Ferraro Foods standardizes communications across locations with 8x8

The Challenge: An outdated and inefficient legacy system

Before implementing 8x8, each Ferraro Foods location had its own on-premises phone vendor, making communications between locations complex and difficult to manage. "Part of what we've really been focusing on over the last two years is really building synergies across all eight of our locations and standardizing a lot of our platforms,” says Faris Faris, CIO of Ferraro Foods. Modern cloud communications technology would enable the company to consolidate all locations onto one central platform, thus improving internal communications and collaboration.

Ferraro Foods’ channel partner, RJR Communications, recommended 8x8 as the company began its search. Coincidentally, the company had recently acquired a new location that happened to already be using 8x8 Work and 8x8 Contact Center. Agents at the acquired site found the 8x8 interface simple to use, which was valuable input to the company’s decision-making.

Ferraro Foods considered several solutions, including RingCentral and Cisco Webex, but ultimately chose 8x8 for its comprehensive set of features, easy-to-use interface, and affordability. The company was particularly impressed with 8x8's scalability and ability to integrate with existing business tools, including Microsoft Teams and Salesforce. "We wanted a scalable solution that would easily support our company growth and integrate with our other applications and infrastructure,” says Faris.

The Solution: Seamless, real-time collaboration

When it came time to migrate to 8x8 Work and 8x8 Contact Center, the transition was easier and simpler than expected. Ferraro’s IT team clearly and ongoingly communicated the plan to all employees and shared resources like 8x8 University to ensure that everyone understood how to succeed with the new system with minimal ramp-up time. Before long, Ferraro was also set up with 8x8’s seamless Microsoft Teams integration.

“It’s so easy to pick up and use 8x8,” remarks Faris. “Our team knew exactly what to do, even with the softphones. The implementation was also straightforward and well organized.”

Ferraro’s employees currently use a mix of desk phones and softphones, but they plan to use softphones more in the future to allow for increased flexibility and keep everyone connected with their valued customers and internally whether they are at home, in the office, or on the go.

With the previous, disconnected system, customer service agents had to call a building’s main line in order to transfer a caller to the right person. Now, everyone is on the same system, and agents only have to extension-dial colleagues across the company’s locations, which streamlines communication and improves customer service.

“8x8 gives us the ability to leverage newer technology that we didn't have with the older systems, and put us all on the same platform,” says Faris. “As we work towards standardizing our application stack and infrastructure, voice is one of those applications that we can proudly check off the list.”

The results: Easy, simple, and organized communications

Since implementing 8x8, Ferraro has been able to standardize communications onto a single, unified platform that connects all employees across the organization. This has significantly improved communications between locations and made it easier for the company to provide efficient and effective customer service.

The platform's user-friendly interface and seamless integration with existing business tools made the transition to 8x8 easy for employees, reducing the learning curve and minimizing disruptions to daily operations. Plus, 8x8’s affordability allows the organization to save on monthly fees, freeing up resources for other initials and goals.

With 8x8, Ferraro Foods has a scalable solution that integrates well with other applications and infrastructure. The ability to have all locations on the same platform has resulted in improved communication and collaboration, which is crucial for their business success.