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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