CPaaS & APIs
From API-driven service enhancements to marketplace news, here are a handful of announcements around programmable communications.
Vonage Debuts Number Programmability
Tapping into its Nexmo API platform, Vonage has
introduced a capability that adds programmability to any Vonage Business Cloud (VBC) phone number, giving users access to an array of functionality beyond the basic voice call.
For example, users might add a calendar check capability to their numbers such that when they’re not able to answer incoming calls, the caller would receive a voice response with availability information, as Dennis Fois, president of Vonage’s applications group, shared in a No Jitter briefing on the EC Expo floor. Additional
Number Programmability features and functionalities, spanning from the business to the contact center, include the ability to route calls programmatically, enable chatbots, integrate with third-party systems, trigger a transcription service, and more.
With Number Programmability, which is in beta now and slated for general availability this quarter (Q2 2019), Vonage aims to fix the problem of broken communications. Too often, he said, “we’re not building conversations in our interactions.”
Number Programmability “will hopefully give everybody an idea of how much innovation is still to be had with as simple a thing as a phone number,” added Fois, who had been CEO of cloud contact center provider
NewVoiceMedia, which Vonage acquired late last year.
Separately at EC, Vonage launched a contact center solution that takes advantage of the NewVoiceMedia technology. The new single-stack offering, called
CX Cloud Express, is built on the One Vonage platform and integrates with VBC, Fois said.
Voxbone Announces Tailored Enterprise Platform
Voxbone, historically a platform provider for global communications companies,
launched its enterprise platform.
With the platform, businesses will be able to deploy the full range of Voxbone’s functionality from a single touchpoint -- “offering global network reliability and full compliance with local regulations in every market, and scaling costs down as they scale business up,” the company said.
The Voxbone Enterprise Platform provides enterprises with access to:
- Voxbone Voice -- provides local presence and coverage across 92% of the world economy, the company said
- Voxbone Mobile -- two-way messaging and voice on mobile numbers in more than 25 countries
- Voxbone Connect -- provides connectivity to Voxbone’s backbone via roughly 400 local access points from partners
- Voxbone Insights -- provides ability to analyze call capacity, numbers, voice traffic, and more in real time
AT&T
launched an API Marketplace, for connecting developers and businesses with communications apps. The AT&T API Marketplace,
powered by Ribbon Communications’ Kandy platform, gives enterprises access to pre-packaged software code they can use to embed communications capabilities in their websites and applications.
The marketplace offers both turnkey applications and self-service APIs for adding services such as two-factor authentication, conferencing, and click-to-connect voice, video, and text. While the turnkey applications are aimed at enterprises with little to no developer resources, the self-service APIs are available for enterprise customers and developers who prefer to integrate capabilities into their own environments. AT&T is also offering support from its network integration services team to help organizations that want more customized integrations.
“The AT&T API Marketplace underscores the company’s overall strategy helping businesses drive tangible business outcomes through the depth and breadth of communication and collaboration solutions,” said Courtney Munroe, group vice president of Worldwide Telecommunications Research, IDC, in a prepared statement. “Interest in plug-and-play APIs like these is only growing because of their potential to deliver immediate value without a huge investment of time and resources.”
The
API Marketplace is available now to businesses and developers in the U.S.
Other Notable CPaaS/APIs News:
Network Management & Networking
Of course, management and monitoring news featured strongly at EC19.
Nectar Intros Next-Gen Monitoring Platform
Nectar Services, a provider of communications monitoring and performance management software,
launched its Nectar 10 solution, which correlates metrics and calculated insights across platform, network, and endpoint domains to provide actionable intelligence and enable more efficient management of voice, video, and collaboration environments, Nectar said. It features a new user interface for easier use, can support multivendor UC environments, and takes advantage of the cloud for streamlined management of communications apps and services.
“Platforms built in and for the cloud will bring a new level of value and functionality to voice, video and collaboration networks by simplifying the deployment and management of these UC environments,” said Rich Costello, senior research analyst at IDC, in a prepared statement.
The Nectar 10 platform will be available this month. The initial release will support Cisco collaboration deployments; support for Microsoft and other vendor environments will soon follow, Nectar said.
Voss Unveils Latest Version of VOSS-4-UC
Voss Solutions
introduced the latest version of its UC management platform, VOSS-4-UC, which includes a flexible management portal that allows centralized and regional IT control. According to Voss, platform highlights include:
- Dynamic Communications Workflow Automation -- provides business intelligence for communications workflows associated with digital transformation initiatives
- UC Middleware -- business and operational elements, abstracted from the core architecture, are fully configurable
- Automation Extension -- IT can tailor automation to enable in the end-to-end UC provisioning process
- IT-to-UC Integrations -- when in use as an integration point between UC, business, and IT systems, VOSS-4_UC enables “flow-through” provisioning processes
Infovista Enhances Ipanema SD-WAN
Network performance solutions provider Infovista
announced that it has enhanced its Ipanema SD-WAN solution with next-generation application intelligence and cloud native orchestration.
Ipanema SD-WAN capabilities include:
- Application quality score
- Cloud orchestrator
- User QoE (Quality of Experience) dashboard
- Dynamic cloud application database
- Deployment flexibility
- Multi-layered routing and security
Ipanema SD-WAN is available with multitenant management, for managed service providers.
More Notable Network/Management News:
Conclusion
This sampling of news coming out of EC19 encompasses some of the hottest trends in enterprise communications. With the promise of all that’s on the horizon, vendors are no doubt already thinking ahead to Enterprise Connect 2020, taking place March 30 to April 2 at the Gaylord Palms in Orlando, Fla. Mark your calendars!
Beth Schultz, No Jitter editor and Enterprise Connect program co-chair, contributed to this article.
