Delaware Electric Simplifies Communications for IT and End Users with 8x8

The Challenge: Overcoming Knowledge Silos and Transitioning to Cloud

Delaware Electric Cooperative periodically reevaluates its software and hardware to ensure everything is running optimally and continually serving business needs. When the phone system reached its 10-year mark, the IT team embarked on a thorough assessment of the system and its maintenance processes.

One historical challenge was siloed knowledge—a dedicated Telecommunications Administrator was the only person who knew how to manage the system. So, when issues emerged while he was on vacation, for example, it was challenging for others to step in and troubleshoot. “One of our biggest problems was uptime redundancies when our dedicated administrator was out of the office,” says Kyle Bouika, Technology Manager at DEC. Around the time of the assessment, the dedicated administrator was planning to leave the company and another team member was retiring.

Another major challenge was the complexity of managing their on-premises infrastructure with its numerous integrated software applications. The IT team wanted to move to a cloud-based solution, which would simplify management and be easier for DEC staff to use. The team reached out to technology consultancy MNB IT Services to help them review cloud communications providers.

The Solution: Implementing 8x8: Streamlined, User-Friendly Cloud Communications

During the evaluation, three criteria were top of mind for the IT team at DEC. First, the new solution had to be easy to use and customize. Employees were used to the old system, and the team wanted to ease any resistance to change and keep the transition as simple as possible. Second, the system had to be easy for IT to manage and get away from that single point of failure of the previous system. They wanted any network system admin to be able to troubleshoot issues. Third, the new system had to provide an optimal customer experience for DEC members.

“We had scheduled a demo of 8x8,” says Paul deWolf, Telecommunications and Infrastructure Administrator at DEC. “It became obvious that 8x8 was our top choice; it met all our criteria and was the best fit for our working environment.” Bouika, their Technology Manager, agreed, saying, “What set 8x8 apart was its ease of use on the back end. The system was just more intuitive and easier to navigate than the others.”

DEC implemented 8x8 Work across the company and 8x8 Contact Center to support its 24 customer service agents. MNB IT worked with 8x8 support to migrate existing call flows and set up automated systems and auto-attendants. User onboarding and training was seamless thanks to a mixture of MNB IT’s in-person training and 8x8 University’s online classes.

Post-deployment, user feedback has been positive. “It was a very short learning curve for our users to get up to speed with 8x8,” says DeWolf, “and 8x8’s ease of use helped our employees embrace the new system quickly.” The Work app for mobile was particularly helpful. “The number one compliment I get from employees,” says Bouika, “is the ability to handle calls from your cell phone using a Delaware Electric number instead of your personal number. It helps everyone stay professional.”

The Result: Delaware Electric Cooperative Achieves Seamless Workflow Transformation with 8x8 Cloud Communications

DEC’s switch to 8x8 has transformed the IT team’s workflows around managing their communications system. Gone are the days of dealing with server updates and troubleshooting, as well as the stress of having a critical system admin out of the office. Says DeWolf: “8x8’s cloud-based system is pretty much hands off for IT except for some routine admin tasks. They’re very easy and intuitive for anyone on our team to accomplish. That makes us very happy.”

DEC is also beginning to explore the many capabilities of their new 8x8 system. They’re currently looking at how to incorporate the quality management and speech analytics features of 8x8 Contact Center into their operations. 8x8’s integration with Microsoft Teams is another natural next step. “There’s so much that we can do with 8x8,” says Bouika. “Even though we aren’t taking advantage of every feature available now, we’ll certainly activate more as they fit into our business plan in the future.”

DEC is confident that their new communications system will continue to run smoothly with minimal IT effort required. “With a cloud-based system like 8x8,” says DeWolf, “we’re virtually future-proofing our phone system, so it will be up to date, every year, moving forward.”