At the beginning of 2020, the cloud was well on its way to becoming the default hosting environment for communication systems. Now, as we inch closer to 2021, even companies that did not prioritise cloud have had to make the switch to support the remote working needs arising from the pandemic. Fortunately, there are a plethora of competitive cloud offerings that can help you quickly build a robust communication environment outside of your premises.
If 2020 was all about initial response and taking stock of your existing landscape, next year is an excellent time to double-down on your cloud communication investments. And on this journey, providers such as RingCentral and Dialpad definitely deserve your attention.
RingCentral is a 1999 company offering two cloud products – business communication and customer service, with an option for on-premises/hybrid deployment. Dialpad has four products, for telephony, contact centres, conferencing, and sales. Here is all you need to know about these two players and what they bring to the table.
RingCentral Features
RingCentral has consistently ranked among the world’s UCaaS leaders for six years running. It serves 400,000+ customers and partners globally, solving use cases around business communication and customer service. It also has the RC app, which acts as a UC hub for desktop.
The key features to expect from RingCentral include:
- RingCentral Office, integrating messaging, video, and telephony on a single platform
- Blended contact centre solution for inbound and outbound activities
- Inbound features such as intelligent, skill-based routing and workforce optimisation
- Manual, preview, progressive, and predictive diallers for outbound campaigns
- Personalised scripting for different contact centre scenarios
- Analytics portal for office communications, spanning 30+ metrics
- Digital customer service enablement via Facebook, Twitter, email, chat, etc.
- 17 data centres in 4 global regions for 99.999% uptime
- 7 layers of security to protect enterprise architecture and processes
RingCentral offers a comprehensive solution for your communication requirements. It is easy to customise and supports both internal and external communication across all major channels. The reengineered RingCentral app delivers an excellent UC experience, with nifty features such as advanced keyword search, unlimited link/file storage, telephony via carrier minutes or cellular data, etc.
RingCentral’s capabilities are so well recognised that Avaya recently partnered with the company to power its new Avaya Cloud Office solution.
RingCentral Office starts at $19.99 per user per month. Its contact centre solution (Basic, Advanced, or Ultimate) is custom priced.
Dialpad Features
Founded in 2013, Dialpad is a relatively new entrant in the cloud-based communication segment. But in that short period, it has been mentioned by Gartner twice in its UCaaS Magic Quadrant, it has acquired voice Ai company, TalkIQ, and it has recently raised $100 million in a Series E round.
The company has a smart product lineup, addressing all your communication requirements, from internal telephony and video, to contact centres and sales. Here are some of its core features:
- Unlimited inbound and outbound calling within your home country (the US and Canada)
- One local phone number included for every office
- Call recording, automatic spam detection, and custom call routing
- Up to 5 hour-long conferences with up to 100 participants
- Up to 1000 callers in the queue as part of its contact centre solution
- Automated post-call notes, sentiment tracking, and call transcriptions
- Sales leaderboards and speed coaching as part of its sales enablement software
- Voice Intelligence (Vi) for speech recognition, natural language processing, and real-time coaching
Dialpad has four discrete solutions, each with its own features and thresholds. Dialpad Talk (its business phone system) supports an unlimited number of offices. UberConference, the video conferencing platform supports up to 100 participants per meeting. Dialpad Support for contact centres can have up to 500 agents per call centre.
You can pick and choose the platform and version you need, ranging from a free forever video conferencing tool to Dialpad CellPro for $95 per month per agent. Enterprise editions of all software come with custom pricing.
RingCentral vs Dialpad: Experience
User experience is an important part of the RingCentral technology stack. It offers a consistent, intuitive interface on browser, desktop, or mobile, that can be easily personalised by employees or administrators. You can start configuring the system right out of the gate, without going through extensive training sessions or UC manuals.
The support experience is also impressive, thanks to university.ringcentral.com, which is a free content library for RingCentral users.
Dialpad’s AI technology goes a long way in improving the user experience, generating productivity and collaboration insights. It tells contact centre supervisors the recommended next-best-action. It captures conversation snippets for archiving. Overall, it leads to an intuitive and value-adding experience.
Dialpad also has a dedicated help centre, with user tutorials, detailed documentation, and learning videos.
RingCentral vs Dialpad:Integrations
RingCentral has an almost endless apps marketplace. It features integrations from a variety of verticals, such as chatbots, analytics, customer support, CRM, ERP, and collaborations. There are industry-specific integrations for healthcare, financial services, education, and retail as well.
RingCentral’s API library makes it possible to integrate the solution with custom technology as well.
Like RingCentral, Dialpad has a large third-party app marketplace, covering productivity, CRM, IT ticketing, identity management, data visualisation, and lots more. It also offers impressive developer support. You can use a Dialpad plugin to create integrations, test within the Dialpad Sandbox, and even store API keys within the admin portal. Dialpad APIs are available for user & office management and analytics & call data.
Which One Is Right For You?
Both Dialpad and RingCentral have their pros and cons. RingCentral’s unified app for business communication works well if you need a single tool that does it all.
On the other hand, Dialpad’s proprietary AI technology and the Dialpad Sell product sets it apart in an otherwise crowded communications technology marketplace. In terms of costs, Dialpad follows a sort of a-la-carte model where you can pick and choose the features and scale you need. RingCentral’s more straightforward pricing is on similar lines as its UC product.
We’d wager that both platforms would stand the test of time if you choose to invest, and the decision comes down to the nature of your business and to what end you’d use a communications platform in 2021.
