Flanagan Bilton boosts agility and efficiency with 8x8 Voice for MS Teams

The Challenge: Replacing a finicky on-premises system

Before switching to 8x8, law firm Flanagan Bilton had been relying on an Avaya on-premises system. The Avaya system needed to be upgraded regularly, and the IT team was looking to move to a cloud-based solution that was reliable, efficient, and easy to use, as well as had capabilities to support a hybrid workforce.

Before making a decision, the team evaluated and tested three cloud platform options: Avaya’s cloud solution, Dialpad, and 8x8. With other vendors, they encountered complicated apps, unintuitive interfaces, and even multiple programs to install. However, 8x8 rose to the top due to the platform’s simplicity and feature set.

A major factor in their decision to go with 8x8 came down to the platform’s top-notch integration with Microsoft Teams. “As an Office 365 shop, we already have MS Teams on all our devices,” says John Cielo, Systems Administrator at Flanagan Bilton. “8x8 has the best Teams integration, better than all the other vendors. From making and receiving calls to user administration, 8x8’s integration is seamless.”

The Solution: Seamless, reliable MS Team integration

Once Flanagan and Bilton decided on 8x8, it was a smooth migration process. “We have had zero down time moving to 8x8. It was easy to migrate all our phone numbers and a simple transition for our users,” says Cielo. “Adding 8x8 Voice for Microsoft Teams was effortless, and our users took to it right away with minimal to no training. We couldn't be happier.”

In addition, Cielo and team found 8x8 support to be responsive and helpful when needed. He says, “We've only had to make a couple of calls, and everything we've asked for has been taken care of right away.”

8x8 provides a secure, fully redundant, and geographically diverse data center, which was perfect for Cielo and his team. “We wanted to eliminate the single point of failure,” explained Cielo. “Before 8x8, if our system network went down, that meant we would lose all our phones.”

Switching from an on-premises system to 8x8 also allowed the employees at Flanagan Bilton to do their job whether at home, in the office, or on the go. “When it comes to things like administration, it’s great to be able to do it from anywhere, right from my phone,” says Cielo. “If somebody needs something done right away, no matter where I am, I can take care of it.”

The Results: “A completely flawless experience”

From streamlining communications to empowering a flexible, hybrid office, Flanagan Bilton has seen massive improvements since switching to 8x8 Voice for Microsoft Teams. “I would recommend 8x8 because, for us, it has been a completely flawless experience.”

Employees now have everything they need, all in one place, and the company has been able to reduce the number of subscriptions and platforms it has to pay for and maintain, including Zoom, WebEx, and UberConference, saving valuable time and resources.

“My favorite 8x8 feature also turned out to be my biggest unexpected benefit, and that is 8x8’s Ring Groups. In our old system, it took me 30 minutes to make any changes to the receptionist group,” says Cielo. “With 8x8, it's a quick drag and drop and it's all programmed immediately. I've had absolutely no problems with this or with the system in general.”

With 8x8, Flanagan Bilton now has a reliable system that everyone can count on. Cielo concludes, “I have not had one complaint of dropped calls or anything of that nature, it's worked just perfectly.”