customer story
customer story
Saudi’s largest CPaaS company expands its dominance with WotNot’s white label solution
Anonymous
Anonymous
VP - Product at Sonic Inc
VP - Product at Sonic Inc
About company
*For discretionary purposes, the name of the client/customer has been changed to Sonic Inc. Since founded in 2006, Sonic has consistently developed its product line and its markets to provide an affordable enterprise-grade multilingual, seamless omnichannel communications platform throughout the Middle East. In addition, it has also offered services like programmable SMS, and voice APIs along with other communication services. Trusted by 5000+ of the world's most customer-centric companies, our client combines communications channels on one platform so businesses can streamline customer engagement.
The Challenge
Sonic Inc, Saudi Arabia’s biggest CPaaS company, has been handling complex communication platforms for enterprises across industries in the country for over 15 years. And was looking to expand its dominance in the region even further.
Being a cut-throat market with limited offerings, the only way to achieve this was either by reducing the pricing or introducing a unique differentiator that could drive the revenue.
The top brass at Sonic decided to go with the latter option. That is to expand their current product offering, which was limited to programmable SMS, voice, and push notification services.
Their product team identified that using a chatbot could be a major differentiator as none of their clients offered this feature. Chatbot presented several growth opportunities to Seashell.
Let’s explore them one by one.
Bi-directional SMS
Earlier, Seashell’s communication products were only uni-directional SMS. This means that the end customer was only the receiver and didn’t have the ability to respond. With the help of a chatbot, Seashell could make the conversation bi-directional. Now, the end-users could reply to the incoming message, enhancing customer experience and opening more doors for the company.
Secondly, bi-directional messaging would mean increased volume. And in Seashell’s case, more volume consumed brings more revenue. Though limited to SMS at the moment, they were soon making plans to become an authorized WhatsApp partner to offer WhatsApp Business APIs to its customers, given the prominence of the channel in their region.
Sell as an Add-on
Two-way SMS was a new feature that our client could sell to many of their customers. This would make their suite of offerings richer and more innovative.
Here, they could use chatbots to define rules and create conversation flows using our no-code chatbot builder that determines what a bot would reply to an end customer’s message.
Fullfil Growing Demand in RFPs/Tenders
Sonic's internal sales and operations team had also validated the idea of chatbots. They had found out that the demand for chatbots was on the rise as a majority of tenders and RFPs were listing chatbots as a key requirement. Thus, having a chatbot in their arsenal could seal the deal for many tenders and RFPs that they would have lost otherwise.
With these opportunities, executives at Sonic concluded that chatbot was the next major milestone for their product. The product teams were immediately tasked to evaluate options to implement these features quickly into their product for next-level growth.
Sonic Inc, Saudi Arabia’s biggest CPaaS company, has been handling complex communication platforms for enterprises across industries in the country for over 15 years. And was looking to expand its dominance in the region even further.
Being a cut-throat market with limited offerings, the only way to achieve this was either by reducing the pricing or introducing a unique differentiator that could drive the revenue.
The top brass at Sonic decided to go with the latter option. That is to expand their current product offering, which was limited to programmable SMS, voice, and push notification services.
Their product team identified that using a chatbot could be a major differentiator as none of their clients offered this feature. Chatbot presented several growth opportunities to Seashell.
Let’s explore them one by one.
Bi-directional SMS
Earlier, Seashell’s communication products were only uni-directional SMS. This means that the end customer was only the receiver and didn’t have the ability to respond. With the help of a chatbot, Seashell could make the conversation bi-directional. Now, the end-users could reply to the incoming message, enhancing customer experience and opening more doors for the company.
Secondly, bi-directional messaging would mean increased volume. And in Seashell’s case, more volume consumed brings more revenue. Though limited to SMS at the moment, they were soon making plans to become an authorized WhatsApp partner to offer WhatsApp Business APIs to its customers, given the prominence of the channel in their region.
Sell as an Add-on
Two-way SMS was a new feature that our client could sell to many of their customers. This would make their suite of offerings richer and more innovative.
Here, they could use chatbots to define rules and create conversation flows using our no-code chatbot builder that determines what a bot would reply to an end customer’s message.
Fullfil Growing Demand in RFPs/Tenders
Sonic's internal sales and operations team had also validated the idea of chatbots. They had found out that the demand for chatbots was on the rise as a majority of tenders and RFPs were listing chatbots as a key requirement. Thus, having a chatbot in their arsenal could seal the deal for many tenders and RFPs that they would have lost otherwise.
With these opportunities, executives at Sonic concluded that chatbot was the next major milestone for their product. The product teams were immediately tasked to evaluate options to implement these features quickly into their product for next-level growth.
Their product offered everything that we wanted, especially in a no-code approach
Anonymous
VP - Product at Sonic Inc
Their product offered everything that we wanted, especially in a no-code approach
Anonymous
VP - Product at Sonic Inc
Their product offered everything that we wanted, especially in a no-code approach
Anonymous
VP - Product at Sonic Inc
The Solution
Once the goal was identified, it was the time to decide the path to achieve that goal. Sonic had two options. Either to build the solution in-house or use a ready-made solution. Since Sonic wanted to get the solution instantly, they decided to proceed with a ready-made solution.
Here, Sonic's CEO told their partnerships manager to find a suitable provider. This is where WotNot came into the picture.
It was a perfect partnership since WotNot had everything that Sonic needed. From a powerful and flexible product, to an experienced and competent team with knowledge of the market, we had it all.
Here, we offered our white label chatbot solution in 6 phases which were:
Technical Requirements Gathering
Generally, the white label chatbot solution we provide is a separate entity altogether. However, in this case, we had to integrate our white label chatbot into their existing product so that for Seashell’s customers, this looks like just a new feature natively built.
This is why we had to ensure that we were gathering all the necessary technical requirements needed for the final solution. Product and engineering teams from both sides met briefly to get this done.
Developing the Whitelabel Version
Upon evaluation, WotNot found that creating an embedded version of the WotNot whitelabel within their existing product was the best solution. And to make the white label version as close to their existing product suite, WotNot rebranded it in great detail - including the logo, colors, fonts, and icons.
Integration With Core Systems
Our client’s solution and our white label chatbot was very different. And that was why it would have been too time-consuming to integrate the chatbot into their solution. And since this project was time sensitive, we suggested using SSO integrations.
Let’s see how it works.
Generally, a user who is already logged into our client’s solution should be able to navigate to the chatbot seamlessly. However, since it was a white label solution, it would have asked for login again. With the help of SSO integration, we were able to eliminate this scenario, ensuring a hassle-free experience for the end user.
Secondly, we had deeply integrated our client’s communication APIs with WotNot. This facilitated a smooth connection between the two solutions and enabled Sonic to add multiple channels on the fly without requiring any change on the whitelabel. So that going forward, when Sonic added support for channels like WhatsApp and Apple Business Messenger in their communication APIs, these would automatically be supported on WotNot’s whitelabel.
Installation on Sonic's Private Server
Sonic primarily dealt with large enterprises in the Saudi region, typically banks, financial institutions, and government agencies. Working with such large organizations meant they needed to commit to ensuring a great level of compliance and security of their data.
To extend their existing level of security on the new chatbot feature, we installed the whitelabel instance in its entirety on Sonic's servers. Thus helping store all the data in one place, host the data locally in the region, and adhere to the security protocols that needed to be checked to be in compliance with their client’s needs.
On-site Training and Demonstration
Our team at WotNot understood that a chatbot was a new thing for Sonic and they might face difficulty while reselling it.
To avoid this from happening, we sent a team to Sonic's HQ in Saudi Arabia, and worked alongside Seashell for 10 days.
During this on-site visit, our team conducted demonstrations, workshops, and training sessions, enabling Seashell’s team with:
An Introduction to Chatbots
Chatbots and the Channels
Value Proposition to Industries
Go-to Market Strategy Overview
Sales Objection Handling
Customer Service Enablement
Product Demo
Live Training
Apart from familiarizing them with WotNot’s in-app features, our team also showed them various use cases and ways to capitalize the potential and maximize revenue. To show our commitment, we also shared marketing collaterals that could help Seashell kick-start its go-to-market strategy.
These ten-day sessions not only helped Sonic gain more knowledge about chatbots and the market but also helped both teams bond with each other, as this was bound to be the starting point for a long-term partnership.
Our services were not just limited to delivering a white label chatbot solutions. We also followed it up with regular product updates and continued background support. Let’s have a look at it in detail.
Regular Product Updates
WotNot’s product team kept the client promptly updated with all the latest features and developments in WotNot. This ensured that our client could leverage the latest features to:
Make their offerings even richer
Increase the overall revenue
Showcase their product development
Cater to feature requests
Continued Background Support
As Sonic primarily dealt with enterprises, we provided a dedicated support team that worked dedicatedly to ensure that Sonic's whitelabel was up and running 24/7 and ensured that their requirements were met on the product.
As all phases of the project started piecing together, Sonic's product team performed their due diligence of the whitelabel to make sure that everything was working as expected before their grand launch.
Once the goal was identified, it was the time to decide the path to achieve that goal. Sonic had two options. Either to build the solution in-house or use a ready-made solution. Since Sonic wanted to get the solution instantly, they decided to proceed with a ready-made solution.
Here, Sonic's CEO told their partnerships manager to find a suitable provider. This is where WotNot came into the picture.
It was a perfect partnership since WotNot had everything that Sonic needed. From a powerful and flexible product, to an experienced and competent team with knowledge of the market, we had it all.
Here, we offered our white label chatbot solution in 6 phases which were:
Technical Requirements Gathering
Generally, the white label chatbot solution we provide is a separate entity altogether. However, in this case, we had to integrate our white label chatbot into their existing product so that for Seashell’s customers, this looks like just a new feature natively built.
This is why we had to ensure that we were gathering all the necessary technical requirements needed for the final solution. Product and engineering teams from both sides met briefly to get this done.
Developing the Whitelabel Version
Upon evaluation, WotNot found that creating an embedded version of the WotNot whitelabel within their existing product was the best solution. And to make the white label version as close to their existing product suite, WotNot rebranded it in great detail - including the logo, colors, fonts, and icons.
Integration With Core Systems
Our client’s solution and our white label chatbot was very different. And that was why it would have been too time-consuming to integrate the chatbot into their solution. And since this project was time sensitive, we suggested using SSO integrations.
Let’s see how it works.
Generally, a user who is already logged into our client’s solution should be able to navigate to the chatbot seamlessly. However, since it was a white label solution, it would have asked for login again. With the help of SSO integration, we were able to eliminate this scenario, ensuring a hassle-free experience for the end user.
Secondly, we had deeply integrated our client’s communication APIs with WotNot. This facilitated a smooth connection between the two solutions and enabled Sonic to add multiple channels on the fly without requiring any change on the whitelabel. So that going forward, when Sonic added support for channels like WhatsApp and Apple Business Messenger in their communication APIs, these would automatically be supported on WotNot’s whitelabel.
Installation on Sonic's Private Server
Sonic primarily dealt with large enterprises in the Saudi region, typically banks, financial institutions, and government agencies. Working with such large organizations meant they needed to commit to ensuring a great level of compliance and security of their data.
To extend their existing level of security on the new chatbot feature, we installed the whitelabel instance in its entirety on Sonic's servers. Thus helping store all the data in one place, host the data locally in the region, and adhere to the security protocols that needed to be checked to be in compliance with their client’s needs.
On-site Training and Demonstration
Our team at WotNot understood that a chatbot was a new thing for Sonic and they might face difficulty while reselling it.
To avoid this from happening, we sent a team to Sonic's HQ in Saudi Arabia, and worked alongside Seashell for 10 days.
During this on-site visit, our team conducted demonstrations, workshops, and training sessions, enabling Seashell’s team with:
An Introduction to Chatbots
Chatbots and the Channels
Value Proposition to Industries
Go-to Market Strategy Overview
Sales Objection Handling
Customer Service Enablement
Product Demo
Live Training
Apart from familiarizing them with WotNot’s in-app features, our team also showed them various use cases and ways to capitalize the potential and maximize revenue. To show our commitment, we also shared marketing collaterals that could help Seashell kick-start its go-to-market strategy.
These ten-day sessions not only helped Sonic gain more knowledge about chatbots and the market but also helped both teams bond with each other, as this was bound to be the starting point for a long-term partnership.
Our services were not just limited to delivering a white label chatbot solutions. We also followed it up with regular product updates and continued background support. Let’s have a look at it in detail.
Regular Product Updates
WotNot’s product team kept the client promptly updated with all the latest features and developments in WotNot. This ensured that our client could leverage the latest features to:
Make their offerings even richer
Increase the overall revenue
Showcase their product development
Cater to feature requests
Continued Background Support
As Sonic primarily dealt with enterprises, we provided a dedicated support team that worked dedicatedly to ensure that Sonic's whitelabel was up and running 24/7 and ensured that their requirements were met on the product.
As all phases of the project started piecing together, Sonic's product team performed their due diligence of the whitelabel to make sure that everything was working as expected before their grand launch.
They delivered the project on time regardless of the very tough circumstances we were experiencing, which was a huge benefit for a lot of people involved in the project.
Anonymous
VP - Product at Sonic Inc
They delivered the project on time regardless of the very tough circumstances we were experiencing, which was a huge benefit for a lot of people involved in the project.
Anonymous
VP - Product at Sonic Inc
They delivered the project on time regardless of the very tough circumstances we were experiencing, which was a huge benefit for a lot of people involved in the project.
Anonymous
VP - Product at Sonic Inc
The Results
Sonic was extremely delighted to see the new chatbot offering starting to peak interest from their existing customers, much before them even starting to market it.
Also, once launched, Sonic was able to go true to its philosophy of building a communication platform that powers each conversation. Sonic raked in millions of dollars in new revenue, attributing primarily to the new chatbot feature.
Some large enterprise projects also required the development of new features for which we allotted a team of 20 highly skilled and experienced software engineers. Thereby helping Sonic sell not just what they have but also build the required things that their customers need in an agile manner.
This team offered all the technical support that was required by the client, ensuring everything went smooth and fine. This support was a continued one in a true sense as we extended it even after the integration period was over.
Sonic was extremely delighted to see the new chatbot offering starting to peak interest from their existing customers, much before them even starting to market it.
Also, once launched, Sonic was able to go true to its philosophy of building a communication platform that powers each conversation. Sonic raked in millions of dollars in new revenue, attributing primarily to the new chatbot feature.
Some large enterprise projects also required the development of new features for which we allotted a team of 20 highly skilled and experienced software engineers. Thereby helping Sonic sell not just what they have but also build the required things that their customers need in an agile manner.
This team offered all the technical support that was required by the client, ensuring everything went smooth and fine. This support was a continued one in a true sense as we extended it even after the integration period was over.
