Following the recent publication of its record quarterly earnings, 8X8 is announcing that the founder of Contactual (News - Alert), Mansour Salame, has been named to 8X8’s board of directors following the resignation of member Donn Wilson.
According to this report in The Whir, Salame served as the chairman and CEO of Contactual until 2010. Well versed in the virtual call center industry, Salame is also the founder and CEO of NextAge Technologies.
True to his position, Salame is considered an expert in cloud computing and SaaS (News - Alert): strategy, execution, and operations. He’s responsible for releasing the first OnDemand contact center product with White Pajama back in 2000. A bi-product of the Ivy League, he earned his master’s degree in electrical engineering at Stanford. He also earned his undergraduate degree in electrical engineering at Northwestern University.
In addition to this change in leadership on the board, 8X8 is also announcing the promotion of Kim Niederman (News - Alert) to the role of president to oversee sales, customer service, and network operations teams.
Niederman, a former senior vice president of worldwide sales, is credited for invigorating 8X8’s internal and external sales operations and enhancing the company’s reputation as a world-class service provider of virtual call center solutions.
A former CEO at Anagran, Inc., and board advisor at SightSpeed (News - Alert), Niederman received his undergraduate degree in political science and mathematics at the University of Denver, and furthered his education at the University of Chicago’s directors consortium for public companies.
8X8 acquired Contactual, a cloud-based contact center provider in September of last year. Since the acquisition, sales at 8X8 high skyrocketed due to a renewed focus on larger clients and higher price points, as well as the rise in demand for the virtual call center.
In 2007, 8X8 earned distinction as the top-ranked VoIP phone system choice by U.S.-based small- and medium-sized businesses. It expanded its corporate headquarters in Sunnyvale, Ca. the same year, while also building out its business telephony offerings into unified communications.
8X8 began offering managed hosting services and cloud-based computing solutions in 2010 after acquiring hosting company Central Host.
2011 was considered a big year for the company as it introduced Virtual Office Mobile for the Android phone, in addition to its acquisition of Contactual, which helped boost its overall revenue and its partner list. 2011 was also the year that 8X8 redefined video conferencing with Virtual Room, a cloud-based video conferencing solution.
In the broad virtual call center arena, it was recently suggested that the proliferation of the mobile app will lead to the death of the call center. As 8x8 (News - Alert) and Contactual continue to dominate in this space, both are likely to argue that death is nowhere on the horizon.
Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMCnet and has also written for eastbiz.com. To read more of Susan’s articles, please visit her columnist page.Edited by Chris DiMarco