When communications provider RingCentral Inc RNG acquired Glip, Inc. and began the process of re-branding it RingCentral Teams recently, the move created some real opportunities for the parent company.
Benzinga spoke with RingCentral Inc CEO, founder and chairman of the board, Vlad Shmunis, about the acquisition, what it means for RingCentral and how it will influence the future of business communications.
Benzinga: How will this acquisition enhance what RingCentral already offers?
Vlad Shmunis: RingCentral is – and has been – a cloud-based platform for corporate communications designed to replace the traditional phone system.
That's what we've pioneered. We are the pure-play leader in the space.
Now, what we also see is that there is a new paradigm. It has to do with what I would call "teamware" (which involves) cloud-based software enabling teams to work more collaboratively.
We felt we could make our customers much more productive and empower them with the next generation in communications by marrying team-based chat and integrations with our core communications platform.
We're enthused about it, because it hasn't been done before.
BZ: Will RingCentral Teams benefit not just RingCentral customers, but their customers, as well? If so, how?
VS: Yes, one hundred percent. Look, just to be clear – even without RingCentral Teams, our core solution helps our customers' customers to be more effective.
With digitization, it’s not just intra-team communications, but also the ability to involve other parties who are not part of the team.
You can have a group chat, business chat, and if you want, share a file with the group, with the customer or with the prospect. That’s all just a click away.
BZ: How has business communications changed in recent years?
VS: It's a good question. I think it's not about what has changed in business communications; it's about what has changed in business behaviors.
What has changed is the fact that people are no longer tethered to their offices. They’re no longer tethered to their landlines. People do work from all kinds of locations, at all kinds of hours.
BZ: Given these changes, where is the world of business communications headed in the future?
VS: Everything we see out there is just one more technology to enable this behavior, which I would call "work when you want, where you want and how you want, as long as you're productive."In addition, projects are much more likely to be sold or sellable by a team, as opposed to by an individual. That's the megatrend.
BZ: What role will RingCentral play in that future?
VS: With an integrated product, we feel that we are taking business communications to a completely new level by alternating traditional business communications (phone system, media, etc.) with enhanced business chat and third party cloud app integrations.
We are now in a position, unique among our peers, to allow our customers, and to your point, our customers' customers, to communicate via means outside of voice and video.
At the time of this writing, Jim Probasco had no position in any mentioned securities.
Image Credit: Public Domain© 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
Comments
Trade confidently with insights and alerts from analyst ratings, free reports and breaking news that affects the stocks you care about.
