VoIP Monitor - VoIP Providers|RingCentral

RingCentral Launches Nationwide Availability with Local Telephone Numbers

VoIP Monitor — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 18:40:33 GMT

RingCentral launches nationwide availability for local telephone numbers across the U.S. Local number availability is a key requirement for businesses looking to establish a regional presence and boost customer loyalty. RingCentral automatically ties a company's multiple nationwide local numbers into a single enterprise class hosted business service to efficiently link all its customers to its employees.

Small businesses across the US are increasingly adopting local numbers to power business communications. Local numbers enable companies to build a regional brand while removing cost barriers for connecting with customers, prospects and local partners. Even businesses with a national presence, or offices scattered across the US, can take advantage of local numbers to build customer loyalty in top markets or reduce costs of communication between offices. Businesses seeking to enter a new market can establish a local presence in minutes, without setting up a physical office. "I am expanding business in both Boston, Massachusetts and Santa Cruz, California. Having a RingCentral number for each region gives me the local presence I need to connect with customers and run my business smoothly and economically," said Jenevieve Brackett, owner of Business Made Better, a services firm for small businesses.

RingCentral local numbers power business communications in almost every major metropolitan area and small town across the continental US—from Manhattan, Miami, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Chicago and Houston, to Buffalo, Columbus, Colorado Springs and San Antonio.

RingCentral Secures $12 Million, Passes 50,000 Customer Milestone

VoIP Monitor — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 18:48:14 GMT

RingCentral has closed its series B funding, raising $12 million from new lead investors DAG Ventures and NCD Investors and returning investors Sequoia Capital and Khosla Ventures. RingCentral also announced that it surpassed 50,000 active customer accounts, doubling its customer base in one year. Accounts range from one to many subscribers, typically in small businesses with 20 or fewer employees.

The company will use the new funding to enhance its products and services, build new partnerships and distribution channels and increase awareness among its large and growing base of small business customers.

Commenting on the investment, Khosla Venture's David Weiden said, "Today few small businesses would set up their own web or email software using onsite hardware, and more and more software is outsourced as a service everyday. RingCentral extends this value proposition to telecom hardware, saving thousands in cost and providing more functionality with an easy to use online service."

RingCentral offers the advanced capabilities of traditional office public branch exchange (PBX) systems plus integrated voice/web applications. Unlike traditional PBX or office phone systems, RingCentral is hosted on the web and is delivered in a subscription-based, software-as-a-service model. Examples of services include:

Setup and customization in minutes on the web
Toll-free and local business phone and fax numbers
Multiple extensions with voicemail
Call-forwarding to any phone
Message alerts on cell phones or PDAs
Greetings recorded by professional voice talent
Optional voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP) lines.
Features such as these allow RingCentral's small business customers to use voice communications in new ways while offering cost-savings, ease of use and better functionality over traditional office phone systems.

RingCentral’s VoIP Service Awarded ''Editors' Choice'' by PC Magazine

VoIP Monitor — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 21:02:38 GMT

PC Magazine selected RingCentral DigitalLine for its highest editorial honor, the Editors’ Choice Award. A recent roundup review of VoIP services rated RingCentral’s solution as an attractive, sophisticated and cost-effective solution for small businesses. Favored for its price, sophisticated suite of PBX features and quick implementation and ease of use, RingCentral DigitalLine received a four star rating in PC Magazine’s VoIP roundup review in January, 2008.

Senior PC Magazine reviewer Oliver Rist wrote “On IP telephony smarts and breadth of features, RingCentral outshines both Avaya/Netgear and Microsoft.” Rist continued, “Overall, the breadth of PBX-style features and the ease of use of the interface make RingCentral DigitalLine VoIP Service a highly attractive option for smaller businesses.”

RingCentral provides a complete virtual phone system for small businesses. Integrating landline, VoIP, cellular, email, voicemail and fax with a powerful web interface, RingCentral gives small businesses unprecedented flexibility and control. In October 2007, RingCentral introduced DigitalLine, a proprietary VoIP service that adds the convenience and cost savings of Internet-based telephony to its virtual phone system. With DigitalLine, RingCentral delivers a complete hosted PBX solution for small businesses, giving customers the ability to use a mix of traditional land line, mobile and VoIP communications to place and receive calls. Unlike other VoIP services, RingCentral DigitalLine does not require small businesses to rely solely on VoIP. By integrating all communication lines (mobile, home, office and fax), RingCentral provides a smarter way to leverage all the available communications technologies in the most time- and cost-efficient manner.

RingCentral Adds Outbound VoIP Capability to Virtual Phone System

VoIP Monitor — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 19:11:42 GMT

RingCentral launches DigitalLine a VoIP service that adds the convenience and cost savings of Internet-based telephony to RingCentral’s virtual phone system for small businesses. In contrast to stand-alone VoIP services that focus simply on low-cost calling, RingCentral uses VoIP to add value and utility to small business communications. DigitalLine is seamlessly integrated into RingCentral’s robust hosted phone and fax service, allowing customers to place and receive calls using a broadband Internet connection. With DigitalLine, RingCentral delivers a complete hosted PBX solution for small businesses. RingCentral gives customers the ability to use a mix of traditional land line, mobile and VoIP communications to place and receive calls. With RingCentral, small businesses and mobile professionals can interact with customers more professionally, using all the features of a big company phone system at a fraction of the cost and all under a single phone bill.

“RingCentral is focused on the needs of small businesses and mobile professionals -- a market that’s been underserved by traditional carriers and hardware manufacturers,” said Vlad Shmunis, CEO of RingCentral. “With DigitalLine we’ve created the industry’s first on-demand solution that seamlessly integrates VoIP with conventional voice and fax communications. Our DigitalLine VoIP option further empowers RingCentral users to improve their professional image while staying in touch with their customers and in control of their communications.”

“Small businesses need the same kind of communications services large businesses need but without the cost or the administrative overhead,” said Rob Enderle, Principal Analyst for the Enderle Group. “By effectively using the power of VoIP to create a rich communications service, RingCentral has provided a solution that exceeds what most large businesses can afford to supply their employees at a small business price. RingCentral gives the small business employee an edge many large corporations will envy.”

Unlike other providers offering VoIP services, RingCentral does not require small businesses to rely solely on VoIP. By integrating all communication lines (mobile, home, office and fax), RingCentral provides a smarter way to leverage all the available communications technologies in the most time- and cost-efficient manner. As part of every basic service plan, DigitalLine enables customers to receive calls over the Internet at no additional cost. Small businesses can experience the savings and convenience of RingCentral DigitalLine VoIP and determine if the service is a fit for them, risk free. Through a service upgrade, customers receive a complete phone service allowing them to both receive and place calls over the Internet using a softphone, IP phone or ATA adaptor.

“My team and I are very impressed with RingCentral and the new DigitalLine option. Because our employees often work remotely, we rely on RingCentral to keep us connected and give our company a unified presence,” said Tom Sagi of First Data Independent Sales, a provider of electronic payment systems. “We have saved thousands of dollars by not using a traditional PBX, and now with DigitalLine, we’re saving even more money -- without the need to completely switch our business over to VoIP.”

With the only phone management service developed specifically to meet the needs of small businesses and mobile professionals, RingCentral to date has attracted more than 40,000 customers, and is signing up thousands more each month. With DigitalLine, small businesses can be even more productive and responsive to customers and save money at the same time.

DigitalLine Features and Pricing

DigitalLine dovetails with RingCentral’s virtual phone service, and enhances it with additional time- and cost-saving features. Small businesses can assign DigitalLine to any extension in their account and use Answering Rules to route calls to DigitalLine phones according to day, time and Caller ID. A unified Call Log keeps track of all incoming and outgoing calls. The enhanced Call Controller with SoftPhone provides the added convenience of answering and placing calls directly from the PC, conference calling, and recording calls for records or for sharing with colleagues. If small businesses prefer a hardware phone, they can use their existing analog phones with an ATA adapter or purchase a digital Internet phone that connects directly to the network connection. Customers can also use any SIP-compatible device that they may already own. DigitalLine also integrates with Microsoft Office and provides enhanced e911 service.

RingCentral is offering DigitalLine through three promotional plans. Introductory pricing is as follows(1):

Basic - 4.99 per month — This plan uses customers’ existing RingCentral plan minutes for inbound and outbound calling anywhere in the U.S. and Canada. Additional minutes are added at the set plan rate.
Standard - 9.99 per month — This plan provides 500 minutes of outbound local and long distance calling anywhere in the U.S. and Canada, additional minutes only 3.9¢ per minute.
Unlimited - 24.99 per month — This plan provides unlimited outbound local and long distance calling anywhere in the U.S. and Canada.

(1) These introductory prices represent a 50 percent discount for the first six months of service.