April 2022 Summaries

The healthcare industry can benefit significantly from implementing text messaging in various ways. Firstly, it can improve patient care by reducing missed appointments and ensuring proper aftercare through appointment reminders, follow-up messages, and prescription instructions. Secondly, healthcare providers themselves can benefit from using text messaging for scheduling updates, shift reminders, and time-sensitive notifications. Additionally, text messaging allows for better communication between patients and supervisors by enabling patient feedback surveys and ensuring message deliverability. Overall, integrating text messaging into the healthcare industry can lead to a more efficient and effective system for both patients and providers.

Businesses looking to engage customers in the United States and Canada through text messaging have three main options: 10DLC, Toll-Free Numbers, and Short Codes, each with distinct features and use cases. 10DLC uses local numbers, providing a sense of locality and supporting personalized interactions, often used for alerts and two-way messaging. Toll-Free Numbers, identified by an 8XX prefix, are ideal for high-volume messaging and enterprise communications, offering the ability to integrate voice calls. Short Codes, which are 5-6 digit numbers, are used for high-throughput notifications with limited interactivity, suitable for campaigns requiring memorable and easily recognizable numbers. Factors such as message volume, cost, time to market, and user experience play crucial roles in choosing the best channel, with each option requiring registration and approval to ensure compliance with carrier standards. The choice ultimately depends on the specific needs of the business and the desired customer interaction, with solutions available to tailor the messaging experience accordingly.

This Earth Day, Bandwidth reflects on its 5-year partnership with Bee Downtown to promote urban agriculture in the local community. The collaboration began when Leigh-Kathryn Bonner, founder and CEO of Bee Downtown, asked her company to host a beehive in downtown Durham. Since then, Bee Downtown has grown from 50 beehives to almost 500 across the southwest, with Bandwidth being one of its corporate partners. The partnership includes hive tours, honey tastings, and personalized events with the bees for employees and interns. Through this collaboration, Bandwidth has offered beekeeping lessons, lunch-and-learn opportunities at the apiary, and invested countless hours in sustainable living. As Bandwidth grows, it plans to increase its partnership with Bee Downtown by installing more beehives and offering more programs to educate the community on local pollination efforts.

In the past two years, enterprise contact centers have experienced an 800% increase in call volume and a 57% rise in fraud attacks. To address these challenges, modern contact centers need to focus on caller authentication and fraud mitigation. However, migrating from on-premise equipment to cloud-based solutions is difficult due to the complexities involved in maintaining call control and accessing media data. Three options for enabling voice authentication in a cloud contact center environment are: 1) building a custom integration in-house, 2) having the CCaaS platform build the integration, or 3) leveraging the carrier's integration capabilities through Bring Your Own Carrier (BYOC). BYOC offers added control, flexibility, and support during migration to the cloud. Integrating voice authentication solutions like Pindrop with a carrier-level integration can improve caller authentication, enhance customer experiences, and mitigate fraud risks in contact centers.

The pandemic has accelerated the adoption of Unified Communications/UC as a Service (UC/UCaaS) platforms, Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) solutions, and business VoIP resold services. This presents vast opportunities for cloud communications platform owners and products bundling VoIP services to move into international markets. Successful international expansion requires strategic moves such as understanding local regulations, assessing market appetite, researching local demand, preparing tech stack for flexibility, planning network infrastructure, and picking a growth partner.

Microsoft Teams has become increasingly popular, with over 270 million active monthly users. As a result, many enterprises are looking for a Direct Routing partner to power their Teams telephony. Companies need to support remote working, switch from Calling Plans to Direct Routing, and transition equipment to the cloud without breaking anything. By doing so, they can achieve vendor consolidation, cost-cutting, and future-proofing of their communications ecosystem. Key elements to consider when choosing a Direct Routing partner include SIP trunking, emergency calling, and additional channels like SMS. Bandwidth is an all-IP carrier offering voice/SIP trunking, emergency calling, and SMS with full PSTN replacement in 38+ countries and territories, making it a suitable option for enterprises looking to consolidate their global carrier vendors.