Above: Report showing the savings Commio delivers – $5,000 a month – to a current partner after they installed our voice and SMS/MMS text solutions into their existing Twilio application.
“Twilio and Commio have helped us scale quickly in a way that serves as a big benefit, not just for the applications we develop, but for their users as well.”
Thaddeus Shaw
Product Manager & CPaaS Developer
Opportunities
- Twilio offers expensive, limited voice and SMS/MMS service
- Lack of transparency, no tools to research & solve common issues
- Inability to route communications at the best possible price and quality
- Slow to respond to support issues
Solution
- Install Commio’s cloud voice & SMS solutions
- Route calls across 40 voice carriers to deliver cost savings and high quality
- Use Commio’s API platform to provision & port phone numbers (DIDs) fast
- Add text messaging (SMS/MMS) capabilities
Outcomes
- 46% cost savings vs. Twilio
- Control every aspect of inbound and outbound communications
- Better support response times and results
- Get tools to research calls, set custom routes, mitigate outages
- Dynamic failover to deliver 99.99% up-time
- Work one-on-one with a support team with deep telecom expertise
Goal: Scale Patient Reminder App & Save Money
Thaddeus Shaw started using Twilio to bring a dozen SaaS applications to life since 2010. He, along with millions of developers, use Twilio to unlock the power and magic of voice and text messaging to improve customer interactions and outcomes.
“What I tell people is that Twilio is the king of the voice API. What I love about it is that their APIs are simple enough for me and my developers to use, accelerating our product development so we can bring new apps to market in record time. I live inside of it all day.”
Thaddeus recently worked on a SaaS platform used by healthcare practitioners, family doctors, dentists, and other providers. He used Twilio as the foundation to enable patients to stay informed and communicate with providers in the way they prefer, including voice calls and SMS.
“The app was created to connect patients with local, vetted healthcare professionals, helping to make everything from scheduling a family doctor visit by phone or verifying an appointment via text easier and more accessible. Our client tasked us with transitioning their MVP (minimum viable product) to a more robust platform so they could meet increasing demand and address rising costs.”
Twilio’s APIs provided the new foundation for the app his clients were seeking, but when traffic spiked 57% over 90 days, two gaps were uncovered in the software: A lack of visibility into the voice carrier network, and the inability to reduce costs of both voice and messaging.
“Twilio out of the box has code that says, ‘I’ve done all this call logic in this application, but at the last moment I’ll execute a call the most simple way: send it off-site to one carrier.’ My team came to realize that we had no control over the underlying voice network or the cost structure. Plus, my clients have no troubleshooting tools to research call issues, which means help desk tickets and delays.”
Thaddeus began researching potential solutions and came across a number of Twilio bring your own carrier add-ons that extended the capabilities of the platform to address these challenges.
“During this online research I found Commio. Now, all of our Twilio applications can route calls across more than 40 carriers, so we get the scale, control, and transparency our clients demand. And the cost of voice calls has gone down 46% compared to Twilio’s standard rates. That makes us, and our clients, very happy.”
Solution: Install Commio’s Connect BYOC Solution in 60 Seconds & Save on Calls
“I couldn’t believe how easy and inexpensive it was to add Commio to take Twilio’s voice capabilities to the next level. I set up a test account, created a unique ID and token, and made one small change to our existing Twilio code. The only parameter I had to change was the destination phone number. We were up and running in about a minute.”
Thaddeus explained that his company includes Commio in their Twilio applications not only to power high-quality calls at the best possible price, but to leverage Commio’s cost advantages.
“With Commio we’re completing calls at an average savings of 46% over Twilio’s rates. This savings is delivered by Commio’s intelligent call routing that always finds the highest-quality, lowest-cost route for calls. Plus, Twilio rounds their calls to the nearest minute, while Commio bills in 6-second intervals. Both add up to big savings for our clients the minute we added Commio.”
“The biggest wins from adding Commio to Twilio has been transparency into voice carriers and call costs, plus hands-on tools for setting up unique call routing profiles for each client. I can see down to the individual call level with detailed path data. I don’t remember the last time I had to file a help desk ticket, I have the tools I need to research issues without waiting for someone to research it for me.”
More Twilio Savings: Free Inbound Text Messaging
Thaddeus says text messaging has become one of the most important features of his apps. “Texting, especially among patients and healthcare providers, is the fastest and easiest way to communicate. Whether it’s an appointment or drug refill reminder, or even sending health tips, SMS is the easiest way to send information and collect replies in real time. Voice calls will always be the most important communication channel, with texting growing in use over time, so we integrate both.”
When Thaddeus discovered that Commio offered SMS/MMS capabilities in addition to their voice add-on, he made the switch. “Now users can get timely messages in the medium they prefer – voice or SMS. Best of all, Commio’s text messaging platform delivers inbound messages free of charge. For outbound texts, we’re seeing cost reductions of nearly 50% over Twilio. And thinQ scales to meet our messages per second needs.”
“The Commio support team is always a call, email, or Slack away when I have a question. Their software really fills the gaps we’ve seen with Twilio, and I highly recommend it to anyone running mission-critical applications. It’s essential.”
