Over the last couple of weeks both the mainstream media and  industry-specific publications are raising the awareness of Communications as a Service. 

Back in April I did a presentation at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Telecom2009 conference entitled Watch, Click, Connect, Buy: How to Create Instant Customer Connections.  In the presentation I made the case that providing click to call as part of a web advertisement (in the form of a video) can be used to increase sales through a web site.  Last week the Wall Street Journal published an article entitled “Three Best Ways to Convert Web Traffic Into Sales,” the top two included features provided by CaaS platforms: (1) Click to call; (2) Chat with a customer.

Next month I will be giving a presentation at SUPERCOMM on how carriers can build a next-generation business by using their network as a platform for application development.  Yesterday Xchange Magazine published an article entitled: “Palm Envy: Traditional Services Just Won’t Cut It” that describes how: “…carriers are emulating what’s happening with mobility and the third-party application store model by giving developers and Internet companies … access to open APIs for their networks.”  In May I co-authored an article published in Dr. Dobbs Journal entitled Communications as a Service  that discusses programmable voice platforms and presents some scenarios in which CaaS can be applied for application developers.  This article reinforces what Xchange mentions, that communications features present a great value for web-based applications.

This is an exciting time in this industry and there will certainly be more interesting news in the near future.