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If you have ever been responsible for setting up a new business, a new office or branch, a new call center or simply an offsite location for the purpose of disaster recovery or overspill, you’ll know that getting business phone service up and running quickly is about as easy as getting a candid photo of the Loch Ness Monster. Most companies looking for new service hear a lead-time of at least several weeks: IF they are very lucky, and longer if they are not.

While there are probably too many benefits of today’s business VoIP (Voice over IP) telephony solutions to count, one of the most important to many organizations is the ability to be up and running quickly: in some cases, in just hours.

One company that benefitted from this impressive speed is Illinois and North Carolina-based West Town Saving Bank, which chose a hosted PBX solution by 8x8 (News - Alert) when it found itself needing a new business phone system. The company was most impressed with the fact that there was no formal, on-premise installation of PBX (News - Alert) hardware required.

“We're still growing, and I have two to three new hires coming in every few months," said West Town Saving Bank's Vice President of Retail Mortgage Sales Christopher LaCroix. "I just contact my 8x8 account manager to order new phones. When they arrive, I can log into Virtual Office Online and configure them myself, or if I run out of time, I can have 8x8 do it for me. When the new employee shows up, all we have to do is plug their phone into the wall and they're ready to start taking calls,” he said.

8x8’s Virtual Office Pro solution is an advanced, complete VoIP telephony and unified communications solution that also offers premium features such as online meetings, call recording, and Internet fax capabilities.

LaCroix said another amazing benefit of the solution is that there are no missed calls, which was a problem with the bank’s previous solution. The bank managers also like 8x8’s mobile app, which turns a smartphone or tablet device into a mobile PBX extension, and make heavy use of the solution’s call forwarding and simultaneous ring features. By logging into 8x8 Virtual Office Online, they can easily forward calls to any number when they’re out of the office—or configure their desk phones and cell phones to ring simultaneously whenever a call comes in.

Simultaneous ring is an awesome feature,” said LaCroix. “I can answer 8x8 calls on my iPhone (News - Alert) when I’m traveling or at another location, and nobody knows I’m not at my desk.”

West Town Savings’ 8x8 implementation has grown right along with its residential mortgage division. The bank now has 37 extensions at its corporate headquarters and about 70 more 8x8 users in 10 branch offices. According to LaCroix, the number of extensions will continue to go up, and as the bank grows, so too can its 8X8 business phone service.

LaCroix says he believes that 8x8 has played a key role in enabling the bank to provide the high level of customer service residential mortgage loans require.

“We need to give our customers personal attention that feels like face-to-face communications,” he explained. “8x8’s mobile app and simultaneous ring and email notification features help us deliver that kind of service. Our mortgage division has been extremely successful since it was launched in 2009, and we couldn’t have grown this rapidly without our 8x8 business VoIP phone system.”