California-based business 8×8 recently announced that they would be launching the very first “Communications Cloud”, combining team collaboration, unified communications, real-time analytics and contact centre solutions through a single open platform. Following the announcement of the 8×8 Communications Cloud, the group further announced the acquisition of “Sameroom“, a solution for interoperability that offers cross-team collaboration and messaging.
In a world where enterprises are constantly facing more fragmented technology solutions, impacting their ability to service a remote and global workforce, this solution could be a turning point. According to research manager for IDC, Amy Lind, businesses are searching for more flexible and simple open-cloud platforms for communication. The 8×8 Communications Cloud can combine team collaboration, unified communications, real-time analytics and contact centre solutions for a more seamless, interoperable, and integrated experience.
For many enterprises, 8×8’s new offering could mark the beginning of a new era for the industry, wherein all team collaboration, communications, and contact centre solutions are unified through a singular open platform that integrates across various applications and clouds. This opportunity could change the way that customers, employees, and partners use and consume communication solutions, making them more productive and better-informed than ever.
What to Expect from the 8×8 Communications Cloud
Some of the features that you can expect to see from 8×8 include:
- Integrated and interoperable communications solutions
- Open cloud and platform services
- Intelligent real-time analytics
- Ease of deployment and use
- Global availability
What’s more, 8×8 will be giving enterprises seamless connectivity across clouds, alongside the ability to customise and embed communications within business work flows, while intelligently sharing data among business applications. Companies will be able to optimise their existing investments in marketing, human resources, and sales-based applications too – while also enhancing employee productivity. To support the latest cloud capabilities, 8×8 has introduced various new partner APIs and integrations, as well as “Script8” a dynamic routing and flow communications engine for robust collaboration control, intelligent routing, and data-source integration.
Lines-of-Business Application Integration & Customer and Partner APIs
The 8×8 Communication Cloud will also include various integrations with some of the most popular applications for enterprises, exposing communications intelligence to the applications that are used every day by customer service and support, marketing, and sales. Some sample integrations include:
- HR: Bullhorn, Bond, TargetRecruit and Jobscience
- Customer Support and Service: ConnectWise, Freshdesk, and Zendesk
- Marketing and Sales: Microsoft Dynamics, Salesforce, Hubspot, Oracle sales cloud, ZoHo, and NetSuite
The Cloud Communications offering by 8×8 also offers various open APIs to allow partners and customers to give rich communications data to their current enterprise applications, including:
- Service management & provisioning: Automated provisioning for Active directory integration and new administration portals
- Data Extraction & analytics: APIs that help to pinpoint the hidden value of analytics data
- Communication microservice: APIs that offer direct access to chat and messaging, IVR/auto attendant, meetings, fax, and SMS
What is Script8?
Script8 is the 8×8 dynamic communications routing and flow engine that offers a diverse scripting environment for intelligently routing communications data within certain workflows. It’s intended to empower end users using personalised, simple, and customisable communications experiences, including data source integration, communications control, and intelligent routing. Some of the opportunities that 8×8 customers have deployed using Script8 include:
- Emergency dialling using Caller ID override
- Sending voicemail messages to students and parents
- Sending SMS messages with directions to nearby stores
- Interactive two-factor authentication voice responses
- Priority call routing based on sales data in a CRM system
The latest API for partners and customers, which includes Script8, is now available through 8×8’s professional services portfolio.
