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Unified communications specialist 8×8 announced the launch of Virtual Office Meetings, a cloud-based video conferencing and collaboration solution.
Enhancements to the platform include borderless HD video and audio communications for immersive experiences. Virtual Office Meetings is built into the company’s Virtual Office (VO) desktop experience and allows users to schedule meetings, initiate instant collaboration, and transition IM conversations into a meeting from one VO desktop app.
In addition, the solution gives users access to their corporate directory for more streamlined engagement and eliminates the need for users and IT to manage multiple logins and passwords.
“With 8×8’s new Virtual Office Meetings solution, a cloud-based video conferencing and collaboration solution, we enable secure, continuous collaboration from any device, anywhere in the world,” Tina Liu, product marketing lead for 8×8 Virtual Office, told eWEEK. “Virtual Office Meetings allows users to schedule meetings, initiate instant collaboration on the fly, and transition IM conversations into a meeting, with a single click, from one Virtual Office desktop app. In addition, the solution gives users access to their corporate directory for easy engagement and eliminates the need for users and IT to manage multiple logins and passwords.”
When in a meeting, users can take advantage of 8×8’s integrated Presence feature to bring additional participants directly into a collaboration session using their preferred method of communication, including IM, email or voice.
The new VO Meetings will also enable users to collaborate in an immersive manner when on the move, as mobile users can now collaborate with HD 720p video and share content from their mobile devices via cloud applications such as Dropbox, Box, iCloud and Google Drive. Mobile collaboration capabilities are built into the same VO mobile app that is used for voice calling, global directory, IM and Presence.
The company also released updates to its Virtual Call Center (VCC) offering. Now, contact center managers can listen to voice recordings, watch screen captures and jump from point to point within a conversation with 8×8’s timeline approach to interaction display.
“We at 8×8 believe that to truly solve the growing distributed, global and mobile workforce challenge, and to deliver continuous communications experiences across devices, the cloud will be key,” Max Ball, product marketing lead for 8×8 Virtual Contact Center, told eWEEK. “The true value of cloud communications is the ability to provide secure, continuous collaboration from any device, anywhere in the world. This means an integrated experience across voice, video, IM, meetings et cetera, all from a single app.”
Ball said this requires smart routing to make the right connections and good integrations to give agents the information they need. It also requires giving managers easy to use tools to be able to respond to changing conditions without needing professional services.