RingCentral, Inc. (RNG) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Next up, we have -- and next up, we have Trevor Schulze, the Senior Vice President and CIO of RingCentral. Trevor, great to see you.

Hey, [ Hunter ]. Great to see you. Thank you for having me.

So the title of this fireside chat has changed to win in the next phase is Good to Go. What is that all about?

I think there's a lot of discussion going on right now about what's next. I think over the last couple of quarters, people have been talking about now and the change that they have to enact now. And I'm more interested in where we have to go next, what the business is asking for us and what a lot of people are calling new normal or next normal, thinking of giving it a name.

Sure. It makes sense. A lot of sense. You often talk about the systems of experience. Maybe define what that means and why is that relevant and importance to the enterprise CIO and tech leader.

So I think this is a new category in my mind. I think everyone is searching for what matters and how they affect businesses going forward. And I think everyone has sort of heard the systems of record. They've heard systems of engagement and now I'm suggesting a new category called systems of experience. This is a new and next evolution of those concepts. And I think it's important for digital leaders to grasp this trend. And the way I've been looking at this and the way I've been speaking to other digital leaders is we're in a service economy. And the service economy, up to this point has been analog, and now it's digital. People have been giving a name digital transformation and whatnot. And this whole environment we're in has accelerated these systems of experience, and these are digital platforms that deliver mass service at scale. And if you give it some words, what defined the systems of experience, it's something that's hyper individualized, it's immersive, it's communal, it's enduring. You hear people use concepts like omni-channel, but the most important is that it's simple and intelligent. And it's driving, I think, a lot of the mega-trends that are out there right now.

When you think of it, the platform wins, right? The ecosystem wins, and you think of the companies that really master that, they're just dominating in their categories, right?

Yes, absolutely. I mean you can look at examples of what I would categorize in the systems of experience. Because I think of like how health care is changing, telehealth, think about how people who are looking at working out differently like Peloton. People who are looking for new shopping experiences, things like Stitch Fix and Taylor, you can go category after category and what you're seeing are digital leaders who are grasping the systems of experience concept and they're apply it to revenue, they're applying it to customer experience, they're applying it to employee experience. And we at RingCentral believe that this huge shift around business communications is also a systems of experience, and it's one that's tied towards the employee.

You guys are hitting on all cylinders right now in terms of revenue, customer experience and employee experience. Talk us a little bit more about what do you see.

So I think all 3 type. When I'm now talking to executives in terms of what is going on, where are they going, what matters? First and foremost, people are talking about the employees. How we have people who are going to be able to work from anywhere. How are we going to attract talent in this new blended flexible hybrid work model. So if you're hiring the best, you have the talent that's looking for this flexibility, you create this seamless employee experience. People who can work from anywhere, have digital assets like RingCentral and others help enable them. And then if you have an employee that's engaged and it has this seamless environment to collaborate with anyone anywhere anytime, it also helps with your customer experience, like that engaged employee now can engage and the customer who, by the way, that customers are demanding an experience with the brand. And so all those things I talked about earlier, drive that new customer experience. And then -- so you've got the employees driving the customer and then ultimately drives revenue. I mean the companies they're going to win in the normal that's ahead of us are the ones were truly grasping, what it means to create that truly mass service experience for the employees, for the customer, which drives the brand.

Really good stuff, Trevor. Great thought leadership there. What kind of leadership skills does the CIO need today and into the future to drive this complete holistic, I'll call it, ecosystem of thinking?

Yes. I'm out there a lot talking about just you have to care about the playbook. You have to think differently. Everyone keeps saying that, but I truly think that what's happened over the last 6 months has driven a hyper-growth, hyper-acceleration of what people are looking for out of companies. Things that seemed impossible to get done in the year or happened overnight. And so you have to be a leader that's continuously learning. You have to be a leader that's going to look at innovation differently. And you have to really understand what your employees need, what your customers need. You have to stop thinking about persona and you have to stop thinking about classic thinking here. I truly believe the companies that win are already moving. And it takes digital leaders to actually lean into this new environment.

I totally agree with you on this piece. I think CIO and the tech leader needs to lead differently, think differently, lead courageously, lead authentically, lead passionately and really rewrite the rules on and how the CIO of the tech leader engages with the Board, the C-suite, the line of business, what other kind of pieces of advice would you give us, a tech leader now today, thinking about trying to think completely different and rethinking in the leadership style?

Yes, I love this question, [ Hunter ]. I just want to turn us on its head. People have been talking about IT business alignment, IT business integration and IT getting on the same page with the business. I don't think CIOs should be -- they shouldn't be focused on getting on the same page with the C-suite. And what I mean by that is that they need to rewrite the book. They need to collaborate in writing this new book about convergence of all things, technology, people, process, data. They shouldn't be trying to understand they should be leading. And it's such a mindset shift and if you don't have this courage to take that mindset shift, your competitors will. And we at RingCentral believe that we need to rewrite the book. We need to rewrite the -- what is happening in unified communications and collaboration. And that's where people are going to emerge out of this environment right now as true winners, as true leaders of winning brands and winning companies.

I love the idea. What does winning really look like then in its fullest form?

Winning means that you've created a beautiful experience for your employees that you've created an exceptional new level of experience for your customers. And those are driving new revenue streams, new ideas. I mean, people are coming to brands now and saying, "I want to connect. And I want it to be intelligent. I wanted to know who I am. I don't want to have to tell it that". Our employees are saying that. Our customers are saying that, and this is a whole brand-new world of thinking. So that's what I go back to systems of experience. This isn't about creating fancy work flows. This isn't about creating buying the right thing. This is about thinking differently about where things are going in the coming years. And I challenge everyone to start thinking about it. It doesn't matter if you're health care. It doesn't matter if you're in manufacturing. Every single vertical, every single digital leader, and every vertical has to be thinking about systems of experience. And I'm super thrilled about this concept, and it's really [ what ] we're actually seeing.

So systems of experience at the end of the day, it comes down to people, right?

Yes, absolutely. Like if I engage and want to buy something, I want it to know me. I want it to actually help me and guide me and stop having me be the one who has the search for it because there's unlimited things that can happen in this environment. And I think that this is just a category that's going to emerge regardless if I give it a name or not. Digital leaders have to change their thinking, and they have to really push themselves to go after this type of concept. This is the core of how people are driving their businesses. And this is where the winners are going to emerge.

Let's talk a little bit about what's uniquely different about RingCentral.

I'm just so blessed. I work at a company where I am in the future. People want to see business communications get simpler. They want it to be seamless. They want it to be reliable. They don't want to have to think about it anymore. They don't want to have to flip between a bunch of different apps, and they want to work from anywhere. It's got to be -- it works from anywhere on any mode that if I choose. We at RingCentral believe that all of this needs to come together, and we're living in the future right now.

That truly is unique. And you must be working with all sorts of companies across industry in all sizes, right?

All sizes. I mean, we work from a small office, home office all the way up to the Fortune 50. I mean, it doesn't matter. We're a company that was born in the phone, and we've moved into video this year, fortunately, with everything going on that played out well. And messaging. Most people don't know that we also have the messaging platform. So -- and it all works in one app. I mean I can flip between all 3 and not have to change the screen. And I know that seems like, okay, does that make sense? We're the only people that do it. And by the way, we're open. We have an open platform that allows you to integrate your current workflow into our platform. We are not a wall garden. We believe that the communications and workflow of the company should be everywhere, but we also believe that a tight integration to a platform like ours just makes the employee experience better.

Hey, [ Trevor ], I understand people can learn more about RingCentral in the HMG marketplace.

Yes, absolutely. Take a look at the marketplace. I love what you've built there [ Hunter ], RingCentral is there, easy to find us.

Great to see it Trevor. Talk soon.

Absolutely, [ Hunter ]. Always a pleasure man. Great to see you.

Thanks man.