Corteva Agriscience
Corteva Agriscience uses RingCentral to connect employees around the world—and reduce telecom costs.
150+
employees across Europe are now connected on the RingCentral platform
80%
of staff no longer want their desk phones — thanks to RingCentral
$0
for roaming, overages, or other surprise fees since switching to RingCentral
We asked our employees across Europe: After COVID, when you return to the office, will you still want your desk phone? 80% said we can remove those phones permanently—because now, with RingCentral, they can use their business number on their laptop and mobile phone.
Agnes Tordai
Head of IT and Telecom for EMEA Region
Enriching the world’s agricultural ecosystem for centuries
Few industries can claim to be more critical than agriculture in enabling humans to survive and thrive. And few agricultural organizations can claim to have more of an impact on the quality, quantity, safety, and affordability of the world’s food supply than Corteva Agriscience.
The positive impact that Corteva (NYSE: CTVA) has had on the global agricultural ecosystem is astonishing. The company’s innovative seeds, crop-protection solutions, and digital capabilities help more than 10 million farmers around the world increase their yields and deliver high-quality foods to consumers each year. Today, in fact, the company’s products help feed hundreds of millions of people in more than 140 countries.
And although Corteva emerged as a standalone business only in 2019—after spinning out from global brand DowDuPont—the company’s roots in the agricultural industry go back more than 200 years.
INDUSTRY
Agriculture
HQ
Indianapolis, IN
YEAR FOUNDED
1802
EMPLOYEES
150+
An urgent need for a cloud phone solution in Europe
Corteva’s lineage traces back to mergers and acquisitions among several global organizations, including DuPont, Dow Chemical, and Pioneer Hi-Bred International. When the company spun out as a global business of its own, many of the assets resulting from these mergers—including more than 100 seed-production facilities and dozens of offices around the world—needed to be united under one corporate IT environment to connect Corteva’s employees.
Agnes Tordai, Head of IT and Telecom for Corteva’s EMEA Region, explains that the company wanted to find a cloud telephony solution capable of supporting employees worldwide, starting with their smaller offices throughout Europe. That requirement, she notes, almost immediately narrowed the field of cloud communications providers to RingCentral.
“We actually had another cloud solution for some of our larger offices,” Agnes says. “But neither that provider nor any of the other companies we researched were capable of rolling out cloud telephony for all our European locations right away—except for RingCentral.”
An intuitive platform—and Enterprise Support—make for a smooth rollout
Agnes points out that implementing RingCentral was surprisingly smooth. “We went from one office to the next in Europe—Italy, Belgium, France, Spain, and so on—and in each case our experience was similar. Porting over our employees’ numbers was relatively easy. Setting everyone up with softphone capabilities on their laptops and the mobile apps on their cell phones was simple as well. RingCentral is very intuitive.”
Making the rollout process even easier, Agnes notes, was RingCentral’s Enterprise Support team, who she says helped her team with every step of implementation and onboarding and were always accessible when they had questions.
With an IT migration like this, especially when it involves multiple countries, you brace yourself for inevitable challenges and frustrations. But I have to say that RingCentral’s Enterprise Support made the transition painless. They were helpful, efficient, and super-responsive.
Agnes Tordai
Head of IT and Telecom for EMEA Region
RingCentral enables several operational improvements
Since rolling out RingCentral for Corteva’s European offices, Agnes says the company has seen many benefits.
“We really appreciate the mobility RingCentral gives our employees. Empowering our people with the tools to stay connected from anywhere was already a priority, but COVID accelerated the need for those capabilities. One of the best things about RingCentral is that our staff doesn’t need an office to use their business lines anymore. Wherever they are, whatever device they have, they can have those business calls with coworkers, customers, and partners.”
Another operational improvement Corteva has seen since switching to RingCentral, Agnes says, is increased flexibility in managing and routing calls.
“The virtual receptionist is terrific for guiding customers to the right people, and it’s so easy to go into the admin portal and update those details anytime,” she says. “Also, if we need to redirect all inbound calls at, say, our Brussels office to a team in Madrid, we can make that adjustment ourselves online in minutes.”
Yet another benefit Corteva is enjoying thanks to RingCentral, Agnes notes, is a more predictable telephony expense than the company has ever had. “We don’t have to factor in roaming charges or additional fees for going over our minutes. RingCentral is much more cost-effective because we pay a fixed amount for licenses—and that’s it. No phone-bill surprises.”
Finally, Agnes points out, RingCentral is making it easier for the steadily growing global organization to scale. “Rather than continuously updating our agreements with local or regional carriers whenever we bring on new employees or spin up a new location, now Corteva can simply add licenses to our global RingCentral account and activate those numbers right away. That’s definitely going to support our growth over time.”
For a business like ours, with a presence in most countries, it’s important to have a telephony partner that is truly global. We wanted to give our employees everywhere in the world the benefits of mobility and flexibility RingCentral offers. And because RingCentral can support us wherever we have an office—or even one remote employee—we can do that now.
Agnes Tordai
Head of IT and Telecom for EMEA Region