RingCentral, a start-up based in Redwood City, California has enhanced its virtual phone system for small businesses with VoIP service.

RingCentral combines a toll-free and/or local number with advanced call management, PBX, voicemail and Internet fax, enabling customers to automatically screen, forward and place calls; take voicemail; send and receive faxes; and receive message alerts. Call routing rules enable the user to forward incoming calls to any extension.

In contrast to stand-alone VoIP services that focus simply on low-cost calling, RingCentral said its new DigitalLine gives customers the ability to use a mix of traditional land line, mobile and VoIP communications to place and receive calls. DigitalLine enables customers to receive calls over the Internet at no additional cost. They can place calls over the Internet using a softphone, IP phone or ATA adapter.

RingCentral, which currently serves more than 40,000 customers, is tailoring its service to small businesses with 1 to 10 lines.

Internet Phone Service: Look Hard, But Don’t be Afraid to Leap

Entrepreneurs considering entry into the world of Internet phone service may be having second thoughts these days. In the wake of high-profile flameouts like Sunrocket and poor stock performance from the likes of Vonage, anyone looking to become a provider of Internet phone service might have good reason for pause. And yet, one should never judge a book by its cover. A closer look at the Internet phone service market shows some positive signs. According to market researcher In-Stat, the global consumer Internet phone service market experienced major year on tear growth from 2005 to 2006. The forecast posits that by 2011, 38% of broadband households worldwide will subscribe to some form of Internet phone service. 

The consumer market speaks to just one side of the opportunity in Internet phone service. There is the business market as well.

One company addressing this space is RingCentral, a leading provider of web-based communications products for small businesses. Recently the company demonstrated integration of its Internet phone service with Microsoft’s Office Live platform.

The goal of the demonstration was to show business customers that integrating with Office Live would enable them to manage components of their RingCentral Internet phone service from within Office Live. Examples includes the ability to add ‘click-to-call’ capabilities to their Web site, accessing detailed call log information, listening to voicemail, viewing faxes and more.

According to Jay Blazensky, vice president of strategic partnerships at RingCentral, ‘Partnering with Office Live makes it easy and affordable for small businesses to establish a professional image over the phone and the web.’

Partnering with market leaders like Microsoft, whose products and services are already found in most businesses, shows that Internet phone service indeed has a place in today’s business environment.

The point is that opportunities exist in the nascent Internet phone service market. Research shows that as customers become more familiar with the technology and more accepting of Internet phone service, the market will soar. So if you are an entrepreneur looking at Internet phone service, don’t despair. Look to the examples set by successful players in the space, and look away from the headlines that highlight only the negative news in the Internet phone service market.

RingCentral Adds Outbound VoIP Capability to Virtual Phone System

RingCentral, Inc., whose online services allow small businesses to instantly unify and intelligently manage all their phone, mobile, fax and email communications, today launched DigitalLine, a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service that adds the convenience and cost savings of Internet-based telephony to RingCentral’s virtual phone system for small businesses.

DigitalLine™ VoIP service

RingCentral DigitalLine VoIP service upgrades your RingCentral virtual phone system into a complete business communication solution, allowing you to place and receive calls using your broadband Internet connection. DigitalLine offers three economical plans to suit your calling needs. Whether you call a lot or just occasionally, DigitalLine will save you money over a traditional phone service.

RingCentral DigitalLine seamlessly integrates with your RingCentral virtual phone system, and enhances it with additional time-saving features. You can assign DigitalLine to any extension in your account and use answering rules to route calls to your DigitalLine phones according to day, time and Caller ID. The unified Call Log keeps track of all incoming and outgoing calls. You can answer and place DigitalLine calls from:

* RingCentral’s Call Controller with SoftPhone, which lets you answer and place calls directly from your PC, in addition to conferencing and recording calls.
* Your existing analog telephone with an ATA adapter
* A digital IP phone that connects directly to your network connection
* Any SIP-compatible device
RingCentral’s DigitalLine allows you to be even more productive and responsive to your customers while saving money.

Select your optional DigitalLine plan during the RingCentral Online registration process.
Sign Up for a Free Trial!
 
  

RingCentral Adds Outbound VoIP Capability to Virtual Phone System

RingCentral, Inc., whose online services allow small businesses to instantly unify and intelligently manage all their phone, mobile, fax and email communications, today launched DigitalLine, a Voice over Internet Protocol (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.

Robert Poe on September 26, 2007

Being a very small business sure limits your VoIP options. It’s natural to want the features of VoIP, the ones the big enterprises with Cisco IP PBXes (Private Branch eXchanges) have. But it’s equally natural to worry about the quality of Internet VoIP, one of the few affordable ways to get such features. Even an open-source IP PBX is too expensive for many companies with only a handful of employees. Yet hosted IP PBX, or IP Centrex, services from large carriers can have too little flexibility. One logical choice would be to go with a non-Internet, noncarrier hosted VoIP provider, if available.