ISV A2P 10DLC Onboarding Overview

Let's explore how Owl Inc, an ISV company with two customers, would onboard to A2P 10DLC.

Owl Inc is the primary Account, and it has separated its two customers, Acme and Buy n Large, into subaccounts to separate billing. Each company, including Owl Inc, has its own SMS messaging use cases. Acme Corp and Buy n Large use Owl's platform to send SMS messages to their own respective users.

• Owl Inc sends two-factor authentication (2FA) messages for its customers to log in to their platform.
• Acme Corp sends support ticket status updates.
• Buy n Large sends promotions and also sends offer appointments.

Owl Inc has a Messaging Service set up for each of these messaging use cases.

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Before onboarding to A2P 10DLC, Owl Inc needs to identify its ISV architecture type. By comparing the information above to this table, it determines it's using type #1. This type informs the specific steps it'll follow to onboard to A2P 10DLC by creating Customer Profiles, registering Brands, and registering Campaigns.

Owl Inc needs to create three separate Customer Profiles and register three separate Brands to represent its Account structure. It is also responsible for gathering registration information from Acme Corp and Buy n Large to create their Customer Profiles and Brands, or it could alternatively build a portal with Twilio's APIs for self-registration.

• Owl Inc
  • Create one Primary Customer Profile.
  • Register one Brand.
• Acme Corp
  • Create one Secondary Customer Profile.
  • Register one Brand.
• Buy n Large
  • Create one Secondary Customer Profile.
  • Register one Brand.

Owl Inc needs to register four Campaigns to represent the messaging use cases of itself and its customers.

• One Campaign for Owl Inc's use case of sending 2FA messages to its customers.
• Three Campaigns for the use cases of Acme Corp and Buy n Large.
  • Acme Corp's use case for sending support ticket updates.
  • Buy n Large's use case for sending promotional content.
  • Buy n Large's use case for sending appointment messages.

There are many different patterns of how Twilio Accounts, subaccounts, and Messaging Services are organized for ISVs. Before you begin onboarding to A2P 10DLC, you'll need to identify which ISV architecture type you're using from the six types that are detailed below. Your architecture type determines the specific onboarding steps you'll need to take such as creating Customer Profiles, registering Brands, and registering Campaigns.

Identify your architecture type using the table below, then continue to that type's section for information on your onboarding steps. Once you've identified your onboarding steps, you can proceed to Step 2: Onboard via API or the Console.

• You use subaccounts and they are mapped to individual customers.
• You use Messaging Services.

Type #1 is the preferred architecture for A2P 10DLC onboarding because the messaging traffic for each customer is clearly separated by subaccounts. This allows for easier analytics tracking and minimizes the impact of any potential noncompliant traffic from one customer on the rest of your customers.

• For each of your customers that have A2P 10DLC messaging use cases:
  • Create a Secondary Customer Profile under the customer's subaccount.
  • Register a Brand under the customer's subaccount.
  • Register Campaigns for each messaging use case. Each use case should map to its own Messaging Service under the same subaccount.
• If your ISV also has A2P 10DLC messaging use cases:
  • Create a Primary Customer Profile under your primary Account.
  • Register a Brand under your primary Account.
  • Register Campaigns for each messaging use case. Each use case should map to its own Messaging Service under the same Account.

• You use subaccounts and they are not mapped to individual customers.
• You use Messaging Services and they are mapped to individual customers.

A risk of this type is that if one customer sends noncompliant traffic, Twilio may need to suspend the primary Account of that customer which could include compliant customers in other subaccounts. It is also more difficult to track messaging analytics for each customer.

• For each of your customers that have A2P 10DLC messaging use cases:
  • Create a Secondary Customer Profile under your primary Account.
  • Register a Brand under your primary Account.
  • Register Campaigns for each messaging use case. Each use case should map to its own Messaging Service within your primary Account.
• If your ISV also has A2P 10DLC messaging use cases:
  • Create a Primary Customer Profile under your primary Account.
  • Register a Brand under your primary Account.
  • Register Campaigns for each messaging use case. Each use case should map to its own Messaging Service under the same Account.

• You use subaccounts and they are mapped to individual customers.
• You do not use Messaging Services.

Type #3 is incompatible with A2P 10DLC. Twilio recommends restructuring to type #1 for the best long-term viability.

• You do not use subaccounts.
• You use Messaging Services and they are mapped to individual customers.

A risk of this type is that if one customer sends noncompliant traffic, Twilio may need to suspend the primary Account of that customer which could include other compliant customers. It is also more difficult to track messaging analytics for each customer.

• For each of your customers that have A2P 10DLC messaging use cases:
  • Create a Secondary Customer Profile under your primary Account.
  • Register a Brand under your primary Account.
  • Register Campaigns for each messaging use case. Each use case should map to its own Messaging Service within your primary Account.
• If your ISV also has A2P 10DLC messaging use cases:
  • Create a Primary Customer Profile under your primary Account.
  • Register a Brand under your primary Account.
  • Register Campaigns for each messaging use case. Each use case should map to its own Messaging Service under the same Account.

• You do not use subaccounts.
• You use Messaging Services and they are not mapped to individual customers.

Type #5 is incompatible with A2P 10DLC. Twilio recommends restructuring to type #1 for the best long-term viability.

• You do not use subaccounts.
• You do not use Messaging Services.

Type #6 is incompatible with A2P 10DLC. Twilio recommends restructuring to type #1 for the best long-term viability.

Now that you've identified your ISV architecture type and know what steps you need to take to onboard to A2P 10DLC, you can proceed by creating Customer Profiles as well as registering Brands and Campaigns via the Console or API.

When creating Secondary Customer Profiles and registering Brands for your customer, remember that you'll need to fill in the business details of that specific customer rather than of your own ISV.

If you're registering a government, nonprofit, 527 political organization, K-12 education, or emergency messaging use case, consult the Special Use Cases for A2P 10DLC help center article and Registration for Government and Nonprofit Agencies before continuing.

Before creating a Customer Profile and registering a Brand, you need to determine if it is a Standard, Low-Volume Standard, or Sole Proprietor Brand.

Check out the Determine your Brand type section of the US A2P 10DLC Overview doc for a detailed look at the differences between Brand types.

If you have multiple customers to register, you should use Twilio's APIs to automate the onboarding process.

• To register a Standard or Low-Volume Standard Brand via API, follow this guide.
• To register a Sole Proprietor Brand via API, follow this guide.

If you prefer a more guided experience, or are only registering a few customers, you can use the Console for onboarding. To start, navigate to Twilio Console > Messaging > Regulatory Compliance > Onboarding to begin creating Customer Profiles, registering Brands, and registering Campaigns.

Note the Switch Customer Profile option on this page, which allows you to switch between your Primary and Secondary Customer Profiles once they are created. The Primary Customer Profile should only be used for Brands and Campaigns of your own ISV, while Secondary Customer Profiles should be only be used for Brands and Campaigns of your customers.

Your next step depends on if you're registering Standard, Low-Volume Standard, or Sole Proprietor Brands.

• To register a Standard or Low-Volume Standard Brand via the Console, follow this guide.
• To register a Sole Proprietor Brand via the Console, follow this guide.

The guides above are written for direct self-onboarding of Brands and Campaigns, but the process is identical to registering your own customers except that you need to switch to the correct Secondary Customer Profile.