8x8 Gains Strong Enterprise Customer Momentum in Education Market
January 26 2016 - 8:15AM
Business Wire
Fast-Growing U.S. School Districts Net
Significant Cost Savings, Voice Capabilities with 8x8’s Innovative,
Scalable Cloud Communications Solution
8x8, Inc. (NASDAQ:EGHT), a leading provider of cloud-based
unified communications and contact center solutions, today
announced that the company is gaining strong momentum in the
education market—with two new K-12 U.S.-based schools deploying the
company’s Enterprise Communications as-a-Service (ECaaS) solutions.
Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District (FSUSD) and Little Elm
Independent School District (ISD) are the latest 8x8 enterprise
customers migrating to the cloud to leverage a continuous
communications experience and robust voice service that delivers a
highly scalable, cost-effective solution throughout every stage of
growth.
Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District To
Deploy 8x8 Virtual Office Across 29 Campuses
Located halfway between San Francisco and Sacramento in Northern
California, FSUSD enrolls approximately 22,000 K-12 students across
29 campuses—including three high schools, four middle schools, 17
elementary schools, several specialty schools and one adult school.
8x8 offered FSUSD flexible service plans at different usage tiers
and models that could uniquely meet their needs. The district
expects to save $500,000 annually on business phone service and
will be able to scale cost-effectively as growth continues.
Following an initial pilot migration of its district office and
two schools as a proof of concept, FSUSD began rolling out 8x8
service in August. To date, the migration has been seamless because
the district’s network was already robust and few configuration
changes were required. Once the phone numbers were ported over from
AT&T, activating the 8x8 phones took less than a day.
As the FSUSD campuses migrate to 8x8, 4-digit extension dialing
has proven to be a major benefit to both users and the district’s
bottom line— helping eliminate costly local toll charges as well as
saving time. Previously, each FSUSD campus had its own phone
system. This meant that users had to place outbound calls in order
to reach colleagues at other district locations.
8x8’s district-wide directory service has quickly become popular
within the district. The directory can be accessed from any
device—smartphone, desk phone or computer—making it easy to look up
and contact co-workers across any district location. “We’ve already
got nearly 2,000 employees and 30 sites, and we’re still growing,”
notes Tim Goree, director of technology support services at FSUSD.
“The 8x8 directory is an extremely valuable, time-saving tool that
helps all of us stay connected.”
Little Elm ISD Preps for Double-Digit Growth, Slashes Costs
with 8x8
Little Elm ISD, located near Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, has
deployed 8x8 cloud communications across its 10 campuses. Little
Elm is one of the fastest-growing school districts in Texas, and
over the next 10 years, the number of enrolled students is expected
to double, or even triple, in size. It was imperative that the
district secured a cost-effective replacement phone system that
could cost-effectively accommodate its projected double-digit
growth. Little Elm ISD’s 20-year-old, legacy phone system posed a
major barrier to its growth plans as the system was past its normal
technology life span and parts and support were no longer
available.
Little Elm ISD selected 8x8 to modernize its phone service and
realize significant cost savings as the district poised for rapid
growth. The deployment began in July, and within two weeks with a
limited IT staff, the district successfully migrated 10 campuses,
bringing 800 devices and 1000 users online. Following the quick
enterprise-grade deployment, the district dramatically decreased
its monthly phone service charges. “Our cost savings with 8x8 are
enormous compared to our legacy system,” said David Rodriguez,
network administrator for Little Elm ISD. “Switching to cloud
communications has been significantly more cost-effective than
staying with traditional lines.”
Today, all Little Elm ISD campuses and offices are unified on
8x8. Users can now call colleagues at any district location by
simply dialing a 5-digit extension. Faculty members use 8x8 phones
in classrooms to hold parent-teacher conferences. Office staff can
now forward voicemail messages via email instead of writing paper
messages. IT staff can use the 8x8 mobile app while working onsite
at the various campuses to ensure they stay connected from
anywhere. Additionally, district employees can also use a soft
phone client on a laptop instead of a traditional desk phone to
make calls, send messages and check voicemail. This added
flexibility is re-defining the way they approach their jobs—freeing
up more time to focus on students, parents and co-workers.
“School district budgets typically run lean and we often have to
work miracles with what we have,” noted Rodriguez. “8x8’s solution
is robust, highly reliable, and cost-effective for the district to
implement, and also pliable for the IT department to maintain. The
rollout was a huge win for our IT team, especially since we were
able to do it so quickly, even with limited staff. With 8x8, we can
expand and modify our phone system as needed and support all the
customers we serve—both internal and external.”
“8x8 has successfully deployed highly reliable and affordable
phone systems for non-profits around the world and is well poised
to bring that same level of enterprise-grade voice service to the
budget-conscious education market,” said Enzo Signore, 8x8 CMO.
“Educational systems of all sizes can deploy proven, cloud-based
telephony in the schools as they strive to lower their total cost
of ownership, as well as simplifying and modernizing their
communications systems. The beauty of 8x8’s cloud communications
offering is that it can scale to suit virtually any unique
requirements for every phase of growth.”
About 8x8, Inc.
8x8, Inc. (NASDAQ:EGHT) is the trusted provider of secure
and reliable enterprise cloud communications solutions to more than
40,000 businesses operating in over 100 countries across six
continents. 8x8's out-of-the-box cloud solutions replace
traditional on-premises PBX hardware and software-based systems
with a flexible and scalable Software as a Service (SaaS)
alternative, encompassing cloud business phone service, contact
center solutions, and conferencing. For additional information,
visit www.8x8.com, www.8x8.com/UK or connect with 8x8
on LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+ and Facebook.
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version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160126005387/en/
8x8, Inc.Jodi Guilbault, 415-987-4970jodi.guilbault@8x8.com
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