Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council Modernises Operations with 8×8 XCaaS

By AIT News Desk On Dec 6, 2021

UK Government Local Authority Improves Digital Experience for Its Citizens with Integrated Cloud Communications and Contact Centre Solution

8×8, Inc., a leading integrated cloud communications platform provider, announced that Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council has deployed 8×8 XCaaS (eXperience Communications as a Service™) to enhance its communications with approximately 260,000 residents in Rotherham.

.@RMBCPress UK Government Local Authority Modernises Operations with @8×8 #XCaaS #UCaaS #CCaaS #EX #CX

Rotherham Council was on a mission to modernise its employee and customer engagement operations in an effort to transform the way it interacted with citizens. To increase business resilience, Rotherham Council wanted to maximise hybrid and remote work capabilities across its business operations. Limitations associated with legacy on-premises solutions from multiple providers proved to be a challenge, causing increasing communications costs, long wait times, and system failures.

Rotherham Council needed a cloud-based solution providing reliable service, cohesive integrations with their existing solutions, and the ability to scale and provide real-time analytics to drive efficiencies in time and resources. Further, Rotherham Council needed a solution that was easy to use with remote coaching available to train and onboard new and existing staff.

Rotherham Council selected 8×8 XCaaS, which includes fully integrated, cloud native contact centre, voice, team chat, video meetings, and CPaaS embeddable communications and APIs capabilities in a single-vendor solution, to empower a distributed workforce, while providing adaptable solutions that meet evolving organisational needs.

Additionally, 8×8’s advanced reporting and analytics capabilities, coupled with 8×8 Secure Pay, have given agents and supervisors a real-time view into responses from Rotherham citizens, including perception of the customer experience, enabling Rotherham Council to improve and better serve their citizens securely from a single platform.

Steve Langrick, Head of Digital Services at Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council oversaw the project and said, “We chose 8×8 XCaaS because of its single vendor, integrated cloud communications and contact centre platform, allowing us to standardise and consolidate our telephony services and provide flexibility to our staff. The ease of implementation and availability of training for our staff meant zero disruption to provision during transition and empowered our employees to deliver the best possible services. We are excited to be working with 8×8 as we continue to enhance citizen and employee experiences.”

The Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council deployment reflects the wider success 8×8 has experienced within the public sector in the UK and Ireland this year:

8×8 XCaaS is now deployed across more than one third of London’s boroughs. Additional public sector organisations who recently chose 8×8 include:
- The London Borough of Hounslow, which provides services for more than 270,000 residents. They selected XCaaS and 8×8 Voice for Microsoft Teams to consolidate disparate systems on a single cloud platform to support more than 2,800 employees.
- NHS National Services Scotland handles over 1 million calls per month at peak, supporting Scotland’s vaccination helplines, booking services, Blood Transfusion Service and the COVID 19 Test and Protect Service. They expanded their 8×8 XCaaS investment to a current total of more than 2500 UCaaS and over 1300 CCaaS seats.
- Buckinghamshire Council, which provides services for around 800,000 citizens in the region, realized the value of XCaaS. Having previously deployed 8×8 UCaaS across the organization for 4500 employees, they have now added 250 CCaaS seats to further improve customer experience.
- Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust (KMPT), an NHS provider of secondary mental health care, selected 8×8 XCaaS for 3,200 seats to improve patient safety and experience. XCaaS will integrate with key ICT platforms, provide cost-efficiency improvements year on year, enhance security compliance, and enable a ‘work from anywhere’ experience for staff.
- Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for Essex provides policing, fire and rescue services for the county of Essex in the East of England, supporting 1.8 million citizens. The Essex County Fire and Rescue Service selected 8×8 UCaaS and 8×8 Voice for Microsoft Teams to improve their communication capabilities across 50 fire stations and more than 1,400 members of staff.

Jamie Snaddon, Managing Director, EMEA at 8×8, Inc. said, “Maintaining, even enhancing, employee communications and citizen engagement is fundamental for public sector organisations to ensure citizens feel supported, especially as local demands evolve. 8×8 XCaaS provides Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council with the capabilities needed for their employees to communicate and collaborate from anywhere while delivering a differentiated level of citizen experience.”

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