- Continued innovation, a comprehensive product portfolio, and flexible business model give the company its edge

MOUNTAIN VIEW, California, July 31, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Based on its recent analysis of the hosted IP telephony and UC services market, Frost & Sullivan recognizes 8x8, Inc. with the 2012 North American Frost & Sullivan Award for Market Share Leadership. For more than five years, 8x8 has ranked among the most successful providers in the North American market.

"In spite of rapid market share shifts in an extremely fragmented market, where more than 80 providers fiercely compete for new customers, 8x8 gained the top position with 7.9 percent share of installed lines in 2011 per Frost & Sullivan's independent analysis," said Frost & Sullivan Program Director Elka Popova. "8x8 has succeeded in this growing yet increasingly competitive market by keeping a laser focus on innovation and customer value."

8x8 was one of the first companies to launch VoIP services based on an internally developed platform that continues to evolve. The company sought to leverage the significant cost-savings and productivity benefits of VoIP and now extends these benefits to small businesses, larger "mid-market" customers as well as federal, state and local government agencies. 8x8's proprietary technology platform puts the company in full control over the functionality, which ensures tight integration across its services suite.

"8x8's long track record in delivering VoIP services to the business market has earned the company tremendous experience that is manifested in innovative product development, increased customer satisfaction, and strong overall competitive positioning," noted Popova. "Its comprehensive service bundle and flexible business model represent key differentiators and performance drivers for the company."

8x8's hosted IP telephony solution, marketed as Virtual Office, is quite easy for businesses to understand, deploy, and manage and focuses on simplicity, ease of use, and flexibility. The solution comprises a broad array of features and capabilities that include private branch exchange (PBX), voice and unified messaging, conference bridge, auto attendant, and a Web-based dashboard functionality that enables IT staff and end users to self-manage their settings and service capabilities. The standard package includes unlimited local and long-distance calling, with fax and toll-free minutes available at an additional charge. The premium package adds online fax, call recording, and Web-based conferencing to the mix.

With mobile access to corporate systems and applications becoming a critical element of business communications solutions, 8x8 is well positioned to leverage this trend. Both the standard and the premium packages of Virtual Office include a PC soft client and a mobile client—unlike competitors, which charge additional fees for desktop or mobile applications.

Furthermore, 8x8 offers a complete hosted contact center solution, whereas most of its competitors only provide basic automated call distribution (ACD) functionality. 8x8 was also among the first hosted IP telephony providers to add videoconferencing capabilities to its portfolio. It offers video as part of its Web conferencing services and video bridging services that link desktop video with other videoconferencing endpoints.

To provide a one-stop shop to its customers, 8x8 has enabled its applications to integrate with some of the most popular business solutions, such as Microsoft Exchange, Google Mail, Salesforce.com, ACT!, NetSuite, SugarCRM, and eAgent. Further, 8x8 enables customers to deploy its business VoIP services over any kind of access network. This capability allows customers to leverage existing broadband contracts or deploy access services that best suit their needs across multiple geographic locations.

Most importantly, 8x8 has priced its services very competitively. Customers can subscribe to the complete PBX functionality, along with unlimited local and long distance calls, for as little as $29.99 per user per month. Further, 8x8 has account executives and customer service representatives available to walk customers through the solution and its functionality, and help them with installation and configuration if needed.

In recognition of its achievements and the factors that enable it to stay ahead of competition in a tough market, 8x8 is the worthy recipient of the 2012 Frost & Sullivan Market Share Leadership Award. Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that has demonstrated excellence in capturing the highest market share within its industry. The award recognizes the company's leadership position within the industry in terms of revenues or units, as specified.

Frost & Sullivan Best Practices Awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research in order to identify best practices in the industry.

About 8x8, Inc.

Named #1 provider of hosted IP telephony and unified communications by market research firm Frost & Sullivan, 8x8, Inc. (NASDAQ: EGHT) offers a portfolio of SaaS and IaaS solutions encompassing hosted communications services, contact center, unified communications, video Web conferencing, managed dedicated hosting, virtual private servers and more. 8x8 has been delivering cloud services since 2002 and has garnered a reputation for technological excellence and outstanding reliability, backed by a commitment to exceptional customer support. 8x8 customers include small to medium-sized businesses, distributed enterprise organizations and government agencies. For additional information, visit www.8x8.com, or connect with 8x8 on Facebook and Twitter.

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SOURCE Frost & Sullivan