Two New 8×8 Virtual Office Services Provide SMBs Additional Ways to Maximize Employee Productivity

SUNNYVALE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Unified communications (UC), video calling and cloud-based PBXs all boost productivity and responsiveness, but only when they’re convenient and intuitive enough for all users. That’s why 8×8, Inc. (NASDAQ: EGHT) today announced Virtual Receptionist and Group Intercom Multicast Paging, two new Virtual Office cloud PBX services that make internal and external communication with business partners and customers more efficient and productive.

Virtual Receptionist, available now as an 8×8 Virtual Office add-on service, takes advantage of the intuitive smartphone-like interface and advanced, fourth generation firmware of the new Polycom VVX 500 IP phone to add powerful call handling and work group monitoring capabilities to the Virtual Office business phone service.

With Virtual Receptionist, 8×8 Virtual Office customers can:

• Process up to six concurrent, incoming live calls, all without the expense and desk clutter of accessory sidecar devices.
• Observe the presence status of up to six team member extensions, including those using any other Polycom, Aastra or Cisco desk phone, using busy line field (BLF) keys with speed dial, and instant transfer functions to maximize responsiveness between colleagues.
• Enable immediate collaboration with customers, suppliers and business partners by using speed dial keys.

The Group Intercom Multicast Paging service enables 8×8 Virtual Office users to make real-time announcements to a department, team or work area using the intercom feature on the Polycom VVX 500 phone, subsequently eliminating the need for an expensive multi-zone loudspeaker paging system.

With Group Intercom Multicast Paging, 8×8 Virtual Office customers can:

• Intercom to specific paging groups or broadcast a page to all other Polycom VVX 500 sets on the Virtual Office PBX by choosing the emergency or priority group.
• Create and manage up to 23 customer defined paging groups using the 8×8 Account Manager Portal.
• Manage permissions for who can broadcast pages and who can only receive them.

Another enhancement, the updated 8×8 Account Manager Web Portal, now provides administrators with efficient, centralized control options over Virtual Receptionist, Group Intercom Multicast Paging and other 8×8 PBX features.

In the future, 8×8 plans to extend Virtual Receptionist and Group Intercom Multicast Paging to all other 8×8-supported Polycom deskphones by porting the fourth generation Polycom firmware to those models. This roadmap will let 8×8 customers with legacy Polycom deskphones take advantage of these new offerings, preserving their investment in those devices.

“8×8 developed Virtual Receptionist and Group Intercom Multicast Paging because they were two of our customers’ most requested features,” said 8×8 Chairman and CEO Bryan Martin. “We were able to quickly accommodate these requests due to the innovation and agility enabled by our own internally-developed technology platform. The Polycom VVX 500 deskphone complements this innovation by providing our customers a highly intuitive way to access these new features and the rest of our Virtual Office suite via a touchscreen interface.”

The 8×8 Virtual Receptionist and Group Intercom Multicast Paging services are both available today.

More at www.8×8.com