Stephanie’s “One Expert, One Topic” column reminded me of our collaboration on the ADP RCS 2FA use case. Implementing 2FA on RCS addressed a significant user experience pain point. Often, Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) degenerates into a cumbersome process requiring not just the memorization of an actual password but also the patience to receive a second, temporary one.
The ADP 2FA RCS use case effectively solved this problem on a large scale. To provide context, one in seven people in the US are paid through ADP’s payroll system. In fact, ADP’s employment data is often used to verify government figures. Addressing this two-password issue for ADP would be a shining use case for RCS that goes beyond marketing or chatbots.
The concept was straightforward: the user enters their password on the platform, which then sends an RCS message to the user’s device. This message, prominently displaying the ADP logo, appears on their device. The user simply taps the “confirm” button in the message and is automatically logged in.
EZ Texting’s Radu Maierean has a good demo here, and ADP’s Sonal Doshi gave a great presentation at Mobile World Congress, LA. They were leaders of a global, multi-organizational group of product and technology teams working on this project.
The technological challenges were formidable. Transitioning from SMS to RCS, ensuring the Quality of Service (QoS) for real-time, round-trip communication from the user’s browser to their phone, and scaling this solution to meet ADP’s demands—all were tough tasks. However, as often happens, these issues were resolved when engineers regardless of geography or organization collaborated to find solutions.
The toughest challenge was securing approval to display the ADP logo on the incoming message. Proving to every network that the sender (EZ Texting) had the right to use the ADP logo required a mix of legal documents, email screenshots, and sharing the right media creatives. It highlighted a glaring gap in Rich Business Messaging (RBM) onboarding: establishing the Right To Use (RTU) a logo.
In a few months, the dog will have caught the car, and Apple will support RCS. How this will impact the business messaging world remains to be seen. However, I would suggest that the greater unknown is how our existing processes will adapt to enable brands of all sizes to use RCS effectively. How will large corporations like ADP, Coca-Cola, and FedEx protect themselves from being spoofed, and how will smaller businesses like Joe’s Pizza or Larson’s Law Offices do the same? These are quality problems for which we still don’t have a clean solution.