VoIP Innovations (News - Alert) will be at ITEXPO next week talking about the rise of enterprise messaging. That likely will include details about the shift from P2P to A2P.
P2P in this case refers to peer-to-peer or person-to-person communications, explains Tim Linn, product manager of VoIP Innovations. An example of that is a doctor’s office receptionist calling patients with upcoming appointment reminders.
A2P, meanwhile, stands for application-to-person interactions. In this case, it’s an application reaching out and communicating with a human. For example, a system could be programmed to call or text patients with appointment reminders.
Linn notes that A2P allows for better scale and security than P2P. And, he says, it can enable businesses to provide better customer experiences.
A2P is scalable in that it allows organizations to reach out to customers en masse rather than one by one. A2P can enable greater security, Linn adds, because it allows organizations like banks to offer customers the option of receiving special codes via text for dual-factor authentication.
And, he adds, because workers don’t have to be on the phone calling patients and customers about future events, they can deliver better service to the people who are at their facilities at that moment. Plus, businesses can invite customers to opt in to receive promotions and information. And A2P can deliver those communications – which can be personalized – in an automated way, he explains.
As a result, businesses can upsell their customers. They can create greater customer engagement and loyalty. And they can more easily ensure they don’t lose money when people don’t show up for scheduled appointments.
Ovum (News - Alert) predicts that 1.28 trillion A2P messages will be sent by 2019. And Gartner believes 85 percent of customer interactions will be managed by AI by 2020.