Cloud communication helping startups grow, creating a win-win scenario

Enterprises, SMEs and Startups are strongly relying on cloud communication for their business needs. Gone are the days when businesses handled their communication through contact centers. The contact centers have been replaced by modern day cloud centers, where calls are automated. This reduced redundancies in processes and minimizes manual efforts by automating the existing modules. The most simplest form of the communication, messaging has gone under lot of transformations to take a fully automated form. The dynamic APIs and intuitive applications to manage campaigns have made the process, all easier.

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Not just enterprises, there’s a drift in the usage of cloud systems in the past decade, where startups and SMEs are also preferring cloud mechanisms over conventional technologies. India has been a storehouse of some power packed startups that have kicked off right from the inception. According to the Nasscom report, the startup heads counted to 3100 in 2014 and are expected to grow to 11,500 by 2020. In the startup ecosystem, cloud communication has paved its way early in the last decade. Irrespective of the industry they belong to, startups discovered the positive impact that Cloud communication brought to their business growth. Cloud systems allow flexible options like Zero Capex, Instant service provisioning, Zero infrastructure, Zero maintenance, Scalability, Personalization, Mobility solutions and omnichannel support, to startups which meticulously suits the requirements of a business unit that runs on a high growth and low investment model.

E-marketplaces that offer variety of services like auditing, cab sharing, messaging, food ordering, shopping and entertainment require anonymity of the parties involved in the transactions, to secure sensitive data and ensure privacy. Marketplaces like auctioning, classifieds that rely on customer-to-customer communications strictly restrict the conversations to the website/app level to maintain data security. “Call Masking/ Call Bridging” is the solution that masks the real identity of the parties involved by creating pseudo numbers used for that particular transaction.

For banking, insurance and payment apps, which require user authentication to take the process further, there’s “2FA” (Two factor authentication) to keep security and access threats at bay. For ardent shoppers, there are offers and promotions triggered through Messages. For all those customer complaints, there are “Click-to-Call” and “Toll Free Number Solutions” to get in touch with the customer care/ support executives and get instant solution.

Two way Messaging ensures that the customer gets required information just on the tap of an SMS. What makes these services reachable and convenient is the fact that they are accessed even without an active internet connection and are available 24*7. Contextual communication is enhanced through dynamically created, intuitive APIs that are embedded in the application.

Startups are leveraging these cloud services from the service providers and replacing the high maintenance contact centers to a modern age, mobile first, cloud services.

Why are cloud services a hit for startups?

● Unlike enterprises who can render to variety of communication services, startups run on a low cost model which constraints in only wise investments.

● Startups have low manpower resources which makes automation, a key factor that scales according to the operational requirements of the business.

● Startups require flexibility in terms of business scaling; when they experience high demand in business, they upscale, otherwise they scale down.

● There’s always the uncertainty factor. This means that there might be sudden outbursts in campaign scaling and handling phone calls, which when handled on a conventional contact center model, cannot cater to customer requirements.

● Most of all, maintaining high end infrastructure doesn’t work on a startup ecosystem. Enterprises are no longer willing to take the risk of maintaining a physical contact center, so it’s a transparent manifesto that doesn’t befit the startup culture either.

Cloud services have been satisfyingly successful in replacing the physical contact centers and moved them on cloud. This has been a mutually benefitting association for both startups and cloud service providers creating a win-win scenario.