8x8, Inc. announced general availability of 8x8 Frontdesk, a new8x8 XCaaS (eXperience Communications as a Service) composed experience for high volume call handling. 8x8 Frontdesk transforms the receptionist role by delivering a tailored experience and user interface that uniquely blends traditional unified communications and contact center capabilities. It provides powerful call queuing and handling features that enhance productivity and personalize engagement for a hybrid work environment, and was recently named a finalist in the overall Best of Enterprise Connect 2021. ??Unlike traditional operator consoles or switchboard solutions which require add-on or separate applications, 8x8 Frontdesk leverages the single-vendor, integrated employee communications and customer engagement capabilities of 8x8 XCaaS and is natively enabled within the 8x8 Work app. This eliminates the need for additional applications to install or support, and also removes any dependency on additional third-party solutions. 8x8 Frontdesk offers organization-wide visibility into the status and availability of the entire workforce with the ability to filter users by site - spanning standard 8x8 extensions and Microsoft Teams users - and connecting incoming callers to employees and call queues. It also enables the receptionist and front desk function to be assigned or delegated to any user, regardless of role, location, or device. The 8x8 Frontdesk tailored user interface is designed to maximize productivity, enabling receptionists and front desk staff to answer calls efficiently regardless of location or device, access a custom view of expert resources to consult, and connect calls using single-click interactions. It also significantly reduces training costs, speeding user adoption and time to value. 8x8 Frontdesk is built on the resilient, secure, and compliant 8x8 eXperience Communications Platform, which offers the highest levels of reliability and the industry’s only financially backed, platform-wide 99.999 percent SLA across an integrated cloud UCaaS and CCaaS solution. 8x8 Frontdesk features and benefits include: Tailored Experience: One App for All Scenarios: Natively accessible from 8x8 Work, which includes voice, video meetings, team chat, and more in a single, integrated desktop application, 8x8 Frontdesk is easily enabled as an additional wide-screen viewer mode that is purpose-built specifically for the receptionist role. This eliminates the need to learn and use an additional app. Personalized Solution for Every User: Provides custom filters to tailor each user’s target contact list with the ability to annotate personal information for each contact and select the preferred ‘away from desk’ mode. Centralized Answering for Both Employee and Contact Center Agent User Groups: Leverages the integrated 8x8 eXperience Communications Platform that spans across the organization to personalize call answering for specific user groups. Powerful Call Handling: Intuitive User Interface: Allows receptionists and front office staff to stack, prioritize, and manage multiple calls simultaneously from anywhere, directly in the 8x8 Work desktop app. Automatic contact-filtering of the enterprise directory, based on the site location dialed, enables fast pick-and-click transfers to a localized user list. Robust Queue Management: Unifies the view of multiple call queues, spanning both general inquiry business lines, and campaign or service-specific numbers. Click-to-Call and Chat: Delivers robust call queueing, advanced organization-wide transfers, and messaging capabilities at the click of a mouse. Holistic View of All Extensions, Agents and Call Queues: Provides organization-wide status of all users and call queues, including presence sync with Microsoft Teams via the 8x8 Voice for Microsoft Teams direct routing solution.