At CASA25’s now-infamous Fight Club session, the rules were simple:

Don’t talk CPaaS. Talk customers. Talk outcomes. Talk impact.

And Vonage’s Marc Marchal de Corny did exactly that.

In a punchy, practical session, Marc showed what happens when we stop obsessing over technology—and start focusing on what users actually need. From fighting fraud to speeding up onboarding, the message was clear: real-world use cases, measured by real-world results, are what drive adoption. Everything else is noise.

From the First SMS to Today’s Identity Crisis

Marc started with a throwback: the first SMS in 1992. Since then, we’ve created amazing apps, connected billions of devices… yet we’re still authenticating users the same way—via SMS and one-time codes.

But the world has changed.

Fraud is now a $10 trillion industry.

Threats like synthetic identity fraud, social engineering, and OTP interception are everywhere. Yet many businesses still rely on the same outdated flows.

It’s time for something better.

Enter Network APIs: Invisible, Instant, Secure

Vonage’s answer? Network APIs, embedded within their Verify platform. These APIs work silently in the background—using mobile network data to authenticate users without them ever leaving the app, typing a code, or even noticing.

Two standout use cases showed the power of this approach.

Use Case 1: Sumeria (formerly Lydia) – Reducing Fraud, Not UX

Sumeria is France’s leading neobank. Like Revolut, they rely heavily on phone numbers as identity. But that made them vulnerable to account takeover attacks—and created friction in the onboarding process.

What they needed:

✅ Stronger security

✅ Seamless UX

✅ Lower drop-off rates

What Vonage delivered:

• 🔐 99% reduction in account takeover fraud
• 🚀 22% drop in sign-up abandonment
• ⚡ 3–5x faster user authentication
• 📱 6 million users verified via silent authentication

Crucially, this wasn’t just about swapping SMS for a new API. It was about rethinking the experience, eliminating interruptions, and restoring trust at scale.

Use Case 2: Cabify – Don’t Make Me Wait

For Cabify (the Uber of Latin America and Southern Europe), the challenge wasn’t fraud—it was speed. Travelers arriving at airports needed a ride now, and any delay in sign-up meant lost customers.

With Vonage’s network API-powered flow, Cabify:

• 🕐 Reduced onboarding time by 50%
• 🔐 Decreased OTP sharing and fake accounts
• 📈 Increased sign-up completions
• 🌍 Reached 50M+ users globally

Fast, secure, and invisible—the authentication just happened, in seconds.

Why Isn’t Everyone Doing This (Yet)?

An audience member nailed the big question:

If the benefits are this obvious, why aren’t all enterprises using this already?

Marc’s answer was honest:

“The use cases have always been there. What’s been missing is the operators’ ability—or willingness—to deliver at scale.”

But let’s be clear—this is not just a supply-side issue.

Even when the APIs are available, adoption takes time. Because switching is not just a technical decision—it’s a strategic transformation. It means:

• Updating customer journeys
• Rethinking identity models
• Aligning with compliance and legal
• Getting buy-in from risk, procurement, and CX teams
• Proving ROI to business stakeholders

And that means we, as an industry, have to do more than just ship APIs.

We need to:

• Talk benefits, not backend systems
• Explain outcomes, not architectures
• Guide customers through the entire change journey—not just integration

From CPaaS to Intelligent Engagement

What Marc gave us wasn’t a product pitch. It was a live case study in intelligent engagement.

It’s not about replacing SMS. It’s not about voice vs. data. It’s not even about CPaaS.

It’s about delivering value faster—for both the business and the end user.

Whether it’s signing up for a neobank, hailing a cab, or verifying identity across channels, the winning strategy is always the same:

• Invisible tech.
• Seamless UX.
• Measurable results.

That’s intelligent engagement in action.

And that’s what the future of this industry needs more of.

Final Word: It’s Time to Work Together

If we want network APIs—and intelligent engagement more broadly—to go mainstream, we need a new playbook.

It’s not enough to build great tools.

We need to embed them into outcomes.

To work across teams, not just tech stacks.

And to support customers every step of the way, from idea to implementation.

Because in the end, it’s not about what we can build.

It’s about what users actually need.

And that’s where the real fight is.