Rapport Open APIs Increase Employee Productivity

Next Generation Communications Blog

Rapport Open APIs Increase Employee Productivity

By: Richard Hatheway, Director, Enterprise Communications Product Marketing, Rapport for Large Enterprise, Alcatel-Lucent

What is one of the biggest factors affecting employee productivity today? Recent studiesby the National Business Research Institute and the Pew Research Center indicate that not having the right technology tools to do their jobs is one of the most critical. From something as simple as having a cell phone to as advanced as having a customized app, having the right tool provides employees with a productivity boost.

Unfortunately though, many large enterprises are unable to take advantage of advances in technology due to old or outdated infrastructure and ICT technology silos. In addition, being locked in to one technology vendor often stymies the enterprise from being able to update the tools necessary to increase employee productivity.

For instance, something as simple as developing and deploying a new app is often a frustrating experience, as the enterprise must submit a request to the technology vendor for a new app to be developed, then wait until the vendor adds it to their development queue before finding out when to expect it. This often takes months, if not longer.

In the meantime, instead of waiting for the new app, many employees take the “shadow IT” route. They download rogue (i.e., non-IT-supported) apps that will allow them to move forward with at least some of the functionality they seek, even without IT support. While this work-around may provide some degree of productivity enhancement for the employee, wouldn’t it be better if the enterprise was able to either plug in existing best-of-breed third-party apps or develop and deploy its own apps without having to wait for a vendor to become involved?

Alcatel-Lucent thinks so, which is one of the reasons our new solution, Rapport™ for Large Enterprise, is generating so much interest. Rapport is a private cloud-based communications and collaboration solution designed specifically for the large enterprise.

With Rapport, the communications network becomes a platform for innovation, enabling the creation of new “contextual communications”, where fundamental services such as voice, chat, video conferencing and sharing become functions available to any application, website or connected object. “Rapport liberates large enterprises from the communications technology silos and proprietary vendor offerings that IT departments need to contend with,” according to Bhaskar Gorti, President of Alcatel-Lucent’s IP Platforms business.

With the Rapport platform, application developers are able to access the rich set of client and network open application programming interfaces (APIs) and simple software development kits (SDKs), allowing quick and easy development and deployment of communications services. This accessibility allows the enterprise to deliver innovative communications features to apps, websites and other connected objects, enhancing them with a communications-enabled, contextual communications experience.

Enabling Contextual Communications

Business today is global and 24/7. As such, employees need to be able ALU.8.31.15.JPGto communicate with their peers, business associates or clients wherever they are, on whatever device they are using.  

One of the most recent developments contributing to this is contextual communications – essentially, having the communications features you need embedded in the tools you use. However, in order to provide these functions to employees, large enterprises need to be able to quickly develop and launch these new contextual applications. Rapport open APIs make it easy to embed real-time communications functions into devices, applications and websites.

If you’re not familiar with contextual communications, here are a few examples of what they might enable your business to do:

  • Develop a communications solution that streamlines doctor/patient interaction.
  • Develop a single hub for dynamically managing resources and communicating with remote teams in the field.
  • Develop a dashboard that keeps people in touch no matter where they are or what device they use.
  • Manage chat, voice, video and file transfer capabilities from an app.
  • Get presence information for all contacts in a network address book.

Rapport’s REST-based APIs let applications developers create uniquely differentiated communications experiences, depending on the business requirements. This helps large enterprises better serve their employees and customers by building these communications services into the applications, websites and other connected objects they use.

Rapport also provides the enterprise with the option of either developing and deploying their own apps using the Rapport open APIs, or plugging in best-of-breed apps to help meet the needs of employees for the latest services, whether in the office or on the move. With Rapport APIs, it’s about the future of communications.

Unlock Service Innovation

Because Rapport open APIs provide easy access to rich communication and collaboration features, innovation now becomes part of corporate communications. Use Rapport APIs to add ‘communications as a feature’ to existing services and WebRTC client libraries to extend your services to the web. Create compelling new contextual applications with the quality of service users want. Rapport also offers large enterprises the use of our sandbox, a fast prototyping environment, to pre-validate and demo your application and WebRTC client with our Rapport cloud test platform, leveraging IMS technology.

With Rapport, instead of waiting on a vendor, application developers are able to develop and deploy the new communications features, services, applications and innovations the enterprise needs. By tapping into capabilities such as HD voice and video, conferencing, interactive voice and rich communications, developers can now build compelling new communication-enabled apps, helping to increase employee productivity and user satisfaction.

Summary

As you see, Rapport open APIs help the large enterprise break free of technology silos and vendor lock-in by freeing them to develop and deploy the contextual communications services they need, as they need them – instead of waiting on a vendor to tell them what will be available and when. By using Rapport’s open APIs, large enterprises are now able to develop and deploy apps in a real-time manner. What once took months or years can now literally be done in a period of weeks.

For more information on Rapport for Large Enterprise and how it can help your business, please visit the Alcatel-Lucent Rapport for Large Enterprise website or contact your local Alcatel-Lucent sales office.






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