Item: 8x8 Contact Center
Rating: 8
Author: Eric Payne

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Our company started using 8x8's Contact Center about 1 month ago, and so far the transition has been smooth. Currently, only our Support department uses the full Contact Center solution, while the remainder of the office is using the 8x8 Work (formerly Virtual Office) application. The main reason we went with 8x8 for our Customer Support department was so that we could integrate directly with a post-call voice survey IVR solution, without paying ridiculous setup or monthly user fees. The system was easy to set up and the transition from the old system to 8x8 couldn't have been smoother.

Pros and Cons

Post-call voice surveys are a huge benefit. Built right into the Support call process, when the Support rep hangs up their side of the call the customer is taken automatically to a phone survey.
The ability to integrate the phone call activities directly into our Dynamics 365 environment is excellent. At the end of a call, the system generates a popup screen that automatically fills in the caller, the Support rep, and the time spent. That makes it easier for the Support reps to track these interactions.

The Contact Center is not directly integrated with the Work (Virtual Office) system. Essentially the Contact Center forwards the calls to the Work extension for each Support rep. Then the call is actually answered from the Work app. This has caused some confusion and learning curves for the Support team as they need to use 2 systems\applications when doing all calls from the soft-phone interfaces. Getting Contact Center directly integrated with the Work app would increase ease of use dramatically.

Return on Investment

Transitioning to the 8x8 system from our old hybrid PBX system isn't slated to save us money directly since the systems cost about the same per month. Where we expect to get ROI is the expanded functionality, like post-call surveys & CRM integration, and also from the prospect of removing redundant services like GTM as the X2 license seat for 8x8 includes a 100-attendee video meeting room for each user with a license.

Alternatives Considered

We reviewed the JIVE and RingCentral comparative products and for cost and features 8x8 came out far ahead. JIVE had nearly $18,000 in implementation costs, plus a high monthly for their Contact Center. RingCentral was closer, but the overall cost of user licenses would have added almost $10,000 to the annual system costs as compared to 8x8.

Support Rating

I think it is easy to use from an administrative perspective. What prevents me from giving it a rating of 10 is the lack of direct integration with the main 8x8 Work application and the fact that the Contact Center is all web-based with no local application installer. If there was simply a Contact Center plug-in for the 8x8 Work app or even a standalone application I think this solution would be a 10 out of 10.

Key Insights

Do you think 8x8 Contact Center delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with 8x8 Contact Center's feature set?

Yes

Did 8x8 Contact Center live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of 8x8 Contact Center go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy 8x8 Contact Center again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Microsoft Dynamics 365 (formerly Microsoft Dynamics CRM), ConnectWise Control (formerly ScreenConnect), Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (formerly Dynamics NAV)

Likelihood to Recommend

I think 8x8 Contact Center is a solid solution for organizations of any size. Their licensing model allows you to get what you need for the users who need it. In our environment, we use a mix of their X2 licenses and their X6 licenses. X2 provides access to their Work platform and the X6 provides access for our Support team to the Contact Center. The ability to go a la carte instead of blanket licensing is a huge cost saver.

8x8 Contact Center

Overall Satisfaction with 8x8 Contact Center