TMCnet News

8x8 Gains Strong Enterprise Customer Momentum in Education Market
[January 26, 2016]

8x8 Gains Strong Enterprise Customer Momentum in Education Market


8x8 (News - Alert), 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 (News - Alert), 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 (News - Alert) 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.


[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]