8×8 Chalks Up Another Enterprise Win with NetSuite

International Reach Wins Deal With Fast-Growing SaaS Vendor

Unified communications vendor (UC) 8×8 is announcing this morning another enterprise win, this time with cloud ERP software provider NetSuite, continuing its move upmarket to serve larger enterprise customers. “We’re seeing an acceleration of demand from enterprise customers,” said 8×8 Chief Marketing Officer Enzo Signore. “This is just the beginning.”

Two weeks ago, 8×8 announced a win with the world’s largest provider of temporary office space, Regus plc, covered in the Daily Cloud here. Signore said that enterprise customers are moving to cloud-based unified communications (UC) because of the advantages in terms of total cost of ownership, flexibility, and additional features and functionality.

NetSuite will be deploying 8×8 globally, and replacing on-premise PBX systems from three other vendors. The initial rollout took place this past summer and took six weeks to deploy 2400 extensions to employees in seven locations in the U.S., the Philippines, and Spain. 8×8 used its “Elite Touch” service to deliver an accelerated deployment schedule to NetSuite. When fully rolled out, the system will include 4500 employees worldwide.

Signore said that 8×8 won the deal because of its worldwide footprint, the quality of its service, and its ability to meet the customer’s security and compliance needs. 8×8’s quality is demonstrated by its track record of two and half years of delivering 99.9975% (four nines) of uptime, Signore said.

Global reach is important because voice service is sensitive to latency, so distance between users and the cloud data centers should be minimized. 8×8 has developed some of its own technology, such as a recently patented geo-routing technology, to select the best routes for calls and improve quality, Signore said. 8×8 currently operates facilities at nine data centers worldwide.

“NetSuite, like many of our customers, has locations in many countries and they wanted a single solution and very few can provide one solution across the globe,” he added.

In July, NetSuite reported Q2 revenue up 35% to $177 million. Unlike some SaaS vendors, NetSuite is profitable, and delivered $24 million in cash flow from operations in Q2. Earlier this month, NetSuite announced plans to open data centers in Ireland and the Netherlands to support European customers—a trend that has been given additional impetus by the European Union’s complex privacy rules, making European data centers a more future-proof solution than shipping data back to the U.S.

8×8 already had a technology partnership with NetSuite, providing integration between its Virtual Office UC platform and NetSuite’s ERP system.

8×8 said that more than 45% of its revenue comes from mid-market (more than 50 seats) or enterprise customers (more than 1,000 employees). In June, 8×8 told investors that it had 1500 mid-market customers and 130 enterprise customers. When it reports earnings on Thursday, investors will be looking to see if those numbers have risen.