In my first blog of this series, I told you about the hot new term PaaS. I think it’s human nature to want to label things as “new”. In fact, we call things “new and improved” all the time, but I still don’t understand how something can be new AND improved. It just doesn’t make sense. With that said, I’m going to let you in on a little secret: as I previously mentioned, NICE CXone has been doing this for more than 10 years, and (here's the secret) we prefer the simple moniker of Software as a Service. Why? Well, it’s not SaaS unless it is extensible.
So this “new” idea of PaaS is really just a marketing scheme; one of which I am more than willing to take advantage of. This movement gives me an opportunity to introduce some new initiatives at NICE CXone, behind which I am the grand master. Without further ado, NICE CXone will soon release a new partner and developer program called, get ready for it, inCloud, and at that center is the platform side of NICE CXone.
inCloud will consist of multiple components: inCloud Marketplace, a new API and the inCloud Community. The inCloud Marketplace, which is slated to go live in late 2011/early 2012, is the first component. Our goal is to make the NICE CXone platform accessible to development partners while providing a place for those partners to market their software and expertise. The marketplace will consist of applications and services that work with or were written on the NICE CXone platform, along with details about the application or service, a rating and feedback system, and methods for acquiring the applications.
The second component is a new API that provides access to all of the NICE CXone clusters through one service. This API will have a new security model that proves better access controls for NICE CXone customers while controlling access to partners' applications. The API will expand over time to represent the entire NICE CXone product suite.
The third component is the inCloud community where partners and developers will be able to interact, exchange ideas and tips, and network within this growing ecosystem. And, drum roll please, we also plan to provide code samples and developer-specific documentation.
Stay tuned for the next part in this series that provides more specifics about what can be done with these new tools and why we are so excited about them.
