Insights

Leveraging APIs to Enhance Your Business: A Conversation with Voxology

Sep 20, 2021

A critical part of making trusted, meaningful connections is ensuring that the connections made provide value – to enterprises, service providers, customers and more.

One technology that is drastically changing the way systems connect are APIs. These applications are modernizing next gen software and systems development by helping to keep applications and services connected to other sources of data while providing new functionality and improved performance.

Recently, we spoke with Justin Newman, COO for Voxology, about their experience working with APIs. As both an API developer and an API power user, Justin detailed the different ways that Voxology has extracted value through the utilization of APIs and specifically, the SMS/800 TFN Registry’s APIs.

For those who may not be familiar with your company, we’d love to hear more about the services Voxology provides.

Voxology is a CPaaS (Communications Platform as a Service) that provides reliable communications to businesses who are tired of receiving apathetic support. We offer a variety of services including Programmable Voice, Programmable SMS/MMS, SIP Trunking (termination and origination), Phone Number Information Lookup (CNAM, carrier, etc.), and a large inventory of available Local and Toll-Free Numbers. Our services are backed by a top-notch support team that is truly invested in the success of our customers.

What competitive advantage do you think Voxology has over other players in the field?

Voxology‘s next gen voice and messaging API was designed to promote sound and scalable architecture in communication applications. Both software developers and operators love how the API reduces complexity in their infrastructure. Furthermore, our SIP Trunks offer advanced features that are typically only available to companies with a sophisticated switch.

The most important advantage by far, however, is our people. During onboarding, our kind and knowledgeable “Voxologists” create a customer profile, which includes the customer's unique use case, and enables our team to provide more personalized support. In addition, we collaborate with our customers to craft an integration plan to help promote harmony between their application and our platform.

At Voxology, we seek to eliminate the frustration many businesses face with their communications provider through our belief that great communication starts with listening. For example, after hearing a customer’s desire to retain their current Responsible Organization (Resp Org) while utilizing our fully automated Toll-Free Number (TFN) management tools, we delivered a BYO Resp Org feature that allowed them to continue the relationship with Somos as well as take full advantage of our APIs, UIs and voice services.

What was the driving force for adopting the new SMS/800 TFN Registry APIs?

The new SMS/800 TFN Registry APIs dovetailed nicely with our efforts to enable real-time TFN reservation and routing. Once our integration was completed, we were able to allow our customers to search the registry’s library of available TFNs, and then reserve and route the numbers. We made this available in our API as well as our Portal (UI). Furthermore, we enabled other large Resp Orgs to use their own Resp Org ID when ordering via Voxology.

How would you compare the APIs utilized by the SMS/800 TFN Registry to other APIs you’ve used?

Due to the complexity of ordering and routing TFNs (as opposed to local, geographic numbers), there is some additional leg work for those who are used to ordering phone numbers via an API with instantly provisionable numbers. Practically speaking, this requires your system to handle asynchronous requests and more state changes, which adds a layer of complexity. Thankfully, Somos’ SMS/800 TFN Registry’s APIs are reliable and have clearly documented processes, which allowed us to successfully integrate.

On the topic of the new APIs and the SMS/800 TFN Registry – what have you found most beneficial about the new registry?

The biggest benefit that we found was the ability to build a new service on the new API without having to rely on third-party vendors. This allowed us to minimize dependencies and maximize reliability. Our customers can now easily reserve and route TFNs (including vanity numbers) right from our API and UI. Likewise, we can now automatically dual home the numbers.

What closing advice would you give organizations looking to make the transition to more API-based products and solutions?

Utilizing APIs can be incredibly valuable to an organization. The right API can help increase your team’s efficiency, reduce toil, and empower your product developers to focus on core differentiators. That said, selecting the wrong API (or misusing one) can cause tremendous pain – not only for your employees but also for your customers. As you might suspect, APIs are something that we take very seriously at Voxology, both as a consumer and a creator. Accurate documentation, helpful error handling, and a knowledgeable, responsive support team are often overlooked when purchasing an API-based product. However, we have discovered they are critical to providing a great customer experience. We have a saying around here:

To learn more about Voxology,  join Justin Newman and other leading industry experts from ATL Communications, AT&T and Lumen for the session, Rethinking What’s Next – How APIs Can Transform Your Business at the 2021 Somos Summit. You’ll learn more about how implementing the SMS/800 TFN Registry APIs opened the door to new and endless opportunities for their businesses and provided key benefits for their customers! 

We invite you to join your peers and Somos at the 2021 Somos Summit!

Interested in highlighting your company on the Somos Insights Blog? Email us at insights@somos.com today!