The Challenge
The company soon realized these requirements were no easy ask. The IT team went to work performing extensive tests across several providers over a four-month period, but provider after provider failed its tests.
Following a thorough evaluation, WONGDOODY determined that RingCentral, 8x8, Asterisk and Kerio Operator didn’t meet its needs. These providers were deemed to be either too expensive, or inflexible with only one pricing option for a determined set of features.
Jeff Chambers, Director of Information Technology at WONGDOODY, shares his struggles to find the right voice provider: “Kerio Operator was an on-premises solution, and Asterisk was open source, so they both ultimately required more administrator involvement than we wanted. While RingCentral and 8x8 offered the VoIP technology we wanted, we found their packages to be quite rigid. For instance, RingCentral offered a set list of features at one price. We needed to be able to make customizations that weren’t possible there, in addition to paying premium pricing for unnecessary features. No one ever wants to pay for something they know they can’t use.”
Chambers continues, “After talking to providers many times over the course of several years, we determined we needed a Cloud PBX service over a hybrid or digital phone service because of the customization possibilities, robust features, consistent monthly bills and the fact that we didn’t have to maintain it ourselves.”
After an exhausting search, WONGDOODY had determined what it needed from a voice provider, but had lost hope that it existed. Then, Chambers spoke with Intermedia.