate systems that have to be integrated using a vendor’s proprietary API. Unfortunately, these disjointed systems evolve apart, and in the worst case they will be at risk of losing system coordination.

It is a full-stack “CPaaS” that can resolve the issues related to such irrational and costly systems, along with problems associated with simultaneous system coordination between different vendors. “CPaaS” can request and use most communication with the fixed HTTP format and RESTful APIs of the description rule – without being conscious of the troublesome protocol described earlier in this blog. Of course if you really want to construct a complicated system, you can write as before.

CPaaS provides these powerful programmable APIs in the cloud. The SaaS architecture has switched programming from conventional on-premises applications to cloud services. What happened at that time? That’s right – It is now possible improve the convenience of developing software and to introduce the applications cheaply, including keeping the system running. CPaaS can turn the previous expensive integration and complicated requirements for building real-time communications applications into an inexpensive and easy to construct development process.

In Japan, CPaaS is quietly penetrating. The most straightforward example is WebRTC. WebRTC is a technology that allows you to communicate with a simple API using a web browser. If you use the SDK it is also possible to incorporate it into your application instead of a web browser. One of the most popular examples of incorporating WebRTC into applications is Facebook Messenger.

I personally believe the foundation for realizing the benefits from CPaaS as I mentioned above is Telestax’s RestcommONE. It is representative of CPaaS technology, which is widely used in the United States and globally. Telestax is a company spun out of Red Hat by the JBOSS communication team. And the telecommunication functions provided by Telestax have been adopted by about 70% of the world’s communication carriers. And RestcommONE is based on technology that has been cultivated with the deep history in telecommunications. RestcommONE will satisfy the improvement requirements of real-time communications in B2B and B2C as “CPaaS”.

Consider this example: Everyone reserves a doctor appointment, a haircut, a restaurant table, etc., based on times that are convenient for them. Reservations are made on the reservation screen of the smartphone or PC. Well, as the reservation date is a few days in the future, it is common to forget the date because of a busy schedule. What happens then? From the perspective of the business owner, people who reserve appointments but do not show waste staff time and resources so a cancellation fee will be imposed by the business. Nobody is happy.

RestcommONE (CPaaS) can solve the no show problem.

Use the RESTful API for your reservation system and instruct “ReservONE (CPaaS)” to send the reservation holder a short text “Reservation date is in 3 days”. In the event the customer realizes that they cannot make the appointment date they make a reservation change by selecting a means of communication by “canceling” or “changing reservation date” from the text, chat, phone etc. You can read a great blog on this topic here.

This is how you can prevent most opportunity losses. Moreover, it can also play a role in reforming the way we work. A scene like below can be improved with real-time communications.

The meeting organizer finally finds a date time for a meeting in that includes all participants who are indispensable, and schedules the meeting.

However, it is impossible for the most important members to attend the meeting promptly due to troubleshooting the meeting software on their computers. Now it will be tough for the meeting time to be readjusted. Check the participant’s schedule, e-mail and try again.

RestcommONE (CPaaS) can solve this non-productive work. I suggest there can be a reservation system designed that can find the day when all participants are free. It will then notify everyone by text and log all reservations in the system. When the meeting takes place it is through a RestcommONE WebRTC application so no downloading or troubleshooting meeting software because video is handled by RestcommONE and the browser.

As a mere example, RestcommONE (CPaaS) can solve the problems related to such communication. This trend of communication reform by “CPaaS” will soon come to Japan. RestcommONE (CPaaS) provides communication with higher convenience and high ROI service.

If you are interested please contact us. We’ll be expecting you.

Get awesome content in your inbox every week.

Give it a try. It only takes a click to unsubscribe.