The purpose of this CXTech Week 29 newsletter is to highlight, with commentary, some of the news stories in CXTech this week. What is CXTech?  The C stands for Connectivity, Communications, Collaboration, Conversation, Customer; X for Experience because that’s what matters; and Tech because the focus is enablers.

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8X8 buys Wavecell for $125M

In case you didn’t know, Wavecell is a CPaaS provider based in Singapore. I was trying to get them involved in TADSummit Asia, but they were unusually quiet. Now I know why 🙂  It’s a fair multiple, congratulations to the Wavecell team.

This is further proof that CPaaS, UCaaS and CCaaS are converging. Hence why we use the term CXTech to capture this convergence and more. What will be interesting to see is how 8X8 take the business going forward. Will it focus more on a private CPaaS trajectory, that is augmenting 8X8’s UCaaS/CCaaS offer with APIs for a range of enterprise workflows. Or will it try to build out its CPaaS offer globally as both a augmented and stand-alone offer.

Regardless, we’re going to see more such consolidation in the coming months.

 

SIM SWAP: THE ULTIMATE CON

Excellent article on how easy SIM swap fraud can be. Telesign be examining this and many more fraud methods such as: registration fraud, ATO (Account TakeOver), and
IRSF (International Revenue Sharing Fraud); at TADSummit Americas (15-16 Oct) and TADSummit  EMEA (19-20 Nov). For all CXTech companies, having fraud management as part of your offer is essential.

 

The Problem With Mobile Phones In Unified Communications

Down to earth review of the importance of mobile phone plans in unified communications, and how SureVoIP meets that need. You’ll be able to hear from the CEO of SureVoIP, Gavin Henry, at TADSummit EMEA where he’ll present on “Building the SureVoIP Notify App”.

 

Come on UC Today, Step up Your Game if you’re going to cover CPaaS!

Cisco closed down Tropo, so no longer offers a CPaaS service or enabler (software that enables a business to offer CPaaS services to its customers).  Mitel is a UCaaS provider and as part of that solution has some API capabilities we could categorize as a private CPaaS, same is true for ALU Enterprise, RingCentral, and possibly Cisco (Broadsoft, I think it’s still on the roadmap). VoIP Studio is a VoIP provider not a CPaaS.  Yeastar is a UC/PBX provider, likely its offers include some APIs, like almost all software based services. But there’s no CPaaS that I’m aware of, nor a mention on their site. Neither are Network Intelligence (consultancy) and ipcortex (innovative UC/PBX provider) – keep an eye on what ipcortex’s founder Rob Pickering is up to next with ApliSay – you’ll learn more at TADSummit.

Here are a few more CPaaS providers you may consider adding to your list: 2600Hz / Kazoo, Aculab, Amazon, Brightlink, CafeX, Callfire, Cequens, Clickatel, Cloudonix, FoneFynamics, Enghouse (Vidyo), Flowroute, IMIMobile, Infobip, Kaleyra, MITTO, OpenMarket, SAP, Signalwire, Simwood, Syniverse, Telesign / BICS, Telnyx, Temasys, Thinq, Tyntec, Unifonic, Voyant, Wavecell (just bought by 8X8), Zipwhip, plus many many more…

I recommend you segment the list, here’s a suggested segmentation, so your readers aren’t comparing apples and oranges. For example Ribbon and Telestax are CPaaS enablers not CPaaS providers; there’s others like Apigate, hSenid Mobile, Telenity, in that segment. While companies like VoIP Innovations, IMIMobile, 2600Hz/Kazoo do both enablement and provide a CPaaS service. Companies like VoIP Innovations / Apidaze and Vonage / Nexmo are an interesting category of being enterprise focused telcos with a bundle of services including CPaaS.

You may find TADSummit a worthwhile event to attend to help you understand both CPaaS, and the broader convergence happening where we use the term CXTech to capture this convergence. That’s why you’re covering more the UC today.

 

Twilio Alternatives: How to Integrate Messages and Calls into Your App

This article misses the big price difference between incoming and outgoing messaging rates, see this article from last year. But I like the above linked article as its helping raise awareness of some of the alternatives to Twilio. And you can see in the list above there are many alternatives.

At TADSummit we’re going to frame-up this market to help people better understand the scope of the many alternatives. Plus, as I say at every TADHack, mash them up! There’s no reason not to use multiple providers; Uber, Lyft, Airbnb, and Netflix to name just a few certainly do. Its just a SWITCH statement!

 

TADSummit Sponsorship

We announced the sponsorship of TADSummit Americas and TADSummit EMEA by:

Telesign – connects and protects online experiences with sophisticated customer identity and engagement solutions. Through APIs that deliver user verification, data insights, and communication solutions, they solve today’s unique customer experience challenges by bridging businesses to the complex world of global telecommunications.

VoIP Innovations – established in 2007, offers a business class Wholesale VoIP Network that is designed with performance, availability, and security in mind. Their data centers, located on multiple power grids are interconnected via a robust dark fiber network that provides both the scalability and flexibility that their customers demand.

A key to their success is using technology to provide choice, automation, and control for their customers. Their industry-leading back-office platform, Titanium III, gives their customers access to network features such as inbound and outbound calling, E911, fraud detection, and hosted billing.

 

 

CPaaS must provide IoT businesses with a flexible platform to build their propositions on

Companies like Aeris Communications show this was done years ago. Here’s their presentation from TADSummit 2015. Have I mentioned TADSummit is where you get ahead of the game? 😉

 

People, Gossip, and Frivolous Stuff

Gary Schwartz is now VP Brand and Communications at Forter (fraud prevention). Previously he as SVP Marketing at Vidyo that was recently bought by Enghouse for $40M on $60M in revenues.

I didn’t notice this one until today, Lyle Pratt is now VP Strategic Growth at Voyant. Voyant’s next moves are going to be interesting 🙂  The best place to meet the thought-leaders in CXTech for Strategic Growth is at TADSummit Americas and TADSummit EMEA 😉

Ronan McLaughlin is now Corporate Strategy Management at Verizon. Previously he was in Ericsson’s US Cable Solutions Unit.

 

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