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Business News 3rd September 2015

8×8 Expands Asia Pacific Presence

8x8 Expands Asia Pacific Presence
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8×8 Expands Asia Pacific Presence and Signs Reseller Agreement with CSG

Increases Enterprise Cloud Communications Footprint in Australia, New Zealand and Extends Company’s Global Reach® Initiative

8×8, Inc. (NASDAQ:EGHT), a leading provider of cloud-based unified communications and contact centre solutions, announced that the company has expanded its presence in Asia Pacific and has signed a new reseller agreement with ASX listed CSG, a leading business technology and communications solutions specialist. As part of the agreement, CSG will serve as an 8×8 channel partner for Asia Pacific and resell the company’s entire portfolio of enterprise cloud communications solutions to the Australian and New Zealand markets – including its award-winning Virtual Office and Virtual Contact Centre solutions.

CSG takes an integrated ‘cloud-first’ approach to help its customers maximise productivity and reduce costs.  As part of its 8×8 go-to-market strategy, CSG will launch a new service to onboard employees with a turnkey offering that bundles 8×8 cloud communications solutions with telephony hardware, a laptop, online file storage and back-up in a complete end-user package—all supported by the company’s national service team. CSG customers will benefit from the simplicity and ease of this rapidly deployable, pre-configured bundle for a simple and predictable monthly cost.  CSG’s cloud solutions sold as a service also scale to suit the larger enterprise, and 8×8’s Virtual Contact Centre will be a critical solution for this market.

CSG’s Chief Executive Officer, Julie-Ann Kerin said, “I am extremely pleased that 8×8’s world-leading Virtual Office and Virtual Contact Centre products are now part of our ever-expanding, innovative cloud solutions portfolio. We work with some of the world’s leading technology brands and are delighted to have 8×8 as one of our key partners.”

“Our partnership with CSG allows 8×8 to further extend its footprint and better serve our valued customers in Asia Pacific as part of our ongoing Global Reach strategy,” said Vik Verma, 8×8 CEO.  “The growing demand for enterprise cloud communications in key international markets such as Australia and New Zealand has become critical for our customers. CSG has a valued reputation and broad footprint across Australia and New Zealand, enabling us to offer a highly innovative enterprise cloud communications solution to a broader customer segment in one of the fastest growing technology hubs for enterprise communications.” 

8×8 Product Innovations Solve Critical Business Communications Needs

As the only integrated communications platform, 8×8 combines core business telephony and contact centre functionality onto a single, secure cloud-based platform. By integrating the company’s Virtual Office and Virtual Contact Centre solutions, 8×8 helps businesses eliminate the gap between their contact centre agents and other employees to deliver superior customer service. 8×8’s Virtual Office is a sophisticated, highly affordable, enterprise-class phone service over the Internet. Virtual Office provides essential enterprise-class telephony and unified communications features including, auto attendants, an online dashboard, soft phones, and mobile apps. Chat, presence management, third party CRM and ERP integrations, and powerful analytics are also a critical part of this business telephony solution.  In May, 8×8 was awarded the number one ranking in the IHS Infonetics’ Annual “Cloud UC Service Provider North American Scorecard” report for the second consecutive year.

Additionally, 8×8 introduced VCC Global, the first cloud-based contact centre solution that seamlessly connects an organisation’s international agents over a single platform with integrated presence, multi-lingual chat with automatic translation, call routing, reporting and management. VCC Global is a highly innovative ‘Follow-the-Sun’ solution that uses local connectivity and natural language translation to provide personalised customer experiences worldwide.

“8×8 has been gaining impressive traction globally for years and is now leading the charge to truly disrupt the market with its innovative, integrated cloud communications platform,” continued CSG’s Kerin. “The business communications market in Asia Pacific demands the highest levels of quality of service, uptime and security – and together, 8×8 and CSG deliver. 8×8 is a critical component of our go-to-market strategy, and we are now well positioned to offer best-in-class communications solutions to aggressively compete in the region. We are excited to team to provide a highly differentiated cloud communications portfolio for the evolving, burgeoning enterprise APAC market.”