Work anywhere enabled
Christian Brothers Services invests in a cloud-first future with 8x8
Christian Brothers Services invests in a cloud-first future with 8x8
Christian Brothers Services is a nonprofit organization that administers cooperative programs in the areas of health, retirement, property/casualty, technology, school management and consulting services to Church organizations.
100%
100s
Monthly meetings on 8x8
280
Employees
100%
Work anywhere enabled
100s
Monthly meetings on 8x8
280
Employees
100%
Work anywhere enabled
100s
Monthly meetings on 8x8
280
Employees
100%
Work anywhere enabled
100s
Monthly meetings on 8x8
280
Employees
"8x8 is not just a vendor, but a long-term partner. It’s really an investment in our future."
John Desmond, Operations Manager, Christian Brothers Services
"8x8 is not just a vendor, but a long-term partner. It’s really an investment in our future."
John Desmond, Operations Manager, Christian Brothers Services
"8x8 is not just a vendor, but a long-term partner. It’s really an investment in our future."
John Desmond, Operations Manager, Christian Brothers Services
"8x8 is not just a vendor, but a long-term partner. It’s really an investment in our future."
John Desmond, Operations Manager, Christian Brothers Services
Business overview
Christian Brothers Services (CBS) is a nonprofit organization that administers employee benefit and other programs along with consulting services to Catholic organizations across the US. For over 60 years, CBS has offered a wide range of services, including health, property/casualty insurance, retirement planning, risk management, school management, and outsourced IT support.
Building relationships is at the heart of its mission, and CBS provides personalized support to each client and program member. When CBS needed to replace aging on-premises systems, it was the 8x8 team’s careful understanding of the organization’s needs that set CBS up with a cloud-first communications partner for the future.
The challenge: finding the right cloud-first provider
The operations team at CBS supports 280 employees across the country and outsources IT services everywhere possible to gain related benefits. To better improve IT service delivery and manage costs, the team moved their on-premises data center to the cloud in 2016. “This greatly reduced maintenance and capital expenses,” says CIO Tom Drez. “We could still administer all our systems in the same way as before. We just no longer needed to see them to administer them.” This project was the first that defined CBS’s CloudFirst approach going forward.
With this first major cloud project completed, CBS then began a top-down review of all its communications systems, including on-premises PBX’s in all office locations, contact center, and fax, soliciting input company-wide on requirements. Two criteria were top of mind for the operations team.
First, CBS wanted to reduce complexity and effort by moving to a single-vendor solution. “We liked 8x8 because they write all their own software,” says Tom Drez. “They can upgrade on their own schedule, and we don’t have to worry about integration testing.”
Secondly, the team preferred vendors with a similar relationship focus as CBS. “Some had a cookie-cutter approach,” says ITS Operations Supervisor Brian Dwyer. “We could tell that their proposal was not tailored to us. 8x8 took the time to listen, evaluate our unique situation, and come up with the best solution for us.”
The solution: new opportunities for collaboration and efficiency
CBS rolled out 8x8 X Series, which includes 8x8 Work and 8x8 Contact Center across its workforce in 2019. “8x8 was very easy to implement,” says Tom Drez. “We had no on-prem equipment to deploy other than some endpoints.” During implementation, 8x8 engineers were on hand to answer questions and help troubleshoot or make any customizations needed.
To gauge the success of their new solution, the team looked to their previous system as a benchmark. “We wanted the new system to do on its first day what the old system did on its last day,” says Tom Drez. “8x8 gave us that — and much more.”
CBS employees learn new ways of working
User choice is a key philosophy for the Operations team. CBS employees range from those new to the workforce to those preparing for retirement, and everyone wants to work in their own way. 8x8 has fit right into the palette of options at CBS, giving users a variety of collaboration tools from one interface.
8x8’s unified communications as a service (UCaaS) has been especially helpful on mobile devices. “Sometimes, it’s just a lot more convenient to work from my phone rather than always having to be at my desk to take a call or send a text,” says Tom Drez.
One of the most popular services has been video conferencing, which was new for the organization. “Before the pandemic, we didn’t know how valuable it would be,” says Tom Drez. “Video meetings turned out to be a critical feature for every employee.”
The benefits: business continuity now, and into the future
CBS had been on 8x8 for just months when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. With their new solution firmly entrenched in daily life at CBS offices, the transition to remote work felt almost natural. “When we all began working from home,” says John Desmond, “it was just business as usual without missing a beat. With our old system, we would have been facing a whole lot of problems.”
As employees start returning to the office, CBS has been adjusting to a hybrid workplace and the operations team is ready for whatever may come. “The portability that 8x8 gives us is essential,” says Brian Dwyer. “We can continue to serve our members from anywhere.”
8x8 has not only enabled business continuity, but also business improvement. Contact center supervisors use 8x8’s collaborative Quality Management and Speech Analytics tools to train remote agents and improve performance over video meetings. “8x8 gives better analytics and new ways to slice and dice the data,” says Tom Drez.
Going forward, the operations team feels well-prepared for the future, both from a technology and a support perspective. “8x8 has turned out to be not just a vendor, but a long-term partner,” says John Desmond. “It’s really an investment in our future.”
To gauge the success of their new solution, the team looked to their previous system as a benchmark. “We wanted the new system to do on its first day what the old system did on its last day,” says Tom Drez. “8x8 gave us that — and much more.”
CBS employees learn new ways of working
User choice is a key philosophy for the Operations team. CBS employees range from those new to the workforce to those preparing for retirement, and everyone wants to work in their own way. 8x8 has fit right into the palette of options at CBS, giving users a variety of collaboration tools from one interface.
8x8’s unified communications as a service (UCaaS) has been especially helpful on mobile devices. “Sometimes, it’s just a lot more convenient to work from my phone rather than always having to be at my desk to take a call or send a text,” says Tom Drez.
One of the most popular services has been video conferencing, which was new for the organization. “Before the pandemic, we didn’t know how valuable it would be,” says Tom Drez. “Video meetings turned out to be a critical feature for every employee.”
The benefits: business continuity now, and into the future
CBS had been on 8x8 for just months when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. With their new solution firmly entrenched in daily life at CBS offices, the transition to remote work felt almost natural. “When we all began working from home,” says John Desmond, “it was just business as usual without missing a beat. With our old system, we would have been facing a whole lot of problems.”
As employees start returning to the office, CBS has been adjusting to a hybrid workplace and the operations team is ready for whatever may come. “The portability that 8x8 gives us is essential,” says Brian Dwyer. “We can continue to serve our members from anywhere.”
8x8 has not only enabled business continuity, but also business improvement. Contact center supervisors use 8x8’s collaborative Quality Management and Speech Analytics tools to train remote agents and improve performance over video meetings. “8x8 gives better analytics and new ways to slice and dice the data,” says Tom Drez.
Going forward, the operations team feels well-prepared for the future, both from a technology and a support perspective. “8x8 has turned out to be not just a vendor, but a long-term partner,” says John Desmond. “It’s really an investment in our future.”
To gauge the success of their new solution, the team looked to their previous system as a benchmark. “We wanted the new system to do on its first day what the old system did on its last day,” says Tom Drez. “8x8 gave us that — and much more.”
CBS employees learn new ways of working
User choice is a key philosophy for the Operations team. CBS employees range from those new to the workforce to those preparing for retirement, and everyone wants to work in their own way. 8x8 has fit right into the palette of options at CBS, giving users a variety of collaboration tools from one interface.
8x8’s unified communications as a service (UCaaS) has been especially helpful on mobile devices. “Sometimes, it’s just a lot more convenient to work from my phone rather than always having to be at my desk to take a call or send a text,” says Tom Drez.
One of the most popular services has been video conferencing, which was new for the organization. “Before the pandemic, we didn’t know how valuable it would be,” says Tom Drez. “Video meetings turned out to be a critical feature for every employee.”
The benefits: business continuity now, and into the future
CBS had been on 8x8 for just months when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. With their new solution firmly entrenched in daily life at CBS offices, the transition to remote work felt almost natural. “When we all began working from home,” says John Desmond, “it was just business as usual without missing a beat. With our old system, we would have been facing a whole lot of problems.”
As employees start returning to the office, CBS has been adjusting to a hybrid workplace and the operations team is ready for whatever may come. “The portability that 8x8 gives us is essential,” says Brian Dwyer. “We can continue to serve our members from anywhere.”
8x8 has not only enabled business continuity, but also business improvement. Contact center supervisors use 8x8’s collaborative Quality Management and Speech Analytics tools to train remote agents and improve performance over video meetings. “8x8 gives better analytics and new ways to slice and dice the data,” says Tom Drez.
Going forward, the operations team feels well-prepared for the future, both from a technology and a support perspective. “8x8 has turned out to be not just a vendor, but a long-term partner,” says John Desmond. “It’s really an investment in our future.”
To gauge the success of their new solution, the team looked to their previous system as a benchmark. “We wanted the new system to do on its first day what the old system did on its last day,” says Tom Drez. “8x8 gave us that — and much more.”
CBS employees learn new ways of working
User choice is a key philosophy for the Operations team. CBS employees range from those new to the workforce to those preparing for retirement, and everyone wants to work in their own way. 8x8 has fit right into the palette of options at CBS, giving users a variety of collaboration tools from one interface.
8x8’s unified communications as a service (UCaaS) has been especially helpful on mobile devices. “Sometimes, it’s just a lot more convenient to work from my phone rather than always having to be at my desk to take a call or send a text,” says Tom Drez.
One of the most popular services has been video conferencing, which was new for the organization. “Before the pandemic, we didn’t know how valuable it would be,” says Tom Drez. “Video meetings turned out to be a critical feature for every employee.”
The benefits: business continuity now, and into the future
CBS had been on 8x8 for just months when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. With their new solution firmly entrenched in daily life at CBS offices, the transition to remote work felt almost natural. “When we all began working from home,” says John Desmond, “it was just business as usual without missing a beat. With our old system, we would have been facing a whole lot of problems.”
As employees start returning to the office, CBS has been adjusting to a hybrid workplace and the operations team is ready for whatever may come. “The portability that 8x8 gives us is essential,” says Brian Dwyer. “We can continue to serve our members from anywhere.”
8x8 has not only enabled business continuity, but also business improvement. Contact center supervisors use 8x8’s collaborative Quality Management and Speech Analytics tools to train remote agents and improve performance over video meetings. “8x8 gives better analytics and new ways to slice and dice the data,” says Tom Drez.
Going forward, the operations team feels well-prepared for the future, both from a technology and a support perspective. “8x8 has turned out to be not just a vendor, but a long-term partner,” says John Desmond. “It’s really an investment in our future.”
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