1. Competitive Battle Card: RingCentral
A quick reference guide to help you sell against the RingCentral Office (April 18, 2017)
RingCentral – Company Overview
Founded: 2003
Presence: Supports HQs in US, Canada, UK & Singapore & regional offices in 33 countries in NA, Europe & APAC.
Target Market: Sweet spot primarily SMB market with most customers in sub-10 seat segment. Targeting mid-market and large enterprises. Over 95% of business <100 segment. (55% <20)
Products: Office, Fax, Contact Center, Glip
Accounts: Over 50k accounts with ~15 average seat size
Strategy: Investing into making team collaboration (Glip) its user interface & embed UC features into it. Integrate cloud productivity apps with web hook & position next to Google productivity suite.
Pricing: Standard: $25 (1k mins, 4 participants in conf), Premium: $35 (2.5k mins, 50 participants). Enterprise: $45 (10k mins, 75 participants, adds vmail to text). Glip: $5 (or free with other Office plans). Global Office: $10 per seat outside US. All RingCentral Office pricing annual, contracted & in bulk. Actual pricing can increase 30 to 80% per user, based on contract terms
RingCentral – Strength & Weaknesses
Strengths:
Almost frictionless, feature-rich and works well for <20 + Ease of management and onboarding.
Team collaboration, SMS & fax included. Client integrations with CRMs.
Ability to support international offices
Weaknesses:
Primarily a software and web-services company (Service is mostly OTT & limited Telco experience).
Support team for <100 in Philippines + No SIP Trunking
Lack of experience running and marketing Telco grade Cloud ops
Too many third party applications & service dependency: FCC (Conferencing), Zoom (Video), Level3 (transport).
Limited integration capabilities with legacy systems + Looking for an exit strategy
Positioning & Objection handling against RingCentral:
Financial Stability
Issue: Looking for an exit. Accrued $26MM losses in 2016, even though they announced 30% Yoy growth. See NoJitter article
Impact: Will RingCentral be around in the long term? What is going to happen to your service in case of a merger? Selecting RingCentral could be a risky proposition.
BroadSoft advantage: BroadSoft powers the industry’s strongest and most stable brands, enjoys healthy growth and stable finances. We are here for the long term.
UC Features
Issue 1: For A/V/W conferencing & call center features, RingCentral is dependent on Zoom & inContact, and they are separate applications.
Issue 2: Customers report inability to support some basic routing functionality.
Issue 3: Mobile app is VoIP preferred, complex to call-out.
BroadSoft advantage: BroadSoft offers one solution for video /audio conferencing, IM&P, screen sharing, calling with a full and business grade feature set and a clear leader in mobility.
Price & Packaging
Issue: Locks customers into uniform plans, making them purchase the same service tier for all users. Although RC could discount heavily to win deals, customers report price hikes after the first year.
Impact: As companies grow, they are forced into organization-wide upgrades with skyrocketing prices & once RingCentral penetrates a customer, they significantly increase monthly pricing.
BroadSoft Advantage: BroadSoft allows service providers to offer customers just what they need, at predictable and justified prices.
Telco Experience
Issue: RingCentral is mainly an OTT and lower end player with limited Telco expertise. Limited integration capabilities with legacy systems & does not have SIP trunking. <100 segment support offshore to Philippines
Impact: Any large deployments, any legacy equipment or OSS/BSS systems cause friction with RingCentral. Services team not good at advanced technical support.
BroadSoft Advantage: BroadSoft has always worked with service providers for an enterprise grade end user experience & able to utilize existing investments.