New CPaaS, Enterprise-Grade Telephony for Microsoft Teams, Performance Monitoring and End-to-End Interaction AI Capabilities on a Single Open Platform Provides Security, Scalability and Extensibility to Strengthen Business Responsiveness and Resilience

8×8, Inc., a leading integrated cloud communications platform, launched the 8×8 Open Communications PlatformTM, the industry’s most complete portfolio of work-from-anywhere enterprise communications. 8×8 uniquely brings together the essential elements required in an enterprise communications platform, combining voice, team chat, meetings, and contact centers solutions fueled by shared intelligent communications services like AI-driven expert routing and predictive analytics. As part of the platform launch, 8×8 announced the availability of Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) programmable applications and APIs, including SMS and 8×8 Video, for organizations to extend and customize 8×8 and third-party applications and workflows, and 8×8 Voice for Microsoft Teams, the enterprise-class global cloud telephony solution that is the first to fully integrate with Microsoft Teams without changing the experience for end users.

“Through 2022, one-half of organizations will determine that their technology for enterprise communications is ineffective for meeting business continuity needs and falls short in the open communications requirements for secured and seamless interactions across devices and people,” said Mark Smith, CEO and Chief Research Officer at Ventana Research. “Modernizing the communication platform within organizations will improve the overall employee and customer experiences by reducing friction and enabling richer, more reliable communication experiences across all business functions.”

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8×8 Open Communications Platform

The 8×8 Open Communications Platform accelerates digital transformation initiatives and strengthens business responsiveness and resilience by providing secure, scalable and extensible capabilities that are required for organizations to create unique employee and customer experiences at scale.

“Work-from-anywhere has recently become a top-of-mind, board-level initiative, and a critical element for every organizations’ business resilience strategy. Forward-thinking CIOs must reimagine how their businesses move ahead — without effective communications, organizations crumble,” said Bryan Martin, Chairman and Chief Technology Officer at 8×8, Inc. “The 8×8 Open Communications Platform provides CIOs with the ability to tailor a communications strategy that adapts to rapidly evolving business challenges, and meets the unique needs of employees, partners and customers.”

CPaaS Programmable Applications & APIs Now Available in the US and UK

Through its network of more than 130 top-tier carriers reaching 190 countries, 8×8 is expanding the availability of its CPaaS programmable applications and APIs along with its delivery capabilities beyond the Asia Pacific region to organizations in the US and the UK. 8×8 APIs and programmable applications enable organizations to customize enterprise communications, third-party applications and workflows to optimize operations, such as marketing, sales, field service and customer support, to deliver seamless, exceptional experiences for employees and customers. New capabilities include:

• SMS
  • Use the API to increase security with two-factor authentication and verification of mobile phone numbers.
  • Drive marketing campaigns instantly with Campaign Manager – no integration required.
  • Develop new customer experiences with notifications and updates that automatically keep them informed.
• 8×8 Video
  • A new programmable application that embeds video into workflows and applications.
  • Create new experiences with instant video conferencing.
  • Redefine sales, support and ecommerce with video-based engagements.
  • Secure video solution.

Enterprise-grade Cloud Telephony for Microsoft Teams

8×8 Voice for Microsoft Teams is an enterprise-grade cloud telephony solution for Microsoft Teams environments allowing global organizations to scale and deliver work-from-anywhere communications. It delivers a reliable and easy-to-administer global voice solution for IT leaders while keeping the Microsoft Teams experience unchanged for end users. The 8×8 Voice for Microsoft Teams solution enables enterprises using Microsoft Teams for collaboration to drive usage by:

• Removing the burden and complexity of managing an on-premise, enterprise telephony infrastructure, and delivering a single, global cloud voice solution across multiple countries and locations directly from any Microsoft Teams interface, including desktop and mobile apps.
• Providing a cloud-to-cloud direct routing integration with the Microsoft Phone System to deliver superior voice quality, global calling plans, native contact center support, seamless integration with third-party enterprise applications and call analytics that go beyond Microsoft’s and other third-party vendor’s limited telephony offerings for Microsoft Teams.

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Performance Monitoring

New 8×8 callstats performance monitoring, continuously monitors the network from end-to-end, collecting up to 750 data points from each endpoint every few seconds during an active voice or video session. A high performance data collection engine with service provider scalability captures and centralizes the data for analysis with AI-based algorithms analyzing the metrics collected to detect anomalies that can indicate trouble.

The product uses highly efficient data aggregation algorithms that correlate session information in real time for session types ranging from simple localized two-party calls to large multiparty global conferences. 8×8 callstats performance monitoring easily integrates into communication environments enabling IT administrators to troubleshoot end-user problems and allow supervisors to analyze productivity trends.

New AI-Assisted Self Service

With expanded self-service options, CX leaders can effortlessly, consistently and intelligently connect with customers. End-to-end interaction AI^TM improves automatic responses and ensures context is preserved during the transition from human-less to live agent. New features and functionality are available to help contact centers:

• Reduce customer effort and resolve issues faster – With 8×8 Virtual Agent, conversational AI captures intent to deliver highly personalized, dynamic self-service experiences. New enhancements include integration to Amazon Aurora and Google Firebase for advanced analytics and context.
• Accelerate call routing and communicate with customers from any device – 8×8 Intelligent IVR chatbot now offers the ability to send and receive automated SMS messages for instant mobile communication. A simple, drag-and-drop graphical interface makes it easy to design personalized interactions and deliver updates and notifications while ensuring 24/7 delivery.

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