Twilio Flex gives contact centres the flexibility to build around their own processes, but that flexibility can also create a larger development workload than teams initially expect.

Pre-built plugins can reduce that workload by providing reusable functionality for common requirements, allowing teams to focus on the areas they truly need.

The name of the game is efficiency. Here’s how RACE achieves that..

Twilio Flex, Twilio's programmable cloud contact centre platform, is designed for organisations that want greater control over how their contact centres operate.

With it, organisations can change the agent experience, connect internal systems, create custom workflows and extend the platform around the way their contact centre already operates.

For organisations whose requirements do not fit neatly into an off-the-shelf platform, that flexibility can be valuable. But it also means that many additional requirements can become lengthy development tasks.

Once the core platform is in place, teams may still need to introduce additional capabilities such as outbound dialling, webchat, queue messaging, wrap-up codes, payment functionality, supervisor tools or reporting enhancements.

Some of these requirements can be configured relatively quickly. Others require cross-departmental planning, development, testing and ongoing maintenance.

This is where pre-built plugins can become useful. Rather than developing every additional capability themselves, teams can use existing components for common requirements and focus their development resources on the areas that are specific to their own contact centre.

Why does Flex need plugins?

Flex is designed to give organisations control over how their contact centre works rather than forcing every organisation into the same structure.

That makes it possible to create custom workflows, integrations and agent experiences, but it also means that additional requirements can become development tasks.

For example, adding outbound campaign controls or structured wrap-up codes often involves scoping the requirement, developing the functionality, testing it and then maintaining it as the contact centre changes.

For a contact centre implementation with lots of requirements, the development workload usually grows over time as more capabilities and requirements are added.

Pre-built plugins provide another option.

A plugin is a reusable component that adds new capability to the existing contact centre environment, so teams can simply deploy it and skip the planning and development work.

This doesn't remove the need for custom development. It allows teams to decide where custom development is actually necessary and where existing functionality can provide a suitable starting point.

What should organisations consider when using pre-built plugins?

The fact that a capability is pre-built doesn't automatically make it suitable for every Flex deployment.

• Integration with the wider platform. If a plugin cannot be accessed or extended through APIs, it can introduce another closed system that becomes difficult to adapt as requirements change.

• Room for your own developers. Flex is designed to remain programmable, so using pre-built functionality should not mean becoming dependent on a vendor for every future change.

• How the services are operated. Where capabilities are separated into individual services, they can potentially be monitored, updated and managed independently rather than treating every component as part of one large system.

• The experience for agents. If a plugin adds functionality that agents use regularly, having that functionality available within the existing Flex environment can avoid introducing another application or interface into the workflow.

• Security and compliance. Particularly where a plugin handles sensitive information, the technology should support the organisation's existing security and compliance requirements rather than relying solely on processes for agents to follow.

  
  

What kinds of requirements can pre-built plugins cover?

Contact centre deployments involve more than just getting agent routing to work. Most teams also need functionality for outbound campaigns, webchat, queue messaging, disposition and wrap-up codes, payments, supervisor tools and reporting.

The development team can then concentrate on the areas where the organisation's processes genuinely require something different.

The approach is therefore not about replacing custom development. It is about deciding where custom development provides value and where an existing component already solves the requirement properly.

How does RACE fit into this approach?

RACE is a suite of pre-built capabilities created specifically for Twilio Flex.

Rather than operating as a separate contact centre application, RACE extends the Flex environment itself. Each capability is delivered as an individual service, with a React plugin surfacing the relevant functionality inside the Flex agent desktop.

This means agents can continue working within the same interface while organisations introduce additional capabilities as they need them. Each RACE service is also designed to operate separately, with its own API and independent monitoring.

This gives Flex users a middle ground. Flex remains the programmable foundation, RACE provides reusable components for common contact centre requirements, and custom development covers what is specific to the organisation's own processes.

What does RACE include?

RACE currently includes 26 plugins covering a range of common contact centre requirements.

These include capabilities such as outbound campaign dialling, configurable webchat, queue messaging, disposition and wrap-up codes, payment functionality, supervisor tools and reporting enhancements.

Organisations do not need to adopt the entire suite. Individual plugins can be introduced according to the requirements of the contact centre.

Each plugin is supported by its own API, while Ciptex publishes component-level service status and provides a 99.9% monthly SLA.

The RACE plugin builder is also open source under an MIT licence, allowing development teams to create their own plugins alongside the existing suite.

Build what needs to be different

The question for a Flex deployment is not whether to use custom development or pre-built functionality. Most implementations will use both.

The more useful question is where custom development creates genuine value and where an existing component can solve a common requirement without giving the organisation another piece of functionality to build, test and maintain.

Flex provides the flexibility to create a contact centre around an organisation's own processes. Pre-built plugins can help ensure that development effort is focused on the parts that actually need to be different.