Ode to a good vendor: choose a platform for launching a VoIP SaaS project
In this jubilee, 13th, hub, we decided to retreat a little from the traditional presentation of tricky mobile and near-CRM schemes for optimizing business processes using cloud-virtual telephone services and talk about how our project was created and what steps were taken undertaken BEFORE, not AFTER the launch. We sincerely believe that the description of a proven and tested business model is no less useful than technical tricks and subtleties, which we also have enough.
The AltegroCloud project was born at the very end of 2014, as our response to Chamberlain. By that time, the market of virtual PBXs was not just saturated, but already oversaturated with all kinds of cloudy “telephony” and almost all VoIP-operators considered it their duty to offer their customers not only number capacity and outgoing communication, but also cloud solutions of different degrees of newness. It is clear that the trend is fashionable and we also wanted to be fashionable. That is why the decision was made - “We are launching our SaaS”. True, we do it with the use of some developments: prior to the launch of Cloud, our company already had something to boast of - under an agreement with one of the cellular operators, we were able to manage special FMC SIM cards AltegroSIM, which the operator began to kindly release for a joint project. It is on the friendship of mobile communications, CRM and virtual PBX that the AltegroCloud ideology rests.
We have already written about this many times, now just remind a little how the Cloud concept looks like:
')
Now, corporate cellular communications lives happy, family life, along with fixed office telephony: SIMs work like regular office phones and are represented by PBX as a sip device, the Internet is not used for such a scheme. Employees call from cellular phones in the same way as their colleagues from stationary, at the same tariffs, with the same technical “bells and whistles” (call recording, IVR, call transfer, online monitoring).
For such an implementation, first of all, a cloud-based carrier platform was required. Moreover, I didn’t want to go deeper into the wilds of development, to reinvent the 158th bicycle and, in the long winter evenings, turn even open-source equipment into something commercial, with beautiful gear, flying little men and multicolored “Connect” buttons . None of us wanted to peer into the bottomless, alluring dark matter, console widely known in narrow circles of Asterisk
To launch the service, the concept, product understanding, proper marketing, the stability of the platform, which is within it all, the operational ones are more important. support and opportunity for technological growth. None of the “open-air bikes” known to us gave such a feeling. We had everything: product idea, billing, engineering service, sales department and loyal customers. All the main components, as they say, in stock. Now you need to decide that you will switch calls and provide beauty and convenience to spoiled users. To be honest, with all the richness of the choice of alternatives, there was little: foreign developers - this is at least an atypical course, and even from expensive ones. Timid attempts to communicate with English-speaking partners led to the situation when the project manager’s mail was packed with price lists with five-digit currency figures in the Total amount column. Not an option. Expensive, cool, but not about us.
It turns out that there is a prophet in his middle name. At least one. Old friends and partners, the company ItooLabs , who until recently helped us with the development of some clever telephone solutions, made an offer that cannot be refused: we were offered to use their white label operator platform, which the colleagues have been sawing and successfully promoting for several years. Genetic father of the platform - once thundered Communigate Pro. With all this, hooked not so much the technical equipment of the service (we have known and love communigate for a long time), as an interesting business model. Nobody asked for money in advance - first we start, we promote, and then we remember about money. If they will. Expand-adapt-paint-launch. And all for an extremely short time. Fine. Ready to try, let's discuss.
We are discussing.
On the wall so far only the map of the Russian Federation, but plans to enter the international and intergalactic markets. The star map has already been bought, the red pins for the marks of the conquered galaxies are in the drawer of the table. Everyone is smiling, but what else - in front of a bright cloud-cloudless digital future and flights to Pandora.
Got access to the test account. The platform lives in a single cluster, in a data center ItooLabs and a colleague, Cyril almost started a test account from an iPad.
At the first acquaintance with the interface of the superadmin there were no traces of dark matter, if there is a console, then not with us, but with Kirill himself. This means that the platform can be controlled with a mouse and without post-industrial shamanism. A new customer starts in 5 minutes by simply searching through options and pressing the “Create” button. All the necessary credentials are generated immediately and sent to the client’s email. Immediately you can use. Friendship with carrier billing is “out of the box”, marshurising and dial plans are got in the usual way. Stephen Hawking is not needed for management, our engineer Oleg will do just fine. The platform, as they say, lay on the camera switch without glitches. Customization of the platform (colors, logo, links) did not cause any major difficulties - a couple of days of designers working together. Three plus karma to all participants.
Great, but there is a problem - our VoIP SIM cards. None of the platforms we know can work with them, has its own specifics: the GSM-VoIP alarm system limps a little on its hind leg and the SIM cards cannot be screwed on the forehead, we need to cut the code, plus we want integration with third-party IPs. This is a prerequisite. When you use someone else's solution, you inevitably become dependent on the developer, even if he is good, kind, and not very greedy. We want the API and manageability. Colleagues left to think and consult and returned a couple of weeks later. With modifications.
Now SIM cards can be controlled from the platform administrator interface, and integration with CRM is activated with a regular button, after which the client Klauda has boxed integration with a pair of basic CRMs and access to the API and the client (or we) can do whatever they want. For example, integrate PBX and office coffee machine:
It should be noted that the design of the client’s personal account shown in the upper screenshot did not appear at once. The first version of the platform, to put it mildly, plunged into some meditations with a hint of nostalgia on the Internet of the 80s:
In the era of bootstrap, virtual cakes, flat design and talking tips, redheads with white squares, did not add optimism, we wanted beauty and amenities. We are drawing a new design, we would not want to look like the first version of WINDOWS for Workgroups. Colleagues from Itoolabs, realizing our concern, are rolling out a new version of the interface:
Now this is something: flying little men and virtual cakes loomed on the horizon covered with clouds. We start in this form and in the process draw more cakes and blue buttons with animations. The main thing is to fix all this in the roadmap and talk through the terms. We are promised updates every couple of months, we naturally believe: the eyes of Ruslan, the main seller of ItooLabs, cannot lie. And indeed, after six months, we are updating again, in addition to cakes and little men, I have got a pair of very handy features:
Blacklists, outgoing call management, various missed notifications have appeared, and call forwarding algorithms have become more complex. This is more than enough for most customers. On one user with atypical requests about the friendship of the coffee maker, unmanned drone and satellite phone, there are a thousand customers "who just call." It more than suits us.
Klaud's launch took place at the very end of 2014. At first, we gave potential clients the opportunity to connect and test the platform for free, invited everyone, distributed Moscow numbers for free, tried to do everything to test the service in semi-battle mode. After a month of tests, the stability of the platform was confirmed in practice and we began to earn.
An important point in this whole story: by launching Cloud on the decision of a third-party commercial vendor, we saved time and energy and were able to focus on developing the marketing part of the product, and not spend time writing something of our own, even if it was mega-cool. The IT market is unusually dynamic, the one who started lately thinking about launching a project, whose business model already exists and is confirmed, runs the risk of never catching up even second-tier players, digging in the endless search for optimal configurations and interface design.
Lyrical digression. Songs of faith and devotion.
It is quite possible to think that colorfully describing the advantages of our service and the dignity of the vendor, the authors pursue some near-commercial goals. In fact, this is only partly true. Having worked for almost a year in conjunction with a vendor according to the rhubarb-sharing model, we clearly understood that the operator and the vendor in the same boat and the success of one side inevitably means success of the second. Therefore, we remember each other, love and absolutely do not mourn the appearance of possible competition. Moreover, even in the spring they began to think about the further development of joint projects, they began to attend various industry events together not only in Russia, but also in Eastern Europe (nobody canceled access to the intergalactic market).
To help each other in organizing the right parties and in attracting customers
We sincerely hope that we have built the right business model, that the time that we save on support and development of the platform can be used for more important tasks - marketing, promotion, product improvement, and the vendor will help, fasten more and more new "buns" . Free, for a share in the monetization of "buns".
The AltegroCloud project was born at the very end of 2014, as our response to Chamberlain. By that time, the market of virtual PBXs was not just saturated, but already oversaturated with all kinds of cloudy “telephony” and almost all VoIP-operators considered it their duty to offer their customers not only number capacity and outgoing communication, but also cloud solutions of different degrees of newness. It is clear that the trend is fashionable and we also wanted to be fashionable. That is why the decision was made - “We are launching our SaaS”. True, we do it with the use of some developments: prior to the launch of Cloud, our company already had something to boast of - under an agreement with one of the cellular operators, we were able to manage special FMC SIM cards AltegroSIM, which the operator began to kindly release for a joint project. It is on the friendship of mobile communications, CRM and virtual PBX that the AltegroCloud ideology rests.
We have already written about this many times, now just remind a little how the Cloud concept looks like:
')
Now, corporate cellular communications lives happy, family life, along with fixed office telephony: SIMs work like regular office phones and are represented by PBX as a sip device, the Internet is not used for such a scheme. Employees call from cellular phones in the same way as their colleagues from stationary, at the same tariffs, with the same technical “bells and whistles” (call recording, IVR, call transfer, online monitoring).
For such an implementation, first of all, a cloud-based carrier platform was required. Moreover, I didn’t want to go deeper into the wilds of development, to reinvent the 158th bicycle and, in the long winter evenings, turn even open-source equipment into something commercial, with beautiful gear, flying little men and multicolored “Connect” buttons . None of us wanted to peer into the bottomless, alluring dark matter, console widely known in narrow circles of Asterisk
To launch the service, the concept, product understanding, proper marketing, the stability of the platform, which is within it all, the operational ones are more important. support and opportunity for technological growth. None of the “open-air bikes” known to us gave such a feeling. We had everything: product idea, billing, engineering service, sales department and loyal customers. All the main components, as they say, in stock. Now you need to decide that you will switch calls and provide beauty and convenience to spoiled users. To be honest, with all the richness of the choice of alternatives, there was little: foreign developers - this is at least an atypical course, and even from expensive ones. Timid attempts to communicate with English-speaking partners led to the situation when the project manager’s mail was packed with price lists with five-digit currency figures in the Total amount column. Not an option. Expensive, cool, but not about us.
It turns out that there is a prophet in his middle name. At least one. Old friends and partners, the company ItooLabs , who until recently helped us with the development of some clever telephone solutions, made an offer that cannot be refused: we were offered to use their white label operator platform, which the colleagues have been sawing and successfully promoting for several years. Genetic father of the platform - once thundered Communigate Pro. With all this, hooked not so much the technical equipment of the service (we have known and love communigate for a long time), as an interesting business model. Nobody asked for money in advance - first we start, we promote, and then we remember about money. If they will. Expand-adapt-paint-launch. And all for an extremely short time. Fine. Ready to try, let's discuss.
We are discussing.
On the wall so far only the map of the Russian Federation, but plans to enter the international and intergalactic markets. The star map has already been bought, the red pins for the marks of the conquered galaxies are in the drawer of the table. Everyone is smiling, but what else - in front of a bright cloud-cloudless digital future and flights to Pandora.
Got access to the test account. The platform lives in a single cluster, in a data center ItooLabs and a colleague, Cyril almost started a test account from an iPad.
At the first acquaintance with the interface of the superadmin there were no traces of dark matter, if there is a console, then not with us, but with Kirill himself. This means that the platform can be controlled with a mouse and without post-industrial shamanism. A new customer starts in 5 minutes by simply searching through options and pressing the “Create” button. All the necessary credentials are generated immediately and sent to the client’s email. Immediately you can use. Friendship with carrier billing is “out of the box”, marshurising and dial plans are got in the usual way. Stephen Hawking is not needed for management, our engineer Oleg will do just fine. The platform, as they say, lay on the camera switch without glitches. Customization of the platform (colors, logo, links) did not cause any major difficulties - a couple of days of designers working together. Three plus karma to all participants.
Great, but there is a problem - our VoIP SIM cards. None of the platforms we know can work with them, has its own specifics: the GSM-VoIP alarm system limps a little on its hind leg and the SIM cards cannot be screwed on the forehead, we need to cut the code, plus we want integration with third-party IPs. This is a prerequisite. When you use someone else's solution, you inevitably become dependent on the developer, even if he is good, kind, and not very greedy. We want the API and manageability. Colleagues left to think and consult and returned a couple of weeks later. With modifications.
Now SIM cards can be controlled from the platform administrator interface, and integration with CRM is activated with a regular button, after which the client Klauda has boxed integration with a pair of basic CRMs and access to the API and the client (or we) can do whatever they want. For example, integrate PBX and office coffee machine:
It should be noted that the design of the client’s personal account shown in the upper screenshot did not appear at once. The first version of the platform, to put it mildly, plunged into some meditations with a hint of nostalgia on the Internet of the 80s:
In the era of bootstrap, virtual cakes, flat design and talking tips, redheads with white squares, did not add optimism, we wanted beauty and amenities. We are drawing a new design, we would not want to look like the first version of WINDOWS for Workgroups. Colleagues from Itoolabs, realizing our concern, are rolling out a new version of the interface:
Now this is something: flying little men and virtual cakes loomed on the horizon covered with clouds. We start in this form and in the process draw more cakes and blue buttons with animations. The main thing is to fix all this in the roadmap and talk through the terms. We are promised updates every couple of months, we naturally believe: the eyes of Ruslan, the main seller of ItooLabs, cannot lie. And indeed, after six months, we are updating again, in addition to cakes and little men, I have got a pair of very handy features:
Blacklists, outgoing call management, various missed notifications have appeared, and call forwarding algorithms have become more complex. This is more than enough for most customers. On one user with atypical requests about the friendship of the coffee maker, unmanned drone and satellite phone, there are a thousand customers "who just call." It more than suits us.
Klaud's launch took place at the very end of 2014. At first, we gave potential clients the opportunity to connect and test the platform for free, invited everyone, distributed Moscow numbers for free, tried to do everything to test the service in semi-battle mode. After a month of tests, the stability of the platform was confirmed in practice and we began to earn.
An important point in this whole story: by launching Cloud on the decision of a third-party commercial vendor, we saved time and energy and were able to focus on developing the marketing part of the product, and not spend time writing something of our own, even if it was mega-cool. The IT market is unusually dynamic, the one who started lately thinking about launching a project, whose business model already exists and is confirmed, runs the risk of never catching up even second-tier players, digging in the endless search for optimal configurations and interface design.
Lyrical digression. Songs of faith and devotion.
It is quite possible to think that colorfully describing the advantages of our service and the dignity of the vendor, the authors pursue some near-commercial goals. In fact, this is only partly true. Having worked for almost a year in conjunction with a vendor according to the rhubarb-sharing model, we clearly understood that the operator and the vendor in the same boat and the success of one side inevitably means success of the second. Therefore, we remember each other, love and absolutely do not mourn the appearance of possible competition. Moreover, even in the spring they began to think about the further development of joint projects, they began to attend various industry events together not only in Russia, but also in Eastern Europe (nobody canceled access to the intergalactic market).
To help each other in organizing the right parties and in attracting customers
We sincerely hope that we have built the right business model, that the time that we save on support and development of the platform can be used for more important tasks - marketing, promotion, product improvement, and the vendor will help, fasten more and more new "buns" . Free, for a share in the monetization of "buns".
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/268619/
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