8x8 Enhances Cloud Contact Center and Unified Communications Platform with AI-powered Customer and Employee Experience Innovations
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Insights
The announcement from 8x8, Inc. regarding enhancements to their 8x8 XCaaS platform represents a strategic move to strengthen their position in the unified communications as a service (UCaaS) and contact center as a service (CCaaS) markets. By integrating AI capabilities such as post-meeting summaries and action items, they are leveraging technology trends that enhance productivity and customer engagement.
Their focus on omnichannel experiences, including the new ability to reply to SMS and WhatsApp messages within their platform, addresses the growing consumer demand for seamless communication across various channels. This could potentially lead to increased customer satisfaction and retention rates, which are critical metrics that investors monitor closely.
Furthermore, the introduction of new analytics dashboards and admin console features indicates a commitment to providing detailed performance metrics, which can be instrumental for businesses in optimizing operations. The potential cost savings from the Phone Number Intelligence feature could also be a compelling selling point for organizations looking to streamline their communication expenses.
From a financial perspective, the updates to 8x8's platform could influence the company's revenue growth and market share. The emphasis on AI and enhanced analytics capabilities may attract new customers and encourage existing clients to expand their service usage. As businesses increasingly seek to improve efficiency through technology, 8x8's enhancements could position them as a more competitive player in the UCaaS and CCaaS space.
Investors should note the potential for these platform enhancements to drive long-term value through increased customer lifetime value and reduced churn. However, the costs associated with these innovations and their impact on the company's profitability margins will be an important factor to monitor in subsequent financial disclosures.
The deeper integrations with key technology partners mentioned by 8x8, Inc. could be pivotal in fostering a more cohesive technology ecosystem for their clients. The ability for agents to interact with CRM systems directly from the 8x8 platform and the introduction of the Callflows API are examples of how the company is enabling more streamlined workflows.
These integrations can lead to substantial efficiency gains for users, potentially enhancing 8x8's value proposition. As businesses increasingly rely on integrated systems, the ability of a provider like 8x8 to offer a seamless experience across communication channels could become a significant differentiator in the decision-making process for prospective clients.
New 8x8 XCaaS Platform Capabilities Include AI-generated Post-meeting Smart Summaries and Action Items, Rich Omnichannel Experiences, Global Workforce Support, and Deeper Technology Partner Integrations
Enhancements to 8x8 Contact Center include:
- AI Summarization for Improved Speech Analytics: For customers who utilize 8x8 Speech Analytics, 8x8 has begun a limited beta of AI summarization. This feature will automatically extract key information from calls and push a smart summary and recorded interaction directly into select CRM. Beta availability is limited. 8x8 customers interested in participating in the beta program can sign up to the program by contacting their 8x8 Account Team or via email to customer.labs@8x8.com.
- New Integration Capabilities Create Richer Omnichannel Experiences: Contact center leaders are empowered to deliver an enhanced omnichannel customer experience by allowing agents to now reply to SMS and WhatsApp messages, initiate SMS, and receive screen pop up contextual information for these channels while using the 8x8 for Salesforce or 8x8 for Microsoft Dynamics Integrations.
- 8x8 Agent Workspace Productivity and Efficiency Enhancements: Directory search user interface allows agents to locate the right contacts quickly, revisit previous searches, and receive alternative search suggestions when no search results are found for enhanced efficiency and improved experiences. Additionally, agents can now find queue and ring groups in the contact directory, improving productivity and accuracy.
- Streamlined Email Handling for 8x8 Contact Center: Agents can now handle emails from the Control Panel, the same place where they handle chats and phone interactions, allowing the agent to view the email thread in the local CRM to improve agent efficiency and deliver an omnichannel customer experience.
- Supervisor Workspace Enhancements Support Global Workforce: 8x8 Supervisor Workspace now supports seven different languages, automatically matching the selected language in 8x8 Contact Center admin settings. In addition, a new criteria is now available in the top filter bar, allowing selection of different media, so users can only see queues from inbound phone, outbound phone, voicemail, chat, and email.
New updates for 8x8 Unified Communications include:
- Post-meeting Smart Summaries, Action Items, and Analytics Improve Productivity: The addition of AI-powered video meeting capabilities to the 8x8 XCaaS platform enables users to access real-time AI transcriptions, smart summaries, and follow up action items for enhanced collaboration during and after meetings. The new features highlight 8x8’s continued focus on platform innovation and delivering AI-driven contact center and unified communications solutions to improve productivity and efficiency. Additionally, a new analytics dashboard provides IT admin with better visibility into meetings and performance metrics.
- Admin Console Now Provides Increased Flexibility and Visibility: 8x8 Admin console now supports exporting audit events via CSV reports, granular controls for group voicemail notifications, and call recordings, as well as enforces a valid site address as the emergency address for user safety and compliance. Additional features increase data resiliency by notifying and reminding customers who have purchased Storage add-ons and have yet to configure them.
- 8x8 Work Interface Enhancements Improve User Experience: New Success Center navigation option is available in the left-hand menu, offering centralized access to training courses and videos, the What’s New section, and support.
New capabilities for 8x8 CPaaS include:
- Cost Savings with Phone Number Intelligence: New Phone Number Intelligence feature evaluates the legitimacy and responsiveness of phone numbers using historical behavioral data. This enhances the deliverability of SMS messages, providing organizations with cost savings and higher conversion rates.
- Callflows API on Voice: The Callflows API enables users to build their own custom call flows, incorporating popular use cases such as number masking, complex IVRs, and voice messaging.
- Deeper Integrations for Seamless Interactions: 8x8 SMS extension in the Cognigy marketplace allows users to integrate SMS messaging seamlessly into their conversation workflows, while a native integration with MoEngage for WhatsApp allows users to launch, measure, and automate WhatsApp campaigns.
“We know that one size does not fit all, and so we are constantly looking for ways to innovate across the 8x8 cloud contact center and unified communications platform to provide organizations with the technology solutions they need, now and as their businesses grow,” said Hunter Middleton, Chief Product Officer at 8x8, Inc. “8x8 XCaaS provides organizations with a single platform capable of providing customer engagement, collaboration and communications functionality across the entire organization, which is why creating a seamless, easy to use platform is so important to us - we are committed to providing our customers with the solution that is going to improve both customer and employee experiences, always.”
8x8 XCaaS includes integrated cloud contact center, business phone, video meetings, team chat, and SMS capabilities in a single-vendor solution. 8x8 XCaaS is built on a resilient, secure, and compliant platform, which offers the highest levels of reliability with financially backed, platform-wide 99.999 percent uptime SLA across an integrated cloud UCaaS and CCaaS solution.
8x8 customers can register for the upcoming 8x8 webinar to learn more about the latest customer and employee experience enhancements to the 8x8 XCaaS platform.
Caution Concerning Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned that such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events or our actual results to differ materially from those expressed in any such forward-looking statements. Readers are directed to 8x8’s periodic and other reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a description of such risks and uncertainties. 8x8 undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements.
About 8x8, Inc.
8x8, Inc. (NASDAQ: EGHT) is transforming the future of business communications as a leading Software as a Service provider of 8x8 XCaaS™ (Experience Communications as a Service™), an integrated contact center, voice communications, video, chat, and SMS solution built on one global cloud communications platform. 8x8 uniquely eliminates the silos between Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) and Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) to power the communications requirements of all employees globally as they work together to deliver differentiated customer experiences. For additional information, visit www.8x8.com, or follow 8x8 on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.
8x8®, 8x8 XCaaS™, Experience Communications as a Service™, Experience Communications Platform™ are trademarks of 8x8, Inc.
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Source: 8x8, Inc.
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