Voxeo Labs announced today the availability of Ameche, a Communications Platform as a Service (cPaaS) that delivers “Apps in your Calls™” to stabilize and grow voice, video, messaging, and value added service revenues, an over $1 trillion market. Ameche is a developer platform that provides the tools, execution environment and revenue models for a new generation of network-based applications that work with customers’ existing devices, no new numbers or messy call diversions.  Just check out the slick video on the Ameche Overview section to understand why this has the potential to revolutionize the way we experience real-time communications.

Ameche finally delivers on the decades long promise of service innovation from IMS, NGIN and even back to IN.  Think of Ameche as a web-centric service creation and execution platform for network services (voice, video and messaging) used by internal developers, partners such as system integrators, enterprise developers, Voxeo’s 250k strong developer community, and long tail developers to create new communication-centric services  for calls running over IMS and legacy networks, as well as OTT services.  This is different because it’s from a proven innovator in communication APIs with a vibrant developer community, and NOT from the IMS and network equipment vendors that institutionally poison service innovation given they make their money elsewhere so service innovation remains more lip-service than core strategy.

Voxeo Labs’ Ameche platform is a new category called cPaaS (communication Platform as a Service), it combines the best of telecoms and the web to create beautifully simple yet powerful communication services for all telecom customers on their existing phone numbers. It runs on node.js, a real-time cloud.  Enhancing the communication experience by enabling developers to mash-up communication services with cloud services such as SalesForce, Yammer, LinkedIn, and Google Apps.  Ameche creates a new way of thinking about communication services, it rewards simplicity by bringing the “app model” to telecom services, and not restricting app discovery to a single store, rather delivering through all possible channels such as through web and communication services customers use every day, e.g. Facebook; or the operator’s self-service tool on a smartphone; or the operator’s enterprise app store; or direct sales through the operator’s professional services or that of its partners.

Some examples of the many apps mentioned at Voxeo Labs’ site include:

• Social call status: Update Yammer or Facebook  status that you’re on a call with a customer or a friend.
  Example go to market: Free consumer service available in Facebook to promote operator’s brand “I’m on a call with Jim Jones, powered by ABC”, with Yammer includes rules and additional features for a small monthly fee and promoted through Yammer.
• Context-based Call Routing: As customers add more devices to their phone number, be it smartphone, tablet, PC client, desk phone, or web browser having multiple devices ringing at once is annoying.  Or worse if the devices are called in a chain, the caller gives up before the phone you’re closest to gets called.  With presence-based routing the call goes directly to the device they’re currently using.
  Example go to market: Feature differentiation for One Number services or for customers that use the operator’s IP clients, with possible upsell to monthly subscription fee.
• In-Call Voice Assistant: though the power of your voice: record calls, take notes that upload to Evernote, listen and send email / SMS / IM / Tweet / to do list, receive whisper meeting alerts during calls that only you hear, add people to calls….
  Example go to market: offer the text capability for free as part of the “Don’t text and drive campaign” and upsell the other features for small fee per month.
• Sales Call Integration: When a client calls, their order status is ready to view on your device. Also all communications with clients are recorded an uploaded into the preferred Customer Relationship Management Tool.
  Example go to market: Available in the Salesforce.com app store for a small monthly fee.

This is an exciting innovation, finally a platform that provides the tools, execution environment and revenue models for a new generation of network-based applications that work with customers’ existing phones; from a company that lives or dies on its success.  The IMS investments can finally be considered for more than just VoLTE, and the services created work across legacy networks.  So whether you’re looking to drive service innovation, create new services on your IMS platform, refresh your VAS platform, deploying NGIN or a service broker, or converging legacy and IMS VAS, Ameche must be on your evaluation list.