8×8 Adds Mobility, Security to Cloud-based Call Center Offering
Cloud communications and collaboration solutions provider 8×8 Inc. (EGHT) said it has completed a “significant upgrade” to its Virtual Contact Center (VCC) cloud-based call center software offering by increasing mobility and security.
The company said the service is available as a single point solution or as an integrated component of 8×8’s Virtual Office cloud-based telephony and unified communications solutions.
8×8 said VCC 8.0 includes the following enhancements:
- System status optimized for mobile devices — wallboard status information optimized for the iPad, iPhone or Android devices enables mobile off-site administration of the call center, allowing supervisors to dynamically respond to changing conditions.
- Virtual queuing — helps build customer loyalty by eliminating long hold times across all interactions. 8×8’s Virtual Queuing capability allows customers to request a callback, eliminating their need to sit on hold while helping contact centers manage the peaks and valleys of their call loads.
- Increased agent and supervisor productivity — Reporting Wizards give supervisors better insight into the workings of the contact center; enhanced usability for agents make it easier to turn novices into power users and to increase the productivity of experienced agents; contact directories and queue lists now support favorites and recently accessed records; and agent tools for recording and playing audio messages to reduce live agent talk time.
- Customizable SMTP services — by default, VCC tenant’s outbound email communications are routed via the pre-configured VCC internal SMTP servers. Now, 8×8 customers can use their own company’s SMTP server as the source to control security and regulatory compliance.
- Local CRM enhancements — Enhanced native Customer Relationship Management tool built into the platform (unique to Virtual Contact Center) features a new desktop view that consolidates agents’ cases, customers and tasks into a convenient tabbed environment for easy switching and viewing. Automatic logging of activities has been added as well. Customers can also choose to have both local CRM and their own CRM turned on at the same time.
- Chat interface — presents a better visual experience to the customer with additional customization options available through 8×8 Professional Services.
- Multi-browser support — now compatible with over 80 percent of browsers used by companies today through support of the latest browser versions of Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Internet Explorer, running on Microsoft Windows or Apple Mac OS. With VCC, there are no plugins or codes to download.
The offering is available today and has already been provided free of charge to existing customers of 8×8 Virtual Contact Center services, the company noted.
8×8 is in the process of recruiting solution providers, value-added resellers (VARs) and telecom master agents its 8×8 Cloud Services Partner Program.
The company completed the acquisition of U.K.-based Voicenet Solutions, Inc. in December 2013 for $18.4 million in cash.
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