CPaaS- The heart of digital transformation

Greg Kovich

October 10, 2010

Schools can use cloud-based communications to deliver true personalized digital engagement with students and faculty.

“…But what about MY needs?” isn’t just a phrase being muttered by your overly emotional significant other anymore. It’s being asked by each and every one of your students and faculty regarding their education experience and how to personalize it. Communications are pivotal to creating a personalized education experience, but the way we connect and communicate is constantly evolving. Communications platform as a service (CPaaS) lets them connect and collaborate their way, while keeping up with changing technological needs – without breaking the bank.

My friend Stacy is an IT administrator at a big East Coast University. We were chatting last week about how students are communicating differently from even five years ago. Different applications, more devices and new technology that she had to address on an ongoing basis. Her campus was in the process of digitally transforming but she wasn’t 100% certain that what they were doing would keep up with the growth. “Wow!” I thought to myself. “The price of improving digital engagement on campus shouldn’t be uncertainty!”

We talked about how technology influences the way a campus connects. While there will always be people interacting with one another, the next wave of connectivity to be addressed will be from objects- door locks, HVAC, vending machines, fire control, and more. Object driven communication and management presents a unique challenge because these objects are just not intelligent enough to make decisions about the information they collect. They require a platform that allows dialogue between humans and objects, but she was worried about a bloated infrastructure that would require massive hardware overhauls every few years.

“What about a cloud-based platform?” I asked. “CPaaS could really enhance collaborative learning without a bunch of complicated engineering. Works with your existing infrastructure without taking up a bunch of space since it’s all in the cloud, it gives you a ton of flexibility – integrating with critical applications, like web pages, LMS, or even the campus mobile app, or even leveraging AI… and it won’t break the bank. It’s literally a boost to campus engagement.”

We went on to talk about bridging communications between humans, objects and processes with cloud-based technology. I’m not sure what she is going to do to meet her challenges, but it got her thinking that a cloud-based platform just might be a way to do it.

Alcatel-Lucent Rainbow™ is our cloud-based Communication Platform as a Service (CPaaS) that delivers superior engagement and lets your students, faculty and staff connect their way for a truly personalized education experience. Learn more about what Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise can do for you