The way our RCS-e/Joyn REST API exposure works.

Solaiemes approach to the need of exposing carriers communication capabilities to 3rd parties was radically different to the previous ones. In the past, the attempts to expose capabilities to create services were based in OSA, Parlay, etc, more thought to offer professional services the own infrastructure vendors than a proper exposure to the vast ecosystem of developers. Our approach is simple, expose not directly from the core infrastructure but as "clients". We instance virtual clients (telco protocols of the clients being kept at carrier cloud) and in the case of our web-clients strategy. In this case the RCS-e Virtual Client API is not used to create an alternative UI in a device but to create a service based on messaging interaction (as it was done with SMS to create A2P and P2A cases).
The chart.

(click to enlarge)

We were awarded by this approach. As you can see, the 3rd party API is core vendor independent (no lock-in then), as it behaves as "client", we can say we are interoperated with the main vendors of IMS, Instant Messaging Server and the SBC leader. What we provide is that "extra mile" for telcos to create a new frontier, the one we name FTB (Friendly Telco Border). With our approach "plug & play" whatever RCS-e core can have integrated a 3rd party REST and SOAP WS exposure in less than a week and RCS-e automatically becomes a platform to create value added services (application to person and person to application) complementing the person to person messaging (initial use case). You can see in the chart how device clients interact with "service clients" representing services (i.e: CRM). Those "service identities" (additional contacts in the user phonebook) will be a new revenue stream for carriers, and if they are defined as SIP URI, also a new business model appears: the domaining based on the names of the services to be deployed. If we see how amazing companies as Voxeo, Twilio etc are succeeding "selling" communication capabilities, we see that they approach the developers/customers offering the interface they know how to use and needing none/minimum support: internet style APIs (REST & SOAP). Time for telcos to make their try in the way developers can embrace it :-)