Cloud comms provider 8×8 claims visual, ‘effortless’ customer experience through CPaaS

Aiming to cut through the communications clutter in the modern hybrid enterprise, integrated cloud communications platform provider 8×8 has announced the availability of 8×8 Connect Automation Builder, a no-code multiple-channel communications management offering designed to improve organisation-wide campaigns with pre-built and customisable workflows.

Said to be applicable across an array of user roles in organisations – from marketing operations to customer support – the service is tasked with creating “engaging customer experiences” through a visual method of building such workflows to enhance productivity, flexibility and efficiency, regardless of coding expertise.

“Organisations looking to incorporate programmable communications and CPaaS [communications platform-as-a-service] capabilities into applications and workflows require solutions that go beyond APIs [application programming interfaces] that cater to developers,” said Michael Brandenburg, senior industry analyst at Frost & Sullivan.

“Line-of-business leaders are often in the best position to enhance workflows and processes, but only if they are given the right tools and technology. [The new technology] is lowering the barrier to entry for enterprises to unlock the power of programmable communications with its suite of low-code/no-code solutions.”

The Automation Builder is delivered via the 8×8 Connect multi-channel communications management platform, which allows firms to manage text and voice messaging campaigns across multiple channels with access to real-time analytics and reporting.

8×8 Connect is a core component of the 8×8 CPaaS portfolio of communication APIs, including SMS, voice, chat apps, video, and performance monitoring, and also part of experience communications as a service, an integrated cloud contact centre, voice, team chat and video meetings offering.

This provides cross-channel orchestration in a consolidated interface, giving, says 8×8, users full context of every communication channel and creating referenceable data streams across various sales and marketing tools.

The offering is also said to empower organisations with any level of technical capability to leverage digital channels and deliver enhanced customer experiences.

Features include automated workflows, eliminating the need for engineering or developer resources; customised iterations for users to tweak and implement; drag and drop modules to create complex workflows, or choose from pre-built templates; the ability to build communication workflows across channels including SMS, chat apps and voice; and optimised processes for leads and managers in marketing operations, customer support, and operations.

“The point of automated functionality is to eliminate manual work and repetition while enabling processes to scale, and that’s exactly what we’ve done with 8×8 Connect Automation Builder,” said Marc Magnin, head of product for CPaaS at 8×8.

“Automation Builder allows users to now leverage a convenient no-code, visual interface to design communication workflows and deploy them. Further, it allows companies to automate their customer engagement at scale without putting strain on development teams or running developer infrastructure.”