Item: 8x8 Work
Rating: 7
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

8x8 X Series [(Formerly Virtual Office)] was used by our entire organization, but we have scaled back. There was greater usage when we were in the office and had desk and conference rooms phones, but usage dropped significantly when we switched to working from home during the pandemic. Some employees were not accustomed to using the phone app on their computer and preferred their cell phone. Some found that third party participants had difficulty with video conferencing, so they switched to other platforms such as Zoom and Teams. One recurring complaint was the difficulty in scheduling meetings using the smartphone app, which Zoom makes very simple. The cost of the plans is somewhat high, so we decided to reduce the number of plans in light of the decreased usage and park the unused numbers. Their customer service agents are very professional, but my experience with our assigned sales representative has been not satisfactory when we opted to reduce our usage.

Pros and Cons

Configuration of the system is very easy.
The desk phone offers work well and are an excellent value.
The computer application is easy to use, even better than using the desk phones.

It is very difficult to schedule meetings in the future in the smartphone app.
The smartphone app should add the ability to temporarily disable incoming calls on the smartphone when someone is working in their office.
It would be nice to have better ways to configure assistants to manage the phone calls of their executives. There were limitations and the workarounds were not ideal. We did come from a Cisco Call Manager system offered much more functionality.

Return on Investment

The system has overall had a fairly positive impact because its services are easier to manage without the need for an IT employee well versed in Cisco level services.
The negative impact has been cost and low adoption due to operability problems for some of its features.

Alternatives Considered

Skype for Business (formerly Lync), RingCentral, Microsoft Teams and Cisco IP Phone 7800 Series

8x8 [X Series (Formerly Virtual Office)] was more flexible with regards to having a mixed environment than RingCentral. It is less expensive and requires less IT skill than operating a Cisco phone environment. It offers better traditional desk-based and computer based phone functionality than Microsoft solutions.

Usability

The desk phone functionality was pretty good, especially when compared against the Cisco system. The computer app is excellent and the smartphone app is very good. There are definitely plenty of areas of improvement on all fronts.

Support Rating

I had very good interactions with the general support staff, whether it was over the phone or using the support portal. They are very responsive and do their very best to answer my questions to my satisfaction. My experience with follow-up by our sales representative has been below expectations, especially when it came to modifying our account.

Key Insights

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

Yes

Are you happy with 8x8 Work's feature set?

Yes

Did 8x8 Work live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of 8x8 Work go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy 8x8 Work again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Cisco Webex Meetings

Likelihood to Recommend

8x8 X Series [(Formerly Virtual Office)] is well suited for small organizations with limited IT staff, as it is relatively easy for people to set up with limited IT experience. It is well suited for organizations that like to use softphone applications over desk phones. It is less appropriate for organizations with many assistants who need to manage calls for other senior employees.

8x8 Review: Satisfied overall, recommend oveall, Improvements made, Improvements needed

Overall Satisfaction with 8x8 X Series (Formerly Virtual Office)