At Cott Systems, everyone works better together on XCaaS

All-In-One - XCaaS Business Phone Contact Center Video Conferencing Business Services

Cott Systems provides county and town governments with software solutions for public records management. The company is an industry leader for recording, imaging, and searching land and court records, with over 400 active systems across 21 states.

"By switching to 8x8, our staff can now take calls from anywhere on their preferred device. I take 90% of my calls on my mobile phone because I have the 8x8 Work app loaded and it rings there like any other call. It's just super easy."

Eric Payne, Internal Systems & Support Manager, Cott Systems

"By switching to 8x8, our staff can now take calls from anywhere on their preferred device. I take 90% of my calls on my mobile phone because I have the 8x8 Work app loaded and it rings there like any other call. It's just super easy."

Eric Payne, Internal Systems & Support Manager, Cott Systems

"By switching to 8x8, our staff can now take calls from anywhere on their preferred device. I take 90% of my calls on my mobile phone because I have the 8x8 Work app loaded and it rings there like any other call. It's just super easy."

Eric Payne, Internal Systems & Support Manager, Cott Systems

"By switching to 8x8, our staff can now take calls from anywhere on their preferred device. I take 90% of my calls on my mobile phone because I have the 8x8 Work app loaded and it rings there like any other call. It's just super easy."

Eric Payne, Internal Systems & Support Manager, Cott Systems

Founded in 1888, Cott started out as a bookbinding company that helped county registrars bind paper records into larger books for index searching. With the advent of modern technology, Cott and its customers have pivoted to software. More recently, the company added a new dimension to its digital transformation by moving from a legacy PBX system to 8x8’s cloud-based eXperience Communications Platform (XCaaS).

The Challenge: A sudden transition from legacy PBX

Like many businesses in 2020, Cott Systems had to suddenly transition to remote work when the coronavirus pandemic hit. The company had been running on a hybrid PBX system: phones relayed through a physical server in the office that connected to a PBX cloud server. Although the system supported call forwarding, this was far from ideal. Eric Payne, Internal Systems & Support Manager at Cott, says, “At that point, calls were leaving our phone system completely. We had to make a pivot.”

The goal was to move from PBX to a modern, cloud-based solution to enable employees to work from anywhere and use their mobile devices if needed. This would help administrative, managerial, and call center staff to be more efficient while not physically together in the office. Due to the urgency of the situation, Payne and team had to act quickly. Within 48 hours they had adopted a cloud call center solution, but the office staff still relied on call forwarding.

After a couple of months, it was clear that remote work was not going away anytime soon. This initial service was not a good fit, so Cott decided to search for a more robust, longterm solution that would work for all parts of the business.

The company was expanding into a 10,000 square foot warehouse facility, and not all rooms were equipped with hard internet lines. The company needed a cost-effective solution that could help them avoid a heavy electrical expenditure.

The business also sought to implement a solution that would be easy to administer and maintain with existing staff, so that they could avoid hiring dedicated IT staff resources.

The solution: an integrated communications platform with advanced features

Initially, Payne and team sat down with five different vendors to review their demos and discuss the company’s needs. After narrowing the list down to three, Cott eventually selected 8x8 due to a number of unbeatable advantages. “At a high level, it was a combination of competitive pricing and call center functionality,” says Payne. “8x8 brought a lot of value for the money, and the XCaaS solution had the call center functionality that we were looking for.”

8x8 offered a native platform and reduced deployment costs. “It was like night and day,” says Payne. “A huge selling point for us was the fact that 8x8 had its own eXperience Communication Platform, with both unified communications and contact center on a single platform. The other vendors had external platforms involving partnerships and $10k to $20k in startup costs. That was not the case with 8x8.”

With 8x8’s integrated unified communications (UC) and contact center (CC) approach, call center agents appreciate the 8x8 Work app included in their new system. “The chat functionality has been particularly helpful to agents,” says Payne. “Call center agents can see each other’s availability status live, instead of whether or not they are on a call, and can message them via chat.” Now that employees have their own private meeting space, the company has been moving away from its previous video conferencing solutions towards using 8x8’s embedded solution—resulting in further cost savings.

Another key advantage has been 8x8’s expanded contact center functionality, such as post-call voice surveys, which are more engaging for customers than email surveys. For customer service managers, this feature provides a valuable window into the customer experience, allowing managers to take fast action on negative feedback or motivate agents with positive feedback.

The benefits: streamlined communications for all

During the implementation, 8x8’s technical support helped to make Cott’s transition successful. “8x8 prepared us well for receiving the system and made sure that we had all of our extensions remapped, and all of our call routing fully set up, tested, and functional before we actually went live. I couldn’t say enough positive things about the team that I worked with on our transition.”

Since the rollout, reporting and training processes have improved thanks to having a single platform for UC and CC. Now, managers can access data on a wide range of contact center activity and review daily reports. The 8x8 meetings log makes it easy to locate and listen to historical calls. During new agent onboarding, for example, managers have trainees listen to pre-recorded interactions so they can hear examples of successful call handling.

As for Cott’s initial remote work challenge, 8x8’s XCaaS solution has not only solved that problem easily, but it has also streamlined communications for all employees, regardless of role or location. Payne says, “By switching to 8x8, our staff can now take calls from anywhere on their preferred device. I take 90% of my calls on my mobile phone because I have the 8x8 Work app loaded and it rings there like any other call. It’s just super easy.”

The solution: an integrated communications platform with advanced features

Initially, Payne and team sat down with five different vendors to review their demos and discuss the company’s needs. After narrowing the list down to three, Cott eventually selected 8x8 due to a number of unbeatable advantages. “At a high level, it was a combination of competitive pricing and call center functionality,” says Payne. “8x8 brought a lot of value for the money, and the XCaaS solution had the call center functionality that we were looking for.”

8x8 offered a native platform and reduced deployment costs. “It was like night and day,” says Payne. “A huge selling point for us was the fact that 8x8 had its own eXperience Communication Platform, with both unified communications and contact center on a single platform. The other vendors had external platforms involving partnerships and $10k to $20k in startup costs. That was not the case with 8x8.”

With 8x8’s integrated unified communications (UC) and contact center (CC) approach, call center agents appreciate the 8x8 Work app included in their new system. “The chat functionality has been particularly helpful to agents,” says Payne. “Call center agents can see each other’s availability status live, instead of whether or not they are on a call, and can message them via chat.” Now that employees have their own private meeting space, the company has been moving away from its previous video conferencing solutions towards using 8x8’s embedded solution—resulting in further cost savings.

Another key advantage has been 8x8’s expanded contact center functionality, such as post-call voice surveys, which are more engaging for customers than email surveys. For customer service managers, this feature provides a valuable window into the customer experience, allowing managers to take fast action on negative feedback or motivate agents with positive feedback.

The benefits: streamlined communications for all

During the implementation, 8x8’s technical support helped to make Cott’s transition successful. “8x8 prepared us well for receiving the system and made sure that we had all of our extensions remapped, and all of our call routing fully set up, tested, and functional before we actually went live. I couldn’t say enough positive things about the team that I worked with on our transition.”

Since the rollout, reporting and training processes have improved thanks to having a single platform for UC and CC. Now, managers can access data on a wide range of contact center activity and review daily reports. The 8x8 meetings log makes it easy to locate and listen to historical calls. During new agent onboarding, for example, managers have trainees listen to pre-recorded interactions so they can hear examples of successful call handling.

As for Cott’s initial remote work challenge, 8x8’s XCaaS solution has not only solved that problem easily, but it has also streamlined communications for all employees, regardless of role or location. Payne says, “By switching to 8x8, our staff can now take calls from anywhere on their preferred device. I take 90% of my calls on my mobile phone because I have the 8x8 Work app loaded and it rings there like any other call. It’s just super easy.”

The solution: an integrated communications platform with advanced features

Initially, Payne and team sat down with five different vendors to review their demos and discuss the company’s needs. After narrowing the list down to three, Cott eventually selected 8x8 due to a number of unbeatable advantages. “At a high level, it was a combination of competitive pricing and call center functionality,” says Payne. “8x8 brought a lot of value for the money, and the XCaaS solution had the call center functionality that we were looking for.”

8x8 offered a native platform and reduced deployment costs. “It was like night and day,” says Payne. “A huge selling point for us was the fact that 8x8 had its own eXperience Communication Platform, with both unified communications and contact center on a single platform. The other vendors had external platforms involving partnerships and $10k to $20k in startup costs. That was not the case with 8x8.”

With 8x8’s integrated unified communications (UC) and contact center (CC) approach, call center agents appreciate the 8x8 Work app included in their new system. “The chat functionality has been particularly helpful to agents,” says Payne. “Call center agents can see each other’s availability status live, instead of whether or not they are on a call, and can message them via chat.” Now that employees have their own private meeting space, the company has been moving away from its previous video conferencing solutions towards using 8x8’s embedded solution—resulting in further cost savings.

Another key advantage has been 8x8’s expanded contact center functionality, such as post-call voice surveys, which are more engaging for customers than email surveys. For customer service managers, this feature provides a valuable window into the customer experience, allowing managers to take fast action on negative feedback or motivate agents with positive feedback.

The benefits: streamlined communications for all

During the implementation, 8x8’s technical support helped to make Cott’s transition successful. “8x8 prepared us well for receiving the system and made sure that we had all of our extensions remapped, and all of our call routing fully set up, tested, and functional before we actually went live. I couldn’t say enough positive things about the team that I worked with on our transition.”

Since the rollout, reporting and training processes have improved thanks to having a single platform for UC and CC. Now, managers can access data on a wide range of contact center activity and review daily reports. The 8x8 meetings log makes it easy to locate and listen to historical calls. During new agent onboarding, for example, managers have trainees listen to pre-recorded interactions so they can hear examples of successful call handling.

As for Cott’s initial remote work challenge, 8x8’s XCaaS solution has not only solved that problem easily, but it has also streamlined communications for all employees, regardless of role or location. Payne says, “By switching to 8x8, our staff can now take calls from anywhere on their preferred device. I take 90% of my calls on my mobile phone because I have the 8x8 Work app loaded and it rings there like any other call. It’s just super easy.”

The solution: an integrated communications platform with advanced features

Initially, Payne and team sat down with five different vendors to review their demos and discuss the company’s needs. After narrowing the list down to three, Cott eventually selected 8x8 due to a number of unbeatable advantages. “At a high level, it was a combination of competitive pricing and call center functionality,” says Payne. “8x8 brought a lot of value for the money, and the XCaaS solution had the call center functionality that we were looking for.”

8x8 offered a native platform and reduced deployment costs. “It was like night and day,” says Payne. “A huge selling point for us was the fact that 8x8 had its own eXperience Communication Platform, with both unified communications and contact center on a single platform. The other vendors had external platforms involving partnerships and $10k to $20k in startup costs. That was not the case with 8x8.”

With 8x8’s integrated unified communications (UC) and contact center (CC) approach, call center agents appreciate the 8x8 Work app included in their new system. “The chat functionality has been particularly helpful to agents,” says Payne. “Call center agents can see each other’s availability status live, instead of whether or not they are on a call, and can message them via chat.” Now that employees have their own private meeting space, the company has been moving away from its previous video conferencing solutions towards using 8x8’s embedded solution—resulting in further cost savings.

Another key advantage has been 8x8’s expanded contact center functionality, such as post-call voice surveys, which are more engaging for customers than email surveys. For customer service managers, this feature provides a valuable window into the customer experience, allowing managers to take fast action on negative feedback or motivate agents with positive feedback.

The benefits: streamlined communications for all

During the implementation, 8x8’s technical support helped to make Cott’s transition successful. “8x8 prepared us well for receiving the system and made sure that we had all of our extensions remapped, and all of our call routing fully set up, tested, and functional before we actually went live. I couldn’t say enough positive things about the team that I worked with on our transition.”

Since the rollout, reporting and training processes have improved thanks to having a single platform for UC and CC. Now, managers can access data on a wide range of contact center activity and review daily reports. The 8x8 meetings log makes it easy to locate and listen to historical calls. During new agent onboarding, for example, managers have trainees listen to pre-recorded interactions so they can hear examples of successful call handling.

As for Cott’s initial remote work challenge, 8x8’s XCaaS solution has not only solved that problem easily, but it has also streamlined communications for all employees, regardless of role or location. Payne says, “By switching to 8x8, our staff can now take calls from anywhere on their preferred device. I take 90% of my calls on my mobile phone because I have the 8x8 Work app loaded and it rings there like any other call. It’s just super easy.”

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