WebRTC Mobile Applications & Web Development Services: Know The Cost & Its Benefits

Web Real-Time Communication (WebRTC) exemplifies a "nice-to-have" technology. You don't really need browser-agnostic voice calling, video chat and person-to-person file sharing in your contact center, but you want it. And you probably already have it in the form of plugins from various sources. You probably don't need all these bells and whistles to sync but, again, you want it. So the challenge is: How do you justify the cost for something that, though very cool, isn't going to save or make the company a ton of money?

The Cost Of WebRTC App & Web Development Services

Often in this space we focus more on the benefits than the cost. But in WebRTC's case, the first thing you'll need to establish in a business case is that it just doesn't cost that much.

But it does cost something. We're fortunate that the pricing is transparent. The cloud-based WebRTC vendors are priced fairly close together, and the selection of which one to go with is not primarily a financial decision. Falling short of endorsing RTCWeb.in as the WebRTC solution for your enterprise, we acknowledge that their advertised prices are straightforwardly presented and easy to digest, so we're going with them for the sake of example. (WebRTCWorld hosts a robust list of WebRTC providers.)

There are essentially four main categories of charges:

1-Usage
2-Archiving
3-Service
4-Bolt-ons

Usage is, of course, the first thing that comes to mind. WebRTC platforms use a stair-step curve to scale the cost per minute. The first minute costs five cents and the millionth costs four-and-a-quarter cents, so we're not talking about big savings, but still.

But let's not forget about archiving. You have to figure in the cost of compositing files into an easily readable MP4 file. Or you could—if you choose to—save the audio, video and still media separately. And if you can find a reason to do that, you can save a penny a minute.

Here's what you need to know, though: If you choose to record only 10 percent of your WebRTC stream-minutes, then archiving will cost you almost as much as up-front usage. In our model, we assumed 5 percent. Is that anywhere close to what your usage will be? It's hard to tell as this depends on too many factors; however, it is crucial that you identify that business requirement before you go any further.

The other costs are nominal. There's a service level you can get for free, another that costs $2,500/month, and at least one in between. It's also conceivable that you might want such additional services as unlimited-party conference calls or enhanced securities but, for now, let's assume you don't.

In terms of one-time costs, you might have to enhance your bandwidth in certain locations, and you'll definitely have to buy headsets, microphones and speakers. We also assume the standard design, implementation and user acceptance services we usually do in this space.

One caveat to keep in mind: These charges are expressed as monthly fees. Our business case model automatically translates them into annual costs so you don't make that rookie mistake.

If your CIO has already bought into the advantages of WebRTC and the decision comes down to onsite-versus-cloud, it might be a no-brainer. The hardware alone might be a deal-breaker. According to web developer, to run WebRTC in-house you'd need to pick up servers to provide three functions: Internet Connectivity Establishment (ICE) protocol, signaling and media.

Hire WebRTC Application & Web Development Company

You probably only need two each of the ICE and signaling servers (primary and backup) and you could probably dedicate any 2U, x86 pizza boxes for those purposes. Let's call them $10,000 each, times four, or $40,000. Media boxes need to be more fit-for-purpose, and Polychronakis recommends the Cisco MCU 5300 series for telepresence. Those go for about $30,000 each, and let's say your business analysis forecasts the need for 6 of those, or $180,000.

So you're already on your way to a quarter-million-dollar outlay just to get started. And there will come a point when your next minute of streamed video will require you to buy two more MCU servers and thus have the incremental cost of $60,000.

Cloud looks better and better all the time.

Calculating WebRTC Development Solution Benefits

WebRTC is considered primarily a contact center play, and the direct, cash-money benefits tend to be concentrated there.

Vendors tout the way they can save you on incoming 800 calls, so let's assume for current purposes that your organization spends $5 million on these charges and WebRTC can, at end stage, save 25 percent off that.

Vendors further state that they can reduce your customer service headcount because your problems can, on average, be resolved more quickly. So let's assume that's also $5 million now and WebRTC can ultimately save 25 percent off that as well.

But let's take it a step further and roll WebRTC out to the broader organization. The main purpose in doing this is to take advantage of such soft benefits as improved security and improved employee collaboration. But it also means that your virtual private network costs go almost to zero. For argument's sake, we assume your VPN costs are about $1 million. Your mileage may vary, of course; as a rule of thumb, assume that VPN cost you about $100/year per line, so we're guessing you have 1,000 employees, contractors or other stakeholders accessing your VPN.