In previous articles in this series, we have examined the new imperatives governing organisations’ customer engagement strategies and we have introduced ideas around communications in the cloud and communications platform as a service (CPaaS) as a solution to the challenges of having to manage multiple channels of communication and multiple customer engagement processes and workflows.

Let us examine the requirements associated with cloud communications services:
Geographical reach and operational scale: For organisations only operating in one or a limited number of companies this is not really a concern, but for those organisations with global operations and global customer bases it is important to ensure that the preferred partner can cover a multi-country footprint. This can include how many countries and territories are call and message termination provided. It is also important to know whether local number services are supported. Other considerations include how many telecom carriers does the provider have interconnect arrangements with; How many redundant routes does a provider support in any given country; Can the cloud communications platform scale to meet peak transaction demands?

Breadth of service portfolio and roadmap for the future: This includes the type of services that a provider can support (Voice, SMS, RCS, ChatApps, Video, IoT etc), but it is also important to understand the roadmap of future services, so as to be able to plan service launches with accuracy. Other considerations include whether pre-built applications are available, to accelerate development time of a customer engagement service; Is there support for some kind of visual builder or easy to use design tool, thus providing an intuitive template-based approach to solution development.

Platform quality and software credentials: Will the partner guarantee a service level agreement, governing availability, performance, quality and reliability? Is the cloud communications platform modular, with easy to swap modules as well as the possibility of mix and match capabilities from 3rd parties. How many software updates are performed on a regular basis, to fix bugs and resolve issues? Are analytics and AI techniques used to optimise performance? Does the preferred platform offer intelligence features, or programable components to optimise application design and performance?

Availability and quality of APIs, design tools and documentation: Does the platform provide easy to access and use public APIs and support 2-way interactions with RESTful and XML commands? Does the partner provide individual libraries, IDEs and comprehensible online documentation? Also what type of support is provided for APIs, tools and documentation?

Size of the developer eco-system and scale of partner programme: How many active developers are using the platform? How extensive is the providers own partner programme? Does the provider conduct regular developer outreach activity, including hackathons and developer conferences?

Quality, security, administration and compliance procedures: Does the platform ensure secure operations, including encryption, intrusion detection, denial-of-service protection, fraud protection and indemnification? Is the provider compliant with industry certifications such as PCI, FIPS-140, ISO27001, HIPAA, FINRA and GDPR?

Pricing model: Does the provider only offer a usage based, pay-as-you-go type of pricing model, or does it provide a choice of pricing models, including volume-based discounts or committed use discounts? Is it possible to access and experiment on the platform with no commitment or cost?

Selling model: Does the provider only allow purchase and consumption via self-service options? Does it also provide assisted sales, including assigned account teams? Does the provider have a local office presence?

Service model: Are only self-service options allowed, possibly augmented by community forums? Is assisted support available across multiple channels? How much is charged for premium levels of support?

These are the kinds of questions that need to be asked of a potential cloud communications provider. The sort of responses received will help to establish a clear set of expectations, prior to engaging with a potential cloud communications partner. Of course, not all of these questions may be relevant, and they will vary depending on the organisational complexity and customer base of an organisation, but they will help to establish the credible providers of cloud communications services, in what is a crowded market.