RingCentral VoIP

October 8, 2007

The folks at RingCentral have had a great virtual PBX service for ages and it was almost a surprise to hear the company still didn’t have a VoIP module. Even if you weren't aware... Fear not as I've got your back and I mentioned it back in June of last year and again a few months ago. In my most recent article I ended it with the following:

The service has some big news coming soon which will make it even more useful but I can’t tell you yet what it is. Be sure to sign up for a TMCnet news alert on RingCentral or check out the RingCentral news page to stay posted.

The big news is the California based company has now gone VoIP. I should point out that it’s not like I am such an IP bigot that I think every company needs to go IP – then again, maybe I am. wink

So the company has a new IP communications solution and I decided to give the new service dubbed RingCentral Digital Line a spin. I already had a RingCentral account so to go VoIP I just downloaded the new software module, selected a plan and was off.

Once the software was on my computer I made an outbound call and the quality was flawless. The user interface was fairly straightforward and the number of options available was bewildering. Still, with all the options it was a straightforward install.

When I called into the service I was surprised the computer did not ring. Instead I received voicemail that was sent in real-time to the softphone on the computer. I decided to go into the configuration menu and snoop. There I found the setting was defaulted to voicemail only. I changed it so it would allow full call control and the system started to ring when calls were made.

If you are a small business the new RingCentral Digital Line software coupled with existing RingCentral service will make your company look much bigger than you ever thought possible. It is a good service and can work with SIP-based IP phones as well.

Other features worth pointing out are music on hold, visual voicemail, fax and e-mail notification of messages. You can even pull callers out of voicemail and use an 800 or vanity number. There is lots of power at a reasonable price.

So RingCentral is late with their VoIP solution but the delay was more than worth it. It is full-featured and a great value. Check it out over at RingCentral’s website.