What is CPaaS – Communication Platform as a Service Explained

Vigneshwar Published On October 17th, 2024 Tech Talks

The Meaning of CPaaS: CPaaS stands for Communication Platform as a Service, which saves businesses and developers a lot of time and resources to build a communication platform.

With flexible APIs and SDKs, CPaaS combines all real-time communication channels in a single platform.
Is that all behind the meaning of CPaaS?

There’s much more to consider in 2024 for enterprises in CPaaS integration.

This blog covers all about what CPaaS is, how it works and its real-time benefits. Keep reading and enjoy reading!

What is CPaaS?

CPaaS to be upright as a Communication Platform as a Service. The term “Communication Platform” explains real-time communication capabilities such as messaging, voice and video chats, SMS, and more. 

“As a Service” is a cloud-based API and SDK that connects those communication stacks to the user’s existing ecosystem. 

The CPaaS providers offer flexible chat APIs with product documentation and SDKs (Software Development Kits) to add real-time communication features to the existing ecosystem.

What are the Communication Features You Can Expect in CPaaS?

To eliminate the jumping stones from one platform to another for a specific feature, CPaaS brings custom features based on business requirements in a single interface.

The major real-time communication features that CPaaS covers includes:

• Instant chat and messaging
• Voice chat and conferencing
• Video chat and conferencing
• Live streaming
• Audio broadcasting
• SIP & VoIP calling
• Third-party integrations
• Contact center solutions
• Screen sharing and file uploads
• Topic based chat with multi-tenancy chat

How Does CPaaS Work?: The Architecture of a CPaaS

The architecture and core functionality of the CPaaS is based on the communication APIs and SDKs.
API (Application Programming Interface) is built with a set of functions that act as the bridge between two endpoints. SDKs (Software Development Kits) built with communication tools for developers to connect with applications.

Let’s take a food delivery application, for instance. If you order food through an app, the core objective is to connect users with restaurants and the delivery partner to deliver the ordered food.

In this process, CPaaS triggers features to connect all these endpoints through real-time communication. When the food is ordered, it has to be notified to both restaurants and delivery partners. Through instant messaging, users can text both of them with any requirements.

This doesn’t end; any of these dots can call others in real-time for any query or assistance. Also, food delivery apps can provide customer support with IVR and contact management to ensure all these processes.

In this process, no one needs to switch to other apps to make a voice call or send SMS. CPaaS streamlines all of these communication processes in a single platform.

CPaaS vs UCaaS

Till this, if you think about UCaaS and wonder how it’s different from CPaaS? Both provide a rich set of communication stacks to businesses. But how it delivers makes them different. Let’s look in detail.

CPaaS vs UCaaS: At a Glance

Features	CPaaS	UCaaS
Control	High degree of Customization	Pre-built features with limited customization
Focus	Developer focused	User-focused
Scalability	Highly scalable	Highly scalable too
Best for	Highly flexible for specific business needs.	All-in-one solution for  communication needs.

Think in this way: CPaaS is a buffet that lets you pick whatever you want. UCaaS gets you a packed buffet with pre-filled dishes.

CPaaS lets you pick the communication features with custom APIs to turn existing devices into communication tools.

UCaaS is a ready-to-use platform with built-in communication functionalities to get immediate access to the complete stack.

Choosing CPaaS vs UCaaS entirely depends on specific business requirements. Meanwhile, let’s see how CPaaS benefits businesses and other industries with its use case. 

Benefits of CPaaS

CPaaS offers flexibility, cost-efficiency and effortless solutions compared to traditional communication services. Companies don’t need to build high-end backend or complex infrastructure from scratch. 

Some of the key CPaaS benefits include

• Best user experience & engagement: As a collectively desired communication hub, CPaaS has held and ruled customer service. This starts with good reason; this solution offers real-time communication between clients and representatives. Either clients or agents don’t have to navigate and jump between different modes of communication on different platforms.
• Ease of integration & agility: With the pre-built APIs, businesses or developers can easily integrate and build a fully functional in-app chat solution into web and mobile applications. Based on requirements, adding or removing features is made possible.
• Saving time, cost & resources: With the CPaaS solution, you can use a pay-as-you-go consumption pricing model. Moreover, you can invest in a one-time license cost with white-label chat API solutions for lifetime access to the source code. This gives complete customization and saves time and expense. 
• Scalable: Along with customization, CPaaS solutions are completely scalable. For your current business stand, you can choose features. Later, you can add any desired features, such as voice chat, live video streaming, or anything with no extra fuss.

Key Features of CPaaS

CPaaS solutions cover a range of real-time communications with ready-made APIs. These APIs play an important role in powering professional communication and customer experience. 

The features include:

• Voice APIs: Integrate beyond traditional phone lines to enable personalized and high-quality in-app voice chat communication.
• Video APIs: Enable WebRTC based video conferencing with one-on-one and group meetings into your mobile desktop and web apps.
• Instant Messaging APIs: Along with voice and video APIs, instant messaging provides real-time connections between peers.
• On-Demand SIP/VoIP Calls: To deliver a fast and smooth calling experience with high quality SIP/VoIP calls.
• Social Media Messaging: CPaaS enables businesses and influencers to connect across platforms in a single platform for multi-support conversations.
• Number Masking: Phone number masking enables a connection between two parties without revealing their phone numbers.

These all are common communication APIs that can be compiled with CPaaS platforms. 

Real-Time Use Case of CPaaS

The role of CPaaS in customer engagement is huge. The customer retention rate also spikes for organizations that offer better communication. 

That’s why enterprises are looking to implement into their systems beyond their reach to develop.

1. Real-Time Customer Support

• Use case: Integrating live chat features in CPaaS with mobile, web, or desktop apps to provide timely and consistent customer support.
• Outcomes: Improved customer experience, retention rate, faster response time and increased efficiency.
• CPaaS features: With the self-hosted solution, you can expect the following features: instant messaging, unlimited file sharing, screen sharing, and customer data integration.

2. E-Commerce Experience

• Use case: Implement in-app chat and chatbots for product inquiries, order tracking, and customer support. 
• Outcomes: Personalized customer interaction, increased sales conversions, and improved customer loyalty.
• CPaaS features Multimedia messaging, payment integrations, and chatbots for basic initial queries.

3. For Internal Collaboration & Communication

• Use case: Build team interaction and collaboration features for better communication between team members and clients.
• Outcomes: Improved team productivity, enhanced collaboration, better project management and employee engagement.
• CPaaS features: The prime chat features of the team include group chats, unlimited voice/video conferencing, screen sharing, integration of project management tools and more.

4. On-Demand Services

• Use case: Establishing real-time communication between service providers and customers such as online food delivery apps, ride-sharing and more.
• Outcomes: Real-time tracking, improved customer experience, and top-notch service delivery.
• CPaaS features Location-based services, push notifications, live location sharing, in-app messaging, and calling.

5. Omnichannel Customer Interactions

• Use case: Integrate in-app chat with other communication channels for a unified customer experience for call centers.
• Outcomes: Improved agent efficiency, comprehensive customer data, call monitoring and analytics, and better customer interactions.
• CPaaS features Customer data management, call routing, SIP/VoIP calls, agent tracking, automated call queuing and tracking.

Is CPaaS Right for Your Business?

There’s no doubt that CPaaS solutions for enterprises are powerful, customizable and scalable. When it comes to deciding whether it’s right for your business, it depends. 

If your business needs communication as inevitable for internal collaboration or customer support, considering CPaaS will be the excellent choice. 

Moreover, CPaaS offers complete customization and flexibility. Hence, you don’t need to stick with the bundle plan with the associated price and don’t need to rely on the developers to scale or access.

To clear your doubts and pave the way to decide whether this communication platform as a service will be a good choice, we listed some of the questions that may probably help to figure out.

• What all the communication features do you need?

Determine what is your enterprise’s objective in establishing communication channels and to whom for it.

• Who is the focus of your communication?

As the above follows, CPaaS is a natural fit for consumer-focused communication; however, focusing on multiple use cases will be more beneficial.

• What level of customization do you want?

Since CPaaS gives flexibility and customizable options, determine the specific features that you need to employ. 

Final Thoughts

Although the market is complex to define, its estimated value in the next five years will reach $45.3 billion. 

Definitely one of the reasons for organizations to acquire a single system communication hub. In this case, if you feel overwhelmed with the providers, it’s best to choose the white-label CPaaS solutions to cut off your limitations.

MirrorFly is one of the leading CPaaS solution providers in the industry, offering end-to-end chat APIs and SDKs. With this platform, you can integrate a powerful communication solution with ultimate customizations and flexible hosting. 

Hope this guide about what CPaaS is and its features will help you! 

Good luck in building your communication system! 

 

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Related Articles:

• How 7 Industries Benefit from CPaaS Solutions: A Full Review
• Top CPaaS Providers for 2024: CPaaS Market Leaders
• Top CPaaS Companies – 7 Best Communication Platforms
• Best 7 CPaaS Platforms For Businesses In 2024
• UCaaS vs CPaaS: What’s the Difference & How to Choose?

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