[CASE STUDY]
Video service from Daily drives customer growth for Cal.com
From problem to a scalable solution
An easy way to schedule meetings, events, and daily workflows has been needed for ages. However, the creation of a simple-to-use, secure, plug-and-play scheduling platform has vexed developers, product teams, and entrepreneurs for ages.
“While working on a project with another developer, we found there was nothing out there for calendar scheduling,” said Bailey Pumfleet, Co-founder and Co-CEO of Cal.com. “As our work scaled, and the need for multifaceted scheduling grew, we discovered that thousands of others had the same problem. Developing a scheduling solution that could integrate seamlessly into workflows started out as more about solving our own problem.”
This initial need inspired the launch of Cal.com: the world's first open-source, developer-friendly scheduling platform. Cal.com offers the tools businesses, governments, nonprofits, and consumers need to easily manage their appointments.
“We've built an incredible product that today is used by over 100,000 people,” said Pumfleet.
Everyone wants video
As Cal.com's product began to take flight, one specific demand from users quickly emerged: video conferencing.
“We had to offer the next level of service — beyond just scheduling a call or meeting — and give users the ability to instantly move a meeting to video with the least friction possible,” said Pumfleet.
However, the time, labor, and distraction involved in creating a video conferencing solution internally posed serious drawbacks.
“We were lukewarm on building a video service from scratch, estimating it would take one to two months and detract from our focus on continuing to enhance our core calendaring product,” said Pumfleet.
Daily gets the nod
After deciding to stay focused on Cal.com's core product, instead of building an in-house video solution, the search for a video partner with the right platform, tools, and scalability began. They sought to design a seamless user experience that scaled with the user as they grew.
“We didn't want an individual or enterprise to have to have a Zoom subscription to go to video because that's not always practical,” said Pumfleet. “Our goal was to find a really lightweight, easy way to move a Cal.com meeting to a video conference from a vendor that could also support the next iterations of our business.”
Cal.com sought the following in a video platform:
- Ease of use for end-users
- Secure and HIPAA-compliant
- Easy-to-use APIs
- Seamless integration into existing user workflows
- Quick implementation
Cal.com reviewed market options and chose Daily to launch its new Cal Video service.
It's not complicated
Daily allowed Cal.com to easily add a customized video solution to their product in a matter of days.
“The number one thing that stood out about Daily is its ease of implementation,” said Pumfleet. “Daily Prebuilt was so easy, and their APIs are incredibly user-friendly too, which made adjustments and modifications simple. This kept us from getting sidetracked so we could stay laser-focused on further innovation for our scheduling product.”
It took mere days to launch Cal Video, the integrated video service within our platform, powered by Daily. Everything we needed to go from zero to full implementation was there. It was all so quick, flawless, and smooth.Bailey Pumfleet, Cofounder and Co-CEO of Cal.com
The flexibility of Daily's APIs allowed Cal.com developers to rapidly deploy an array of features for Cal Video including:
- Mobile-friendly UI
- Customizable layout
- Support for large calls
- Recording options
- Downloadable text chat
- Screen sharing
- Moderation controls for hosts
- A pre-call “lobby” where participants can test their mics and cameras
“We wanted to re-engineer the customer experience. The dexterity of Daily's APIs made that process really straightforward and easy to do,” said Pumfleet.
The nimbleness of Daily's solution helps Cal.com meet the myriad needs of its customers. “A one-size fits all approach to our product isn't viable,” said Pumfleet. “I love how easily Daily fits and works within our product to give a diverse user base what they want. Customers tell us they love getting video out-of-the-box and that they don't have to research or learn to set up something complex, and that it works with mobile data across different devices. Daily is simple and just works, especially compared to big platforms like Zoom.”