Verification Things that look really simple from afar can turn out to be quite complex when you get up close — especially when you try to take them on yourself. Letting an expert do the work for you can not only save time and money but also give you better results. And that’s an understatement when it comes to implementing user authentication via SMS.
While outsourcing applications has been around since the 1960s, it evolved into on-demand delivery via the Internet (becoming known as application software provision) — and then via the cloud, at which point it became known as software as a service (SaaS). This was around 2001.
Since then SaaS has already become so prevalent that as many as seven out of every 10 companies have some form of it in use, and over half are already using more than one SaaS vendor’s service, according to North Bridge.
In fact, the global market for SaaS is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 27.9% through 2022, to reach $164.3 billion that year, according to Transparency Market Research.
While some refer to cloud computing and SaaS interchangeably, the latter is simply the application layer on the former. Growth rates for cloud computing parallel that of SaaS, with each driving growth of the other. As North Bridge states:
Based on our survey, while slightly less than 50% of all companies either have a cloud first or cloud only strategy; some form of cloud strategy is pervasive among all, with 90% of companies surveyed reporting that they use it in some way.
A new finding this year is the fact that a surprisingly high number, 42%, of companies surveyed derive 50% or more of their business through cloud-based applications. In fact, a whopping 79.9% of the companies surveyed were getting some revenue from the cloud. This speaks to the digital transformation occurring across many industries and how many are looking to not only move more quickly with the cloud but profit from it as well.
A whopping 79% of companies surveyed by North Bridge derive at least some revenues from the cloud.
One reason cloud application deployment is yielding revenues so quickly has to do with being more cost effective than other types of software. As cloud infrastructure grows, SaaS gets more affordable due to economies of scale.
These economies enable SaaS providers to roll out feature updates to subscribers faster and more efficiently than users might be able to obtain otherwise. This is especially helpful when it comes to security, where vulnerabilities are discovered and fixed more frequently than any other type of technology update comes out.
SaaS APIs
The epitome of efficiency: SaaS delivered as an application programming interface (API), a set of tools that specify how different software components should interact. This can provide the most flexibility for growing businesses, as they can readily migrate the API even into new software upgrades, all the while paying rates based on usage.
It’s especially nifty when that API is short but sweet — like a couple of lines of code that you can copy and paste into your application and start running immediately. That’s exactly how RingCaptcha works.
RingCaptcha’s turnkey plugin converts visitors on websites into verified onboarded users into your app with just the click of a button. It sends one-time passwords to them via SMS text messages or phone calls (depending on the type of phone number supplied by the user).
RingCaptcha’s SaaS can save time and money for businesses looking to weed out bogus signups to their websites. The variety of SaaS provided by RingCaptcha helps:
- Authenticate new users;
- Activate applications;
- Verify existing users;
- Act as e-signatures;
- Confirm transactions;
- Provide one-time passwords;
- Globalize a user base;
- Secure password resets;
- Grow conversion rates;
- Foster real communities; and
- Increase engagement.
Don’t SMS Yourself
Now there are webmasters who try to do this manually or using generic messaging frameworks — only to find out that it’s a lot of work to set up and performance varies from one country to the next, due to a host of issues.
Even what at first seems like minutiae can become big headaches if you try to code your own SMS authentication gateway. Take phone number formats, for example. You’re probably already aware that different countries have their own prefixes before area codes, but how aware are you of the extent to which country codes vary? Or, rather, the variations in the ways users in different countries key in these codes?
And then there’s the formatting of the content of the message: mobile network infrastructure uses different formats from one region to the next. And let’s not forget the matter of rigging the SMS and voice authentication to conform with all of the telecommunications networks around the world — unfortunately, there’s not a one-size-fits-all way to do this on your own. And even if you do manage to plug into them all, availability and quality of service varies widely from one part of the world to another.
Download ASAP
Dealing with all of that complexity on your own would put you at a disadvantage when trying to compete for new users in app stores — and other customer acquisition channels. If it’s not simple and frictionless, you risk losing their interest.
Without verifying new users of their websites and apps, businesses can incur increased operational expenses from added activity that includes fraudulent accounts, hacking attempts, spammers and other n’er-do-wells that end up interfering with the experiences of genuine users.
On your own it might be hard to achieve an authentication process that’s both trustworthy and user friendly at the same time.
Like so many other types of outsourcing, letting an expert do the heavy lifting for you keeps things simple, so you can focus your energy on what you do best. That’s what RingCaptcha can do for your user authentication. So what are you waiting for? Click here to get started.
