How RingCentral Went Upmarket is similar to how 8×8 went upmarket.
RC announced its year end financials for 2014 this week: Total revenue for RingCentral for the full year of 2014 was $219.9 million with service revenue accounting for $200 million of it.
“RingCentral Office® is now integrated with Google for Work. Users can click-to-call, send and receive SMS text messages, host web meetings, and video and audio conferences with up to 1,000 people – all within the Google for Work environment.” Following the Verizon VCE strategy of integrating with Google to hit the 5 million businesses using G4W.
Integration is going to be the key differentiator. To step up from replacement voice services, the question will be what software do you use in the office? Okay we integrate with that one (Google for Work) and that one (Zendesk) and that one. And here’s why that will be helpful for you…..
RC CEO Shmunis added, “Our strategy to expand up market and acquire larger customers continues to build momentum, and is contributing meaningfully to our financial results.” Sure, a single 100 seat deal beats 50 SOHO deals any day. It has a multiplier effect.
RC once stated – in a SEC filing – that they would not go for HIPAA compliance. Reverse course: “RC Released a fully HIPAA-compliant RingCentral Office® solution to better serve the large and growing healthcare industry.”
While 8×8 went the Channel partner route to get more Enterprise accounts, RC went after the Duopoly. They ended up landing AT&T, BT, Telus and a few others who would co-market and co-brand the service. Still a channel strategy, just a different one.
It helps that both ITSPs started targeting the mid-market with advertising, webpages, collateral, case studies — and the tools that midmarket looks for — like reporting, analytics, portal, integration, compliance.
SELLECOM: 101 Ideas for Marketing in the Telecom Jungle. 
