PremiumNEW DELHI: Bharti Airtel Ltd on Monday launched a cloud communications platform for businesses, entering the $1 billion Indian market for such services. The homegrown platform, Airtel IQ, will eliminate multiple channels and allow communication on a unified platform.
“With just a code, businesses can embed communication services such as voice, SMS, IVR (interactive voice response) system in their applications and digital properties across desktop and mobile, all through a unified platform," the Sunil Mittal company said.
Airtel IQ has signed up customers such as food aggregator Swiggy, Justdial, home services firm Urban Company, Havells India Ltd, Dr Lal Path Labs Ltd and online bike-taxi aggregator, Rapido for its beta phase, the company said in a statement.
The platform has been fully developed by Airtel’s in-house engineering teams. Airtel IQ has been natively integrated into telco grade infrastructure and built by digital experts in the company.
“With Airtel IQ, we have been able to deliver seamless and highly intuitive communication between all parties across our platform in a privacy contained and simplified fashion," said Vivek Sunder, chief operating officer (COO), Swiggy.
As companies shifted to remote working due to covid-19, they wanted cloud-based digital solutions to engage with customers in a seamless manner, Airtel IQ provides such services on a unified platform, said Adarsh Nair, chief product officer, Bharti Airtel, adding Airtel plans to expand its footprint in this emerging market.
The Indian cloud communications market, estimated to be worth $1 billion, is growing close to 20% annually. Airtel is the country’s largest player in the business-to-business space and provides connectivity, cloud, security and collaboration and data centre solutions.
Airtel has taken more such initiatives on the enterprise front. Last month, it launched a suite of cyber security solutions for large, medium and small businesses to protect data and information from online attacks.
The suite, Airtel Secure, will have a security intelligence centre, a state-of-the-art infrastructure, with access to advanced technology and artificial intelligence tools.
