Does the traditional definition of “workplace” still exist? Will employees go back to the office once quarantine and lockdown rules end? Will all or some of the employees return to the office? These are some of the important questions organizations have been grappling with while they adjust to the new reality and a paradigm shift towards remote work that has happened in the last few months.
Do cloud communications only benefit traditional workplaces?
As businesses face new challenges, they’ve needed to find new ways to communicate and serve their customers, which is forcing them to ask tough questions about their current communications setup. For example, how are they currently communicating with their customers, and is it meeting their business needs? Can their organization wait multiple months to deploy software and hardware? How long will it be before the solution deployed shows return on investment (ROI)? Is moving to the cloud quickly an option?
What types of businesses benefit from cloud communications?
Today, we’re seeing businesses of all types facing these challenges and questions head-on. Here are just a few of the business use cases we’re seeing benefit from rapidly deploying their cloud communications services:
- Work-from-home (WFH) businesses where employees use their computers for a softphone (no hard-phones needed)
- Mobile workforce/cell phone-only users of large organizations who aren’t tied to a desk
- Businesses where a secondary phone number is needed to mask the primary phone number (food and goods delivery)
- Professions with a temporary or semi-permanent need for telephony (artists, construction)
- Leveraging RingCentral Office as a low-touch contact center using basic call flows (retail stores)
What should you look for when deploying a cloud communications solution?
In today’s world, deploying cloud communication services that eliminate communication barriers is not only imperative but also financially beneficial. A properly implemented unified communications solution brings ROI in a variety of ways—two of the most important being reduced costs and increased revenue.
With cloud communications, an organization has visibility into its communications costs with the ability to avoid surcharge surprises, allowing for better forecasting. Being able to bundle message, video, and phone services through one vendor brings additional cost savings. The added advantage of being able to integrate message, video, and phone with CRM and internal systems enhances an organization’s ability to improve customer experiences, connect on a deeper level with their customers, and increase revenue.
What questions should you ask your cloud communications vendor?
Professional Services plays an important role in realizing the full value proposition of the implemented solution. It is prudent to ask the following questions from your cloud communications vendor:
- Do they have a proven rapid deployment methodology that can scale?
- Do they offer any out-of-the-box integrations; specifically, ones relevant to your workflow configurations?
- Do the contact center solutions they provide have omnichannel capabilities? Can you use your existing digital presence to seamlessly connect with their solutions?
- Can moves, adds, changes, and deletes (MACD) be performed remotely and in real time?
- Is the vendor capable of offering phased deployments? Able to bring the most-needed features live upfront while preparing for enhanced deployment at a later date?
- Do they provide a Learning Management System (LMS) that allows a customer to create, assign, and track training modules?
- Lastly, are they able to offer 24×7 global support and effectively deliver it remotely?
How is RingCentral helping customers?
At RingCentral, we understand our customers’ concerns and their current business needs. Earlier this year, when the COVID-19 crisis hit, a major healthcare company had to shut down two of their call centers, which employed over 350 agents. They had to quickly enable their agents to be able to work and collaborate virtually to respond to customers—especially since they are a healthcare provider and the COVID-19 crisis increased the number of incoming calls. We were able to work with the customer to deploy a virtual call center in our cloud—all within a weekend—enabling agents to service the customers.
RingCentral’s solutions are designed with a focus on portability, virtualization, and scalability to meet your business’s specific needs.
When every minute mattered, in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, one of the world’s major government healthcare entities turned to RingCentral as a trusted partner to deploy over 20,000 contract tracers as part of their test-and-trace program. We helped them build and deploy features like click-to-dial, reporting, and call recording in a matter of days to enable their spread-out workforce to work remotely from home, where they could safely make calls and record data in a web-based information management system.
Professional Services, the RingCentral Way
Unlike traditional on-premises solutions, RingCentral enables companies and organizations to move to the cloud quickly, in as little as 48 hours, while often saving our customers time and money compared to their existing solutions. Our Professional Services team takes great pride in ensuring each customer is successful in this transition with express implementation packages for all of our products—allowing your team to work together as one, and providing clear, scalable communications channels to your customers.
To learn more, contact us or call 1-877-807-5364 and see how RingCentral can help your business meet these challenges head-on while opening new opportunities for your business to communicate efficiently and proactively.
Originally published Jul 14, 2020, updated Jul 25, 2024
