8x8 Launches 8x8 Contact Center for Microsoft Teams

Rhea-AI Summary

8x8, Inc. (NYSE: EGHT) announces its 8x8 Contact Center for Microsoft Teams, a certified integration enhancing customer experience. This platform allows seamless communication between contact center agents and customers via Teams. With omnichannel functionality, it supports PSTN calls, boosting agent performance and providing rich analytics. The solution enables integration with 25+ business applications and is operational in 42 countries, ensuring global connectivity. The development aligns with the growing adoption of Microsoft Teams among organizations, as highlighted by Metrigy Research.

Positive

• Launch of 8x8 Contact Center for Microsoft Teams enhances customer engagement.
• Certified integration with Microsoft Teams allows seamless communication.
• Omnichannel functionality supports improved agent performance and collaboration.
• Integration with 25+ third-party applications boosts operational efficiency.
• Available in 42 countries with unlimited calling to up to 47 countries.

Negative

• None.

8x8, Inc. (NYSE: EGHT), a leading integrated cloud communications platform, today announced the availability of 8x8 Contact Center for Microsoft Teams, which is certified to integrate with Microsoft Teams. The 8x8 cloud contact center and communications product delivers an easy-to-administer, integrated customer engagement and global telephony direct routing solution that allows employees and contact center agents to interact with customers from any Teams endpoint.

“Organizations are rapidly adopting Microsoft Teams for all their employee collaboration requirements, and now recognize the importance of integrating it with the contact center to enhance customer experience,” said Dejan Deklich, Chief Product Officer at 8x8, Inc. “8x8 Contact Center for Microsoft Teams enables IT and service leaders to seamlessly embed customer engagement with global voice communications into Teams workflows to gain deeper insights across all interactions. This helps organizations meet their unique business requirements, allowing employees and customers to stay productive and engaged from anywhere.”

8x8 Contact Center for Microsoft Teams offers omnichannel contact center functionality that is fully integrated with Teams. The solution makes it easy to boost agent performance, simplify customer engagement workflows, and ignite collaboration across the organization. 8x8 Contact Center for Microsoft Teams allows sales, service and support agents to quickly connect and collaborate with other Teams-enabled experts, and resolve customer issues faster.

“Organizations have turned to Microsoft Teams to help solve their most critical collaboration and telephony needs, so integrating advanced contact center capabilities into their communication hub is a natural next step,” said Daniel Canning, Director, Microsoft Teams at Microsoft. “We are pleased to see 8x8 successfully complete the contact center certification process, providing their customers with a reliable integration with Teams, empowering their employees and contact center agents to connect with customers and provide a seamless experience.”

“Our digital transformation agenda is about using the very best technology solutions to deliver essential services to the community, responding to changes in how we work and the nature of interactions between our employees and citizens,” said Alison Hughes, Assistant Director ICT of Liverpool City Council. “8x8’s cloud contact center and communications product empowers both our contact center agents and employees to seamlessly collaborate and connect through the certified integration with Microsoft Teams. This enables our staff to work together to provide the vital services our local residents and businesses require while working from anywhere.”

According to the “Workplace Collaboration 2021-22 Research Study” from Metrigy Research, 70.4 percent of organizations adopting Microsoft Teams are using direct routing to connect to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). With 8x8 Contact Center for Microsoft Teams, contact center agents, knowledge workers and supervisors can make and receive PSTN calls using the Teams app as the preferred endpoint. Key features allow organizations to:

• Accept incoming contact center calls in Teams, empowering agents to manage customer interactions, and capture call details and key metrics.
• Gain rich contact center insights with full reporting and analytics into call quality, performance metrics, activity history, and speech analytics.
• Use 8x8 Call Recording to support regulatory compliance.
• Integrate out-of-the-box with more than 25 third-party business applications, such as Salesforce, Zendesk, NetSuite and Microsoft Dynamics 365, to automatically log all calls with the ability to attach details, recordings and speech analytics to any customer record.
• Operate worldwide with global calling plans in 42 countries across six continents including unlimited calling to up to 47 countries.

8x8 Contact Center for Microsoft Teams is now available at the Microsoft AppSource as a solution certified for Microsoft Teams.

8x8 Webinar

Learn more about the Top Microsoft Teams Trends in 2021 in the 8x8 webinar.

8x8 and Gartner Magic Quadrant

Recently, 8x8 was named a Leader in the 2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Unified Communications as a Service, Worldwide¹. This is the ninth consecutive year 8x8 has been recognized as a Leader in this report. 8x8 was also recognized as a Challenger in the 2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Contact Center as a Service².

[1] Gartner Magic Quadrant for Unified Communications as a Service, Worldwide, Rafael Benitez, Megan Fernandez, Daniel O’Connell, Christopher Trueman, Pankil Sheith, November 12, 2020. This Magic Quadrant report name has changed from 2015 onwards- 2015-2020: Magic Quadrant for Unified Communications as a Service, Worldwide, 2014: Magic Quadrant for Unified Communications as a Service, North America With Additional Regional Presence, 2012-2013: Magic Quadrant for Unified Communications as a Service, North America.

[2] Gartner Magic Quadrant for Contact Center as a Service, Steve Blood, Drew Kraus, Pri Rathnayake, November 9, 2020.

About 8x8, Inc.

8x8, Inc. (NYSE: EGHT) is transforming the future of business communications as a leading Software-as-a-Service provider of contact center, voice communications, video, chat and API solutions powered by one global cloud communications platform. 8x8 empowers workforces worldwide to connect individuals and teams so they can collaborate faster and work smarter. Real-time business analytics and intelligence provide businesses unique insights across all interactions and channels so they can delight end-customers and accelerate their business. For additional information, visit www.8x8.com, or follow 8x8 on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

8x8^® and 8x8 X Series™ are trademarks of 8x8, Inc.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210315005136/en/

FAQ

What is the 8x8 Contact Center for Microsoft Teams?

The 8x8 Contact Center for Microsoft Teams is a certified integration that enhances customer experience by allowing contact center agents to communicate with customers seamlessly through Microsoft Teams.

How does 8x8's solution improve customer engagement?

The solution provides omnichannel functionality, enabling quick connections between agents and Teams-enabled experts, thus improving response times and customer satisfaction.

What countries are supported by 8x8's global calling plans?

8x8's global calling plans operate in 42 countries, offering unlimited calling to up to 47 countries.

What research supports the need for this integration?

Metrigy Research indicates that 70.4% of organizations adopting Microsoft Teams use direct routing to connect to the Public Switched Telephone Network.

What applications can be integrated with 8x8's contact center?

8x8's contact center integrates with over 25 third-party applications, including Salesforce, Zendesk, NetSuite, and Microsoft Dynamics 365.