The Challenge: An outdated system and different business units with different ways of doing things
evo Group comprises five distinct brands (business units) that operate under the parent company’s umbrella. While they all used Microsoft Teams as part of their communications infrastructure, for 25 years, they had also used an Avaya on-premises and private co-location space for voice calling. Although the business units shared these core systems, each had its own requirements and needs for front- and back-office technology.
As evo’s Avaya contract came to an end, the feeling amongst decision-makers was that the technology was starting to feel a little dated and that the company may benefit from moving to a single cloud platform.
evo’s IT team spoke to their trusted telecom consultant partner, Darwin Tech, to understand what options were available that would be cost-neutral to what they were spending with Avaya, but also meet the bespoke needs of every business unit.
The new solution would also need to scale up quickly for the teams to adopt, deploy, and use.
Enter 8x8.
The Solution: More functionality and analytics—but not more cost
The evo team was aware of 8x8, having seen a demo of 8x8 products at an industry event. Once Darwin Tech put 8x8 forward as a possible solution, the team saw how the platform could address their specific pain points and meet their diverse needs.
Implementing 8x8 Work and 8x8 Contact Center went incredibly smoothly. It took a little longer than planned due to the bespoke needs of the business units, but everything was in place within an acceptable time.
Staff training also went very smoothly, with virtual-led, one-on-one training courses and online resources bringing everyone up to speed quickly. One area where no training was required, however, was with the 8x8 Voice for Microsoft Teams integration as staff found it to be really simple and effective.
In terms of specific features, 8x8 Analytics gives evo’s contact center managers tools to improve service quality and customer experience. For example, with its previous system, evo Group had been losing visibility on calls, but 8x8’s analytics capabilities and functionality allows the company to track the call journey. In addition, quality management features, including call recording and speech analytics, helps improve agent performance.
To further improve customer service, evo uses 8x8’s omnichannel capabilities to communicate with customers over digital channels like social media and web chat.
Finally, 8x8’s direct routing capabilities for Microsoft Teams allows staff to make outbound, PSTN calls from within the Teams interface, a feature that the evo team found to provide a better user experience when compared to similar features from Avaya and Talkdesk.
The Results: Easy implementation, a fresh feel, and happy staff
On every level, moving to 8x8 was a win. Once the new system was up and running, evo staff expressed their satisfaction: managers felt empowered to do their jobs a lot easier, and agents had the tools they needed to handle customer needs while working from anywhere. “The team’s response to using 8x8 has been fantastic. Everybody loves it,” says Lee Heppenstall, Network Services Manager, at evo Group.
Heppenstall sees 8x8 as well aligned with a key focus area for the company: improving the customer experience. With 8x8’s robust analytics, managers can better guide agents with positive feedback that can enhance the overall customer journey with evo and its brands.
