Case Studies

TSIA – Technology Services Industry Association 
TSIA is membership platform that enables executives to improve the strategic, operational and financial performance of their business. TSIA is the world's leading organization dedicated to advancing the business of technology services. Based in San Diego, California, TSIA was founded 17 years ago and has 62 employees, of which 25 work remotely. 

Power outage sparks need for cloud communications 
TSIA employees are located across the country as well as at the company’s main headquarters. In December 2012, San Diego experienced a multi-day power outage. Once TSIA’s main headquarters lost power, employees lost the ability to communicate with both colleagues and customers. The company used a legacy on-premise Mitel PBX system at the time. 

“It was because of the power outage that we decided to move all of our services into the cloud,” says Jason Buck, IT director for TSIA. “When our office power went down, so did our phone system. We couldn’t forward calls to mobile devices because it was handled through our internal PBX, which was down due to the outage. So when the power went out, all communications went down as well.” With RingCentral, employees can go online or use the mobile app from anywhere to make and receive calls using their business number, just as if they are in the office. 

Tying locations, employees together with one business phone system 
Another issue that TSIA had with their Mitel PBX was the inability to tie multiple locations and employees together within one phone system. With employees scattered across geographies, the company constantly had to search for providers in different states and counties that could tie into their phone system network. It was complicated to set up, and TSIA often had to bring in outside technicians to set things up and make changes to the PBX when staff members moved to a new desk or had to travel for work. 

For TSIA, it was imperative to find an easier way to have all employees, regardless of location, on the same system. “We have many remote employees, which was one of the big issues that we had with our old PBX,” explains Buck. “We needed everyone on the same phone system with the same connectivity. RingCentral provides four-digit extensions for all of our users. No matter where they work, our staff members don’t have to hassle with dialing a ten-digit number, and colleagues immediately know that it’s an internal call.” 

Complete control with one easy-to-manage system 
TSIA had to constantly rely on outside contractors to configure and set up their on-premise PBX. This changed when they moved to RingCentral. “Now we don’t have to worry about configuring our system—we just get online ourselves, make a few simple changes, and everything continues running with no downtime,” says Buck. 

Now TSIA’s entire phone system runs from the same operating system, and they can manage it from one place. “With RingCentral, we have complete control over our phone system, versus having to constantly contact a representative to manage the system for us,” adds Buck. 

Flexible, cost-effective communications key 
Many employees at TSIA can attest to the benefits of having a flexible phone system. “If you aren’t at your desk, you can forward calls to the RingCentral mobile app on your smartphone. It’s definitely a necessity for the virtual world that we live in,” says Buck. 

While many of TSIA’s employees use RingCentral on their desk phones and mobile devices while in the U.S, the company has employees who also use the service globally. “We have ten people who frequently travel internationally,” says Buck. “Being able to get voicemails online over RingCentral instead of calling in to their voicemail here in the U.S. has really been an amazing feature—not to mention a cost saver.” 

Along with added functionality, flexibility and a more secure way to stay operational during a power outage, RingCentral offers TSIA significant cost savings. “We are saving about $600 a month by switching to RingCentral.”