The Chicago Cubs have announced a partnership with RingCentral, making the Silicon Valley firm their official provider of cloud-based business communications.
The Cubs host almost three million baseball fans annually, placing enormous demands on their communications systems – from ticketing and security to hospitality and fan engagement.
Until recently, it had relied on on-premises systems that were costly to maintain and ill-suited to the scale of operations.
“The Cubs have one of the most passionate fan bases in baseball, and we’re excited to help them connect with those fans in new ways,” said Akshay Srivastava, Executive Vice President & GM, Go-to-Market at RingCentral.
Our AI communications platform will streamline how the organisation communicates internally and externally, making every interaction more meaningful.”
By replacing legacy infrastructure with cloud UC, the Cubs are aiming to improve employee collaboration, cut operating costs, and enhance the fan experience.
Beyond new branding on the famous Wrigley Field Marquee, the collaboration represents a broader trend: the migration of even the most tradition-bound institutions to the cloud, in search of efficiency, scalability, and new ways to engage customers.
Why This Matters for IT Leaders
For enterprise buyers, this is more than a story about baseball.
It’s a case study in how unified communications and AI-driven collaboration tools can address three perennial concerns of the buying committee:
- CIOs / CTOs: Integration with Microsoft Teams, resilience at scale, and the security of moving sensitive customer data into the cloud.
- CFOs: The total cost of ownership compared to legacy systems, with savings from reduced maintenance and increased workforce productivity.
- CHROs / Business Unit Leaders: The ability to empower employees with tools that streamline workflows and boost engagement.
- Heads of Customer Experience / CMOs: Enhanced service responsiveness and fan (customer) satisfaction, powered by AI analytics and conversation intelligence.
This alignment of technology with organisational outcomes is the essence of digital transformation: less about the tools themselves, more about how they reshape work, customer relationships, and competitive advantage.
Risk, Reward, and the Lessons of Wrigley
Migrating from an on-premise system to a cloud platform is not without its risks.
Data security, regulatory compliance, and service continuity are perennial concerns for any CIO – and they are magnified in a setting as high-profile as a Major League Baseball team.
For enterprises watching from the stands, the Cubs’ decision underscores a crucial point: cloud UC is not just a way to trim costs. It is a way to ensure agility, deliver richer customer engagement, and create an organisation capable of scaling under pressure.
“With RingCentral’s communications solutions, we can continue our focus on what matters most – providing our fans with outstanding gameday experiences while at Wrigley Field, said Steve Inman, Vice President of Technology, Chicago Cubs.
“RingCentral’s communications solutions bring an industry-leading technology to the Cubs organization that helps us meet the ever-changing needs of the sports industry.”
UC Adoption Across Sports
The Cubs’ move reflects a broader trend in the sports and entertainment industry, where teams, stadiums, and leagues are increasingly adopting cloud-based UC solutions to modernise operations.
From the Liverpool FC rollout of Mitel’s cloud platform to the WNBA’s adoption of optical tracking and data analytics, sports organisations are leveraging collaboration tools to improve internal collaboration, enhance fan experiences, and streamline event management.
For IT leaders, these developments signal that UC is no longer just a back-office efficiency tool – it’s a strategic enabler of scalability, real-time insights, and audience engagement across any organisation where high-volume, high-stakes communication is critical.
