8×8 Inc’s Business Systems Transformation

8×8 Inc’s Business Systems Transformation Helps Growth and Company transforms itself to Better Serve Customers

8×8 Inc. is a provider of cloud communications and customer engagement solutions. 8×8 solutions include cloud-based voice, contact center, video, mobile and unified communications for small, medium to enterprise businesses.

Value creation is a powerful lens for identifying the initiatives that will have the greatest impact on a company’s transformation agenda and for understanding the potential value of the overall program for shareholders. 8×8 offers a compelling example of a company using a sharp focus on value creation to chart its transformation course. In the early 2016, 8×8 was a good company with strong management but limited scalability of its business systems to support worldwide business growth and customer service. 80 percent of the company’s revenues were mature, low-gross-margin segments. And the company’s cost-cutting initiatives were delivering diminishing returns. 8×8’s top line was essentially flat, with an unclear path to future growth. 8×8’s value creation had been driven by cost discipline and manufacturing efficiency, yet, to the frustration of management, 8×8 had a lower growth multiple than most of its peers in a 50 billion dollars worldwide market for its cloud communication business. With NCC’s help, 8×8 assessed its options and identified key levers to drive stronger and more-sustainable value creation. The result was a multiyear transformation comprising two components:

• Global Support transformation – Re-engineering of customer support processes and replacement of underlying technology platform. Completed in record 9 months with a seamless transition from homegrown technologies to industry standard platforms including migration of 500,000 in flight support cases.
• Quote to Cash Transformation – With an objective of transforming buying experience for the customers as a differentiator NCC implemented end to end Quote to Cash system serving enterprise as well as small and medium business segment for all sales channels (direct, partner and self serve)

These transformations were delivered on time under budget and without any business downtime or disruptions. The results of 8×8’s transformation are apparent. The company’s revenue increase of 18.21% year on year in the second quarter, to $ 85.68 millions, with recent average Revenue improvement of 21.66%. In three consecutive earnings calls company CEO Vik Verma recognized business system transformation as the key contributor to growth alongside leading edge cloud communication technology.