Virtual Offices
Is RingCentral Music to the Mobile Professional’s Ears?
Published December 22nd, 2008 by Jennifer LeClaire
The virtual PBX business is growing more competitive – and that’s good news for mobile professionals looking for a specific feature set. Although there are standard staples of 800 number services, vendors are carving out niches with specialized services to differentiate themselves.
RingCentral is a hosted multi-extension business phone service worth checking out. Its mission is to offer full-access to core small business phone services and help improve productivity. Anything that helps improve productivity is welcomed for busy mobile professionals.
RingCentral claims to have developed the first virtual phone system designed specifically to meet the needs of small businesses and mobile professionals and cites 40,000 customers. Prices begin at $9.99 a month with a myriad of options available for super users.
Calling on RingCentral
RingCentral combines a toll-free or local number with call management, PBX, voicemail and Internet fax. Customers can set up multiple extensions with voicemail, automatically screen, forward and place calls, take voicemail, send and receive faxes, and receive message alerts. RingCentral’s mantra: Businesses never miss an important call or waste time on unwanted calls. Both are important selling points.
RingCentral’s key capabilities include:
- An auto-receptionist that professionally answers, greets and directs callers to the right person
- Answering rules that are configured to automatically route calls to the right person based on time of day, date and the continuously changing availability of each attorney and staff member
- Call recording captures important information, enabling attorneys to conduct phone depositions without relying on note taking to document important calls
- Multiple mailboxes for voicemail ensure that everyone has secure access to all their voicemail via e-mail, phone or computer
- Call logs that register all inbound calls, enabling the firm to track the time spent on each client’s case
- Internet fax capabilities that convert incoming faxes to PDFs, and makes them immediately available to distributed team members to view, forward and file them electronically
Click here to learn more about how it works.
Is RingCentral Trustworthy?
With so many virtual PBX vendors on the market today, it’s not enough to look at prices and services lists alone. You need to look at dependability. After all, if their service isn’t reliable it can cause clients to have a poor impression of your business. So how does RingCentral rate?
In October, the firm won the 2008 Internet Telephony Excellence Award from Internet Telephony magazine. Internet Telephony magazine’s editor, Greg Galitzine, gave the service two thumbs up:
“By providing innovative communication services for small businesses, RingCentral has earned this recognition from the editors of Internet Telephony. RingCentral has excelled in delivering advanced, yet cost effective hosted communication services to its customers that offer unprecedented flexibility and control.”
RingCentral also industry top honors such as PC Magazine’s Editor’s Choice Award and Small Business Computing’s Excellence in Technology. There is also an article in TMCnet.com about how RingCentral is helping reduce overhead costs for small businesses.
Looks like a service to put on your short list as you compare packages and features from other vendors on the virtual PBX market, like GotVmail and Phone.com.
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Bill Brookshire December 22nd, 2008 at 9:57 am
RingCentral has a strong brand in this growing market. I am not sure that it’s all that much different than GotVmail or Phone.com. Phone.com has the international advantage, it appears. I think these virtual PBX services need to do a better job of differentiating themselves. They all bleed together at some point. RingCentral, though, is dependable and reliable. They have the credentials to prove it.
Melanie Jones December 22nd, 2008 at 10:07 am
The keywords seem to be advanced service, flexibility and low-cost. Those are the drivers of this industry. There are some older virtual PBX providers that come in on the high side of the cost equation. The newcomers have them beat. RingCentral pushes its “cloud computing” advantage, which is a major buzz word in technology today. In any case, the leading services all offer value for mobile professionals.
Marcus Hester December 22nd, 2008 at 10:11 am
RingCentral is pushing an economical marketing message. The firm did a study that revealed 75 percent of small businesses have been negatively impacted by the current economy and 72 percent of small businesses are reducing overhead costs to work more efficiently in the current economic scenario. RingCentral and other hosted PBX providers are cashing in on the down economy. I wouldn’t be surprised to see new providers spring up in 2009.
Elizabeth Sanchez December 23rd, 2008 at 1:04 pm
RingCentral’s core capabilities are impressive. This virtual PBX provider did make a push toward attorneys. Did you notice the line:”Call recording captures important information, enabling attorneys to conduct phone depositions without relying on note taking to document important calls.” Having a virtual phone service that can record calls is also important to other industries. I know PR agencies have a tendency to use that service. I’m not sure if RingCentral’s competitors offer this.
Rob Zeus December 24th, 2008 at 9:06 am
I think virtual PBX services are one area where price alone cannot be the deciding factor. How much would it cost you to lose a client — or cause him hassle — because your messaging service was inept? These 800 number services all typically have a very low price point to get into the system, but look at some of the packages with all the bells and whistles as you compare services to see what you are really going to be paying for, then look for signs of dependability. The three services mentioned in this article are all reputable.
Maggie Correta December 26th, 2008 at 9:26 am
What’s interesting is virtual PBX providers that offer 800 numbers, but also local numbers. I think many times a small business that is expanding into a new market, be it local or foreign, may want a local number as well as an 800 number. In fact, the company only needs one 800 number but potentially many local numbers.
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[...] Ringcentral [...]