8x8 Addresses Communications Complexity, Offers Analytics for LoB Leaders

By Paula Bernier
Executive Editor, TMC

There’s too much complexity in business communications. As a result, mid market enterprises want to simplify their communications infrastructure, which today may include a legacy PBX (News - Alert), a UC solution from another vendor, and perhaps conferencing from yet another provider.

8x8 can help them do that by combining all the functionality via its Enterprise Communications (News - Alert) as a Service offering, said CMO Enzo Signore. The company is also adding value for its business customers by developing analytics that leverage their communications infrastructure to enable line of business leaders to be more efficient.

Signore spoke with me yesterday at TMC (News - Alert) Editor’s Day Silicon Valley. During the conversation he dropped the phrase bimodal IT, which he explained is what happens when line of business leaders make communications buying decisions along with IT staff.

As you are probably already aware, line of business leaders are beginning to take the reins, or at least play a larger role, in the selection of the communications services and software solutions on which their teams rely. Indeed, Signore pointed to a Gartner report that indicates 15 to 25 percent of decisions for UC solutions are made by line of business leaders.

So 8x8 (News - Alert) is responding to the new line of business focus with the introduction of communications-related analytics. 8x8 earlier this year rolled out Virtual Office Analytics, which business leaders can use to see the number of phone calls that come in to their sales teams or how many emails the team failed to respond to. Similarly, a contact center could leverage such analytics to see what workers are doing and contending with there. Either way, the focus is on driving productivity. Today 8x8 provides analytics as a horizontal solution but in early 2016 it expects to start rolling out solutions targeted at the needs of particular lines of business.

Edited by Stefania Viscusi