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RingCentral First to Offer True Enterprise-Class PBX “in the Cloud”

Cloud computing has become the new buzz word. One sees it being bounced around as often as “information superhighway” and “Web 2.0″ once were. But in the world of enterprise telephony, (not an accurate definition… this means self–provisioning by the user from the credit card order screen.) From a vendor perspective, customer self-provisioning and automated account and DID setup equates to lower operating costs which, in turn, translates to lower prices for customers. In July 2009 RingCentral Office launched, offering a true cloud computing PBX service.

iPhone Becomes Business-Class

Recognizing that many small to medium-sized business owners are using iPhones as their primary business communication tool, RingCentral built an iPhone application that many say finally makes the iPhone truly a business-class Smartphone. Visual voicemail, send and receive faxes and the fact that my business number now shows up in Caller ID, even though I’m using my personal phone, has made my life so much easier. All business calls that come from my RingCentral desk phone have their unique ring-tone on my iPhone. Can I tell you how much easier this has made my life?

RingCentral Launches in England

RingCentral launched its award winning PBX service in the United Kingdom, home to the best curry-chips and accents on the planet. Now, our friends across the pond can get a Freephone 0800, 0845 or local number for their UK business.

CallerID in Our Control

We can now enter the name of ourselves or our business within the RingCentral console to insert into the Caller ID field of our call recipients. Many have been requesting this feature for quite some time (including me) and it’s great to see that it’s finally here. For inside sales teams to high-level B2B phone calls, this feature is invaluable for making sure that each outbound call has the highest chance of getting picked up.

We recently asked our customer —small to medium-sized business owners across the U.S.— how their businesses operate. This survey reveals a continuing shift from the traditional on-site centralized work force to a distributed virtual office model.

Here are the complete results:

1. How much time do your employees spend conducting business away from the office?

2. When receiving or making business calls while not in the office, do you try to give the impression to your clients that you are at your office?

3. Describe your office environment

4. For the year 2010, do you plan to expand your business?

5. If you plan to expand your business, what will be the working environment for new employees?

These results illustrate how small business owners are adapting to current economic conditions. For example, only 15% of respondents report having all employees work form a single location, while the majority—a whopping 57%—work from a virtual office.

Running a business under a virtual office model reduces office-related rental expenses and allows companies to expand their talent pool beyond a limited geographical area. In other words, the virtual office model provides a win-win solution for businesses.

As more companies sharpen their competitive edge by applying the virtual office model, it’s crucial for businesses to adopt a phone system designed for the modern and mobile business environment. This is where RingCentral shines.

“RingCentral facilitates the seamless integration of distributed employees into a single business phone system regardless of the employee’s choice of phones—mobile or fixed line,” says Vlad Shmunis, CEO of RingCentral. “The best part is that businesses do not need to spend a single dollar in capital expenditure.”

RingCentral conducted this study from October 16 to November 11, 2009. More than 300 customers responded to this online survey.