Cloud communications platform provider Twilio Inc. announced today that the company is getting down in the trenches with developers through the launch of Twilio Build, a partner program for certification, training and market support aimed at developer success.

Ron Huddleston, chief partner officer at Twilio, called Build a developer-first approach that focuses on application programming interface support with an aim to support partners in creating innovative software to transform the communication industry.

By virtualizing the world’s telecommunications infrastructure with APIs, Twilio has sought to redefine the communications industry and put the power in the hands of developers. An API is how third-party developers tap into a platform build on top of it and these interfaces are intrinsic for interconnectivity and the application development processes. This focus allows Twilio to provide developer partners a way to harness the power of its platform within their own businesses and apps.

“Twilio’s unique API-first approach provides partners the full power and reach of a global communications network combined with the flexibility and speed they expect in the cloud,” said Huddleston.

Twilio Build categorizes partners into two different segments, either technology partners or consulting partners, and both categories can sign up now at the Build website with two levels of partnership as registered or gold.

By focusing on developers, Twilio Build offers all partners access to partner-specific business models, a digital showcase where partners can present offerings to Twilio’s existing customers and early access to products, such as Twilio’s contact center application platform Flex and potentially future services and products.

“Communications plays a critical role in every organization’s digital transformation initiative,” said Jon Rauschenberger, director, enterprise software products at Perficient Inc. As a consulting partner developer with Twilio, Rauschenberger said the platform “sits at the ideal intersection between communications and the cloud” and that this combination provides his company, a digital transformation consulting firm, the flexibility needed to create communication offerings for customers that the company did not have access to before.

With access to Twilio Build, developers can forge forward by building traditional apps directly with Twilio’s platform with packaged applications. Alternatively, with Twilio’s API-centric application development consultation, it is also possible for Build partners to use the platform regardless of region, industry, business model or development resources.

Consulting partners gain certification on the Twilio platform and are able to resell the services without needing software engineering or development proficiency in order to get started on their own. In the past, consultants of software-as-a-service models would find them difficult to implement, customize and fit to customer needs.

Twilio seeks to solve that by providing consulting partners the APIs, training and programs needed to allow them to rapidly prototype and build custom, scalable communications solutions for customers. That means that with Twilio Build, companies such as Perficient can quickly access resources from Twilio and rapidly develop solutions with expert assistance.

Consulting launch partners include Blacc Spot Media Inc., DVELP, Impekable LLC, Nethram LLC, Perficient Inc., Silicon Valley Software Group and Vision Point Systems Inc.

Technology partners get direct access to Twilio’s platform and also application solutions that will work out of the box. For these partners, Twilio offers an ecosystem who can deliver packaged solutions for business features such as customer support, speech-to-text, sentiment analysis, caller identification or contact center reporting.

In this manner, Twilio can offer communications via scalable building blocks, which allows developers to build solutions from scratch or attach communications features to apps one at a time. Technology partners can access these features without pomp or ceremony and can attach them using programming languages they already know. Technology launch partners include Zendesk Inc., IBM Watson (product of IBM Corp.), Voicebase Inc., WhitePages Pro (product of Whitepages Inc.) and Ytica a.s.

Image: Twilio