8x8 Releases Virtual Receptionist

8x8 yesterday released Virtual Receptionist, a new Virtual Office cloud PBX services designed to improve communication with business partners and customers.

Virtual Receptionist, available now as an 8x8 Virtual Office add-on service, takes advantage of the smartphone-like interface and firmware of the new Polycom VVX 500 IP phone to add powerful call handling and work group monitoring capabilities to the Virtual Office business phone service.

With Virtual Receptionist, 8x8 Virtual Office customers can:

• Process up to six concurrent, incoming live calls.
• Observe the presence status of up to six team member extensions, including those using any other Polycom, Aastra or Cisco deskphone, using busy line field (BLF) keys with speed dial, and instant transfer functions to maximize responsiveness between colleagues.
• Enable immediate collaboration with customers, suppliers, and business partners by using speed dial keys.

In the future, 8x8 plans to extend Virtual Receptionist to all other 8x8-supported Polycom deskphones by porting the fourth-generation Polycom firmware to those models. This roadmap will let 8x8 customers with legacy Polycom deskphones take advantage of these new offerings, preserving their investment in those devices.

Virtual Receptionist was among 8x8's customers' "most requested features," according to  company chairman and and CEO Bryan Martin.

"We were able to quickly accommodate these requests due to the innovation and agility enabled by our own internally-developed technology platform. The Polycom VVX 500 deskphone complements this innovation by providing our customers a highly intuitive way to access these new features and the rest of our Virtual Office suite via a touchscreen interface," he said in a statement.

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