With a CEO change and an extension of its conversational intelligence business, RingCentral threw the cat amongst the CX pigeons last week.
Yet, amongst the frenzy that followed, some may have missed the biggest news of all: the launch of RingCX, the vendor’s new CCaaS solution.
The platform plugs a longstanding gap within its enterprise communications suite, which includes UCaaS, CPaaS, telephony, and more.
For many years, it has somewhat smoothed over this thanks to a reseller agreement with CCaaS market leader – as per the latest Gartner Magic Quadrant – NICE.
However, what NICE provides is a fully-fledged platform with premium capabilities that extend across workforce optimization, process automation, journey orchestration, etc.
While such an offering is ideal for many of RingCentral’s enterprise clients, SMB and mid-market customers often desire something more manageable.
Enter RingCX
“In listening to our customers, we’ve recognized an additional need for a native intelligent contact center solution that would be better suited towards addressing simpler use cases,” said Vlad Shmunis, Founder & Chairman of RingCentral.
By optimizing RingCX for these simpler use cases, RingCentral will integrate the solution with its UCaaS MVP suite.
In doing so, contact center agents can collaborate on customer queries, engage with external experts, and share knowledge in one platform. Many businesses crave that tech convergence.
Moreover, RingCentral can bring CCaaS tools to those outside the conventional contact center – including new communication channels, reporting tools, and more.
With this capability, service teams may draft employees from other business realms to converse with customers when contact volumes peak.
Hinting at these new possibilities, Shmunis stated:
In conjunction with MVP, it will allow contact center agents and employees beyond the contact center to act as one unified organization focused on addressing customer needs, leading to improved customer satisfaction and greater efficiency in handling calls.
In addition, with a simplified CCaaS solution, organizations will expect speedy deployments, high ease of use, and a lower price point – currently touted at below $100 per agent per month.
If RingCX can provide all that, it may lessen concerns around managing the tech stack, allowing smaller service operations to spend more time “addressing customer needs” – as Shumnis puts it.
The Cornerstone Features of RingCX
Despite its framing as a simplified CCaaS solution, RingCX will boast over 1,000 features at its launch, currently touted for Q4 2023.
These features include inbound and outbound voice alongside 20+ digital channels, ranging from SMS and live chat to various messaging apps and video.
Other notable features include skill-based routing, real-time and historical analytics, and oven-ready integrations with several leading CRM platforms.
Then comes AI. Indeed, the platform features a native virtual agent solution powered by Google Dialogflow, conversational intelligence capabilities, and automated post-conversation processing.
RingCentral also slates Auto-QA for early next year and will offer agent-assist tools for live conversation support via a partner integration.
Sharing his thoughts on this feature overview, Jim Lundy, CEO of Aragon Research, said:
[The] RingCX solution is a bold step forward in empowering employees across the organization while removing the complexities of delivering great customer service experiences.
Finally, RingCentral suggests additional modules will come in 2024, underlining its seemingly significant ambitions in the midmarket CCaaS space.
The CCaaS Choice for RingCentral Customers
The launch of RingCX extends RingCentral’s CCaaS reach and gives customers more choice in their CCaaS deployments.
Already, the vendor connects its UCaaS platform with many well-utilized CCaaS solutions, including Avaya, Five9, and – most recently – AWS.
Yet, the CCaaS business RingCentral generates typically passes to NICE – and both vendors have reiterated their desire to stick to their reseller agreement despite the launch of RingCX.
As such, many customers will likely ponder the question: NICE CXone or RingCX?
NICE CXone is the likely answer for most large enterprises, as its solution meets many specific and niche requirements.
However, the choice may not be so simple for smaller organizations.
Yes, the opportunity to work with fewer vendors and connect CCaaS and UCaaS is appealing. Yet, there are many more considerations, such as RingCX’s integration options, UI, and support services.
Uncover more considerations for moving to CCaaS in our article: Migrating Your Legacy Contact Center to the Cloud
