Stakeholder Engagement
Our Approach to Stakeholder Engagement
Ribbon Communications (Nasdaq:RBBN) delivers communications software, IP and optical networking solutions to service providers, enterprises and critical infrastructure sectors globally. We engage deeply with our customers, helping them modernize their networks for improved competitive positioning and business outcomes in today's smart, always-on and data-hungry world. Our innovative, end-to-end solutions portfolio delivers unparalleled scale, performance, and agility, including core to edge software-centric solutions, cloud-native offers, leading-edge security and analytics tools, along with IP and optical networking solutions for 5G and broadband internet. We maintain a keen focus on our commitments to Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) matters, offering an annual Sustainability Report to our stakeholders. To learn more about Ribbon, please visit rbbn.com
Stakeholders are defined as groups (or individuals) that can reasonably be expected to be significantly affected by a company’s activities, products and services, or whose actions can reasonably be expected to affect the ability of the organization to successfully implement its strategies and achieve its objectives.
Engaging with stakeholders is a critical practice that enables an organization to understand the expectations, concerns and insights of stakeholders, and evaluate and prioritize them in terms of their potential to affect business success, people and the environment. Building mutual trust and stronger relationships with stakeholders through open dialogue, consultation and collaboration enables an organization to act responsibly and sustainably, foster an environment conducive to new ideas and innovation, enhance its reputation, anticipate and mitigate conflict and risk, and identify potential business opportunities.
Stakeholder engagement ensures that diverse perspectives are considered in our decision-making processes.
Our Approach
The following core principles govern our Stakeholder Engagement activities.
- Responsibility: Acting ethically, with integrity, and respect for human rights and sustainable development.
- Transparency: Open and clear communication, sharing relevant and truthful information in a timely manner.
- Active Listening: Promoting two-way communication and actively seeking and considering feedback, concerns, and suggestions.
- Participation and Engagement: Encouraging stakeholders to contribute to decision-making and project development.
- Consensus-Building: Working towards solutions that are compatible with the viewpoints and expectations of stakeholders.
- Collaboration: Fostering cooperation and partnerships to achieve shared goals.
- Continuous Improvement: Regularly reviewing and adapting engagement practices to ensure their effectiveness.
To this end, Ribbon looks to:
- Understand and address the input, expectations and concerns of its stakeholders in a responsible, accountable and transparent manner.
- Ensure continued engagement with our stakeholders, which is good for our business, our ability to deliver favorable results for them, and for the broader needs of society and the environment in general.
- Define our core stakeholder groups and establish stakeholder engagement strategies that are tailored to the needs of each group relative to their relationship with and impact on our business.
- Continue to engage with stakeholders in a targeted way on a regular basis.
Identifying Stakeholders and Key Expectations
We have carried out an analysis of relevant stakeholder groups based on their ability to influence our business and our impact on them. Further to such analysis, we defined the following list of 10 stakeholder clusters:
- Capital Markets: investors and investment analysts, rankers and raters of ESG performance
- Communities: local communities and associations, local interest groups
- Customers: all customer categories and sales channel partners
- Employees: current, potential and former employees, employee families, employee representatives
- Financers: banks, insurance agencies and financial service providers
- Industry: peers, industry associations, industry opinion leaders, standard setters
- Influencers: sustainability standard setters, global or national sustainability organizations, corporate responsibility opinion leaders, UN and international institutions, and media (including social media)
- Regulators: national government, local municipalities, licensing authorities
- Society and Planet: Non-Governmental Organizations, nonprofits, humanitarian, human rights and environmental organizations, academia
- Suppliers: suppliers, vendors, contract manufacturers and relevant supplier associations
This engagement model continues today with an ongoing review of our stakeholder groups as part of our annual Sustainability Reporting. The foregoing list of stakeholder clusters was reaffirmed by our recent Double Materiality Assessment, and remains current.
Categorizing Stakeholder Influence
We analyzed these stakeholder groups based on three considerations:
- Impact: the degree Ribbon’s business and activities impact their lives.
- Influence: the degree to which they influence Ribbon’s business success.
- Intensity: the frequency and depth of interaction with each group.
Creating a Targeted Engagement Approach
Using the stakeholder influence analysis, we organized stakeholder groups by engagement approach. The three types of engagement we established for this purpose are:
- Collaborate: for stakeholders with very high impact, influence and intensity of interaction. We aspire to engage meaningfully with this group, collaborating closely on a variety of topics.
- Consult: for stakeholders with high impact, high influence and a medium level of interaction. We aspire to listen closely to their needs and expectations before making important decisions in our business. We consult with this group on a range of issues.
- Communicate: for stakeholders with a medium level of impact, influence and intensity of interaction. We aspire to ensure these stakeholders are always on our radar, so that we can inform them transparently of our progress and performance and engage more deeply on an as needed basis.
Our Stakeholder Engagement Approach
Engagement Tools
In accordance with the Stakeholder Engagement Approach shown above, we define specific communication channels for engagement with each stakeholder group on a frequency relevant to each group and to the nature of the relevant topics.
Among many others, engagement examples include:
- Annual Employee Engagement surveys of our entire workforce covering a variety of workplace and corporate topics. We solicit employee feedback and input which directly influences initiatives to enhance engagement, satisfaction and productivity.
- Annually we reach out to our customers, potential customers, and our partners continuously seeking their feedback and input on a variety of topics. These interactions take different forms including email campaigns, social media campaigns and direct voice communications.
- Multiple Customer Experience and Brand Surveys conducted on an annual and periodic basis. These cover a variety of formal and informal topics soliciting feedback on Ribbon’s performance as a telecommunications equipment and service provider.
- Annual communications with our Tier 1 and Tier 2 Suppliers to monitor their compliance with our Supplier Code of Conduct and to receive their feedback on Ribbon as a customer.
- Continued participation in the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) as a telecommunications equipment, software and service provider.
- Additionally, we work closely with our investor community and shareholders on a regular basis continually receiving their feedback.
Additionally see Ribbon’s Social Media Presence online with the following references:
Engagement Tools
Executive direction of our Stakeholder Engagement approach is led by Ribbon’s Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer. Other senior leaders also play an important role in ensuring effective organizational controls related to stakeholder engagement, such as Human Resources, Marketing and Procurement.
Supporting Global Sustainable Development
Our approach to ESG Governance supports our ability to advance the UN Sustainable Development Goals, covering most of the Goals in different ways through our different areas of ESG focus.
The SDGs that we most directly advance through our various stakeholder engagements are:
Disclosure
We report transparently to all of our stakeholders through our Annual Sustainability Report, available on our website www.rbbn.com
Version 3.0 December 2025
