The world witnessed the very first commercial Short Messaging Service(SMS) mobile service in 1993. Although SMS as a marketing channel was adopted only in 2000, it has reached a level where it can be righteously called as a globally respected and adapted mode of communication. Due to its simplicity, SMS has gained popularity as the most used mode of communication by 5 billion people which encompasses 65per cent of the total world population. To put it technically, SMS is a mode of communication which works on a simple cell phone and can be used either for a personal mode of communication or as a transactional and marketing communication channel between an application and a mobile handset for various purposes. SMS communication can be broadly classified into two:
Peer-to-Peer(P2P)
P2P communication is a personal mode of communication where one person communicates with the other over SMS.
Peer-to-Application(P2A)
P2A communication is a mode of communication initiated by a human to the enterprise/application.
Application-to-Peer(A2P)
A2P communication is a mode of establishing a communication channel between enterprise and peer. It is specifically used for transactional and marketing communication.
Ever wondered how big is A2P Messaging market and what makes SMS stand out of all other communication mediums?
- 2018 witnessed the enormity of A2P messaging which crossed over 2.1 trillion A2P messages.
- SMS is also the most widely used communication service across the globe.
- A report states that around 90per cent of SMSs are read within the first three minutes of their delivery
- 79per cent of companies believe in customer support via SMS.
- SMS has a customer engagement rate 6-8 times higher than email marketing due to its reach across the globe irrespective of the type of connectivity used in the respective region.
Handling technology as efficient and productive as SMS is surely tedious. Considering the hugeness of A2P market along with its complexities gave rise to the need of developing a platform/technology which is robust, efficient as well as user-friendly.
The rise of CPaaS
CPaaS (Communications Platform as a Service), is the way of letting enterprises execute their SMS transactions in a simpler, organised, and secured way. It is a powerful and configurable SMS platform that helps to manage the connectivity between applications, SMSC, and other messaging entities. With the capacity of transmitting over tens of thousand messages per second, CPaaS offers an extensive framework to manage real-time communication while eliminating the need to manually configure each instance, every single time.
What Makes CPaaS a Great Platform for Enterprises?
The goal for an enterprise is said to be achieved, only when the targeted revenue generation is accomplished along with customer satisfaction and retention. Understanding the magnitude of the reach of A2P messaging and considering its simplicity, developing a communication platform to manage SMS transactions is a technical artwork. Also, when we consider enterprise as a whole, it involves multiple segments, phases, duties, and targets. For an enterprise to maintain a seamless communication channel with their customers is as important as any of their preliminary tasks; SMSs make this possible easily.
What makes CPaaS most suitable for enterprises?
- Security
- Analytics
- Efficient Routing and Price-based System
- User Management
- Authentication and Verification
- On-premise solution
- Scalable Architecture
Security
“How secure are my text messages” is a question that hits almost all of us at some point in time. A text message, with a character limit of 160 can incorporate data that’s not only personal but sensitive. Safeguarding this data is extremely important for enterprises in order to maintain their goodwill in the market.
CPaaS comes with multi-layer data security which is provided in the form of access control, record deletion, firewalls, audit logs, and many such attributes. Also, it provides flexibility in terms of letting the super-user decide the access rights of their sub-users, it also assures message content and recipient list of mobile numbers are encrypted. Besides that, it also provides two-factor authentication and IP whitelisting for end customers as an additional layer of security.
Analytics and Reporting
Analytics and Reporting have gained tremendous gravity in the recent past. CPaaS is a phenomenal platform that provides a comprehensive option to analyse and scrutinize the performance of message transactions. It lets enterprises dig right into the base of their campaign through its in-depth reporting mechanism. The enterprise can access a wide range of performance statistics from various types of reports as given below:
- Daily Stats
- MIS Report
- Summary Report
- Administration Report
- Running Report
Efficient Routing and Price-based System
CPaaS has a customizable price-based mechanism that provides prices to an enterprise based on the country and operator which is validated against the coverage area of different routes. For efficient transmission of messages, it supports multiple routing for different gateways.
User Management
Every enterprise has got multiple divisions which are responsible for performing varied tasks. CPaaS, once deployed, enables a superuser to create multiple sub-users that can then be assigned to take up responsibilities relevant to their business processes.
It not only helps in easing out the entire lifecycle of sending text messages but at the same time completely terminates the need to develop and invest in multiple applications for the same purpose. This helps enterprises in carrying out their tasks independently along with saving a substantial amount of time and money. The essence of CPaaS lies in its simplicity and usability to laymen.
Authentication and Verification
Authentication and Verification is as important as creating a new SMS campaign. CPaaS provides a complete cycle of validation along with a customizable spam filtering mechanism. It not only validates the content of the message but at the same time authenticates the country and operator of all the mobile numbers in the list, depending upon the connectivity and coverage available at the platform. It provides a high level of content verification using a built in country-wise keyword specification. It automatically discards content that violates keyword specification.
On-premise Solution
It gives enterprises direct connectivity with operators resulting in saving additional costs. Data remains private within the enterprise as all rights are given to the super-user. Additionally, it also lets enterprise cater huge volumes.
Scalable Architecture
CPaaS is designed to have a scalable architecture to suit the needs of enterprises. Being highly customizable and robust, it can be scaled up vertically as well as horizontally to manage load and TPS. Additionally, it is a fully tested platform capable of transmitting over 10000 messages per second over multiple connectors.
Organize SMS marketing with a scalable, robust, and reliable platform and cater to the needs of your customers. CPaaS, a multi-threaded and cost-effective platform, is engineered to supply a resilient and optimised environment for enterprise.
Independent, customizable, and user-friendly, CPaaS is the key to manage SMSs effectively. Get your hands on CPaaS today!
Published in Entrepreneur India: CPaaS: A great platform that transforms the way enterprises communicate