Mahintorabi knew the downside of his improvised system was that it would eventually break. Because he was tapping into a sort of accidental API, based on an interface designed for humans rather than machines, any change to RingCentral’s web user interface would cause his script to fail. Fortunately, by the time that day came, he was ready. In the meantime, he had learned about the RingCentral platform APIs and prototyped a new version of his application. The transition wasn’t perfect. At first, he wasn’t getting the near real-time data he was looking for using the “call log” API. With some help from RingCentral, he figured out that a related “recent calls” API was a better match for his purposes. Ultimately, he was impressed.
“It’s probably one of the best documented APIs I have seen,” Mahintorabi says. Once he understood the authentication mechanism, creating a first application was quite straight- forward, he says. By transitioning to an official and documented API, he now has an application he can trust, rather than a temporary hack. In the three days it took to transition from one version of the app to the next, coworkers were clamoring for its return. “In the end, it was a positive experience. Everyone really likes the system,” he says. As for the overall impact of the RingCentral Connect Platform™, Dominic Maricic, President of the firm, clearly sees the value of the platform. “Our customers are home inspectors using our software in the field, on the job, day after day. Being responsive to them and solving their issues on the spot is our best sales tool. With the RingCentral Connect Platform, we are able to deliver an excellent user experience to our reps and make them as productive as they can be. Even better, we do this while keeping our technology costs low. Everyone wins, starting with the customer.”