RingCentral and Vonage
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@360col said in RingCentral and Vonage:
Anything else we might want.
Biggest thing that I see customers wanting and not getting from most vendors is end to end support. Our customers on RC for example have three key complaints:
- Cost. They can easily be double the cost.
- Lack of complete support. They have a rock solid PBX, but 99% of audio issues are with your phones, ISP or network and they don't provide any support for those items. The issues you face are never RC's issues, so their support is actually unnecessary. So when people have issues, there's actually no one to call.
- Having to learn how to manage the system themselves because RC doesn't manage it for you. For simple things, like a quick recording of a message, this can be trivial. But for reprogramming an IVR, it can get pretty complex. I've seen customers spend more money paying an MSP to handle the gaps in RC's support than it would have cost to completely replace RC entirely!
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Thanks for the reply Scott.
I know some of the things I listed are standard features. However just want to be complete just in case either don't have (not the 1st time I have seen such things happened!).
For context I currently manage a some what "managed cloud PBX" (aka FreePBX) for one of our sub business which is near ~1000 handsets. We are merging with our sister business which has different set of requirements and more fancy features.
I currently do most things day to day admin of the the FreePBX setup (minus keeping the serer running). This allows us to quickly respond to our "customers" needs (rapid extension changes, update routing etc at short notice).
I did not know and take RingCentral as being consumer/SMB target and level. Hence asking here.
@scottalanmiller said in RingCentral and Vonage:
being able to break down charges per department / site etc
Chances are, you'd do this in your own reports.Currently doing this and its not fun or accurate.
@scottalanmiller said in RingCentral and Vonage:
24/7 support
Define support. Both have good support (in my experience), but limited. They don't support end to end so unless you need support only within what they handle, you might need a second support vendor to fill in the gaps.As in if their system (or things under their control) shit themselves we can talk to someone on their end and not have to wait for days... to get things fixed up in a reasonable amount of time.
@scottalanmiller said in RingCentral and Vonage:
self management for basic things (add ext, change routing, IVR, queues, enable disable accounts etc)
Do you really want that? Or do you only want it because you assume that their support can't be good enough and you'll have to take it on to work around their problems? Not that anyone doesn't offer this, just in theory, why would you need to have it if you have a good vendor that handles it for you and you know knows what they are doing?As I mentioned. Its more of we can handle things ourselves and in a timely manner without needing to lodge a ticket and wait each time. We have very rapid changes due to business requirement. Lodging a tick to quickly activate a call forward or change the routing is not going to work too well.
@scottalanmiller said in RingCentral and Vonage:
Having to learn how to manage the system themselves because RC doesn't manage it for you. For simple things, like a quick recording of a message, this can be trivial. But for reprogramming an IVR, it can get pretty complex. I've seen customers spend more money paying an MSP to handle the gaps in RC's support than it would have cost to completely replace RC entirely!
We have internal resources that are more than capable of doing these things ourselves and changes as business needed it.
Who else would you recommend we look into at our level?
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@360col said in RingCentral and Vonage:
seems expensive (25 cents per minutes calls to mobile (unless on most expensive plan)! come on, any random provider charges 12 cents here..)
Just checked our standard and it's $0.08 max and $.025 on some calls. That's not a deal, just full price.
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@360col said in RingCentral and Vonage:
I did not know and take RingCentral as being consumer/SMB target and level. Hence asking here.
They advertise otherwise, but they, like many cable providers, offer line by line products rather than a corporate system. You can use it as a corporate system, but under the hood it's this mess of one to one lines that they have to finagle into something that appears like a PBX.
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@360col said in RingCentral and Vonage:
As I mentioned. Its more of we can handle things ourselves and in a timely manner without needing to lodge a ticket and wait each time. We have very rapid changes due to business requirement. Lodging a tick to quickly activate a call forward or change the routing is not going to work too well.
Sounds like you are used to bad vendors and just assuming that they won't do a good job. A good vendor will be no different than internal IT can be. Of course, having both gives you two teams to see who is faster at any given moment.
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@360col said in RingCentral and Vonage:
Who else would you recommend we look into at our level?
Well the worst I've ever dealt with is Weave. Avoid them like the plague. RC is rock solid, just expensive as hell and not very business-focused. SpectrumVOIP seems like a joke, small town and no support but high prices.
Since we do business phones ourselves, we tend to see vendors with problems (like they can't make phone calls actually work), vendors that are expensive (like RC), or vendors that don't provide a business experience. Basically customers moving to business phones for a reason.
So we never really see the competitors that are good. Bundy Associates is the only competitor we ever recommend because we like their business model.
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@scottalanmiller said in RingCentral and Vonage:
@360col said in RingCentral and Vonage:
Who else would you recommend we look into at our level?
Well the worst I've ever dealt with is Weave. Avoid them like the plague. RC is rock solid, just expensive as hell and not very business-focused. SpectrumVOIP seems like a joke, small town and no support but high prices.
Since we do business phones ourselves, we tend to see vendors with problems (like they can't make phone calls actually work), vendors that are expensive (like RC), or vendors that don't provide a business experience. Basically customers moving to business phones for a reason.
So we never really see the competitors that are good. Bundy Associates is the only competitor we ever recommend because we like their business model.
Don't forget Scott's own company - NTG, they also sell this service, if you didn't pick that up from his comments.
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@360col said in RingCentral and Vonage:
For context I currently manage a some what "managed cloud PBX" (aka FreePBX) for one of our sub business which is near ~1000 handsets. We are merging with our sister business which has different set of requirements and more fancy features.
Other than the SSO integration with Azure AD/AD, what else is keeping FreePBX at bay?
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@Dashrender said in RingCentral and Vonage:
@360col said in RingCentral and Vonage:
For context I currently manage a some what "managed cloud PBX" (aka FreePBX) for one of our sub business which is near ~1000 handsets. We are merging with our sister business which has different set of requirements and more fancy features.
Other than the SSO integration with Azure AD/AD, what else is keeping FreePBX at bay?
@360col Are you going to be using only softphones? Because if anyone has a desk phone, I can't even imagine trying to enter a good domain password using a handset.
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@travisdh1 said in RingCentral and Vonage:
@Dashrender said in RingCentral and Vonage:
@360col said in RingCentral and Vonage:
For context I currently manage a some what "managed cloud PBX" (aka FreePBX) for one of our sub business which is near ~1000 handsets. We are merging with our sister business which has different set of requirements and more fancy features.
Other than the SSO integration with Azure AD/AD, what else is keeping FreePBX at bay?
@360col Are you going to be using only softphones? Because if anyone has a desk phone, I can't even imagine trying to enter a good domain password using a handset.
Yealink, it's buried in his description.
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@scottalanmiller said in RingCentral and Vonage:
@360col said in RingCentral and Vonage:
seems expensive (25 cents per minutes calls to mobile (unless on most expensive plan)! come on, any random provider charges 12 cents here..)
Just checked our standard and it's $0.08 max and $.025 on some calls. That's not a deal, just full price.
You comparing pricing for the appropriate countries? He specifically asked for Australia and New Zealand.
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@JaredBusch said in RingCentral and Vonage:
@scottalanmiller said in RingCentral and Vonage:
@360col said in RingCentral and Vonage:
seems expensive (25 cents per minutes calls to mobile (unless on most expensive plan)! come on, any random provider charges 12 cents here..)
Just checked our standard and it's $0.08 max and $.025 on some calls. That's not a deal, just full price.
You comparing pricing for the appropriate countries? He specifically asked for Australia and New Zealand.
Yes, that was Australia. Didn't look up NZ. US would be far lower. The highest price I saw in Australia was actually lower than that, I rounded up because it was so close.
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NZ is almost universally $.0425
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@travisdh1 said in RingCentral and Vonage:
@Dashrender said in RingCentral and Vonage:
@360col said in RingCentral and Vonage:
For context I currently manage a some what "managed cloud PBX" (aka FreePBX) for one of our sub business which is near ~1000 handsets. We are merging with our sister business which has different set of requirements and more fancy features.
Other than the SSO integration with Azure AD/AD, what else is keeping FreePBX at bay?
@360col Are you going to be using only softphones? Because if anyone has a desk phone, I can't even imagine trying to enter a good domain password using a handset.
why? You can use the web interface.
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@Dashrender said in RingCentral and Vonage:
@travisdh1 said in RingCentral and Vonage:
@Dashrender said in RingCentral and Vonage:
@360col said in RingCentral and Vonage:
For context I currently manage a some what "managed cloud PBX" (aka FreePBX) for one of our sub business which is near ~1000 handsets. We are merging with our sister business which has different set of requirements and more fancy features.
Other than the SSO integration with Azure AD/AD, what else is keeping FreePBX at bay?
@360col Are you going to be using only softphones? Because if anyone has a desk phone, I can't even imagine trying to enter a good domain password using a handset.
why? You can use the web interface.
Or via the End Point Manager.
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Thanks for all the replies.
The FreePBX instant are provided & "managed" by a telco we use and we are potentially moving away from them so that won't stay. We do not currently have access to End Point Manager due to its being a managed FreePBX platform.
Also looking at the next level that involve muti-country and all that "UC" stuff (to some degree, more like using a VOIP App).
I'm just arming myself with as much info as I can as I won't be the one making the call on this. Other non technical factors has also come into play so looks like we are going to trial RingCentral.
We are Australian based so Scott's company won't fit into the equation. I also now found out that another of our little subsidiary have been using RingCentral so that gave them some bonus points just because.
I'll report back here if we do go with RingCentral and how things goes.
BTW: It turns out that we don't actually need SSO for any technical reasons at present and it was just thrown in there just because we are on the train to auth everything with Azure AD.
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@360col said in RingCentral and Vonage:
Also looking at the next level that involve muti-country and all that "UC" stuff (to some degree, more like using a VOIP App).
UC is a scam, like UTMs. Sounds fancy, but really has no business purpose. Avoid UC. Don't avoid UC platforms, every phone platform is called UC now. But don't use any UC features, it's just stupid. Phones are phones, trying to make them into everything else is going to be a terrible experience for the business and cost a lot of money while making things that have long ago been solved into problems again.
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@360col said in RingCentral and Vonage:
We are Australian based so Scott's company won't fit into the equation.
Why? We service Australia just the same as RingCentral. Neither of us are located there, both service there without a problem.
How did we get ruled out, but not RingCentral?
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@360col said in RingCentral and Vonage:
BTW: It turns out that we don't actually need SSO for any technical reasons at present and it was just thrown in there just because we are on the train to auth everything with Azure AD.
Azure AD and AD are unrelated. You listed AD, lots and lots of things talk to AD that can't talk to Azure AD, and a few the reverse.
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What do you anticipate your monthly cost to be with RC?
