RingCentral Aussie partners establish their voice with RingCX partner program

AI-powered business communications company RingCentral has added two Australian technology providers, TelcoDataCloud and Reliance Communications, to its RingCX certified delivery partner (CDP) program for contact centres.

RingCX is RingCentral’s contact centre as a service (CCaaS) product, launched in Australia in April 2024. The product integrates voice, video and over 20 digital channels for customer interactions using RingCentral’s RingSense AI.

Before entering the RingCX CDP program, both partners had to complete the training and CDP program for RingEX, RingCentral’s core unified communications as a service (UCaaS) platform. This consists of five days of instructor-led training, with partners required to have a minimum of two certified resources.

Partners who qualified for the RingEX CDP program in 2024 include Reliance Communications, Productivity and BlueAPACHE.

Being a CDP allows qualified partners to manage the project lifecycle for RingCentral solutions, from planning and design through to implementation, application integration and first level support.

RingCX CDP annual recertification is also required, with training being an additional five-day instructor-led course. There is also an optional one-day project management certification course available which can be taken separately.

RingCentral regional vice president partner sales Ben Swanson told ARN while there are other global players in the in the UCaaS and CCaaS space with a presence here in Australia, partners chose RingCentral for several reasons.

“Our Australian team deeply understands channel partnerships and the importance of long-term trust and transparency,” he said. “The consistency of our channel team is also a key factor.

“We have the same original team on the ground supporting customers and partners that started the business. We have very little employee turnover, which is important because partners are very sensitive to change.”

For RingCentral, the CDP program is important because as it continues to expand its partner network, many of its end users are with partners that have been supporting them with their previous legacy telephony and contact centre systems.

“As these customers move to the cloud, we need to match that same service offering via partners,” he said.

“The latest research from [research firm] Cavell indicates that there is a 43 per cent penetration rate with cloud communications in the Australian market. A significant proportion of this comes from the migration of legacy systems to cloud-based solutions.”

For many customers having their value-added resellers, system integrators and MSPs across multiple areas of technology, being “certified provides them with continuity in the project teams they work with and ensures that they have just one contact to reach out to for help”, Swanson explained.

“For our partners, it enhances the engagement they have with their customers and increases the opportunity for higher margin service revenue and the level of responsiveness they can provide as part of a more complete set of services,” he said.

Demand for RingCentral’s core RingEX CDP program has also been strong, with local partner numbers growing by 35 per cent in 2024, it claimed.

Reliance Communications general manager Goran Jovanovski told ARN it has been a RingCentral partner since it entered the Australian market in 2018 and was one of the first fully accredited RingCentral Service Partner Australia for both RingCX and RingEX.

“RingCX is built for any business with customer-facing operations that wants to elevate or modernise their customer experience,” said Jovanovski. “It’s an AI-powered, cloud-based omnichannel contact centre solution that simplifies customer interactions.”

TelcoDataCloud managing director Asa Grund told ARN it has been a partner of RingCentral for seven years.

“As an independent advisor, we’re not tied to any vendor – our role is to help clients make the right decision for their business and that choice often is RingCentral,” he added.