Rainbow Office in today’s new workplace

Workplaces need communication solutions that are user-friendly and flexible. Rainbow Office meets these requirements with a first-class service.

In a recent interview for ring sideRingCentral’s blog, Jasper Van Sas, Global Head of Sales for Rainbow Office at Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise, shared his insights into how Rainbow Office is impacting today’s new workplace.

Since the launch of Rainbow Office in March 2021, have customers pointed out the key features that set the product apart from others in the market?

When looking for a solution, customers are interested in key elements such as high availability, ease of use, and how to set up and deploy the solution. They are looking for that ease of use and that flexibility where they can scale up or down depending on their needs.

And on all these aspects, “Rainbow Office” offers the first-class service. Integrations are also key. We live in a connected world. People want to be able to work anywhere, on any device and from any application. For example, the Direct Routing options for Microsoft® Teams, especially with business customers, are something we deal with on a daily basis. It takes Microsoft Teams phone capabilities to another level for customers.

Moments of the moment are often lost in today’s video-first world. Are features coming to Rainbow Office that help dispersed teams with spontaneous conversations?

We know how important it is to give people the best possible experience when using our solution. Spontaneous conversation is the key to great teamwork and to make it easier, we’ve launched a new feature called Team Huddle. With the click of a button you go from a chat conversation to a sales conversation. You can include people from within your organization or people externally. Once you’re in that session, you can organize Breakout Rooms to delve deeper into a specific topic. It allows us to quickly involve our customers and partners we work with in doing business.

Since Rainbow Office is an open platform that integrates easily with other applications used by our customers, there really are no limits to what we can do to improve the experience.

Can you give a brief overview of Rainbow Office’s current features, what updates customers can expect in the near future, and what are the key benefits of features?

First, Rainbow Office will continue to improve the video experience of customers. For example, the latest release brings new features such as ‘share camera view’ for mobile users, auto-follow and image quality improvements in the desktop app.

We also make sure that Rainbow Office integrates easily with more terminals, as many customers still use desktop phones. The launch of the ‘Rooms’ offering illustrates our desire to enable a hybrid way of working by offering standard and easy-to-use video conferencing solutions. This means that those returning to the office can collaborate effectively with remote workers.

So basically all the important features that customers need and expect for business telephony. Call routing, IVR, conferencing and much more.

How do you think businesses will operate after the pandemic?

I don’t always like talking about the pandemic in my conversations with customers and partners. But it is a reality that we are still alive today. The way we worked changed quickly. Over the course of a few weeks, we’ve made a huge leap in technology, how we do business, how we work, how we live, how we interact with each other.

Now the question is, is that pendulum going to swing back and how far will it swing? The hybrid way of working and living is something that will expand and become more dominant in the future.

There’s the idea of ​​the 15 Minute City. So where your kids go to school, where you do sports activities and even where you go for drinks, it’s all within 15 minutes’ drive of your hometown – it’s something we’ll see in business as well. In other words, the work becomes much more accessible. You’ll still have the centralized office, but there will be hubs for remote work, and you’ll still have your home office too. Depending on your needs, you will switch between these places.

Can you tell us about your career to date and your position at Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise?

I started my career in inside sales at an IT distributor. I did that for a few years and then went from answering phone calls and doing callouts to managing the HP business. From there I moved on to an external sales position at a Managed Service Provider, then I moved on to the field of e-learning where I focused on developing custom projects and launching internally developed SaaS solutions.

Then I was approached by Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise for a sales executive position. I was initially focused on the education industry and then moved on to managing an international team with Key Enterprise Accounts in Europe.

Then came the Rainbow Office announcement and the collaboration with RingCentral that immediately interested me. After discussing it with several people and expressing my interest, I had the opportunity to lead the sales team and co-author the go-to-market strategy for Rainbow Office in nine countries.

We at tbtech look forward to following the exciting journey of the partnership, and support share the value the RBO solution can bring.