Recently, 8x8 hosted an exciting business and innovation update prior to ringing the closing bell at the Nasdaq Exchange. More than 30 media articles and three million social media impressions stemmed from the one-day event. For those unable to attend, here are just eight of the gathering’s top takeaways:

  1. 8x8’s Platform vision is resonating. Approximately two years ago, 8x8 introduced a cloud communications deployment model that erases the boundaries between Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) and Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS). And with that model, we introduced the 8x8 Platform™. The 8x8’s Platform concept has resonated with the industry, industry analysts, and our customers, and 8x8 continues to grow and expand both organically and inorganically. Learn more about the 8x8 eXperience Communications Platform™.
  2. Our continued strategy lies in becoming the leading AI/ML-driven customer experience platform. Our focus is on the 8x8’s Platform innovation across UCaaS, CCaaS, and CPaaS with investments in our AI/ML ecosystem. At 8x8’s core, combining our UCaaS, CCaaS, and CPaaS offerings in the 8x8 platform provides unique benefits to customers. Read industry analyst Zeus Kerravala’s take on how 8x8’s Platform offering meets the demands of the new era of hybrid work.
  3. At the heart of everything we do, reliability and quality are the foundation. As an 11-time Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for UCaaS that has also been recognized eight times in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for CCaaS, 8x8 is supported by a fully redundant, geographically distributed cloud network that features the industry’s first financially-backed 99.999% platform-wide uptime SLA. We offer redundancy at four layers, a 24/7 Network Operations Center with proactive marketing, plus the highest voice quality around the globe. Our leadership position in cloud telephony is an important component of the 8x8 platform, and it's ability to deliver both voice and CCaaS solutions to Microsoft Teams users is increasingly a deciding factor in new business wins around the world. Find out more about our Global Reach™ patented routing.
  4. The contact center is the next innovation hotspot. Customer service and customer experience analysts and thought leaders note that the contact center is “the next big tech frontier,” and reports forecast that the CCaaS industry will reach $19.8 billion by 2031, a 16.8% annual growth rate from a $4.3 billion valuation in 2021. Contact center technology is quickly evolving. Half of customer service and support leaders (51%) plan to devote more resources to migrating service volume to digital and self-service channels. And 91% of contact center leaders report that automation is a critical or important priority in the next year. View how 8x8 is addressing contact center change innovation with Supervisor Workspace and Intelligent Customer Assistant.
  5. 8x8 is all in on AI-driven innovation. The future of the 8x8 platform is its customer engagement platform story with (1) extensible workspaces that seamlessly embed third-party content, (2) omnichannel interaction handling that is channel agnostic and works effectively across any agent, human or AI, (3) integrated global communications and telephony that ensure any customer engagement professional, anywhere in the world, inside or outside the contact center can effectively connect with customers where ever they are, (4) customer interaction data that is accessible to third-party AI/ML applications, and (5) a strong ecosystem of third-party applications that span formal contact center use cases and other customer engagement needs. Get the scoop on our AI-driven platform enhancements to transform customer engagement.
  6. Customer-obsessed companies are leading the way with customer experience (CX) as a differentiator. According to Metrigy’s Customer Experience Transformation global research study of 724 companies, for the third straight year, customer satisfaction is ranked as the top business priority—more important than product/service quality, revenue generation, information security, employee retention, and investor satisfaction. Sixty-five percent (65%) of companies plan to increase CX spending by an average of 24% this year, according to Metrigy’ research, and Forrester notes that good customer service can drive billions in new revenue across industries. Read more about customer-obsessed transformation from Metrigy CEO Robin Gareiss.
  7. 8x8 is customer-obsessed. In a time of rapidly changing consumer and employee preferences, leaders at growing enterprises know it takes something special to connect every team, delight every customer, and drive business value. They know it takes more than just interest in customer success to gain a competitive edge. The companies that get ahead today are truly customer-obsessed. They don’t settle for good-enough customer experience or just-okay employee engagement scores. They seek a communications platform built for them. One that brings together contact center, voice, video, chat, and SMS and delivers it with the reliability, integration, and expert services only a customer-obsessed company can provide. See how 8x8 is leading with Customer-Obsessed Communications.
  8. 8x8 (EGHT) is back on NASDAQ. Twenty-five years ago, 8x8 IPOed on the Nasdaq as a chip company with roughly $50m in revenue. This year, we celebrated returning to the Nasdaq as a $740m global SaaS software company. Nasdaq has always been the exchange of choice for technology innovators, and we are proud to be counted among its listed companies once again. Watch the conversation between enterprise communications analyst Dave Michels and 8x8 Chief Technology Officer Bryan Martin on 8x8’s evolution, innovation, and return to Nasdaq.

8x8 delivers one platform for every communications experience. If your organization is looking to move your business communications to the cloud or improve your business communications in the cloud, 8x8 can help. Contact us. ->

(Photo courtesy of Nasdaq, Inc.)