RingCentral > Case Studies > Coursera's Journey to Easy Scalability with RingCentral

Coursera's Journey to Easy Scalability with RingCentral

Technology Category

Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Application Development Platforms
Robots - Wheeled Robots

Applicable Industries

Education
Telecommunications

Applicable Functions

Maintenance

Services

System Integration

About The Customer

Coursera is an online education platform that was founded in 2011 by Stanford University professors. The company partners with top universities and educational institutions worldwide to offer free online courses to everyone. Coursera has created a unique, interactive education platform that encourages students to interact and engage via forums, discussions, and in-person meetings. They offer more than 400 different courses in subjects ranging from humanities to engineering. The company is headquartered in Mountain View, CA and has over 60 employees.

The Challenge

Coursera, an online education platform, was facing challenges in managing its communication system. The company, which partners with top universities and educational institutions worldwide to offer free online courses, was relying on several third-party services to meet their various communication needs. This was not only cumbersome but also time-consuming and costly. The IT team was burdened with managing phones that were not pre-configured and administrative tasks were not easily accessible. Moreover, the company was also relying on external technicians for maintenance and system changes, which was not an efficient way of managing their phone system.

The Solution

Coursera adopted RingCentral, a cloud-based phone system, to streamline its communication system. RingCentral provided pre-configured phones and made administrative tasks easily accessible, simplifying the work for the IT team. The system also allowed Coursera to manage their phone system internally, eliminating the need for external technicians. Coursera also adopted a modern approach to communications by not providing a desk phone to each employee. Instead, with RingCentral, users were issued phone numbers that were not associated with any physical phones. They could use the Softphone or the RingCentral mobile app to send or receive calls, send business SMS messages, and access call logs and voicemails. RingCentral also unified Coursera's communication services, eliminating the need for third-party services for tasks like faxing and long-distance calling.

Operational Impact

The adoption of RingCentral has significantly simplified Coursera's communication system. The IT team now has the freedom to manage their phone system internally, reducing the reliance on external technicians. Administrative tasks have become easily accessible, saving time and effort for the team. The modern approach to communications, where employees are not provided with a desk phone, has also saved money for the company. Moreover, the unification of communication services has eliminated the need for third-party services, leading to cost and time savings.