WebRTC is going to FUNDAMENTALLY change the way businesses interact with their Customers.

Within the next couple of years,  many Customer self service portals will have WebRTC (web real-time communications) capability which will connect your customer using audio, video or chat directly to your sales or service people without the need for a telephone at either end, using nothing more than their favourite  web browser.

The technology is already here, the mainstream adoption is not, that is where the couple of years comes in. Welcome to the world of WebRTC.

WebRTC v1.0 is a standard based on the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) which itself was based on original work developed at Ericsson Labs and later on by the WebRTC open source project published by Google in 2011.  WebRTC v1.1 (also known as ORTC – Object Real-time Communications) is currently in development and is actually part implemented in some web browsers already.

Essentially WebRTC gives the web browsers and developers a standard way of implementing and integrating real-time communications capabilities which have the ability to deliver four main capabilities which are 1. Voice Communication 2. Video Conferencing 3. Realtime chat 4. Information sharing (ie: desktop and file sharing). These capabilities are already pre-baked into the latest Web Browsers and platforms:

For PCs and Macs: Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox and Opera have support in their latest versions. Android Smartphones and tablets have  Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Opera Mobile support.  Apple Smart Phone and Tablets (ie: latest iPhone and iPADs) have support in their  built in Web Browser. (Notable exceptions that do not have support are Internet Explorer and Apple Safari.)

Given the fact that there is already broad fixed and mobile platform support for WebRTC  the major barriers to adoption have been removed. In the next few years we expect to see this technology really come of age and proliferate throughout the business world.

I know there will be some questions, so I have attempted to answer a few of the common ones below, but first the obligatory diagram showing how it can work.

What advantages does WebRTC give your business?

Firstly WebRTC gives you to ability to communicate more effectively with your Customers and Staff. The technology is programmable using HTML5 and Javascript – within the capability of most good Web Developers. The ability to integrate WebRTC functions into your business workflows, integrating to your existing Website,  Customer Portal and CRM means you do not have to swap out large chunks of your software or infrastructure to gain this capability.

Two example Use Cases (there are many more)

A Service Team wants to create more efficiencies with Customer Interactions. Using WebRTC they can create a WebRTC enabled web page in their Support Portal so customers can interact directly with the support team directly, maybe after creating a support ticket. The Support agents can also use WebRTC software and can receive a call/chat/video and desktop share from the customer without having to use a traditional or VoIP phone or any telecoms infrastructure at all. The communication is delivered from the Customer Webpage to the Support Agent via the company’s WebRTC service. Both the Customer and the Agent  have a camera, audio and microphone provided in their PC/Mac/iPAD/iPhone/Android which WebRTC uses and controls throughout the communications session.

A Recruitment Company wants to create a better way to interact with their Candidates and Customers throughout the interview process. The recruitment company contacts a WebRTC Service Provider who integrates a WebRTC solution into their interview process. This integration videos the candidate whilst they are answering a series of interview questions driven from the CRM and uploads the video as part of the candidate’s CV package which can be given to prospective employees. The candidate can use their PC/Mac/Laptop/iPAD/Android device to log on to the recruiters interview portal and run through the interview questions.

How secure is WebRTC?

WebRTC offers good security for calls. Signalling (instructions that tell WebRTC clients what to do next) is delivered over secure websockets (similar to https).  The media (the actual audio/video/messages/information) is transferred using SRTP (secure real-time protocol) again is also encrypted.  There are some minor security concerns to do with reading users IP addresses and of course there are the ones we haven’t discovered yet. The best advice I can give you is to consult a WebRTC/Integrated Communications specialist on such matters prior to implementing WebRTC inside your network.

What is the Call Quality like?

This is where we have to get a bit technical. The audio is encoded and decoded (the codec) using one of two methods or codecs as they are known – either G.711 or Opus. (Think Wav file or MP3 file.)

Both codecs offer good quality calls but Opus is more flexible because it can adapt to low bandwidth environments. Opus is actually based partly on the “Silk” algorithm which is used by Skype and can provide near HD quality using up to 80 kilobits per second (ISDN is 64 kilobits per second) all the way down to 6kb/s for bandwidth constrained environments like mobile – although don’t expect High Definition calls at that level!

The reality is that for any enterprise grade voice quality, you need to ensure that your own business local area network and wide area network (your internet connectivity) is capable of supporting voice calls over IP. That means no dodgy/cheap home-grade ethernet switches in your network and a properly setup router with Quality of service settings configured correctly. Best advice here is: Buy cheap, buy twice.

Peer to Peer or Client-Server?

Peer to Peer (web browser to web browser) communication is certainly possible using WebRTC. However the compelling Business case is where WebRTC clients (your customers and staff using WebRTC enabled applications) are connected through a WebRTC Gateway which will mediate the calls and even connect them to the PSTN (outside world) through a suitable SIP service. There are other advantages to routing the RTP through a central source, for example allowing calls and video to be recorded. Therefore my advice to you would be to seek advice from a suitably knowledgeable communications company as part of your planning.

WebRTC sounds interesting, where do I go from here?

My advice would be to speak to a few companies who are providing or planning to provide WebRTC services and also visit a good conference on WebRTC. A good one would be the European VoIP Summit in London in March 2016. I am on one of the Q+A sessions talking about WebRTC. More information is available by clicking here.

As a follow up, I am planning to write a couple of follow-up articles talking specifically about a few WebRTC applications which our company – SYNETY – will be launching later in 2016 so I hope you enjoyed the article and found it useful.