RingCentral is a small California-based company which is poised to grow due to a recent influx of $12 million of funding. The funding has allowed the company to grow from offering only web-based handling of inbound VoIP calls to offering outbound VoIP services through its new DigitalLine program. The way that RingCentral started small and grew steadily serves as a mirror image for the way that it allows small businesses to get started slowly with VoIP and then grow into it. Other VoIP companies want to sell you as many features as they can from the get go. RingCentral?s mentality is that you can start slowly with the features that your business needs and then move in to other features as your VoIP needs grow.
RingCentral?s target company is the small business which wants to establish credibility in the business world. "We have turned RingCentral into a breeding ground for VoIP, focused on the largest single business segment there is ? the under-ten-employee companies, of which there are over 25 million in the U.S. ? with a low-risk, low-cost, try-before-you-buy-it model," said Jay Blazensky, VP of business development. They advertise that they provide a ?virtual phone system? which is easy-to-use after setting up through instant activation. More importantly, they point out that they offer small companies a means of ?looking like bigger companies?.
One method discussed recently over at VoIP News was that small businesses can start off with the features that will quickly enhance their images as established companies. When a consumer calls a new company and is exposed to features including hold music and an atuo attendant, that consumer assumes that the company is more established and larger than it may actually be. This isn?t lying to the customer; it?s behaving in a professional manner which boosts the credibility of your business. Fake it ?til you make it has always been a fairly good business approach. Once you have that credibility, business will grow and you?ll be ready to add other VoIP features to your service as well. Additional features include everything from faxing through the web interface to integration with Outlook.
These back-to-email features of the VoIP system are part of the new look of business VoIP across the board. Businesses are interested in VoIP in large part because they want to streamline everything that they can to increase the productivity of their business. RingCentral could be offering a way to start doing that in a step-by-step fashion which may appeal to businesses that are trying to figure out if VoIP is right for them and how exactly it will work with their existing communication systems. Testing out VoIP via the company?s broadband system will allow businesses to make better decisions about how to integrate VoIP into their long term goals.
What do you think - is a "baby steps" approach a good way to integrate VoIP into a small business while establish the company's credibility or does this kind of "look bigger than you are" method lead to trouble down the line?
