RingCentral POTS Replacement Launches, Focuses on Channel Sweet Spot

RingCentral has unveiled a plain old telephone service (POTS) replacement solution that focuses on the various complex deployments channel members often undertake.

At its crux, the solution will bring standard phone lines, fax and specialty devices such as emergency alarms, elevator lines, points-of-sale and security systems to the cloud.

In turn, this will enhance the reliability, scalability and compliance of said phone lines while adding other advanced functionalities, said Brandon Thomas, vice president of partner success at RingCentral.

He shared with Channel Futures that verticals that leveraging POTS replacement solutions tend to be more complex.

"[That's] where a partner’s expertise becomes even more critical in areas such as health care, banking and public safety," said Thomas.

RingCentral's Brandon Thomas

These industries, he said, are areas where partners presently and will continue to enrich.

"So doubling down on their role will allow our product experts to collaborate more closely on effective solutions for our joint customers," Thomas said.

He says that it comes down to partners diving deeper into these verticals and providing customers with further opportunities to modernize and reduce the risk associated with analog telephony.

26 Million Reasons to Get in the RingCentral POTS Replacement Game

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Citing more than 26 million seats yet to come over the digital side, Thomas told us that the newly launched RingCentral POTS replacement solution will be critical to its partners maintaining aging infrastructure as increasing regulatory challenges grow more stringent.

"Many companies are incurring millions in overhead expenses for these lines," he said.

Now, Thomas said, is the prime time to launch RingCentral's novel POTS replacement offer as many businesses rely on legacy analog devices for vital systems, such as medical alert systems in health care, security alarm systems in banking and emergency response systems in public safety.

As for the timing, Thomas said that RingCentral's market position as a "leading cloud provider with deep experience in supporting large, complex enterprise migrations" felt like a "natural portfolio expansion," with the other side of the solution's timing tied deeply to ensuring business continuity.

For Thomas, the move from POTS is vital, calling the digital transformation "mission-critical," noting that system failure "is not an option."

RingCentral Channel 'Energized'

Officially dubbed RingCentral Next-Generation POTS Replacement, Thomas said partners are energized about the offer.

"It gives our partners yet another tool to sell into their customer bases, especially in the health care, public safety and financial services verticals."

The POTS replacement solution further enables RingCentral partners to open up new opportunities in these critical industries.

"Similar to other new product innovations, partners are receptive to the ability to meet additional use cases and serve more of their customers’ overall communications needs," Thomas added.

As for partner perks, Thomas made us aware of a few.

"We’re always excited to reward partners for their business, which is why we offer industry-leading SPIFFs and incentives across our product portfolio," he said.

RingCentral, too, offers a stackable 10X MRR SPIFF across RingEX and all new products.

"And RingCentral Next-Generation POTS Replacement will qualify for this offer," Thomas told Channel Futures.