RingEX vs. Skype (discontinued)

A basic phone system with all of the "extras" makes a small business look much more significant. Their growth into AI features is fantastic and can be used to reduce the effort of call management dramatically. While pretty much like all of them, voicemail is easy to work with. You'd probably need an administrator to manage personnel changes in a larger environment.

Incentivized

Skype is an excellent choice for phone calls, both local and international, and is also one of the most affordable solutions for business office line. It is simple to use and get started with and provides a call experience on mobile that is similar to a regular phone call. It is not the ideal tool for team chat. For text-based team communication, a separate dedicated tool is still ideal

Incentivized

• Chat and Messaging - Conversations are easy to search, topics can be pinned or bookmarked, and groups are easy to create and administer.
• Phone - The core functionality works very well allowing voice, txt/sms, and faxing for all users. Administration is generally fairly easy as well.
• Mobile Client - the mobile app offers all of the same functionality as the desktop or web client.
• Video - Video calls make it easy to share screens with other users and includes a lot of tools for planning.

Incentivized

• The instant chat function is great. Very straightforward, easy to use, easy to learn, no technical issues.
• Video calls are pretty easy also, user friendly and a mostly stable connection with no issues.
• Voice calls are easy also, eliminates the need for an external landline or the need to use your cell phone. Clear connections, not really any dropped calls.

Incentivized

• Customer support is rudimentary. They should improve tier 1 customer support's ability to understand our needs rather than asking customers to reinstall the app
• Revolving door of account managers, which causes loss of continuity in discussing opportunities
• Analytics is not complete. Details about faxing and web meetings is missing.

Incentivized

• Skype is a RESOURCE hog. People who have limited bandwidth will have poor call quality.
• It is hard to figure out how to use emojis and upload images in the chat.
• The background images do not fool anybody....it is clearly not your real background.

Incentivized

We are grandfathered into our unlimited toll-free minutes plan. We are very unlikely to switch because of that. It has been the major factor saving us a lot of money compared to switching to other solutions. I don't know any other company that still offers these unlimited plans.

Incentivized

I have given this rating as this need to give more than that as it's very helpful for us and makes our work more efficient and fast.

They were working on updating a few of the modules while we were going live, so this made usability difficult to train on once they did go live with those changes. Now that the changes are in place, we have really enjoyed the usability of the platform

Skype is not as good as Facetime in terms of ease to glance at it and figure out how it works. I think that's a result of Skype trying to be too many things at once. A lot of the menu and UI could be streamlined, and I would jettison some of the additional functions that have been tacked on over the years to simplify. That being said, while some options are slightly hard to find, they all work flawlessly once found.

Incentivized

We recently had nearly an entire day of downtime where the RIngCentral network was experiencing issues with incoming and outgoing calls. In the past year there have been more service related issues than ever before, which makes me wonder if RingCentral network is not robust enough to handle all the users

Incentivized

Occasional bandwith issues. In addition to this, I have one individual whose calls are blocked. We were not able to determine whether this was a RingEX or a carrier issue.

Incentivized

Call-in support is fantastic. I have never called in and had it taken more than 30 minutes to resolve our issue. Email support is terrible. You will likely go 24+ hours until you hear back and the response is likely a canned one. I personally prefer the email or chat support option, but find myself calling instead because the email support experience is so poor.

Incentivized

I am not aware of the current support level for Skype for business, as I have never used even though I have the product. However, the support for Skype's personal paid users is not where it could be. Users who pay for Skype features do not have a clear path to reach out to support. So, rating 6, can be better as soon as I need to use Skype for business support and get a good experience. I will say that I will renew Skype for Business subscription, which is a significant inconsistency on my end. The explanation is that Skype for Business comes bundled with Office for Business, with no additional cost, so why not.

Incentivized

I really didn't know all the capabilities

Incentivized

If someone has an existing system I tell them to keep that running initially and keep RingEX separate initially until the system is configured and tested to one's satisfaction. After testing and configuration is completed, then roll over the main phone numbers to the new RingEX system. I've seen one person who immediately flipped over to RingEX without properly configuring/testing the software and had many issues with missed customer calls until I helped him sort out his configuration.

Incentivized

It can be used on the phone via mobile application as well as on the desktop by logging in to the website. Easily installed and ready to use.

Incentivized

There is a more reliable connection and communication. The dashboard is easier to use, and the reports that can be generated are more in tune with our business needs. It is easy to review calls and pull them, which was much harder with Vonage.

Incentivized

Microsoft Teams provides basically the same services. Local number calling is not available (that I know of) but that only matters if you have any need to use it. Teams is a little more stable, especially with a lot of people on a call. Skype is easier to set up and to operate. Skype also has a larger install base.

Incentivized

not to sign up for it or give them any money for a product that does not work

We have 75 users and 85 phones on the system and have yet to have any noticeable outages. The system just works all of the time without issues. Our old VOIP system on Voyant would go out all the time for multiple hours. RingEX is much more stable and reliable.

Incentivized

The service provided is up to date, as discussed before buying.

• Enabling the team to streamline inbound and outbound calling strategy has increased productivity by at least 30%.
• It improved internal collaboration by enabling the team to communicate effectively and clearly in real-time.
• Improved level of professionalism that we could showcase to our clients, intangible benefit.

Incentivized

• Skype made keeping in touch with an advisor in Mexico very easy. The initiative there resulted in 5 new partnerships.
• Skype has helped me with account management for at least 3 customers in LATAM--usually it's a fast way to answer a question about a support renewal.
• For about 9 months Skype helped me stay in touch with a colleague in Prague. We would meet once a week to go over sales activities.

Incentivized