Vonage
Vonage is packed with a suite of enterprise level features which can handle sophisticated business communications.
$29.99
Vonage Business Review
Based in New Jersey, Vonage (formally known as the Vonage Holdings Corporation) began life as a provider off residential VoIP telecommunications services back in January of 2001. After experiencing an enormous amount of success with approximately 2.5 million home subscribers as of 2014, Vonage began a series of strategic expansions – first to take advantage of the blossoming mobile market, and then in an effort to expand into the business-to-business marketplace.
Beginning in 2013, Vonage acquired several companies to act as its own technological foundation – from software-as-a-service company Vocalocity to unified communications as a service provider Telesphere to SimpleSignal, which offered cloud-based telecommunications systems for businesses with voice communications integrated into software applications for users. Over.ai – a voice and conversational enterprise communications provider that was heavily involved in the artificial intelligence space – was another strategic Vonage acquisition during this period.
What you need to know:
Vonage is a popular business phone system, particularly among those who are looking for Unified Communication as a Service (UCaaS) that includes teleconferencing, and the platform has enjoyed some significant changes during the past year. Known as a straightforward, easy-to-use business telecom provider, they are making the shift to the cloud environment, making it easier for those who are interested in a VoIP phone service. Recently, Vonage has expanded its cloud application programming interface communications portfolio, as they recently acquired a company called Jumper.ai, based in Singapore. Jumper.ai has a reputation as one of the top omnichannel conversational commerce and customer engagement options.
The company offers a comprehensive all-in-one platform, using natural language processing, guy to chat, and human conversations to help companies of all sizes personalize the experience their customers have online. Given that the vast majority of people use the internet when they are looking for products and services they require, this represents a major shift in Vonage’s direction, and it could lead to changes in their business phone plans.
With many companies having employees working remotely, it is important to give them the ability to do their jobs from just about anywhere. This recent acquisition demonstrates that Vonage is committed to this area. The program offers conversational commerce capabilities, allowing businesses to simplify the way they connect with, serve, and sell to their customers. With this platform, businesses can interact with their customers in any way from just about anywhere. Expect to see this capability coming to Vonage plans during the coming months, as the company figures out how to leverage the features from Jimper.ai to improve its offerings. It could make a significant difference in the manner in which businesses interact with customers moving forward. It will be interesting to see how this acquisition impacts Vonage in 2022.
Today, Vonage represents one of the best ways for small and medium-sized businesses in particular to absolutely transform the way they communicate, collaborate and remain productive on a daily basis. It offers a suite of innovative technologies that organizations have come to depend on, all of which are certainly worth a closer look.
Business Solutions From Vonage
The key value that Vonage offers is an exceptional level of service that customers would be hard-pressed to find through other providers.
With regards to small businesses in particular, Vonage’s major offering comes by way of its unified communications services. Via just a single platform customers can get access to no less than 50+ voice and unified communications features. These include not only video collaboration opportunities with Vonage Meetings, but also a wide array of different productivity tools made available as part of the Vonage App Center as well.
What are Vonage’s Most Outstanding Product and Service Strengths?
- Business inbox capabilities, which allow you to change the way you send and receive messages from customers to better suit your needs.
- Call flip, which is a feature that lets you seamlessly transfer calls from your mobile to your desk phone or vice versa.
- The ability to set up call forwarding on multiple numbers, all so that you can always take important business calls from any device that you have handy.
- Desktop and mobile functionality, which lets you control your business phone system from your computer or your smartphone or tablet at the exact same time.
- Call groups, which let you forward calls to multiple extensions at once.
- A conference bridge, which lets you connect up to 30 people to the same call with just a single push of a button.
- Team messaging, which lets you stay better connected with all of your employees and colleagues via team messaging.
- Vonage Meetings, which offers an intuitive video collaboration solution that can bring people together across your organization – regardless of how large or how spread out that organization may be.
Of course, perhaps the key value that Vonage offers is an exceptional level of service that customers would be hard-pressed to find through other providers. Powered by Amazon Web Services, Vonage’s best business phone system offers high-quality voice, video and messaging – all in the name of maximizing your efficiency as much as possible while avoiding issues like call drops, data loss and others.
Vonage’s network operations center, for example, runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year while it connects billions of calls on an annual basis. There are also multiple fail-safes involved with cloud backup technology, all in an effort to minimize issues like lost calls or static as much as possible. Vonage’s highly distributed architecture provides the flexibility for scalability, meaning that your phone systems can continue to grow and get more effective as your business does the same. Plus, Vonage offers nationwide coverage by way of an elevated QoS, disaster recovery and even business continuity services.
How Much Does Vonage Business Phone Services Cost?
All told, Vonage’s business-centric services are broken down into a few different types of plans that customers can choose from depending on their needs. These include ones like:
Vonage's Mobile Plan $19.99
- The Mobile Plan. This tier comes in at $19.99 per month, per line, plus taxes and fees. It’s a great opportunity to communicate with customers either through your mobile device or through the desktop app, and it is particularly useful for remote teams and any business that doesn’t actually need a physical desk phone. It comes with unlimited calling and SMS messages, team messaging functionality and more
Vonage's Premium Plan $29.99
- The Premium Plan. This comes in at $29.99 per month, per line. This is dubbed as the best business phone plan for traditional office environments and includes video conferencing, chat and file sharing for up to 100 people, native CRM integrations, multi-level auto attendant functionality and more – all in addition to the benefits of the Mobile Plan outlined above.
Vonage's Advanced Plan $39.99
- The Advanced Plan. This comes in at $39.99 per month, per line and is the perfect opportunity to embrace unified communications in a way that brings all of the disparate arms of your organization together. In addition to everything outlined above you also get on-demand call recording for up to 15 hours per month, call group functionality, visual voicemail and a dedicated customer service team for both setup and the onboarding of employees.
Regardless of the plan that you choose, you still get access to some of the features that have made Vonage’s offerings so competitive over the years. This includes not only phone service via your existing high-speed Internet connection but the option to keep an existing number that you already have, 24/7/365 service and tech support with representatives who are based in the United States and a 99.999% uptime reliability guarantee.
What do Customers Using Vonage Say About Their Experience?
Vonage has over 25 Million customers and partners globally. Here are some of the kinds of comments that are commonly found in customer reviews of the provider’s products and services.
How Does Vonage Compare to Its Competitors?
For help to determine why a business owner should choose Vonage over other providers, examine our side-by-side comparison of features offered by the top business telecom systems companies.
The products and services information in the table above is sourced from these providers’ lists of their featured services on their websites.
Also compare RingCentral to Vonage Business Communications, Mitel MyCloud Connect, Cisco Business Edition 6000, Comcast VoIP, Genesys, DialPad, and others.
The Best Business Phone System From Vonage: Tomorrow’s Technology, Today
According to research, Vonage had revenues that reached $1.19 billion in 2019. During the same year, they had an operating income of approximately $158 million and a net income of $46 million. All told, they employ about 2,400 people around the world and have 1.1 million subscribers globally. All told, there are 41 different companies that make up the core Vonage Business, Inc. corporate family.
When you think about the company’s humble beginnings all the way back in 2001, it’s clear that they’ve had an incredible amount of growth and success over the last 19 years. What began as a provider of residential VoIP services has grown into an industry leader in the business-to-business marketplace – a trend that shows absolutely no signs of slowing down anytime soon.
With that in mind, it’s easy to see why they’ve become so popular with so many professional customers over the years. They’ve always been willing to show that they have an eye on not only meeting the demands of today but also preparing themselves to rise to the challenge of tomorrow, too – making them an ideal telecommunications partner for small businesses in particular everywhere.
Financially, Vonage’s track record speaks for itself. The company has been able to move sales in an upward trajectory roughly 10 percent a year.
- Vonage represents a $2.6 billion market cap
- Two-thirds of Vonage’s income today, is truly a result of cloud operations.
- Nexmo acquisition produces an annual income of $1.2 billion in gross revenue.
The cloud market continues to get more and more crowded every day, but there’s also no shortage of demand. With a lethal pandemic that looks to be sticking around for a long time still, and changing the way business is done, business and companies need as much digital and distance communication support they can get. So, it’s no surprise that Vonage has decided to expand its position in the digital cloud fray as well.
Vonage was originally a residential communications provider that based its service model on VoIP tool delivery. That then started to expand in business phone system market as well. That was back in 2001 when Vonage first started. It provided a combination of phone, Internet and home security among other offerings, i.e. unified communication. Today, Vonage has specialized in the cloud but it also has new leadership with a new CEO who just started in July.
Today, Vonage represents a $2.6 billion market cap and it’s realizing a market success specifically due to the need for separation and keeping business going in multiple ways without spreading COVID-19. That traffic and work demand represents a tripling of the revenue potential Vonage was previously experiencing with viable market model. It may not be the best business phone system company today in a traditional sense, but Vonage has become much more since.
When a company CEO is changed it’s usually due to one of two reasons: the prior leadership wasn’t cutting the mustard, or the prior CEO decided it was time to retire after a very successful run. In the case of Vonage, the prior CEO, Alan Maserek, may have made a misstep pushing Vonage into an acquisition of Nexmo. That strategy was a move to obtain a solid stake in communications platform as a service or CPaaS differentiation. The cost was $230 million, but the results did not pan out as expected. In fact, Vonage’s net figures stayed the same. So, Masarek eventually had to step aside after six years and make room for Rory Read.
Read has a lot going for him in terms of squeezing new blood out of the Nexmo turnip. He was extremely successful in producing viable efficiencies with the blending of EMC and Dell in 2016. Not to mention Masarek carried all the hard work of the acquisition, so Read now gets to find the benefits of the Nexmo acquisition pain-free. That’s a far better position to be in as a leader versus having a promise breathing down one’s neck that didn’t manifest.
The beauty of Vonage’s business model is in providing APIs to clients. Many corporations have already built in a ton of infrastructure protection to prevent outside apps from being added. Unfortunately, the shift to digital meetings, for example, created a huge dependency on tools like Zoom. Those kind of external apps can’t just be opened or used on a closed system, so a bridge is needed. That’s where the API becomes critical. Vonage’s digital tools allow fast adoption of resources that otherwise would not be possible.
Vonage’s play on its API offerings as well as cloud support and traditional market positions have continued to bolster the company in combination. All of Vonage’s major markets are realized significant demand growth at the same time including education, social media, business services, financial services and media communications. And that has boosted Vonage’s revenue figures. Added to the bonus as a gravy on top, Vonage doesn’t have to pay the Universal Fund Fee the Federal Communications Commission requires from telecoms. Why? Well, technical Vonage is a software instead, which in turn produces more savings and a wider profit margin.
VOIP is an offering, however, that is extremely popular. It has a well-established performance record as a technology, and there are plenty of companies in all industries that have benefitted from its scalability. However, most importantly, VOIP is far cheaper to operate, configure and support than regular phone networks or telecom hybrids. And that gives Vonage an edge at a time when companies having massively rethink how they operate to survive and very changed labor world.
Another key advantage for the company is the fact that Vonage can diversify it’s operational spread. The company has been extremely active in expanding its international operations. Indonesia, for example, has become one of Vonage’s biggest sovereign clients, providing communications support for the country’s state telecom network.
Financially, Vonage’s track record speaks for itself. The company has been able to move sales in an upward trajectory roughly 10 percent a year. While it’s not out of this world, the steady improvement has produced reliable results that other companies have faltered on over time. That kind of stability makes Vonage a very attractive company to work with in terms of cloud and telecom support. Two-thirds of Vonage’s income today, however, is truly a result of cloud operations. So, while it cost the prior CEO his position, Vonage as a company has ultimately benefitted from the CPaaS combination obtained from Nexmo. That benefit currently produces an annual income of $1.2 billion in gross revenue.
As a cloud provider Vonage isn’t necessarily the biggest player in the market today, but it’s tenacity and tools have hedged a very comfortable market position, allowing the “software” company to sustain itself solidly in an economy that has everyone else in jitters in 2020. That is a reassurance every customer depending on cloud support needs to be able to hear and be aware of. So many companies have fallen apart with the economic ground slipping out from under their business feet. Having a cloud provider with staying power clearly adds points to Vonage’s sales pitch, especially when it makes a point of a securing every account in person still, even with social distancing. The difference continues to prove to be the right mix even in changing times.
For More Information
For additional information on why Vonage ranks highest among the world’s best business phone systems, feel free to contact Vonage anytime at (844) 365-9460, to speak to an enterprise telecom expert. A knowledgeable, helpful specialist will answer all your questions about telecom cloud services features, implementation for your company, pricing, software integrations, customer support, and other important details about a communications system and platform options that are right for your business. Or, visit the Vonage website for lots of helpful information.
Specification: Vonage
| Customer Service | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Pricing | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Time in Business | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Business Health | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Customer Service | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Backend & System Management | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Group Features | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Call Center Services | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Call Management | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mobility / Remote | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Capterra –
Here is a summary of the user reviews that people found most helpful. They were voted as most helpful for both positive and negative reviews out of the 237 available to read on Capterra Reviews.
Most helpful: Positive Review (Full Review) | Most helpful: Negative Review (Full Review)
Software Advice –
Here is a summary of the user reviews that people found most helpful. They were voted as most helpful for both positive and negative reviews out of the 237 available to read on Software Advice Reviews.
Most helpful: Positive Review (Full Review) | Most helpful: Negative Review (Full Review)
GetApp –
Here is a summary of the user reviews that people found most helpful. They were voted as most helpful for both positive and negative reviews out of the 220 available to read on G2 Reviews.
Most helpful: Positive Review (Full Review) | Most helpful: Negative Review (Full Review)
Gartner Peer Insights –
Here is a summary of the user reviews that people found most helpful. They were voted as most helpful for both positive and negative reviews out of the 184 available to read on Gartner Peer Insights.
Most helpful: Positive Review (Full Review) | Most helpful: Negative Review (Full Review)
G2 Reviews –
Here is a summary of the user reviews that people found most helpful. They were voted as most helpful for both positive and negative reviews out of the 220 available to read on G2 Reviews.
Most helpful: Positive Review (Full Review) | Most helpful: Negative Review (Full Review)