8×8 has released a raft of news in recent months, culminating in its recent expansion into Russia, the launch of a new operator console and some impressive Teams growth.
We sat down with CEO, Dave Sipes, to round up some of the highlights.
Global Expansion into China and Russia
8×8 announced in May that it had taken its XCaaS solution (which combines its unified communications and customer experience offerings) into China, claiming it to be the first of its kind in the country. Then earlier this month, it announced a similar expansion into Russia.
The moves are designed to help multinational businesses in the two countries consolidate their communication platforms where they previously would have had to buy from a local supplier.
Sipes told UC Today that 8×8 is now operating in 46 countries.
Historically, some markets – such as these – have been highly regularly constrained and have had to operate with local carriers.
“We’ve been able to create regulatory compliant solutions that allow you to be on one platform and interconnect with a local PSTN network through the cloud.
“That means that end customers can bring users and offices on and off by simply clicking on a website; they no longer have to order lines. That’s a big advantage of moving to the cloud.”
Teams Users hit Six Figures
Last week, 8×8 revealed that it now has over 100,000 business employees using its 8×8 Voice for Microsoft Teams Direct Routing offering.
At the same time, it launched new features for the product including call recording and presence sync between Teams and 8×8 Work and Contact Center.
The growth to six-figure seats comes just five quarters after 8×8 launched its Teams offering, and three quarters after it launched with the mobile app.
8×8 is Teams certified with both its UC and CC solutions and Sipes said the growth is coming from both sides.
“We’re having a lot of success in the core markets; Europe is very strong and also in the UK public sector,” Sipes said.
“Microsoft is strong so in many places but where they’re slightly stronger is some of those governments in EMEA so we see a little skew in that direction but it’s a pretty broad offering globally.”
The Launch of 8×8 Frontdesk
8×8 launched its operator console Frontdesk at Enterprise Connect, claiming that it will transform the receptionist role across both unified communications and customer experience.
Sipes explained that many operator consoles are in need of a refresh because they’ve typically been tied to custom hardware, which isn’t necessarily well suited for a world of hybrid work and remote customer interaction,
“You’re not going to have a big receptionist module in your house or a coffee shop so making it software exclusive is core to making a hybrid use case work,” he said.
“Also, what is critical is the ability to see presence, so when people are available, because we can’t physically see them. Having messaging and notes embedded is important because customer communication might need to go to a different person or queue of people.
“We worked with a lot of customers on this… and worked out the core use cases that are important to customers in a swath of different industries.”
