‘Competitors are Emulating Us’ – 8×8

A number of companies are now replicating the ‘XCaaS’ solution, according to 8×8’s Senior Director of Commercial Sales.

• Angus talked through XCaaS at the UC Partner Summit event. Watch his full session here

The idea behind XCaaS (Experience Communications as a Service), an acronym coined by 8×8, is to bring employee and customer experience under one roof.

Chris Angus, Senior Director of Commercial Sales at 8×8, said: “We are starting to see our competitors try and consolidate to achieve what 8×8 has already been doing with XCaaS. You can see that in the market today with the integrated UC and CC. 

“We’ve already got those services and [our competitors] are certainly looking at their acquisitions to try and emulate that which creates a positive story for us. It has more resonance.”

Angus explained that 8×8’s XCaaS solution combines UCaaS, CCaaS, and CPaaS into one offering and he pointed to a number of advantages of removing the silos between customers and employees

He said: “Having a single enterprise directory and being able to easily transition between the medias allows you to create a much more interesting and more seamless customer experience.  

“It also helps you improve the employee experience because you’re empowering [workers] to have the tools and the access to the knowledge internally, which means they can do their job successfully.  

“Administrations think about traditional UCaaS and CCaaS as separate markets. They could be supplied by different organisations, even if they are buying from one vendor.  

“There’s also cost into when it comes to administering those, not just in licence costs, but also in the staff costs to maintain them.  

“[XCaaS provides] a single admin to control all those and then mix and match licences, so you’re not forced to take the most expensive licence option… and then giving you the single pane of glass and the single integration framework.”  

According to Angus, sales teams find it much easier to pitch the XCaaS solution.  

Previously, they needed to put forward three separate offerings with terms and conditions and SLAs (Service Level Agreements) for each. They can now pitch a single solution for UCaaS, CCaaS, and CPaaS.  

Angus also speaks about the effects of XCaaS on partners: “Our partners are the trusted advisor for the customer, so it has made their life a lot easier and so much slicker in their route to market.   

“It takes away that decision-making process they have to go through: ‘what on our book is going to solve this customer’s problem?’  

“We can solve 99% of the problems with one application, so it has empowered them.”  

Angus believes the pandemic has created plenty of business opportunities in the UC, CC, and CPaaS sectors.

He also feels optimistic about the economic outlook, referencing 82% of CEOs they have surveyed who say the economy will continue to grow. Moreover, the CFOs are keen to invest in the workforce and digital technology to strengthen the hybrid working environment.  

Last month, 8×8 and Genesys formed a technological partnership to improve their employee and customer experiences.  

• Watch all the content from UC Partner Summit on-demand here, including sessions featuring senior execs from RingCentral, Zoom, AudioCodes, Avaya and more