Mavenir makes business communications software pivot

Having spent the last two years accelerating the provision of cloud-native software designed to transform comms networks, network software provider Mavenir has made a big switch by launching what it calls a “complete” software-as-a-service (SaaS)-based business communications portfolio.

Mavenir said it will use its expertise in mobile networks, its relationships with communications service providers (CSPs), enterprises and partners, and its presence in the mobile messaging space to provide a portfolio that enables omni-channel customer experiences to businesses of all sizes.

The company said its new business communications solutions are designed to fit the needs of businesses of all sizes and are brought to market through CSPs, channels or systems integrators, all of which Mavenir said can apply their own brand to the technology and use its professional services, white-label marketing collateral, business operations and partner ecosystem relationships for fast time to market and subscriber growth.

Another key dynamic, said the company, is what it believes will be a trend of the transition from apps to messaging. Market dynamics are pointing towards omni-channel messaging in all aspects of business communication, it said.

The company cited research that showed 79% of consumers prefer live chats because they offer instant responses and the 2021 CX industry report showing that 53% of businesses saw an increase in workload due to the pandemic. Messaging increases productivity by allowing employees to handle multiple communications simultaneously, it said.

“Gartner predicts that 80% of customer service organisations will abandon mobile apps in favour of messaging by 2025,” said Jorgen Nilsson, president, enterprise connect business at Mavenir. “As a leader in messaging, with 60% SMS market share [based on GSMA operator subscribers statistics] and over three billion mobile messaging subscribers globally, Mavenir is unlocking the power of business messaging to create a superior customer experience, leveraging our messaging footprint, certification as an Apple Messages for Business MSP and other key ecosystem partnerships.”

Mavenir’s new software bouquet is designed to deliver omni-channel interactions in every aspect of business communications and enable businesses with an affordable and fast enablement of their digital presence. It includes customer engagement, business messaging, communications platform as a service (CPaaS), unified communications as a service (UCaaS) and contact centre as a service (CCaaS).

The MAVbiz portfolio includes Mavenir Engage, customer engagement as a service that combines multi-channel business messaging connectors (SMS, RCS, Apple Messages for Business, Google Business Messages) with business automations, chatbots, visual flow builder and campaign manager capabilities to enable conversational commerce capabilities for businesses of all sizes.

It also has a set of application programming interfaces (APIs) and turnkey applications (Smart 2FA, Number Masking, Call Routing) designed to allow businesses and developers to integrate communication capabilities into business processes and applications.

It also includes the Mavenir Connect UCaaS system that delivers high-definition voice, video, messaging and meetings capabilities to allow workers to collaborate with colleagues and connect with customers anywhere, anytime and on any device. It also offers a CCaaS solution with omni-channel integrations, flexible and open APIs, business processes integrations (CRMs, AI platforms), visual IVR builder, and robust analytics and reporting.

By combining these systems, said Mavenir, businesses can use chatbots and automations to offload repetitive tasks but leverage the human-in-the-loop (HITL) API to transfer messaging conversations to a representative using a Mavenir Care agent console. CPaaS APIs can send calls or text conversations from a business website or application to an employee using a Mavenir Connect endpoint and then transfer a customer call from the Mavenir Care agent console to another employee using a Mavenir Connect endpoint. Users can also deflect incoming calls from the Mavenir Care contact centre to a Mavenir Engage chatbot during busy hours or when the business is closed.