The Challenge: An expensive, complex, on-premises system
Prior to adopting 8x8, Empire Merchants was running an on-premises Cisco system to support its multiple locations and large workforce. However, their system was complex and difficult to maintain, and it was getting more and more expensive over time. This prompted the company to look for a replacement, and they set their sights on moving to a modern solution.
So, the IT team began an extensive RFP process to look for a new voice and contact center solution. Their primary requirements included robust contact center functionality and integration with Microsoft Teams. They brought in a Microsoft partner to present their solution, but there was no true integration with Teams and the contact center solution, and the costs were extremely high.
“Our sister company, Brescome Barton, was using 8x8 and they were happy with the results,” says Patrick Archbold, IT Infrastructure Manager at Empire Merchants. “They highly recommended 8x8, so we took a closer look. 8x8 impressed us in terms of features and functionality.” The team narrowed down their options, and in the end, they chose 8x8 XCaaS. The decision came down to 8x8’s excellent unified solution for both voice and contact center.”
The Solution: The sky’s the limit with cloud communications
Empire Merchants had the rare luxury of limited staff during the rollout of the 8x8 eXperience Communications Platform. The second week of January is typically an “industry shutdown” period, where many businesses typically pause their operations for a week. “We were able to soft launch with only a handful of agents covering the phones and a few other employees on site, and everything went smoothly,” recalls Archbold. “So, when everyone came back the following week, we were in very good shape and had very few open issues remaining.”
As a wholesale distributor, Empire Merchants’ customers are anyone with a license to sell liquor, such as bars, restaurants, and liquor stores. This means that they sell to a highly targeted base of about 10,000 customers. 8x8 Contact Center enables the company’s customer support organization to serve these customers quickly and efficiently whenever they call in to place an order or with questions. Most of the office staff is using 8x8 Work for traditional telephony needs, including inbound and outbound calling.
Initially, Archbold and team wanted to avoid scope creep and focus only on getting the basics in place before their deadline. In Phase 2, they’ll look at rolling out other features, such as Integration with the ERP, call back features, advanced analytics, and 8x8 Voice for Microsoft Teams, to designated employees.
The Results: Improving operations today, and in the future
Moving from an complex and costly on-premises solution to 8x8 in the cloud has brought the company a number of benefits. “We met some big objectives with 8x8,” says Ed Lederer, CIO at Empire Merchants. “We’ve reduced our costs. Our team can now maintain the system easily in-house. And our workforce has found 8x8 to be simple and easy to use.”
As the IT team continues to explore more ways to leverage 8x8 features and functionality, they expect the platform to become even more valuable. “8x8 meets our needs now, but I think it will also allow our contact center in particular to grow and improve going forward,” says Lederer.
Archbold agrees, “This is an exercise in continuous improvement. We don’t want to say, ‘We finished the phone system and we’re done now.’ Instead, we plan to sit down with 8x8 to review what we have in place and map out the future.”
