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Whether you’re in retail, finance, legal, media or customer service, companies from all industries are turning to VoIP to improve their business communications. A recent study from Infonetics Research (News - Alert) predicts that $377 billion will be spent on business and residential VoIP services by 2016, driven primarily by SIP trunking, hosted VoIP and unified communication services.

Thrive Senior Living is an example of an organization that benefitted from implementing hosted PBX VoIP and unified communications services. Thrive operates senior living communities in Georgia, Florida, Louisiana and Texas and emphasizes innovation to improve the lives of its residents.

Thrive goes against the stereotypical image of senior living – “nursing homes,” “retirement centers” and “old folks homes” are mindsets that don’t apply here. Its IT infrastructure is designed to support current operational requirements as well as those emerging from an increasingly social, tech-savvy generation. To keep up with its innovation and hi-tech environment, Thrive turned to 8x8 (News - Alert), a provider of hosted VoIP and unified communications solutions.

“8x8 is a great example of leading-edge business VoIP technology,” said Thrive President Tod Petty in a statement. “With 8x8’s services, staff at corporate headquarters, building sites and community offices can benefit from state of the art communications technologies using both wired and mobile devices. And, because the services are cloud-based rather than premises-based, users can access the full array of capabilities wherever they have an Internet connection.”

Thrive deployed the 8x8 hosted PBX (News - Alert) communications network to improve the quality, breadth and reliability of its internal communications. It also significantly reduces Thrive’s communications costs; 8x8 phone services save Thrive $10,000 to $15,000 per community in reduced telephony expenses.

“Thrive came to realize, as many companies do, that all VoIP services are not alike,” said Tazergy President and CEO Matt Haywood. “When making the transition to VoIP, it’s important to conduct a thorough assessment of your business needs along with a careful review of the providers you are considering before making a decision. Even though Thrive still had a one-year contract in place with its previous provider, it was our recommendation that they implement the 8x8 service immediately to secure the features and functionality they needed now.”

8x8’s cost-effective Virtual Office solution offers business and calling features such as hosted PBX, auto attendant, corporate directory, music-on-hold, online billing, conference bridge and ring groups, as well as a mobile app that embraces today’s on-the-go workforce.

“We used to spend about $5-7K just for the phone system for each temporary sales trailer, and then much more to get the community’s phone system up and running,” Haywood said. “With 8x8 hosted VoIP, there is no complex on-site PBX equipment, or the extensive labor, installation and ongoing support fees that comes with it. We can even move the phones from the temporary trailer to the new community once it’s ready. It’s been a huge savings.”

Using VoIP technology, 8x8 delivers business solutions that extend traditional phone services to powerful unified communications. Its VoIP phone service offers features and options that most other providers charge extra for, and has served more than 30,000 businesses for better business communications.

8x8 CEO Bryan Martin (News - Alert) said, “Thrive Senior Living is a perfect example of the value customers can derive from doing business with us. It’s a multi-location business with facilities in four states and people using a range of wired and mobile devices on a single communications network. The management and staff at Thrive found that our hosted Virtual Office solutions deliver greater flexibility and cost-effectiveness versus competing offers.”