In just a few years, mobile devices have soared in popularity to become a crucial point of contact for people today. Seventy-five percent of the U.S. workforce is now mobile. The driving force behind the bring your own device (BYOD) trend is the ability to access both work and personal information on a single device.

The idea of unified communications from a single interface is becoming more prominent in business communications beyond BYOD.

RingCentral, for example, is a cloud-based phone system company that offers a cloud-based business communications solution called RingCentral Office. Users are able to connect and manage multiple locations, devices and workers within their cloud phone system and easily customize users, department and call handling rules.

Today, AT&T announced it is offering RingCentral [email protected] from AT&T, an end-to-end cloud-based phone system that’s affordable, easy to manage and ideal for today’s mobile and distributed workforces.

I recently sat down with Bonnie Lam, senior director of channel and franchise sales at RingCentral, at ITEXPO Miami, a communications and technology conference and expo happening this week. According to Lam, RingCentral’s mission is to innovate and redefine business communications, making its service very easy for an end-user or admin to use and be able to control an entire system from a mobile device.

RingCentral has a tight focus on integrating with top cloud services to provide a seamless experience to its users.

RingCentral’s platform processes four million calls and 10 million minutes every day. It serves more than 300,000 SMBs and has more than 2,000 resellers, making it the leading provider for cloud-based phone systems for SMBs. Traditionally, small and medium-sized businesses were turning to companies such as RingCentral for the features it offers at a low cost. But RingCentral is seeing a shift in the enterprise market as large companies are increasingly turning to the company wanting to use a cloud-based solution for reliability, cost and comfort.

As more technology and aspects of a business migrate toward cloud adoption, the comfort level is rising, and the business phone system is next up to move to the cloud.

The nationwide service AT&T is now offering makes it easier for business owners and corporate work groups – both in-office and mobile – to connect with each other and their customers on whatever device they prefer. Additionally, the cloud phone system can be easily set up and managed with apps on smartphones and tablets. All that’s needed is a broadband connection – no expensive PBX hardware or complex installation is required. Overall, the solution provides substantial cost benefits to businesses.

RingCentral [email protected] from AT&T extends the original offering, the [email protected] app, a mobile PBX application that allows small businesses with an existing wireless account from AT&T to configure and manage their office phone system on-the-go, to an end-to-end business phone system for both office and mobile work environments within one cloud-based solution. It offers a variety of features, including Plug & Ring-ready IP desktop phones for the office, enhanced PC and smartphone apps for mobile employees and international calling options.



Rather than building its own cloud solution, AT&T turned to RingCentral because of its position in the industry and its focus on usability and mobility. They key today is mobility, said Lam, and with RingCentral, you can configure an entire phone system from your mobile device.

RingCentral is exhibiting at ITEXPO Miami this week at booth #716. According to Lam, it’s a great opportunity to connect with existing partners who attend the show and connect with potential new resellers and partners as well as IT decision makers.  Jose Pastor, VP of product management at RingCentral, will be speaking in a session, “Making Sense of the Options: Hosted vs. Cloud vs. On-Premises Solutions,” on Wednesday, Jan. 30 from 10 a.m. – 10:45 a.m., which will cover cloud providers’ infrastructure and policies, hosted offerings, benefits of cloud computing, security policies and access control infrastructure and which apps to migrate to the cloud.