RingCentral

What is RingCentral: An Overview

RingCentral is a cloud-based business communications platform that provides unified communications as a service (UCaaS). It offers a complete suite of tools and features that enable modern, mobile workforces to communicate and collaborate effectively from any location.

At its core, RingCentral delivers robust voice, video, messaging, and conferencing capabilities accessed through an easy-to-use interface. Users can make and receive calls, host HD video meetings, send team messages, conduct webinars, and use internet-connected devices. The platform seamlessly integrates these tools with popular business apps like G Suite, Salesforce, and Microsoft Office.

RingCentral resolves the challenges of managing on-premises PBX phone infrastructure. As a cloud service, it provides enterprises with carrier-grade reliability, security, and global scalability. Businesses can flexibly scale services as needs evolve. Additionally, RingCentral centralizes management and reduces costs by eliminating hardware investments and lowering IT overhead.

RingCentral Pros and Cons

RingCentral Pricing

RingCentral offers multiple products: Business Communications, Contact Center, Video Solutions, and Conversation Intelligence, all designed to meet different business needs. However, we’ll focus on Business Communications, which has three plans. These plans come with a 14-day free trial, allowing you to try the system before investing.

• A. Core – $20 per user/month (Billed annually):- This plan is ideal for small and medium companies that don’t need advanced features. It comes with unlimited domestic calling (within the US and Canada), SMS & MMS, IVR, and analytics for IT administrators. You also get voicemail transcriptions, AI-noise cancellation, remote desktop control, and 24/7 support.
• B. Advanced – $25 per user/month (Billed annually):- This plan is ideal for high-growth companies that make more calls every day. It has 1000 toll-free minutes, advanced call routing rules, call barge/monitor/whisper, unlimited internet fax, and multi-site admin & management features. You also get business analytics essentials, archiver app integration for cloud storage back-up, and industry-specific integrations.
• C. Ultra – $35 per user/month (Billed annually):- The top-tier plan comes with all the features of Core and Advanced plus some more. You get 10,000 toll-free minutes, up to 200 video participants (compared to 100 in other plans), and unlimited storage for files, messages, and recordings.

  You can also purchase add-ons as your business grows. Most add-ons are decently priced. For example, additional vanity numbers cost $30 (one-time fee), the RingCentral Room Connector license costs $49 per month per concurrent endpoint, and RingCentral Webinar costs $40 per host per month.

Price Comparison

Although RingCentral has affordable plans for businesses of all sizes, it is not as cost-effective as CallHippo, which offers the basic plan at $0. The table below compares the plans and pricing of RingCentral vs. CallHippo.

RingCentral Features

1. Seamless Calling for Smooth Communications

With IVR, call routing, screening, forwarding, and recording, RingCentral provides continuous, uninterrupted calling capabilities to ensure conversations flow smoothly. Employees can focus on the discussion rather than the technology for a stress-free calling experience.

2. Visual Voicemail for Email-Like Message Management

Access and manage voicemails like emails for fast, efficient communication. Listen, reply, forward, and delete with a few clicks. No more dialing in and sitting through prompts. Visual voicemail enables quick access to messages so employees stay productive.

3. Real-Time Call Monitoring for Proactive Support

Managers can listen in on calls with customers in real time. This allows them to guide employees on the spot and ensure excellent service. They can also whisper or barge in to ensure the customer gets the right solution for their queries.

4. Hot Desking for Workspace Flexibility

Employees aren’t chained to just one desk. With hot desking, users can log into any available phone on the premises and have full access to their extension, voicemail, and settings. The workspace is more dynamic with hot desking.

5. Unified Team Collaboration in One Platform

Streamline collaboration with messaging, file sharing, task management, and more unified in RingCentral. Say goodbye to email threads and searching inboxes. Teamwork is efficient and hassle-free, with tools in one spot.

6. Powerful Analytics for Data-Driven Decisions

Make smart, data-driven decisions with pre-built and custom reports on call quality, operations, and customer satisfaction. Pinpoint issues and optimize performance. These insights from analytics lead to concrete improvements.

7. Integrations for Efficient Workflows

Popular business apps integrate seamlessly with RingCentral to unite CRM, project management, support, and other tools for smooth workflows. These integrations help break down silos between programs and increase agent productivity.

8. Multi-Site Management for Tailored Solutions

RingCentral makes managing multiple sites from one dashboard effortless. It allows you to set up independent account configurations for individual offices, giving you complete flexibility and control over your operations. Branch offices can also set individualized outbound caller ID names and custom call handling rules (based on time zone, company hours, language preferences, and more).