Cloud Telephony: Need-of-the-hour technology in India

In a chat with VARINDIA, Ankit Jain, CEO, MyOperator, discusses about the cloud telephony market, positioning of the company, its strategy, verticals boosting the industry

How do you see the cloud telephony market in India?

Cloud telephony market in India is expanding gradually and has a huge potential in a developing country like India. With the increasing awareness about cloud technology and the growing number of startups, most of the businesses are shifting towards cloud telephony for efficient call management and effective business communication.

Earlier, cloud telephony was restricted only to BPOs as contact centre. But now, businesses as well as the government have started realizing its value. Irrespective of the nature of the businesses and the technology that they have adopted, call management is an indispensable part of all businesses. In this era of globalization, businesses are going international from a single office. Cloud telephony is providing the most economical and efficient tool to communicate worldwide.

Similar to the replacement of landline phones with mobile phones, traditional PBX system will soon be replaced by cloud telephony. Various sectors like e-commerce, hospitality, startups, travel, government and institutional sector have opened up huge business opportunities for the cloud telephony services. In the coming years, India will witness steep rise in cloud telephony sector and is going to be one of the most important business tools.

How do you position MyOperator in the market?

MyOperator aims to be the go-to choice for everything that a business phone system needs. We have built a platform which has gained momentum in the past few years. It caters to all kinds of businesses by helping them manage their business calls in the most economical and efficient way. We are serving more than 3,000 customers and managing 1 million calls daily. Within a span of four years, our platform has been widely accepted by all the sectors in India, which has led us to expand in the international market as well.

How competitive is this market in India and what is your strategy to maintain your position in the market?

There are more than two million SMEs in India. Cloud telephony has been in India from the past half decade. Post urbanization of the businesses, cloud telephony has been accepted in the Indian SME market but awareness about cloud telephony among businesses still lack. The usage of cloud telephony is restricted to certain features only.

MyOperator is a core technology product-driven organization that serves as a one-stop solution for managing business communication. It provides virtual telephony and call management features to its customers at an impeccable pricing. MyOperator is adding new features based on artificial intelligence and cloud telephony solutions which will help businesses to have seamless communication. With the increase in technological advancement, call management will see a shift towards Chatbots and Artificial Intelligence.

MyOperator has also been helping startup industry through “startup program” where the call management solution is provided to startups free of cost for six months.

Similarly, for the booming SME sector, we have a program called “reseller program” where our channel partners help us to reach the Tier-2 and Tier-3 markets. We have over 300 channel partners so far.

The call management solution from MyOperator is now not only restricted to India. We have started international operations in the United States and we’ll soon be exploring other territories as well.

What are the benefits of both public and private cloud telephony?

Cloud telephony is a pocket-friendly solution. Both the public and private cloud telephony services have their own advantages.

Public cloud telephony helps businesses to expand across the nation. One of the major advantages of using cloud telephony is that it breaks the language and location barrier. Public cloud telephony is a cost-effective solution as it does not require any maintenance and infrastructural costs. Also, the upgradation cost is managed by the service provider. The only cost company bears is the cost of phones and equipments which is reasonably low. Public cloud telephony is easy to scale and deploys new applications. It can be added to the subscription cost, as and when required.

On other hand, private cloud telephony has a lower monthly operating cost over a long period of time as monthly subscription cost is not applicable to private cloud telephony. It provides better integration options with other services in your network as these types of systems tend to operate with middleware or computer telephony integration options, which you may not see on the majority of managed platforms. The private cloud telephony helps in developing own integration APIs.

What are the verticals that are boosting the industry?

Cloud telephony is the need of the hour in India, irrespective of the nature of business. It is a technology that uses a virtual number to connect various departments and locations, and provides various call management features. Traditionally, businesses were restricted only to family business. Communication used to happen over a landline phone and a single call can be attended with one device. The probability of missing the call was higher.

Looking at the current scenario, it is imperative for a business to reach their audience beyond one city. This raises the need of cloud telephony in the traditional businesses. The key features like, “toll-free number” and “virtual numbers” have made the businesses more accessible to customers. It is important for businesses to have a point of contact for their customers and at the same time handle multiple calls. After BPO came into existence, cloud telephony was used mainly in the call centers.

Penetration of internet in the businesses has given birth to many e-commerce platforms, and hence a startup ecosystem. The e-commerce and startup industry is growing by leaps and bounds with the help of call management features like IVR, bulk SMS and remarketing.

Even the government campaign “Mann ki Baat” used thje key features like call recording and toll-free number to reach millions of people. It further flourishes the NGO and institutional sector by providing the helpline number feature during disaster management or crisis situation. In a nutshell, cloud telephony is a sector-agnostic solution.