Welcome to Ask the Experts, brought to you by CloudServicesUniversity.com. In this video, Intelisys’ SVP Cloud Transformation Andrew Pryfogle discusses the different dialer solutions for outbound contact centers and the value of a fast go-to-market strategy with 8×8’s Chris Peters. Learn more about contact center solutions from the 8×8 team here: https://cloudservicesuniversity.com/supplier-directory/8×8/
| Andrew: | All right, guys. Time for another Ask the Experts session. We’ve been talking about different types of contact centers. Ones that are predominantly inbound. Ones that are predominantly outbound. The different dialer solutions out there for outbound contact centers. I’ve asked Chris Peters to come join us today. Chris is the Vice President of Strategic Channel Development for 8×8. They have a really robust contact center solution. Chris, welcome, man. |
| Chris: | Hey, thanks. Appreciate it, the opportunity to be here. |
| Andrew: | Yeah, good deal. Hey, I wanted to talk about the difference between inbound and outbound contact centers, and really where 8×8 plays most effectively. You’ve made some news in this area recently. Tell us about your strategy around both inbound and outbound contact centers. Where should we be looking for 8×8 to fit? |
| Chris: | Well, we’ve been offering our cloud contact center with both inbound and outbound call capabilities, now, for a number of years. Although, we just recently announced an acquisition of DXI. They’re a London-based company that specialized in really, two very interesting things for us. One of them is that they have a very impressive, predictive, and a progressive, as well as, a very robust preview dialer for outbound campaigns. It’s also interesting that they have a unique go-to-market strategy. Instead of our traditional customer getting deployed in a matter of a couple of weeks, with their contact center solution, DXI has a go-to-market strategy. It allows the customers to sign-up online and be actually up and running with their contact solution in a matter of minutes. We think that makes a big difference. You can do a “pay-as-you-go,” or some other type of methodology there, but it’s, again, a faster time to market. |
| Regardless, we also made an announcement recently about an acquisition of Quality Software Corporation, specializing–they’re out in Romania–specializing in quality management solutions that then get integrated into a module to our contact solution. | |
| Inbound and outbound contact centers are an absolute must. When you look at a tax support, for instance, organization, they need to be able to not only take calls or emails or chats coming in, they also need to be able to facilitate web call backs, or queue opt-outs. It’s imperative that they have inbound and outbound calling capabilities. | |
| We’ve had some concern about the regulatory environment with outbound predictive dialers in particular. Debt collectors, things of that nature. It’s just very difficult. Most predictive dialers these days cannot come near maxing out their outbound calling capabilities simply because the law doesn’t allow them to. | |
| DXI, by the way, has a fully regulatory compliant outbound predictive dialer that we’ll be bringing here to the United States. We’ll look at that again, target it to some of the nontraditional contact center opportunities, such as a sales team. It used to be, in the old days, that sales teams would be using Yellow Pages to dial-for-dollars. Now, we integrate all the data that we can get from any number of sources to enable them to have an outbound dialing campaign that is going to be much more effective to success. To isolate the opportunities that’ll make a lot of sense, a lot of less wasted calls, if you will. | |
| Andrew: | Got it. Very cool, very cool. Well, there you go, guys. That’s 8×8 doubling down on their contact center strategy. Acquiring some new technology that will allow them to be even more unique and more competitive specifically in the outbound predictive dialer arena. Those can be big deals. Chris, that’s exciting to hear. |
| Chris: | Yeah. Yup, we’re excited. Absolutely. |
| Andres: | Well, guys, that’s Chris Peters. He’s the Vice President of Strategic Channel Development for 8×8. Great to have you in here, Chris. You’re always welcome. Great insights, I appreciate the time. |
| Chris: | Thank you. Appreciate it. |
| Andrew: | Guys, do check out the 8×8 learning center. Lots of great information there that can help accelerate the growth of your cloud business. Good selling. |
