There is one trend that is working behind the scenes and driving many of the most successful businesses these past few years: "API-fication"!
APIs are a technology that allows firms to interact and share information with other firms at an unprecedented scale, taking advantage of the far-reaching progress in digitization and the rising influence of software in our day-to-day lives.
The skyrocketing valuations of companies (see recent unicorns such as Uber) that excel in exploiting APIs demonstrate the modern-day power of informational assets. By incorporating APIs in their strategies, many other firms can follow in their footsteps. Every firm can use its customer touchpoints to collect information using software systems.
Telecom operators also have the opportunity to exploit API access into their systems. The idea of API enablement might sound "tech-y," but it is important for executives at telecom operators and service providers to understand the potential of a market that could be worth billions of dollars per year. APIs may well be the next killer app that telcos have been looking for – essentially making it easy for their own internal teams and for external partners to access their network systems, to easily create new revenue-generating services.
It is an idea a few major telecom operators are now coming to grips with. Yet there are many telecom operators that have not moved API development and there are many technological, financial and cultural reasons for the slow rate of movement. Operators that do not embrace the idea of exposing APIs will be slower to market than their rivals, miss great collaboration opportunities with the internet developer community and fail to open up some great revenue-generating opportunities.
The good news is they don't have to do it all themselves. A range of vendors have moved into the market with systems that are designed to support carriers in widespread exposure of APIs.
SightCall’s service provides telcos the APIs and Mobile SDKs they need to create a consistent Web communication experience across major browsers and mobile platforms. A large set of features is made available to them, including (but not limited to) one-to-one audio and video calling as well as group conferencing and screen-sharing. The wide flexibility of the API allows them to create customized experiences. For example, a remote diagnosis application might start a video call using only one-way video from the back camera of a smartphone. Such an application would allow a remote person to see what the person holding the smartphone is showing "live" in real-time.
SightCall has its own video Platform as a Service (PaaS) to ensure a global quality of service around the world and can also be integrated quickly into existing Telco Data Centers.
When partnering with SightCall, Telcos can quickly offer new innovative services to their customers and capture new revenue opportunities.
Cloud API Image: Beyond PLM
