The Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) marketplace contains a dizzying number of options, and the rankings constantly change. Given the complexity and volatility of the selection, you might worry about choosing a cloud contact center platform only to end up experiencing buyer’s remorse later.
That’s where our trusted technology advisors come in. With decades of telecommunications and IT industry experience, partnerships with best-in-class suppliers, and the latest marketplace data, it takes our advisory team mere minutes to narrow your options from double-digits to the top 3 that meet your unique needs.
One of the essential elements in our advisory arsenal is the most advanced decision-making tool in the world that instantly creates detailed comparison matrices, allowing clients to see how solutions and suppliers stack up side-by-side. This makes finding your ideal cloud contact center provider easier than ever.
In our previous “versus” blog entries, we compared Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) solutions. Our current versus series pits leading CCaaS suppliers against each other. This blog entry focuses on RingCentral versus 8×8.
Before you look at the matrix, here’s some background information about each supplier to consider.
CCaaS profile: RingCentral
RingCentral – based in Belmont, CA, and founded in 1999 – is an established leader in the CCaaS space and maintains a presence in over 45 countries and territories. This supplier serves companies of all sizes worldwide and has clients in a wide range of industries, including but not limited to healthcare, education, retail, and high-tech.
RingCentral’s intuitive omnichannel contact center solution utilizes the power of artificial intelligence to enhance both employee and customer experiences (EX and CX). Some notable features include voice and digital self-service via virtual agents, real-time AI agent coaching and assistance, automated quality assurance, and a comprehensive CX toolset.
RingCentral also integrates with Microsoft Teams, Google, Salesforce, Zendesk and other essential business applications.
CCaaS profile: 8×8
Founded in 1987 and headquartered in Campbell, CA, 8×8 provides cloud communication solutions to businesses across various industries, including but not limited to education, healthcare, manufacturing, professional services, government, retail, transportation, and financial services. This supplier’s solutions come with over 60 integrations and are accessible via any internet-connected device.
CCaaS from 8×8 leverages artificial intelligence to streamline contact center operations and enhance CX. The platform’s notable features and capabilities include omnichannel routing, agent and supervisor workspaces with intelligent tools to improve performance, and AI-powered self-service options for customers.
Additionally, the solution integrates seamlessly with popular apps such as Teams, Google, Zendesk and Salesforce.
| Provider | 8×8 | RingCentral |
| HQ | Campbell, CA | Belmont, CA |
| # of Employees | 2,216 | 6,000 |
| 1st Year Offering CCaaS | 2011 | 2015 |
| Public / Private | Public: EGHT | Public: RNG |
| Platform | Native | Native |
| Published Uptime SLA | 99.999% | 99.999% |
| Sold Standalone? | Yes | Yes |
| Minimum Seat Count / MRC | no minimum | 5 seats |
| Largest Deployment | Available Upon Request | Available Upon Request |
| Available Pricing Models | Concurrent Agent | Concurrent Agent Per Agent |
| Usage Billing | round up to next full minute | Unlimited inbound local and LD, manual outbound. Outbound Dialer is billed in 6 second increments |
| Ports / Call Paths | 4 ports | unlimited |
| Proprietary Cloud PBX Option Available | yes | yes |
| UCaaS Resellers | no | no |
| Key Acquisitions | Callstats.io, ContactNOW, Contactual, DXI, QSE, VoiceNET, Wavecell | Connect First, Dimelo |
| Primary Datacenters | APAC: Hong Kong, Singapore Australia: Sydney Canada Europe: Amsterdam India: New Delhi Latin America: Rio de Janeiro United Kingdom: London United States: Ashburn (VA), Santa Clara 8×8 leverages the AWS, Azure, Equinix, GCP, and Oracle cloud footprints. | APAC: Singapore Australia: Melbourne, Sydney Canada: Toronto Europe: Frankfurt, Munich Latin America: São Paulo United Kingdom: London, Manchester United States: Dallas, Los Angeles RingCentral RingCX leverages public cloud (AWS for application services) and private cloud (Equinix and others for media, PSTIN POPs) |
| International PSTN Coverage Link | Location List | Location List |
| BYOC (Bring Your Own Carrier) | Yes Additional NRC: Yes Additional MRC: Yes Redundancy Strategy: Delivery to multiple DCs, High Availability infrastructure with 8×8 PSTN Failover | Yes Additional NRC: Yes Additional MRC: Yes (if RingCentral supplies the SBC) Redundancy Strategy: Customer can forward their carrier numbers to RingCentral numbers as a backup. |
| Outbound Dialer Options | Predictive, Preview, Progressive | Agentless, Power, Predictive, Preview, Progressive TCPA Compliant Option Available |
| Digital Outreach / Proactive Engagement | SMS, MMS, RCS, Email, Chat | SMS, RCS, Chat, Mobile App |
| SMS Codes Available | Local 10 Digit, Toll-Free, Short Code, International Coverage | Local 10 Digit, Toll-Free, International Coverage (US/Canada only) |
| Queue Callback | Agent First, Hold Place in Queue, Scheduled Callback | Agent First, Customer First, Hold Place in Queue |
| Mobile App Available? | n/a | n/a |
| Inbound Digital Channels / Features | Chat (Agent), Co-browse, Email, Fax, SMS, Social Media, Video | Chat (Agent), Co-browse, Email, Fax (via Email), MMS, SMS, Social Media, Video |
| Social Channels | Inbound/Outbound: Facebook, X (Twitter), WhatsApp | Inbound/Outbound: Apple Business Chat, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X (Twitter), WhatsApp, YouTube Full List |
| Other Features | Agent Scripts Live Agent Barge/Take Over Function Live Agent Coaching/Whisper Function Screen Recording Speech & Text Analytics Surveys / CSAT | Agent Scripts Live Agent Barge/Take Over Function Live Agent Coaching/Whisper Function Speech & Text Analytics Surveys / CSAT |
| Native CRM Included | yes | no |
| Microsoft Teams Certified | yes | no |
| Line of Business App Integrations | Native: Microsoft Dynamics, Microsoft Teams, NetSuite, Salesforce, ServiceNow, SugarCRM, Zendesk, Zoho Third Party: Bullhorn, EPIC Custom: Athena Health, Cerner, Freshdesk, HubSpot, Jack Henry, Kustomer, Oracle, SAP, Slack | Native: Salesforce, ServiceNow, Zendesk Third Party: Athena Health, Bullhorn, Cerner, EPIC Custom: Halo CRM, Jack Henry, Kustomer, NetSuite, Oracle, SAP, Slack, SugarCRM |
| Enterprise App Store | Yes | Yes |
| Artificial Intelligence Offering | Native: Chat Bot, Voice Bot (IVA) Third Party: Al-derived CSAT, Knowledge Retrieval, Next-Best Action, Post-Interaction Summarization, Quality Assurance Scoring, Real-time Coaching, Sentiment Analysis | Native: Al-derived CSAT, Business Insights (Conversation Trends/Keyword Spotting/Topic Mining), Post-Interaction Summarization, Quality Assurance Scoring Third Party: Chat Bot, Next-Best Action, Real-time Coaching, Sentiment Analysis Additional Capabilities: RingSense for RingCX add-on: Real-time Summaries, Post-call summaries and transcriptions, Automated call scoring, Agent Feedback, Coaching Moments, Speech Analytics |
| Large Language Model | LLM: Cognigy Verticals: none pre-trained; can be configured for additional cost BYO Al: yes OpenAl Integration: 8×8’s platform can leverage OpenAl to develop chatbot workflows within the Cognigy platform. E.g., “build me a workflow for cancelling an order” generates a template to work from. | LLM: Available Upon Request Verticals: roadmap BYO AI: no OpenAI Integration: n/a |
| Routing Options | Attribute / Skill-based Routing, Preferred Agent Routing, Priority Routing | Attribute / Skill-based Routing, Bullseye Routing, Omni-Channel Queues, Personality Routing, Predictive Routing, Preferred Agent Routing, Priority Routing Additional Capabilities: Track Routing (routing to off-system numbers, Cloud Routing (destination specific pre-queue logic; e.g. percent allocation across various queues) |
| Workforce Engagement (WEM) Offering | Third-Party (Verint) Features Include: Gamification, Performance Management, Quality Management (QM), Workforce Management (WFM) | Third-Party (Calabrio) Features Include: Gamification, Performance Management, Quality Management (QM), Workforce |
| Compliance | CPNI, CSA, GDPR, HIPAA, HITRUST, ISO 27001, PCI, SOC 2, SOX Additional Compliances: FISMA; Full List | CPNI, FINRA, GDPR, HIPAA, HITRUST, ISO 27001, PCI, SOC 2 Additional Compliances: Full List |
| Case Studies | Case Studies | Case Studies |
| Top Customer Verticals | Entertainment, Finance, Healthcare, Retail, Tourism | BPO, Finance |
| On-Site Implementation/Training | Yes | Yes |
| Implementation Overview | Implementation Overview | Implementation Overview |
| Knowledge Base | Native | Native |
| Downdetector | Downdetector | Downdetector |
| Differentiators | Only cloud provider that is Gartner recognized for both UCaaS (Leader) and CCaaS (Challenger) Strong global presence with local dial-tone offered in 38 countries and unlimited global calling for phone and contact center across 47 countries. Deployment capabilities in over 120 countries. Can address various compliance requirements from HIPAA, HiTrust and PCI to ITAR and FISMA. 170+ VOIP patents | Specifically tailored for outbound-oriented contact centers that require auto, manual and TCPA-compliant dialing Active-Active-Active microservices architecture in AWS with 99.999% uptime SLA Natively integrated with RingCentral Office for presence, directory lookup and back-office communication, single sign- on with MVP and RingSense, Escalate to RingCentral Video |
If you’d like to explore your CCaaS options, don’t hesitate to contact our advisors by calling 877-599-3999 or emailing sales@stratospherenetworks.com. You can also jumpstart your journey by completing this free assessment.
