RingBlaze seems to be building something great, and despite the focus on YAW (yet another widget), the promise of RingBlaze is actually well outside of the widget space.

RingBlaze is three steps (features) away from being a small-business RingCentral alternative. In otherwords, the most natural stop between Google Voice (we all start there, right?) and a more traditional business phone system. So, what features will reposition RingBlaze from cute widget to a SMB necessity?

Needs:
1) Custom greetings for each user and Custom company greeting that can be a menu.
2) CRM Integration. RingBlaze is a phone CRM, so it needs to connect to our other CRMs.
3) Ability to self-serve add users, numbers, and minutes (& toll free)

Each one of these things is on the roadmap for RingBlaze!

What I think more of us are looking for than YAW is a system atop Twilio that lets us have a couple of lines and a pseudo-PBX so that we can up our telecommunications game. Despite "shifting the focus" of RingBlaze a bit, I think the vision I'm suggesting is when the Widget approach will really shine. Imagine your website being a phonebooth for every customer that comes to your site, a phonebooth with a direct line to your existing everyday phone systems rather than a separate system in isolation... or, kept in isolation if you choose. That's the potential payoff here.

Pros:
- This is a MVP level entry, and we love that around here
- Number selection is pretty good
- Calls just work... and they're decent quality
- The built in CRM is good to have. Not advanced, but advanced isn't necessary in this case.
- Call/caller assigning is good. Gets information (live call, after call, voicemail) to the right person quickly.

Cons:
- No auto announcement that calls are recorded!!! (Legal issue! Can be solved with a "pre-roll" or company greeting)
- No numerical extensions! (e.g. x112)
- No text messaging functionality
- No custom greetings at this time (is on roadmap)
- No company-level menu (is on roadmap)
- Can't self serve numbers, users, etc. yet (is on roadmap)
- Number porting isn't self-serve
- Doesn't connect with any CRM systems (some on roadmap)
- Can't configure number of rings before voicemail
- No hold music or beep options when caller on hold (to my knowledge)
- Some glitches on keypad detected (once, the numberpad was duplicated for some reason)
- No transfer validation... transfer to a fake number ends call
- My custom greeting took about a day to work... prior, calls were just terminated if I wasn't online

Finally, not a con as much as an inconvenience... when you add a user, they get an email about a new account saying nothing about your organization. Looks like spam.

Sure, the cons are longer because this is MVP level... but I get the sense that we'll be well beyond that pretty soon. If this doesn't pivot from "call widget" to full VOIP that happens to have a widget, it will be a shame.