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Officials with a Santa Clara, Calif.-based provider of voice, video and mobile communications solutions for business and residential customers announced recently that it signed a deal to provide voice trunking services to cloud telephony solution provider CallFire.

 

The agreement links 8x8's enterprise-class SIP trunking service with CallFire's cloud telephony platform, which is used by more than 14,000 businesses. CallFire began offering its hosted power-dialing services to small business, call center and enterprise customers over 8x8's (News - Alert) established VoIP Voice over Internet Protocol network last week, the company said.

 

The two companies "joined forces to stay at the forefront of innovation in cloud telephony services," CallFire CEO and co-founder Dinesh Ravishanker said.

 

“8x8 has become a critical component of our relentless commitment to increasing voice quality for our customers,” Ravishanker said in a statement. “We are pleased to say that 8x8's service quality has been exceptional. Our solutions are not only complementary, but together create a best-of-class service for SMBs and the enterprise.”

 

Officials with 8x8, a former CallFire customer, said that CallFire's voice quality could benefit from the company’s VoIP network. By powering a large portion of CallFire's underlying VoIP network, 8x8 combined its VoIP service with the firm’s Hosted Power Dialing platform. The company now uses CallFire's broadcast services in its call centers, officials said.

 

“We experienced the features and benefits of the CallFire solution firsthand in our own outbound call center and can attest to the simplicity, affordability and effectiveness of this valuable sales, marketing and customer service tool," said 8x8 Chairman and CEO Bryan Martin (News - Alert), said in a statement.

 

The company’s deal with CallFire is helping boost its bottom line. The firm recently reported a return to profitability during its first quarter, citing accelerating growth, especially among new business customers. Martin said during a conference call last month that trend reflects the company’s successful strategy of minimizing the cost – through a hosted model – of entry into IP telephony.

 

In other news, the VoIP provider announced it is working with Keller Williams Tri-Valley Realty offices to give agents a VoIP-hosted PBX (News - Alert) phone solution, “8x8 Virtual Office.” According to 8x8  its Virtual Office solution helps small and medium-sized enterprises secure distributed corporate class telecommunications capabilities for a fraction of the cost of wireline business services from traditional phone companies, TMCnet said.