This year we celebrate RingRing’s 30th anniversary. 30 memorable years, shared memories, involved employees and a growing company. Also, 30 years of being the Belgian CpaaS (Communication Platform As A Service) Leader. We asked our company’s CEO, Patrice Huybrechts, to tell us about the past years and the story of the company.
1991 – Starting with a phone banking system
RingRing’s story starts in 1991 when two best friends, Patrice Huybrechts and Walter Mortelmans, decided to sell phone banking systems. A system that allowed banking customers to use their phones to make money transfers. The goal of P. Huybrechts and the co-founder was to launch a technological platform. The initial concept was to develop a platform to create applications and to serve customers.
« RingRing » a playful and catchy name for a CpaaS.
P. Huybrechts, CEO of RingRing
For Patrice Huybrechts, the company’s missions are very clear:
- Becoming and remaining the CpaaS leader in Belgium;
- Never stop innovating and growing;
- Having happy talents
Indeed, talents have great importance within the company. Happy talents with a passion for innovation. At RingRing, we are always on the lookout for innovative solutions to provide our customers. Technology is developing rapidly, which is why we put a strong emphasis on innovation and observation of new emerging technologies. Growth, says P. Huybrechts, is also one of our biggest missions. A communication platform as a service must always be at the cutting-edge of innovation.
« As a company, we are always looking to do more than what we already have, to be more efficient and to be ready to face any situation »
P. Huybrechts, CEO of RingRing
1993 – Voice Technology comes in
The Ring Ring Company started with voice solutions. The aim was to use voice as a means of communication to enable companies to get closer to their customers. The company existed under the name of « RingRing Production ». As soon as the operators opened premium SMS (paid SMS) we directly understood what was at stake and we realised that we could open another range on the side.
2001 – Arrival of the SMS service
After a few years, premium SMS started to stagnate with the arrival of social networks. We decided to switch our business from premium to freemium. Indeed, it was no longer the consumers who sent the paid text messages but the companies who wanted to send SMS.
2003 – Acquisition of Magic Phone
Later, RingRing acquires the company Magic Phone and with it, our COO: Geoffroy Docq. Geoffroy Docq is responsible for all of RingRing’s day-to-day operations. He will ensure greater synergy between the technical, support, financial, marketing and sales departments. Thanks to all these actions, we remain the CpaaS leader in Belgium.
2004 – Merger by take-over of The Mobile Service Company
In order to offer SMS in 2001, Patrice then founder of RingRing production created a separate entity called TMSC (The Mobile Service Company). The aim of TMSC was to mainly do SMS. A few years later, RingRing Production takes TMSC over. The Ring Ring Company is born. At this time, we provided mainly freemium SMS and voice solutions, but it’s not stopping there…
2008 – Development of voice applications
In 1991, it was the beginning of voice solutions and applications. But with several specific customer’s demands, we had to adapt. We begin to focus on more custom solutions adapted to the client’s needs. RingRing is officially a leader in the development of IVR (Interactive Voice Response) applications.
2012 – Birth of the term CpaaS
A CPaaS allows companies and freelancers to create real-time communication functionalities. All of this, without having to build their own. This includes software tools, application programming interfaces (APIs), pre-built applications and sample codes. Moreover, as a CPaaS provider, we offer support and documentation to help developers throughout the development process.
2014 – New Shareholder
The family shareholders are replaced by the Koramic Investment group: an industrial and financial portfolio management company. Koramic Group has a large portfolio and holdings in various sectors. It will help RingRing to sustain its growth.
2016 – RingRing Leads A2P messaging
A2P (Application-to-Person) messaging is an SMS message sent by an application. To clarify, a message is sent to a customer database. This message is sent in the form of alerts, verification codes and marketing messages. In 2016, RingRing becomes a leader in A2P messaging in Belgium.
2019 – Partnership with Odigo
The Ring Ring Company has more than 1400 customers who use the platform every day. In addition, a customer is reached every day. In 2019, RingRing has mostly 30 years of expertise, the company is made up of 35 talents and carries out 53 personalised projects per year. The company has a local infrastructure with two data centres. Recently, we entered into a new partnership with Odigo. Indeed, the leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Contact Centres as a Service associates with RingRing, the leading CpaaS in Belgium.
2020 – Brand new voice and chat bot services
Finally, to offer a complete service to our customers, we added bots services to our products. As a CpaaS provider in Belgium, we needed to propose this offer to all types of businesses. It was also really important to propose an omnichannel solution to our customers. Bots can be really effective in several domains such as customer service.
2021 – Growing faster and faster
It is no secret that the pandemic has had a huge impact on many companies. In RingRing’s case, we have noticed a dramatic increase in SMS sending in the healthcare sector as well as the public domain. Whether it’s sending out PCR test results, sending out medical appointment reminders or sending out quarantine SMS (pre-post travel), SMS has become the number one tool for rapid communication in times of crisis.
We also realised that this crisis has changed our habits, has had a huge impact on the world of communication and exchange. This is why we continue to develop internally in order to offer new and better products. Keep posted… 😉
