The era of digital office environments has finally arrived. With remote and hybrid work now taking over as the “new normal” for most companies, organisations are investing rapidly in tools that maintain productivity and support collaboration in a virtual environment.
Tools like RingCentral Office and Avaya Cloud Office are paving the way for countless brands in the midst of a digital transformation journey. The question for some companies is: how do these two solutions differ?
Avaya Cloud Office is powered by the RingCentral Office environment, leaving many business buyers to assume they’re purchasing the same solution under different names. However, there are a few differences between Avaya and RingCentral’s solution worth acknowledging.
Let’s take a closer look.
What is RingCentral Office?
RingCentral Office has earned RingCentral the position of Gartner Magic Quadrant Leader for UCaaS for 6 years in a row, and it’s easy to see why. The RingCentral Office environment is a comprehensive cloud landscape built to bring business users together wherever they are.
Built on an expansive global environment, RingCentral Office offers international numbers across 70 countries, and local numbers with more than 200 different area codes. Aside from standard calling features like directory listings, toll-free numbers, and amazing global uptime, RingCentral Office also provides things like:
- Phone system administration with auto-receptionist and multi-level IVR
- Role-based access control and remote provisioning
- User templates to roll out new functionality with ease
- Auditing trails, call reports and e-discovery
- Music on hold, call extensions and a dial-by-name directory
- Call monitoring and single sign-on
- Phone provisioning with RingConnect CloudConnect
- Caller ID control
- RingOut, and RingMe
- Virtual desktop app
- Desk phones from collaborations with Polycom, Cisco, and Yealink
- Call management with answering rules, call handling, and call forwarding
- Automatic call recording
- Call screening, call park, call flip
- Presence
- Intercom and paging
- Shared lines
- Call logs
- Message alerts and notifications
- Custom voicemail, visual voicemail, and greetings
- Business SMS and MMS
- Integrations with a host of leading tools and services (including Salesforce)
RingCentral Office also comes with an immersive Team Collaboration solution in the form of RingCentral Glip for chat and file sharing. There’s also support for conferencing and meetings via video and audio from a range of devices, and a “RingCentral Phone for Mobile” option.
What is Avaya Cloud Office?
Avaya Cloud Office is a combined offering from Avaya and RingCentral. The solution leverages the RingCentral Cloud Office environment for cloud communications and collaboration, then layers additional service, technology, and hardware features on top.
The Avaya Cloud Office includes the full RingCentral Office suite, with all the features mentioned above for desktop and mobile UC, calling, messaging, and video collaboration. Depending on the package you choose from Avaya, you can access things like:
- Comprehensive inbound and outbound minute packages
- Team messaging, document sharing, and screen sharing
- Call logs and on-demand call recording
- Video meetings and audio conferencing
- Integrations with popular tools like Slack, G-Suite, and Office 365
- Single sign-on, custom roles, and permissions
- Advanced call handling with barge in and whisper
- Industry-specific integrations with regulatory compliance
- Device status reports, and call quality reporting
- Multi-site administration and management
- Developer access and custom integrations
What makes Avaya unique from the RingCentral Cloud Office environment is the Avaya brand’s ability to implement extra functionality and services. For instance, Avaya has a range of amazing desk phones, speaker phones, and other devices to offer today’s evolving companies, so you can access your hardware and software in the same environment.
