8x8 X Series vs. Skype

8x8 has proven to have excellent quality and service. When we briefly explored a different company for our phone system, the service levels left much to be desired. We would go a week or more without hearing from our account manager on issues we were having, they would schedule calls and then not make them. 8x8 has been the exact opposite, they are on top of things when we need them, we no longer have dropped calls or complaints about call quality, and the system is so easy to transfer calls and direct them where they need to go

Incentivized

Skype is well suited for quick calls back and forth, in both video and audio, among team members who have it already installed and who know how to use it. It is less well-suited when trying to do a presentation for somebody who does NOT have it installed or who lacks internet speed.

Incentivized

• 8x8 it very easy to use and navigate.
• 8x8 works well with the app as well so I can use it on my personal phone and on the go.
• 8x8 is good at communicating and sending me emails whenever there is a new service on the program that is available.

Incentivized

• The instant chat function is great. Very straightforward, easy to use, easy to learn, no technical issues.
• Video calls are pretty easy also, user friendly and a mostly stable connection with no issues.
• Voice calls are easy also, eliminates the need for an external landline or the need to use your cell phone. Clear connections, not really any dropped calls.

Incentivized

• Some Reporting can be done better, not easy to create a group or role
• Does not display all the accounts at once, must scroll down to be able to run report
• When we sync 8x8 with teams, it is often slow.
• No readily available API to use with our automation software

Incentivized

• This is really small, but I'd love to see the emoticons updated to emojis.
• Make calling free like some other communications app providers.
• Grant the ability to not show that you're online even when you are. Sometimes you want to make a call, but you don't want other people to see you're online and start messaging you.

Incentivized

All our employees love this product. No one has ever had an issue, whether it be the phone or fax. Great during the winter when employees have to work from home because of the snow. Never had an issue with the phone app. Highly recommend this product

Incentivized

I have given this rating as this need to give more than that as it's very helpful for us and makes our work more efficient and fast.

Again for a large call center with many needs, and full time people to manage this may be a good system, but for a small business needing a phone system in my opinion it is overly complicated and difficult to manage without multiple calls on support.

Incentivized

Skype is not as good as Facetime in terms of ease to glance at it and figure out how it works. I think that's a result of Skype trying to be too many things at once. A lot of the menu and UI could be streamlined, and I would jettison some of the additional functions that have been tacked on over the years to simplify. That being said, while some options are slightly hard to find, they all work flawlessly once found.

Incentivized

As mentioned before, we have not had an outage with the phone system per say, There was an issue with the call center where we did have an outage, but it was quickly and promplty handled by 8x8 support, they got us up and going again within 24 hours. The 8x8 hard phone and softphone side of things have been rock solid, I couldn't ask for anything more seeing we are in health care and it's exactly what we were looking for. When and if there is an issue 99% of the time it's user error

Incentivized

None of the features that are available slow down the application. The reports (even the ones with hundreds of records) complete very quickly and the web interface as well as the mobile application never struggle to load or complete a task. The analytics will sometimes take some time to reflect the online status of users but it is to be expected due to connection speeds.

Incentivized

8x8 support can be phenomenal. After getting in touch with a support member, all of my problems are either solved right away or throughout a small time frame, fine-tuned to my circumstance/issue. Whether they are following up via phone call or email, I have full confidence and faith that any matter will be resolved. Trying to contact the support team is where things get a bit tricky. Raising an issue in the chat can be taxing as we are mostly referred to the general FAQ section of the site. Although it may be helpful to some, it does nothing for those of us that have very specific problems. If each account holder can receive access to a customer service line that differs from non-member account holders, I think we'd have a higher level of trust and a lower level of frustration.

Incentivized

I am not aware of the current support level for Skype for business, as I have never used even though I have the product. However, the support for Skype's personal paid users is not where it could be. Users who pay for Skype features do not have a clear path to reach out to support. So, rating 6, can be better as soon as I need to use Skype for business support and get a good experience. I will say that I will renew Skype for Business subscription, which is a significant inconsistency on my end. The explanation is that Skype for Business comes bundled with Office for Business, with no additional cost, so why not.

Incentivized

The person giving the training was very engaged, He also listened and answered all the questions. He created a video for our company while he was training in case we needed to reference it again in the future. The questions he could not answer were answered within 24 hours via an email to the IT support staff here so we could share the answers with the rest of the group

Incentivized

I was paired with a solutions advisor that taught me everything I needed to know for my company to use 8x8.

Incentivized

The implementation of 8x8 X was rather smooth. We had training prior to getting the system. The IT company did a good job on the training. The whole system is wonderful. Saves me so much time with the faxing, as i can just let it go by itself and not have to make sure pages don't get skipped, as with a regular fax machine.

Incentivized

It can be used on the phone via mobile application as well as on the desktop by logging in to the website. Easily installed and ready to use.

Incentivized

8x8 beats out all the other players in quality, reliability, and ease of configuration. They are not the lowest cost, but they are comparable for the basic features. Once you jump into enterprise features, you pay for what you get- and you get quality and ease of configuration, with professional guidance when using features for medium to large enterprise.

Incentivized

Microsoft Teams provides basically the same services. Local number calling is not available (that I know of) but that only matters if you have any need to use it. Teams is a little more stable, especially with a lot of people on a call. Skype is easier to set up and to operate. Skype also has a larger install base.

Incentivized

At this time, we’re very happy with the pricing model that we have worked out and they have provided for us. Just be sure to do your homework, and use your comparisons to work out your cost with 8x8. They will be very straightforward with you on what they can
adjust for you.

Incentivized

We've had periods where our organization has grown a considerable amount and we have had no issues in scaling our communications with 8x8. The number of possible extensions that we can use is far more than we expect to go through in a very long time. The only complaint that I have is a very minor inconvenience for me where I have to download activation codes for each phone. I would prefer to have the phones automatically activated as soon as they are plugged in.

Incentivized

PS had all the users etc. set up by our go-live date. All hard phones were activated and when we received them, all we had to do was set them up and punch in the activation code to activate them.

Incentivized

The service provided is up to date, as discussed before buying.

• 8x8 makes dialing out to all my clients so much easier than just using my phone, making it more speedy and efficient.
• 8x8 does have a lag, however, and sometimes my clients get frustrated at the delays.
• The search function on 8x8 allows me to find conversations quickly and efficiently.

Incentivized

• Overall Skype is a good investment. We use regular Skype so its a product that comes with Windows PC's as a standard app. We dont use Skype for Business so this cuts cost overall.
• Using the basic functions of Skype and not Skype for business does have some downsides but you do save money. There are many other apps we use as well as Skype in order to accomplish all of our goals.
• The downside of course is that the more you want Skype to do, the more money it will cost the organization as a whole. It does have many more functions which you have to upgrade to Skype for business for. That is my only criticism.

Incentivized