Flowroute Announces Expanded Messaging Functionality with MMS to Help Businesses More Richly Engage with Customers Using Toll-Free and Local Phone Numbers

SEATTLE, WA--(Marketwired - November 01, 2017) - Flowroute Inc., the first software-centric carrier, announced the addition of multimedia messaging services (MMS) to its messaging platform to enable businesses to send and receive pictures, audio and video using text-enabled toll-free and local phone numbers on the Flowroute network. With Flowroute's expanded capabilities, enterprises can take advantage of messaging as an effective and affordable communications channel to reach their customers.

"Consumer demand for both SMS and MMS interactions from businesses will continue to accelerate, but the lack of options on deployed communications platforms and services is limiting business adoption," said Michael Brandenburg, industry analyst at Frost & Sullivan. "Flowroute represents a way for businesses to take advantage of a currently underutilized channel, by message-enabling existing phone numbers to address the communication needs of their customers."

Today, businesses in the United States use over 100 million local and toll-free phone numbers, and often invest significant resources and dollars on marketing or promotional campaigns to ensure those phone numbers are easy for customers to remember. However, only a small percentage of those local and toll-free business phone numbers are message-enabled, making it impossible for businesses to incorporate text messaging without purchasing entirely new numbers and leaving behind their old phone numbers, which in many cases have been in use for decades.

"We are committed to delivering our customers the communication channels they prefer," said Jeff Hodson, Senior Director of Zang Cloud at Avaya. "Flowroute's API helped us remove the typical hurdles associated with launching new telecom-related capabilities, such as MMS. For example, we received early access to Flowroute MMS and after only 30 days were able to announce a new offering to our customers."

Hodson continued, "We found the Flowroute team to be very responsive and dedicated to resolving technical issues. While it's early in the process, we're already receiving positive feedback from our customers about the availability of MMS services."

Flowroute's addition of MMS on both existing and new phone numbers, allows enterprises to unify calling and messaging on one phone number to deliver compelling customer interactions.

Businesses can use Flowroute's messaging API to implement both SMS and MMS, providing them with access to the same powerful, reliable messaging capabilities they expect from Flowroute, such as message routing controls, message usage stats, and real-time access to all message records.

Flowroute's expanded messaging capabilities give enterprises and developers the ability to:

• Unify communications with one provider - Eliminates the need for businesses to change their contact information and unifies calling and messaging on existing long-code and toll-free phone numbers.
• Offer comprehensive messaging capabilities - Send and receive SMS and MMS on any text-enabled phone number through any mobile carrier or text-enabled landline number in the United States and Canada.
• Create more visual customer experiences - Use pictures, audio, and video attachments and build a richer and more interactive customer experience.
• Complete transparency of messages - Provides access to usage data, as well as cost and message details for any date range with real-time message detail records.

"Text messaging is evolving from a predominantly personal communications channel to an effective and instant way for businesses to engage with their customers on the same phone numbers they have been using for years," said Dave Rich, vice president of products at Flowroute. "The addition of MMS functionality presents an opportunity for businesses to share relevant information quickly with their customers, as well as differentiate themselves by providing a channel to drive sales and improve the overall customer experience."

About Flowroute

Flowroute, the first software-centric carrier, provides communication services and technology for cloud-based products. By providing businesses programmatic access to communications infrastructure services, Flowroute removes the complexity of introducing new communications solutions to market. The patented nationwide Flowroute HyperNetwork™ delivers leading carrier-quality calling and messaging services with unparalleled reliability, reach, and simplicity. Flowroute is privately held and headquartered in Seattle, Washington. For more information: www.flowroute.com.