8×8 Enhances Unified Cloud Communications Offering With New Calling, Chat and Web Conferencing Features
March 26, 2012
8×8, Inc., provider of innovative business communications and cloud computing solutions, today announced the addition of numerous feature enhancements to its Virtual Office cloud PBX business phone service and integrated Virtual Office Pro unified communications solution, to be unveiled at the Enterprise Connect 2012 conference, March 26 — 29 in Orlando, Florida.
With the 8×8 Virtual Office unified cloud communications solution, businesses can access their core communications services from any location using an IP phone, PC and web browser or smart phone. The latest feature enhancements provide businesses with additional call handling capabilities and more intuitive web-based options, making day-to-day business communications simpler and more productive…
— 4-Line Appearance Service — Virtual Office users now have the option to
upgrade their Polycom IP phone to handle 4 calls simultaneously by using
all 4 line keys to receive and transfer calls, place callers on hold,
etc.- a great feature for receptionists or group administrators juggling
many calls.
— Streamlined Dialing — Phone numbers stored in a user’s Virtual Office
Online contact list can be pre-configured to automatically navigate an
auto attendant or retrieve voicemail by including pauses, # and *
symbols in the contact numbers.
— Call Handling — Call forwarding rules can now be assigned on a group
basis, rather than individually, to select many numbers such as those
with a specific area code.
— Online Chat — Chat session windows can be pulled out of the Virtual
Office Online browser and placed onto the user’s desktop in a
freestanding, resizable browser window for more efficient handling and
usage. Users have the option to automatically bring a chat window to the
front whenever an incoming message is received.
— Presence Management — Users have an option to sort personal and
corporate directory contacts by presence to readily identify who’s
available and who’s not.
— Web Conferencing — Virtual Meeting users can now instantly schedule a
web conference by typing a simple sentence such as "Sales Recap every
Wed at 11am."
— Whiteboard — A new whiteboard feature allows Virtual Meeting and
Virtual Room video conferencing users to enhance collaboration with a
blank page and a palette of drawing tools.
— Content Sharing Annotation — Virtual Meeting and Virtual Room users can
highlight, draw and make notes on content being shared to visually
enhance a presentation. Users can save the annotated screen as a PNG
file.
— Chat Initiated Web Conference — Users can now quickly initiate a
Virtual Meeting web conference from within a chat window by simply
clicking "Start Meeting."
— Video Conferencing — Users can pop out the video panel of a Virtual
Meeting or Virtual Room to expand the content sharing area. Users can
now rearrange video and content sharing panels to be side-by-side or
stacked for better visibility.
"We are very pleased to roll out these new productivity enhancing features to our cloud communications platform," said Debbie Jo Severin, 8×8 chief marketing officer. "Many of these upgrades were driven by the valuable input we receive from our customers who are rapidly becoming proficient, web-based communications users. It’s great to see the adoption of these technologies grow and the subsequent benefits they are delivering to our business customers. We look forward to maintaining an open dialogue with our customers so that we can continue to offer the most innovative and powerful cloud communications solutions on the market."
8×8’s Virtual Office Pro unified cloud communications solution offers enterprise class phone service with unlimited calling and a wide array of PBX calling features plus unlimited web conferencing with video, call recording and archiving, chat, Internet fax, presence and voicemail management and a Virtual Office mobile app for iPhone, iPad and Android devices for less than $50 per user.
For additional information on 8×8’s latest unified communications enhancements, go to http://www.8×8.com/CommunicationsSolutions/ByProduct/VirtualOffice/whatsnew.aspx . For information on all 8×8 cloud communications solutions, go to http://www.8×8.com/CommunicationsSolutions/ByProduct/VirtualOfficePro.aspx .