RingCentral execs offer insight on similarities, differences
We recently had a chance to interview two executives at RingCentral about the company’s cloud-based voice services, with much of the discussion focused on how a cloud-based service compares to a premise-based VoIP system. Explaining the differences simply, Victoria Treyger, CMO at RingCentral said “RingCentral is both the phone system (which replaces the PBX) and the phone service.”
We recently had a chance to interview two executives at RingCentral about the company’s cloud-based voice services, with much of the discussion focused on how a cloud-based service compares to a premise-based VoIP system. Explaining the differences simply, Victoria Treyger, CMO at RingCentral, said, “RingCentral is both the phone system (which replaces the PBX) and the phone service.”
As with other cloud-based services, RingCentral preempts the need to buy a premise-based system, eliminating the need to extend capital and associated operating expenses. While businesses of all sizes like options that don’t require a capital outlay, smaller business owners are also attracted to outsourcing the worry of ongoing monitoring and maintenance.
ANALYSIS: Have we reached a tipping point for cloud-based VoIP?
Like many premise-based VoIP systems, RingCentral supports IP phones, analog phones and mobile devices. To use an analog phone, users will need to add an Analog Telephone Adapter (ATA) if they wish to connect the legacy phone using an IP link, or RingCentral can forward calls to any phone, including an “old world phone,” whether or not it is connected to an ATA. Of course if users don’t have a VoIP phone, then features like soft phone keys on the phone or a visual display aren’t available.
However, RingCentral does pride itself on some key differences, according to Praful Shah, SVP for strategic planning at the company. The company’s service was purpose-built for a distributed workforce, with an emphasis on providing mobility. Shah emphasized during our discussion that RingCentral built its service around the mobile device, taking advantage of the trend for small-business users to increasingly rely on a smartphone or other mobile device as their primary voice handset.
Treyger added, “We have the leading smartphone-based user interface for a PBX which we are selling through the AT&T [Office at Hand] service. No other solution exists that allows a company to run the entire phone system off a smartphone.”
Of course, mobility is great but price is also important. RingCentral’s service is priced at $19.99 per user per month for a company with 20 employees, which includes unlimited local and long distance calls. In one case study, LifeGuardian, a RingCentral customer, reduced its monthly phone bill from more than $800 to $99, an 85% savings. According to Treyger, customers “regularly save over 60% on their monthly phone bill by switching to RingCentral from their local/long distance provider.”
