Is CPaaS a Channel Opportunity?

I get asked every once in a while, “Is CPaaS a channel opportunity?”. It potentially can be, but CPaaS being a channel opportunity needs some context. CPaaS itself means essentially selling the use of APIs, which are typically charged by usage. Applications written with CPaaS access these APIs (and, in turn, specific functions the application has asked to do) during the execution of the application they’ve written. This application “goes and gets the resources” the API asks for via the cloud.

CPaaS is a hot topic these days because using them is easy, and one can add in voice or SMS to an already existing application relatively inexpensively. For example, one might want to add text messaging to an appointment application from a dentist or hairdresser.

When talking about CPaaS being a channel opportunity, we are really talking about the applications that run on CPaaS. So if you as a channel are already selling cloud services, and used to selling in a recurring revenue model, then yes, CPaaS could be a channel opportunity for you.

As a channel partner, there wouldn’t be a “make a big deal” and get the revenue from the enterprise all at once, then sell maintenance contracts. It would be a revenue model based on continuous usage that could go on for years. That’s very different if you aren’t familiar with cloud.

And you would either need a stable of applications to sell, likely from some kind of store the CPaaS provider would have or develop a couple of applications yourself.

So yes, it could be.

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