Cloud Business Phone Systems

Experience 8×8

MODERN

CLOUD-BASED PHONE SYSTEMS

The cloud technology wave has replaced legacy, on-premises communications platforms one by one. Small businesses and multinational organizations alike are benefiting from more rapid innovation, reduced IT overhead, and better user experience.

There are many sizes and flavors of vendors out there but we’d strongly recommend going with national and international based brands. Why? They have the financial clout to build robust services across the globe, have negotiated heavy discounts with 3rd party handset manufacturers, have streamlined the customer experience (onboarding, training, moves/adds/changes, etc), and have the most sophisticated technology and application integrations.

By choosing a national vendor does this mean there is no local relationship or support?

It depends. There are companies that work directly with the customer. There are other companies that work with partners.

First Call recommends providers like 8×8 because they are heavy hitters nationally and internationally but also because they leverage local partners to ensure they deliver the best of both worlds to their clients!

CLOUD-BASED PHONE SYSTEMS

FEATURES & FUNCTIONS

Cloud phone systems used to have a limited set of features when compared to a PBX. Today’s large sophisticated vendors have feature parity with PBX’s and in many cases more advanced features given their capabilities to integrate with other cloud-based software programs like SalesForce, Service Desk, or Microsoft Dynamics.

Cloud Phone Systems can provide more sophisticated analytics, mobility features, video and integrate with a wide variety of handsets across any number of manufacturers. Or the option to not use a handset at all!

They even have capabilities to integrate with local overhead paging systems and other access control systems – previously this was beyond their capacity.



Moves/Adds/Changes

The best cloud phone system vendors make this very easy for the customer. They allow customers to add/takeaway users via a portal or through a very friendly set of people on their help desk. Cloud vendors like 8×8 know they need to make it easy for you and if they do they will keep you as a customer for a long time.

Most cloud phone systems have a lot of options because they want to serve the customer in the most flexible way possible. Example: a manufacturing company might have very simple needs on the manufacturing floor, more traditional needs in the office and then complex needs in their customer service department and field sales. The cloud phone system provider will have various licensing subscriptions to get the right set of tools to the right user at the right price for the company.

Call Quality

Cloud-based call quality with major carriers like 8×8 is extremely good. They have invested millions and millions into their backbone, technology, and networks. They also have sophisticated software (usually through a browser or smartphone app) that helps manage the call quality at the device level.

Just like the other solutions the quality of the local network and local internet connection the user has will impact call quality but these solutions are getting more and more capable at handling even poor internet with their compression technologies.

Maintenance

One of the huge benefits of a cloud-based system is there is no maintenance that the customer has to perform on the software or services. All of the system updates, security patches, etc are done in the cloud or through the cloud to keep your subscription and services up to date.

High reliability & Business Continuity

Safe & Secure Communications

8×8 ensures high reliability and business continuity by delivering its cloud-based communications using secure, fully redundant data centers.

Security and privacy begin with the way data is handled, stored and protected. The 8×8 platform conforms to stringent specifications for securing financial information, customer privacy and computer networks:
• Consumer Proprietary Network Information (CPNI)
• Secure Coding practices including the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) and Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) List
• Fraud Detection
• Secure Endpoint Provisioning

How is your current communications provider handling your data? Here are eight questions to ask.

Business Cloud Phones

Give your employees the right tools to Communicate

Employees and customers increasingly communicate across boundaries of geography, device, time, and channel. Hybrid work is only formalizing a trend already well underway. Challenges arise. As companies search for communications technology that bridges the employee and customer experience gaps, they find that an integrated platform provides the highest level of reliability and security, as well as the best overall value.

Business Cloud Phones

why do we recommend 8×8?

Streamlined efforts—a single deployment of 8×8’s integrated cloud platform for voice, chat, and meetings
Risk-free, custom approach—the 8×8 team will be with you every step of the way as you deploy at your own pace
Savings—reduce up to 50% in communications spend by consolidating various vendors into one easy-to-manage platform
Reliability—8×8 is the only vendor with platform wide 99.99999% uptime SLA
Global availability—8×8 offers full PSTN replacement across 40+ countries

Customer service. Man operator call center with headphones and microphone with laptop. Support, assistance, call center, hot line, help, response, consultation

Business Cloud Phones

Cloud Phone System Delivery Method

8×8 has a very well-defined onboarding process that includes pre-programming, shipping, and go-live processes. All of this work is done remotely and unless there is a local partner anything locally will need to be self-performed by the customer. This can be acceptable in straightforward, small implementations but it’s not recommended for anything beyond that.

CLOUD PHONE SYSTEM

COST OF OWNERSHIP

There are two main things to understand when considering a Cloud Phone System investment:

Subscription Cost

The first is that it’s a subscription cost that doesn’t go away as long as you have users on the system.

Start-up Costs

The second is there are start-up costs. Handsets (usually optional), implementation services, and training services

We strongly recommend that organizations not fall for the free setup. It sounds good but ultimately it will place more work and more stress on your people than the vendor – the result and experience will be less than optimal.

Subscriptions for the service and the carrier fees can be as low as $12/mo per user. The average cost is $20/mo per user but advanced features like Call Center, Contact Center, and/or Analytics can run upwards of $60/mo per user.

Don’t delay the savings

How much Money will you save?

See how much money you can save by switching to a cloud solution.

Schedule a time with one of our Business Development Members to discuss!

Meg Ross

Business Development Director

8×8 Specialist, Pricing & Information
mross@firstsolution.com
406.721.6462

Martanda Everson

Business Development Executive

8×8 Pricing, End of Life, Trade-Ins, Software Licensing
meverson@firstsolution.com
406.721.6462

The New World of Work Isn’t Cheap

How can i Avoid leaving Money on the table?

Customer expectations and the pressure to grow revenue remain constant. Worker shortages are increasing labor costs. And the cost of goods is going up almost everywhere you look.

It’s time to ask: how can I avoid leaving money on the table?

As you create a business case for moving your communications to the cloud, you’ll want to estimate potential cost savings. It’s important to consider five key areas in your analysis.