Highlights:
- The global unified communication as a service (UCaaS) market was USD 25.85 billion in 2020 and is expected to grow to USD 69.93 billion by 2028.
- The Asia Pacific region is expected to grow at the highest rate over 2021- 2026.
As more and more organizations shift toward a distributed work environment, industry research estimates there are hundreds of millions of employees ready to move to the cloud, all over the world. For cloud-based companies like RingCentral, that means the race is on for global market share. We sat down with VP & GM of India Operations Dinesh Shiv to discuss the company’s big moves in India, and what they mean for the company as a whole.
Making our mark.
In August, 2021, RingCentral was granted a Unified License by the Indian Department of Telecommunications, which will make the company able to offer message, video and phone services, as well as contact center as-a-service (CaaS).
Vlad Shmunis, CEO and Founder of RingCentral, said: “India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world and a key strategic priority for us. The Unified License …will enable us to provide our unified team messaging, video meetings, and cloud phone system to global organizations in India. We are extremely excited about this opportunity and grateful to the Indian Department of Telecommunications for the trust they have placed in us by granting us this license.” The company plans to work with the Department of Telecommunications to build out domestic computing infrastructure across India. But getting to this point didn’t happen without a lot of work. For the man behind much of it, that work entailed anything and everything.
Dinesh can do it. (with support from India Pioneers.)
Dinesh Shiv, VP & GM of India Operations
“Being the first employee for India I have been doing anything and everything like you would at a startup, wearing many hats,” says Shiv. “I’m a jack of all trades and I’m happy to help however I can…but I’m glad we’ve been adding team members. Rapid growth in a new geography means being ready for all types of scenarios. I should also thank all the Pioneers who joined the India team in 2021 – they’ve done great work to help us get established this year.”
Extending the experience.
When it comes to cloud communications, competition is incredibly tight. Everyone’s tech is strong. Everyone’s prices are competitive. What’s left? Marketing, and overall experience. Shiv thinks those are areas where RingCentral can leap ahead in India.
“India has a very strong software connection with the US and Europe. So our customers are using our service in the US and Europe, but up until now, their employees haven’t been able to get the same level of service in India, because RingCentral wasn’t here. So immediately, we’ll be able to fill that gap and deliver consistent user experience further across the globe. That’s something our existing customers have absolutely been dying for, and I think the ability to offer a consistent, high-quality experience across every aspect of cloud communications could earn us a bunch of new business as well.”
Opening eyes. Starting with ears.
What does it mean to “deliver a consistent experience?” According to Shiv, something as simple as audio lag can make a huge difference in a customer’s desire to engage with a cloud communications product.
“Right now, the way things are in India, if you’re in Bangalore, you could just as easily be in Belmont, California. Broadband is widely available; everything works. But when you get outside the major tech hubs, Delhi, Gurugram, Mumbai, bandwidth becomes an issue, and that manifests as audio lag. We’ve all experienced it – I talk, you try to talk, you can hear bits and pieces …it’s irritating, you know? The unified license, coupled with RingCentral’s technology, is going to make it possible for us to deliver a better, more steady experience, no matter where people happen to be. Especially in the work-from-anywhere world; I think that’s huge.”
License to thrill.
If you’ve got game-changing technology and a license to expand it broadly, you’ve got a recipe for success. Shiv sees RingCentral capitalizing on it in three major areas:
“Start with RingCentral’s existing customers with a presence in India already. That’s the low-hanging fruit. Global customers want the same experience they already love, in India. Of course they’ll want more from us, and of course, we’ll deliver for them. That’s a solid opportunity for growth. But where do we go next? Well, there are a lot of other global companies out there looking for a consistent experience, and we certainly hope they’ll turn to us. Finally, there’s the untapped market within India itself. Just like North America and Europe, people here are working remotely, and they need to be connected. RingCentral is able to provide a truly unified offering that we think gives us a big advantage. It’s a significant market for RingCentral, and I’m excited about the potential.”
Just add people.
Massive growth means a major staffing initiative. From development to innovation to support, India is about to become a major theater of operations for RingCentral, which means major opportunities for talented tech people who are looking for room to grow.
“So there are two major talent pools we’re looking at immediately. One is purely related to the service—we already have a good number of people who are helping build it, (and we never stop looking for talent there) but now the emphasis is on looking for people to maintain it; I see that as a huge hiring need. But the other talent pool will be Sales and Marketing. We need people to sell and market us – we’re still the new kid on the block, and no one buys a service they’ve never heard of, you know? Once people see what we offer, we’re hard to turn away, but like any new market, there’s a lot of work to do there. I should also add, India is a great place to be in terms of innovation – we’ve actually built a new Innovation Center in Bangalore, and we’ve hired over 150 people for it in the past six months alone, almost one per day. We’re not just here to sell to the Indian market. We want to tap into Indian talent to make the RingCentral product even better. There is a huge innovation opportunity in the field of communication worldwide, and we think the deep Indian talent pool can help us take that opportunity to the next level.”
Take a great product – extend it everywhere it’s needed, then tap the local market for talent? Sounds like a perfect plan. We can’t wait to see what happens in India in 2022 and beyond. #HelloToOpportunity
Originally published Dec 20, 2021, updated Aug 06, 2024
