Virtual Office Resource

Box (News - Alert), one of the pioneers of the cloud-based services movement, is drinking the Kool-Aid, implementing more cloud-based solutions within its own enterprise. Specifically, the company has tapped RingCentral to provide it with cloud-based business communications capabilities.

The company expects the move from its existing PBX (News - Alert) phone system and audio and web conferencing solutions to RingCentral to lower its operational costs by between $800,000 and $900,000, according to a CIO from IDG posting this week by Clint Boulton.

“As we add more employees and offices in different locations, we require a solution that consolidates our entire enterprise communications in the cloud for voice and web meetings and offers the agility to grow,” Box CIO Paul Chapman commented in a press release issued by RingCentral (News - Alert) earlier this week. “RingCentral addresses this while delivering a very high standard of reliability, security and quality to successfully run our global business. Not only have we reduced the operational headaches of managing multiple, single point communication solutions, but we’ve also cut costs by 80 percent since moving to RingCentral.”

The RingCentral solution will be used by 1,400 Box employees. It will enable them to make and receive calls; use audio conferencing; do web meetings from any desk phone, Mac or Windows computer, or smartphone; employ SMS; and more. The platform also taps into popular business applications. For Box that means the ability for users to leverage the company’s Google collaboration software and Salesforce.com (News - Alert) CRM solution along with RingCentral.

Speaking of integrations, RingCentral recently announced new integrations with Microsoft Outlook and Skype (News - Alert) for Business, adding to its integration with Microsoft Office 365.

“In today’s multi-vendor cloud application environment, enterprise customers are empowered to choose best-of-breed software solutions,” said Marco Casalaina, vice president of integrations for RingCentral. “With our open platform, we make it easy to have a seamless experience with RingCentral’s cloud communications capabilities embedded into many popular business applications. Our integrations with Outlook and Skype for Business are the latest examples of how we’re innovating and delivering a best-of-breed experience to fulfill the needs of enterprise customers.”

Other RingCentral customers include 24HR Lockouts, CBCC, Construction Monitor, Dynasplint Systems Inc., Home Inspector Pro, I Love Travel, Insureon, Interwest Consulting Group, MEP Health, Rokstar Events, SKS Bottle & Packaging and Zero Motorcycles.