UCaaS in the Enterprise: Comparing Skype for Business with Ringcentral for G Suite Business

Unified Communications as a Service (UcaaS) buying decisions require a more involved approach. There are four key factors to consider, including provider expertise and stability, your company’s or industry’s unique case, deployment models and flexibility. A well-chosen solution can have many business benefits.

Many businesses are modernizing their collaboration systems by migrating to the cloud. However, a significant number of organizations are still struggling to connect their remote workforce with integrated telephony. Security issues also compound the situation, thus affecting team productivity and the ability to provide optimal customer service. In turn, this impacts overall performance and the bottom lines.

Fortunately, UCaaS tools, such as RingCentral and Skype provide secure solutions that are affordable, easy to deploy and manage.

RingCentral versus Skype

RingCentral’s cloud communication services enable enterprises to rely on one solution to organize conferences, make calls and more. The offerings are fully integrated into G Suite apps. The service provider is a recipient of several awards, including the Best Phone System Award for 2015.

Meanwhile, Skype is widely regarded as one of the best VoIP solutions on the market. It offers various business features and functionalities at low prices. The solutions are compatible with Microsoft Office tools and several third-party apps.

Pricing plans

RingCentral provides three pricing tiers that come with a variety of features, such as paging, intercom, shared lines and more. The pricing plans include Standard, Premium and Enterprise. The enterprise package is all-inclusive, which means organizations can take advantage of up to 53 features.

Skype for Business plans are billed per user on a monthly basis. The plans include the Enterprise Pricing Package, Online Plan 2 (for online meetings), Office 365 Business Essentials and the Office 365 Business Premium.

Supported languages

• RingCentral - USA, UK, Canada
• Skype - USA, UK, Spain, Canada, International, Japan, France, Russia, China, Germany, India

Available Integrations for Ringcentral and Skype

RingCentral supports integrations with 12 business systems and applications, including G Suite, Zendesk, Salesforce, Outlook, Dropbox and more

Skype for Business integrates with up to 23 systems and applications, including Outlook, PowerPoint, Word, OnePage CRM and more.

RingCentral for G Suite Overview

RingCentral offers a sophisticated and organized communication system that is integrated into cloud-based business productivity apps. This ensures convenience, data security and reliability for teams. The integration allows users to engage in enterprise-quality voice communication on the same screen as the G Suite apps.

Additionally, the solution is designed to handle web meetings, faxes, text messages and conference calls from a single browser. Hence, there is no need to use multiple tools to collaborate, send or receive faxes, text messages and voice calls.

RingCentral for G Suite key benefits and features to business customers. 

• Manage business text message conversations

• Engage in voice communication via the Chrome web browser, email client (Gmail) and web pages

• Boost the capacity for Google Hangouts to accommodate thousands of participants

• Access voicemail in Gmail

• Manage call settings and set up Hangouts using the Chrome browser.

• Combine RingCentral and Google contacts

• Schedule meetings and conference calls using Google Calendar

Skype for Business Overview

Skype is well-known for its highly flexible pricing model. This has helped turn it into one of the most popular VoIP tools in the world. The tariffs enable both small and large businesses to lower the cost of communication. Customers are given an opportunity to pay for call minutes used or opt for the subscription plans. Some of the options offer unlimited calls to more than 60 countries for a reasonable monthly subscription rate.

Businesses can take advantage of multiple communication channels to boost productivity and enhance collaboration.

Some of the Skype for Business features include:

• Video messaging
• Skype number
• Instant messaging
• Send texts (SMS)
• Group video calls
• Calls to mobiles and landlines
• Caller ID
• Group screen sharing
• Voice messages
• Skype to Skype calls
• One-to-one video calls
• Group calls

Final Thoughts

Ultimately this one is a platform battle.   Skype, owned by Microsoft is the best solutions for companies happy with Office 365 while the same can be said for Ringcentral for G Suite business customers.   

Mid-size businesses really should have at least one account at each of Microsoft Office 365 and at G Suite Business.   Why?  As a Google Apps Admin, consider Skype as the lowest common denominator.  You need to have at least one account under corporate control and administration to use Skype for Business.   

Most television and media companies have adopted Skype for remote interviews and uplinks.   While Ringcentral for Meetings and Google Hangouts are becoming much more commonplace in the US business world, the global market is still using Skype, albeit paired with a dial-up connection.