RingCentral has posted a positive Q3 2023 quarter, underpinned by what it described as “strong traction” in its AI-powered products and services.
RingCentral has outlined that its new AI-driven solutions, RingCX and RingSense, have grown in popularity with customers this past quarter, helping both total revenue and subscription revenue grow 10 percent year over year to $558 million and $531 million, respectively.
RingCentral’s overarching ambition to integrate AI across its portfolio — including its UCaaS products, such as its Cloud PBX MVP — was underlined in the earnings call, which could potentially see conversational intelligence capabilities introduced to UCaaS products.
Tarek Robbiati, CEO at RingCentral, commented:
Combined with our UCaaS leadership built over the past 20 years, we are now transforming into an AI-first, multi-product company with proprietary offerings in UCaaS, CCaaS, Conversation Intelligence, Sales Analytics and Events, Webinars and Meetings(…) the R&D team have been busy over the last few years building out an AI platform that we are now leveraging to infuse AI across our entire portfolio.”
The acquisition of hybrid events business Hopin earlier this year also factors into RingCentral’s plan to diversify into a multiproduct company, with Hopin being renamed “RingCentral Events”. RingCentral Events has also been integrated with its RingSense AI service, while the conversational intelligence platform RingCX is expected to be generally available later this quarter.
Robbiati also outlined that RingCentral is aiming to invest more in the SMB and mid-market, which was 57 percent of its business in Q3.
“These cohorts have traditionally been underserved by larger vendors, and thus are not encumbered by the bundling dynamics that may influence larger customers’ decisions,” Robbiati said in what was his first earnings call as CEO after being appointed to replace the outgoing Founder Vlad Shmunis.
Focusing on this market should also present RingCentral with a “significant opportunity” to sell its entire portfolio of communications tools to SMBs.
The key financial findings from the call, alongside total and subscription revenues posted above, include the non-GAAP operating margin being recorded at 19.1 percent, an increase of 560 basis points year over year. Cash in bank was $432 million, reflecting the August 2023 issuance of $400 million of senior notes due 2030.
Notes of concern in RingCentral’s push for greater profitability include net retention being at roughly 100 percent, which Robbiati said was “below where (he) thinks it (could) be”, especially with several new products to sell.
Robbiati also highlighted that RingCentral is optimising its cost structure to improve productivity and efficiencies in acquiring and maintaining a customer. Alongside improved customer retention in pursuing improved profitability, he underlined that while sales and marketing spend has increased only two percent year-to-date, he stated that, as a percent of revenue, that was still above what he thought it should be.
RingCentral’s Busy Q2 Earnings Call and August
RingCentral had a busy August revolving around its Q2 earnings.
The company unveiled a new CEO in Robbiati as visionary leader Shmunis announced he was standing down after almost 25 years at the top — a decision that saw RingCentral’s stock drop 18.6 percent in the wake of the news. This was despite a positive earnings call for Q2, as RingCentral suggested its focus on profitability was reaping the rewards sooner than estimated.
Shmunis has transitioned to the position of Executive Chairman with responsibility for driving RingCentral’s strategic product vision and innovation.
Robbiati had been a member of the RingCentral Board of Directors since December 2022 and was previously Chief Financial Officer and EVP of Finance and Strategy at Hewlett Packard Enterprise. Robbiati became CEO effective August 28, 2023.
Robbiati’s CV illustrates almost three decades as a prestigious strategic and financial operator, renowned for his leadership roles within the telecom, media, technology and financial services industries.
RingCentral also launched two new solutions: the native, AI-powered contact centre solution, RingCX, and RingSense for Phone.
RingCX is an easy-to-deploy offering that combines RingCentral’s central UC services — including message, video, phone, SMS, and fax — with contact centre boosted by a generative AI feature set. The end product is a next-gen, AI-powered solution that offers a complete, native omnichannel experience and enhances customer journeys.
RingSense for Phone leverages AI to allow businesses to turn their voice conversation data into valuable insights that can enhance productivity and business outcomes.
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