Getting our scattered phone systems streamlined and centralized was like straightening out a giant ball of string.
Eric Callagher
Telephony Engineer, SoFi
What would you do if you wanted to pay off your student loans, plan to take a mid-career sabbatical and also save for retirement?
Since 2011, hundreds of thousands of people have found a simple answer to this challenge: a personal finance company called SoFi. The San Francisco-based firm offers lending products like student loans, personal loans, home loans, as well as tools for investing and saving.
SoFi’s competitive rates, mobile-first technology, and outstanding service have earned the company industry praise, including 4.7 out of 5 stars from Bankrate.com and a 90% score from The College Investor. The editors at NerdWallet even gave SoFi a perfect 5-star rating, praising the firm’s “low rates, no fees, and flexible payments.”
As you can imagine, word of a fair and flexible lender spreads quickly, and SoFi has grown rapidly in recent years. To deal with the exponential increase in the members it serves—now more than a million—SoFi has expanded from its Silicon Valley headquarters into offices in New York City, Salt Lake City, and elsewhere around the U.S.
And to better serve the growing numbers of people calling in for the company’s services, SoFi needed a better phone system.
A phone infrastructure that grew complicated and unworkable
As the company grew, it added new locations, hired hundreds of new employees, and built out several additional call centers for sales and support reps. The problem was that this expansion was moving so quickly that the company didn’t have time to develop a cohesive phone infrastructure that the IT team could manage across the company.
This meant, for example, that when SoFi needed to roll out phone service for a new office, the company didn’t have a playbook that IT could pull from a previous rollout to determine what worked and what didn’t in setting up a telecommunications system in a new location.
As SoFi’s Telephony Engineer, Eric Callagher, explains: “This problem got more serious the more we expanded. We had no way of seeing if we were making cost-effective decisions as we added capacity and opened new offices, or if we were needlessly spending on telecom services we weren’t even going to use.”
Another problem the company faced with its previous phone infrastructure was trying to make various digital-communications solutions work together. A new auto-dialing tool, for example, didn’t integrate well with the company’s existing phone system. The phone system also was incompatible with several apps that the company’s mortgage department used for communication.
Now I can easily build a plan for a new call center and show our executives how much it’ll cost, what services we’ll have, and even data from our other call centers that demonstrate how it’s going to benefit our team.
Eric Callagher
Telephony Engineer, SoFi
INDUSTRY
Financial Services
HQ
San Francisco
YEAR FOUNDED
2011
EMPLOYEES
1,500+
The solution: cloud-based unified communications.
SoFi needed a streamlined, easy-to-implement communications solution as it adds capacity and offices at an ever-quickening pace. They found their solution in RingEX.
Now, whether Eric needs to add a new line, build out a call center, or set up telecommunications for an entirely new SoFi location, he knows the steps, what the project will cost, and how long it will take. For a business that needs to move quickly to meet increasing demand—but still wants to monitor and control costs—having a platform like RingCentral is proving invaluable.
No need to buy any hardware, run any wiring, or bring in third-party consultants to set up equipment. With RingCentral’s cloud-communications solution, Eric and his team can easily set up a new location with a fully functioning business phone system and call center. Fast.
Because setting up a phone solution shouldn’t be that hard.
SoFi is adding staff rapidly, particularly support personnel in its customer service call centers. The company needs these new employees up and running quickly, serving members by phone, and not stuck in extensive phone training.
RingCentral’s user-friendly interface—whether accessing it through a desk phone or on the desktop and mobile app—was another reason SoFi’s IT department chose RingCentral. “It’s great to have a phone system that’s easy to understand without a lot of explanation,” Eric says.
Proud to help SoFi help its members.
People looking for financial services are increasingly finding that the paperwork and red tape demanded by big banks create a frustrating experience. That’s why fair and reputable online fintechs like SoFi are playing an increasingly important role in the lives of many people who are trying to achieve their financial goals.
We’re thrilled to be playing a part in this company’s important work.