8x8’s (News - Alert) virtual offices have officially been taken to the next level with its introduction of two all-new services aimed at providing small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) with new ways to optimize employee performance and maximize productivity.
8x8, Inc. has announced today the Virtual Receptionist and Group Intercom Multicast Paging – its two new Virtual Office cloud PBX (News - Alert) services – will work to make internal and external communication with both business partners and customers more efficient and productive than ever before.
The first – Virtual Receptionist – is available as an 8x8 Virtual Office add-on service which takes advantage of the smartphone-like interface and advanced firmware of the new Polycom (News - Alert) VVX 500 IP phone. In doing this, it will enhance virtual office business phone services by adding powerful call handling and work group monitoring capabilities.
With Virtual Receptionist, 8x8 Virtual Office customers can now enjoy and do the following:
· Process up to six concurrent, incoming live calls – all without the expense and desk clutter of accessory sidecar devices.
· Observe the presence status of up to six team member extensions, including those using any other Polycom, Aastra or Cisco desk phone, using busy line field (BLF) keys with speed dial, and instant transfer functions to maximize responsiveness between colleagues.
· Enable immediate collaboration with customers, suppliers and business partners by using speed dial keys.
The second new addition – the Group Intercom Multicast Paging service – enables 8x8 Virtual Office users to do the following:
· Make real-time announcements to various departments, teams of work areas via the intercom feature on the Polycom VVX 500 phone. (ultimately eliminating the need for expensive multi-zone loudspeaker paging systems)
· Intercom to specific paging groups or broadcast a page to all other Polycom VVX 500 sets on its Virtual Office PBX by simple selecting the emergency of priority group.
· Create and manage up to 23 customer defined paging groups using the 8x8 Account Manager Portal.
· Manage who can broadcast pages and who can only receive them, providing added control and flexibility.
The company’s updated 8x8 Account Manager Web Portal also now provides administrators with efficient, centralized control options via Virtual Receptionist, Group Intercom Multicast Paging, and other 8x8 PBX features.
"8x8 developed Virtual Receptionist and Group Intercom Multicast Paging because they were two of our customers' most requested features," said 8x8 Chairman and CEO Bryan Martin. "We were able to quickly accommodate these requests due to the innovation and agility enabled by our own internally-developed technology platform. The Polycom VVX 500 deskphone complements this innovation by providing our customers a highly intuitive way to access these new features and the rest of our Virtual Office suite via a touchscreen interface."
The future seems to be wide open for this rapidly growing company, who has been (deservedly) boasting its growth and success over recent years. In a recent video from the Executive Editorial Open House in San Jose, CA (News - Alert), the company detailed how it is driving communications and perceiving newly adopted services/trends in the industry.
Debbie Jo Severin, 8x8’s CMO, elaborated on the company’s recent financial reveal, where the company recently shared its Q1 2013 fiscal results. The company’s revenue totaled to a whopping $25.3 million – or a 36 percent increase from this time last year – which was “a great milestone for [the company].”
The company’s substantial growth was obviously very significant, which 8x8 was very excited about. Having added an average of 1,000 new net customers per quarter – and over 1,200 this last quarter – is also no small feat.
Severin credited the company’s unprecedented success to its unique customer-focus as supported by its independence in the market, saying, “We’ve always stood tall around the fact that we own and operate our own technology. It’s home-grown and it’s ours, and therefore we can develop services that are specifically designed for our customer and our target market.”
The company, who has primarily been in the small business space, has also been observing how well hosted is being adopted in the market. The fact that the company is not a franchise and is “home-grown” allows for added control and agility to adjust accordingly to industry trends. Severin added that it especially helps the company with its product development.
8x8’s ability to essentially remain the chameleon of its respective markets will undoubtedly prove to be its greatest strength against competitors who work on franchised platforms. Only the future will tell what will be next for this explosive company!
8x8, Inc. is a Platinum Sponsor of the ITEXPO West 2012. To be held Oct. 2-5 at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, TX, ITEXPO (News - Alert) offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations.
Edited by Amanda Ciccatelli