boxxe Unified Communications
X-Series provides UCaas, CCaas and CPaaS services from VOIP telephony (X1), through text, voice and video media support up-to full contact centre (X8). 8x8’s omnichannel contact centre includes speech analytics, AI, skills-based routing, Intelligent IVR, predictive campaign dialler, dashboards, customisable wallboards, quality management and media recording with open API integration.
Features
- UC accessible via desktop application, mobile app, online dashboard
- Unified messaging via email, web/ online chat, Instant Messaging (IM)
- Collaboration via online meetings, video chat/ video calls/ video conferencing
- Interoperability (Google, Office 365, Salesforce, Skype for Business, MS Teams)
- Plugins: Presence, caller ID database match, click-to-dial from application/ web
- Call recording, call screening, call waiting. Full customer administration suite
- Auto attendant for customisable automated call connect, transfers, queues, greetings
- Cloud PBX: telephony with direct dial extension for every user
- Collaboration: conference call, private internal and external chat groups
- Unified voicemail management, voicemail-to-email and in-app voicemail
Benefits
- Unified Communications: enables digital transformation; agile, flexible working, and homeworking
- Distributed workforces can remotely work as one unified organisation
- Fosters cultural change: seamless user-controlled movement between phones and softphones
- Unified Communications: external solutions collaborate as one unified chat room
- Collaboration: rapidly conference with colleagues; secure data sharing/ file sharing
- Reduced cost of support and maintenance via lower management overheads
- Switch between devices, even during calls. Simple and intuitive
- Reduces costs and complexity, providing excellent value for money
- Deploy Unified Communications via the web for national connectivity
- 8x8 has specialist vertical market Unified Communications teams
Pricing
£7 a person
- Free trial available
Service documents
Request an accessible format
Framework
G-Cloud 13
Service ID
5 9 5 9 0 5 6 7 0 2 8 8 1 1 8
Contact
BOXXE LIMITED
Peter Parsons
Telephone: 07704551950
Email: peter.parsons@boxxe.com
Service scope
- Software add-on or extension
- No
- Cloud deployment model
- Private cloud
- Service constraints
- 8x8 performs planned maintenance periodically at no disruption to the customer. Customer-facing elements of the service, for example portals and softphones, are upgraded at customer convenience. Non-customer-facing elements, for example PBX functionality, are upgraded with full service continuity maintained throughout.
- System requirements
-
- Personal computer, MacBook or web browser-enabled device
- A high-speed connection to the Internet
- IP telephone device
- Mobile access – download free app; iOS and Android only
User support
- Email or online ticketing support
- Email or online ticketing
- Support response times
- 8x8’s UK-based Technical Support team has a target time for initial response of 30 minutes, for Critical and High priority issues; and one hour, for Medium and Low priority issues. Core business hours for the Customer and Technical Support teams are Monday-Friday, 08:00-18:30, to respond to emails and phone calls. Customers that are on the 24x7x365-day customer list will receive support outside of core business hours which may include support from our global support centres outside of the UK in order to maintain this service level.
- User can manage status and priority of support tickets
- No
- Phone support
- Yes
- Phone support availability
- 24 hours, 7 days a week
- Web chat support
- No
- Onsite support
- No
- Support levels
- N/A
- Support available to third parties
- No
Onboarding and offboarding
- Getting started
- Our deployment and training teams work together with you to help you start using our service. They provide you the necessary knowledge and training to setup, design, configure, maintain and use the solution efficiently. The deployment team ensures a smooth transition from your old to our new solution, using PMI methodology, in line with PRINCE2 principles. Starting the engagement with the Deployment, Training and Customer Success Teams will work in parallel from the initial Customer Kick-Off meeting. After Go-Live until the transition to our Support teams, the deployment team is ready to help you through issues arising during onboarding. Project lifecycle process and governance is implemented from Day One, until closure. We offer training courses and resources across multiple services. Our courses, along with customer adoption materials, help you get the most from your 8x8 system. Courses are offered open enrolment, via virtual classroom with hands-on exercises and labs, and accompanying user adoption kits. Content includes co-branding, best practices, resource guides, and an eBook with free online videos, tutorials, and starting tips. This approach provides sustainability, and fast onboarding for new users. Other delivery and customisation options are also available.
- Service documentation
- Yes
- Documentation formats
- HTML
- End-of-contract data extraction
- Within 24 hours of the expiry of the Contract, data is automatically deleted from 8x8 systems. Customers must utilise the built-in product features which provide data exports, or the APIs that give direct access to raw data and export whichever data elements are required to be retained before the expiry or data will become irrecoverable. If a customer requires data to be made available beyond the end of the contract, additional fees will apply.
- End-of-contract process
- All data is deleted on contract expiration. Customers are responsible for offloading any data contained on the 8x8 Cloud before expiry utilising the built in tools and APIs of the 8x8 products. After expiry of the contract, data is rendered unrecoverable. If a customer requires data to be made available beyond the end of the contract, additional fees will apply.
Using the service
- Web browser interface
- Yes
- Supported browsers
-
- Internet Explorer 11
- Microsoft Edge
- Firefox
- Chrome
- Safari
- Application to install
- Yes
- Compatible operating systems
-
- Android
- IOS
- MacOS
- Windows
- Designed for use on mobile devices
- Yes
- Differences between the mobile and desktop service
-
Mobile accessibility via a download free app; iOS and Android only.
The application is consistent therefore, looks and works in the same way for the mobile device as the desktop service. - Service interface
- No
- User support accessibility
- None or don’t know
- API
- Yes
- What users can and can't do using the API
- 8x8 has a common language (RESTful) and open API policy, where users proficient in URL-based HTTP APIs can inter-operate across 12 8x8 pre-written APIs. These enable multiple functions, for integration, for example with common CRM/ ERP; Service & Support; Productivity and Service & Security applications. Various bespoke functionality features can be achieved with the APIs. Depending on the proficiency of the user, multiple APIs can be used to widen functionality. Changes are made by the simple manipulation of the HTTP codes. The use of APIs must be by proficient users, familiar with these programming techniques.
- API documentation
- Yes
- API documentation formats
-
- Open API (also known as Swagger)
- HTML
- API sandbox or test environment
- Yes
- Customisation available
- No
Scaling
- Independence of resources
- Systems are scale-out, cloud based. Resources are automatically added as required based on load and utilisation. The 8x8 Architecture team review design and proposed implementation of all new systems before going into operation to challenge assumptions and ensure scale, reliability, availability, security etc. have been considered. A dedicated Quality Assurance team run automated and manual tests against a replica production platform to verify the engineering solution meets 8x8 standards which include load testing.
Analytics
- Service usage metrics
- Yes
- Metrics types
- A wide variety of online reporting and raw data stats via API are available. Historic reporting includes template based and user configurable data selection, displayable on-screen and exportable in a range of data formats. Live statistics are available on wallboards with configurable statistical measurements that are updated and displayed live. APIs can be utilised to query both live and historic data where a customer wants to utilise the data elsewhere, or potentially make business decisions based on live calling statistics.
- Reporting types
-
- API access
- Real-time dashboards
- Reports on request
Resellers
- Supplier type
- Reseller providing extra support
- Organisation whose services are being resold
- 8x8
Staff security
- Staff security clearance
- Conforms to BS7858:2019
- Government security clearance
- None
Asset protection
- Knowledge of data storage and processing locations
- Yes
- Data storage and processing locations
-
- United Kingdom
- European Economic Area (EEA)
- Other locations
- User control over data storage and processing locations
- No
- Datacentre security standards
- Complies with a recognised standard (for example CSA CCM version 3.0)
- Penetration testing frequency
- At least every 6 months
- Penetration testing approach
- In-house
- Protecting data at rest
-
- Physical access control, complying with CSA CCM v3.0
- Physical access control, complying with SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
- Physical access control, complying with another standard
- Encryption of all physical media
- Scale, obfuscating techniques, or data storage sharding
- Data sanitisation process
- No
- Equipment disposal approach
- In-house destruction process
Data importing and exporting
- Data export approach
- A number of online tools exist in the 8x8 applications, as well as low level access to data stores through the APIs.
- Data export formats
-
- CSV
- Other
- Other data export formats
- Data import formats
-
- CSV
- Other
- Other data import formats
-
- Xml
- Json
Data-in-transit protection
- Data protection between buyer and supplier networks
-
- Private network or public sector network
- TLS (version 1.2 or above)
- Data protection within supplier network
- TLS (version 1.2 or above)
Availability and resilience
- Guaranteed availability
- We aim to have our Services available to Customers 24x7 and include a SLA for system availability as well as call quality. 8x8 use commercially reasonable efforts to provide Customers with average annual Services availability equal to or greater than 99.95%. 8x8’s records and data are basis for all service availability calculations and determinations. 8x8 use commercially reasonable efforts to respond to Unplanned Service Interruptions, 24x7, that are reported through one of 8x8’s Customer Support channels. To receive Service Credits, the Customer must notify 8x8 within 30 days from the time Customer becomes eligible to receive Service Credits. Failure to comply with this forfeits Customer’s right to receive a Service Credit. The Service Credit will be issued on the 8x8 invoice for the period following the Customer’s request for the Service Credit, unless the Service Credit is due in the Customer’s final month of the Term. In such a case, the Service Credit refund will be mailed to the Customer.
- Approach to resilience
- A dedicated Architecture team review all material changes to service definitions and products, before release, as part of 8x8's New Product Introduction (NPI) process. This review challenges design and implementation, looking for service risks. System components are systematically reviewed and assessed for risk using a "Failure Mode and Effects Analysis" methodology, scoring the risk based on methods of failure detection, whether failover is automated, how long failover takes, severity of impact of the failure, and likelihood of the failure. Where a component or system exceeds an acceptable risk, the proposed system solution is rejected and the engineering are required to refactor the solution, or offer mitigations for concerns. Mitigations may include accelerated detection methods, additional redundancy, reduced recovery times, or may require lower level software changes to survive more readily the failure modes.
- Outage reporting
- The 8x8 NOC provide management alerts for any customer affecting outage (and any security breach should one occur). The management alerts are sent via dedicated messaging channels to responsible individuals around the world, and include an audio conference bridge. The support organisation are included in the management notification group, and have a dissemination process for reporting to customers utilising a web based Support Portal. If more than one customer is affected a Master ticket is created and all customer portals are updated automatically if the Master ticket is updated. Updates are added to the ticket as they occur, consolidated if many changes are occurring, and the update messages state when the next update will be issued, if nothing changes by that time.
Identity and authentication
- User authentication needed
- Yes
- User authentication
- Other
- Other user authentication
- The 8x8 services is accessed using a Single Sign-on solution that presents authorised users with a panel containing icons for all products and tools, no further authorisation is required to access them
- Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels
- All systems are built on the principle of minimum access given. GDPR training is also given to all staff and Policies and Training are given to ensure staff understand how to comply,. New starters and staff changing role are given access to systems they require to perform their job role by system owners upon appropriate authorisation.
- Access restriction testing frequency
- At least every 6 months
- Management access authentication
- Other
- Description of management access authentication
- Management access authentication
Audit information for users
- Access to user activity audit information
- Users contact the support team to get audit information
- How long user audit data is stored for
- User-defined
- Access to supplier activity audit information
- Users contact the support team to get audit information
- How long supplier audit data is stored for
- Less than 1 month
- How long system logs are stored for
- Less than 1 month
Standards and certifications
- ISO/IEC 27001 certification
- Yes
- Who accredited the ISO/IEC 27001
- Alcumus
- ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date
- 18/10/2018
- What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover
- Software development, Infrastructure Operations, Product Management, HR and all offices outside Aylesbury in the UK are not covered by our ISO 27001 certification.
- ISO 28000:2007 certification
- No
- CSA STAR certification
- Yes
- CSA STAR accreditation date
- 01/03/2019
- CSA STAR certification level
- Level 1: CSA STAR Self-Assessment
- What the CSA STAR doesn’t cover
- None
- PCI certification
- Yes
- Who accredited the PCI DSS certification
- QSA Company: NCC Group Security Services Inc
- PCI DSS accreditation date
- 07/01/2018
- What the PCI DSS doesn’t cover
- NA
- Cyber essentials
- Yes
- Cyber essentials plus
- Yes
- Other security certifications
- Yes
- Any other security certifications
-
- FISMA
- HIPAA
Security governance
- Named board-level person responsible for service security
- Yes
- Security governance certified
- Yes
- Security governance standards
-
- ISO/IEC 27001
- Other
- Other security governance standards
- 8x8 is certified FISMA/NIST 800-53 rev 4, being a superset of FedRAMP and SOC II Types I and II, GLBA and FFIEC. 8x8 is also HIPAA certified (for health information). In the UK, 8x8 additionally has ISO27001 certification and PCI-SAQ-D
- Information security policies and processes
- The 8x8 SIEM team, who report into the Global Information Security and Compliance Manager, who themselves report into the group CISO, manage the proactive monitoring of information risk bulletins from both government and commercial security organisations, and reactive monitoring of 8x8 systems for security events. This team manage any actions required to be performed by Engineering or Operations teams. Ongoing internal audits by dedicated auditing staff monitor for compliance to all standards 8x8 are certified for. HR sanctions are utilised to ensure enforcement. 3rd party auditing is carried out annually or as often as the certification standard recommends. All auditing teams report into the global CISO team. 8x8's CI/CD - Continuous Integration/Deployment systems ensure that at all stages of the engineering lifecycle the appropriate security tests have been performed. 8x8 practices secure coding, with multiple virtual teams existing. Starting with an Architectural review at the start of new projects, ongoing code checking by both manual peer review by security staff and automated reviews with Veracode SAST and Greenlight. Qualys, Tenable Nessus Pro and Veracode DAST and SAST scans are operated throughout our systems on a continuous basis
Operational security
- Configuration and change management standard
- Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
- Configuration and change management approach
- The asset management system tracks location, support agreements, manufacturers warranties, and EOL dates. Operations process that are "Business As Usual" include disc swaps for both faulty and EOL changes. BAU processes are fixed and tested, and require no further authorisation. Non-BAU changes require operations review and approval. Changes that are software releases must have multiple sign-offs, including Architecture, Operations and Support department.
- Vulnerability management type
- Supplier-defined controls
- Vulnerability management approach
- All 8x8 production software goes through security review and testing pre-production, including Penetration Testing using multiple tools. Any security issues found are remedied before release. Additional continuous testing is run against production systems (to cover systems which may remain unchanged for long periods). For these systems, the speed of patch deployment depends on the criticality. SLA's: Critical within 24 hours, High within 7 days, Medium within 30 Days and Low within 90 Days. The SIEM team also review security bulletins from both government and commercial security organisations.
- Protective monitoring type
- Supplier-defined controls
- Protective monitoring approach
- " The SIEM team constantly monitors Firewall, Network, IDS and IPS system alerts. In the event that a suspected or actual breach were to take place, escalation to senior management occurs whilst an assessment of the scope of the breach or potential breach is undertaken. Affected customer(s) are notified through the Support Portal. All data customers are processing or storing on 8x8 systems is treated as Sensitive, any suspected data loss is treated as a loss of ""sensitive"" data, and appropriate actions taken. Any notification processes are operated in parallel to ensuring any breach is blocked, and re-occurrence prevented."
- Incident management type
- Supplier-defined controls
- Incident management approach
- The 8x8 24 hour NOC manages all types of incident, including Service and Security incidents, and whether proactively detected or reported by customers. Senior management notification occurs whilst an assessment of the scope of the incident is undertaken. Affected customer(s) are notified through the Support Portal. Any notification processes are operated in parallel to resolving the incident if it is ongoing. The 8x8 Support organisation handles customer facing communications, including initial triage of incident reports and assessment of severity. Security incidents or Service outages result in an RCA process including cross-functional reviews, resulting in a customer facing Incident report.
Secure development
- Approach to secure software development best practice
- Independent review of processes (for example CESG CPA Build Standard, ISO/IEC 27034, ISO/IEC 27001 or CSA CCM v3.0)
Public sector networks
- Connection to public sector networks
- No
Social Value
- Fighting climate change
-
Fighting climate change
One of boxxe’s key values is to promote sustainability by investing in and protecting the environment through the creation of habitable and lasting workspaces and digital solutions. We monitor our whole supply chain through our annual review, monitor their commitment to becoming net zero before 2050, and ensure that our suppliers mirror our sustainability work.
We have a carbon reduction plan in place which includes the below points:
- Scope 1: Emissions from the use of oil for heating and hot water in our offices, and emissions from fuel used in our company vehicles.
- Scope 2: Emissions from our sub-metered electricity consumption in our offices and warehouse.
- Scope 3: Emissions associated with waste disposal, business travel, employee commuting, water supply, waste, upstream transportation and distribution and downstream transportation and distribution.
boxxe is carbon neutral across our sources of Scope 1 and 2 through purchasing EU ETC carbon allowances. By 2030, boxxe will be carbon neutral, achieving Net Zero across our entire business from supply chain to products.
Other methods used to deliver environmental benefits:
- boxxe have a dedicated Sustainability Champion who monitors and manages our position on sustainability, including our B-Corporation application.
- In 2020, 59% of electricity we used was procured from renewable sources – a total of 324,680MWh. Our goal is to use only renewable energy by the end of Q2 2022.
- Promoting a circular economy with our partnerships with the Turing Trust and the TechData Trade-In service. Recycling hardware reduces the impact of IT on the environment,and conforms to WEEE regulations.
- ISO14001 certified to ensure our internal processes comply with all current and future environmental regulations.
- We reuse or recycle as much of our waste possible (typically 99.5%).
- Partnering with organisations who have a zero-landfill policy. - Covid-19 recovery
-
Covid-19 recovery
Utilising technology to its best, boxxe successfully implemented our Work From Anywhere policy. Because of this, we removed the requirement to commute to our offices and the geographical barriers to employment. Additionally, it means people with disabilities do not have to worry about working in an office on a daily basis. As a result, boxxe’s employment was unaffected by the COVID-19 restrictions, and no redundancies were made due to the pandemic.
Since January 2020, boxxe have hired 106 new employees from around the UK, facilitated by the Work From Anywhere policy, supporting communities to recover from the impacts of COVID-19. Implementation of this policy made it possible for those who were shielding to gain employment without being office-based. Essential staff who were required within the office benefited from our sustainable travel solutions like Lift-Share scheme and Cycle to Work scheme.
boxxe’s goal is to make technology human, and we work closely with our supply chain in the development and deployment of new technologies. As a result, boxxe can now deliver more solutions to G-Cloud customers remotely, which not only made it possible for boxxe to grow during the pandemic, but also helped us to support the growth of our clients, suppliers, and communities where they operate.
boxxe employees are given 5% of their time to spend on community support initiatives. Using some of this allowance boxxe will commit to G-Cloud clients interested in utilising our community hours. We will guide them through our internal process to utilise this time to the benefit of local communities. An example of this is our current work with York Cares who support chronically ill people getting back into employment, and York Mind. This has so far included gardening days, organising events for care homes, food bank donations and more. - Tackling economic inequality
-
Tackling economic inequality
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, boxxe successfully transitioned to be a ‘Work from Anywhere’ company meaning we now employ people from across the UK. Employees are given the option to work from the main office in York, or work remotely from their homes and are able to switch between the two. Having this option has opened up jobs and careers across the country and reduces the issue of geographic location being problematic when joining boxxe. Currently, 21% of our workforce are outside of a 50-mile radius from York; this is expected to increase through our proactive measures for recruitment.
In 2021, we launched our boxxe Evolve Apprenticeship scheme aimed at making the technology sector more inviting for women and directly address the gender imbalance boxxe noticed within our Service Desk team. Six women were hired to join our Service Desk as Service Desk Support Analysts. The Evolve program reduces the barriers to entering our industry by providing technical knowledge and training, as well as direct experience. Throughout the course of their apprenticeship, the Evolve Apprentices work towards the RITTech recognised Level 3 Information Communications Technician – Azure Cloud Support Specialist qualification. This qualification is suitable for people at the beginning of a technical support role and will develop their IT knowledge, giving them the skills to support people in their organisation. The skills gained from this qualification are transferable to other organisations within the IT industry. - Equal opportunity
-
Equal opportunity
boxxe are part of specific diversity-increasing groups, which focus on levelling the inequality of jobs in some areas. Our engagement with the Disability Confident scheme and Stonewall Diversity Champion scheme displays boxxe’s commitment to tackling workplace inequality.
Employees are required to complete annual Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion online training through iHASCO. The training includes aspects such as the Equality Act, discrimination, how to be an ally and how to ensure fair access to opportunities. Individual completion of training is monitored by our Learning and Development Manager.
A group of employees carry out a Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion (DE&I) monthly group discussion around topics including mental health, gender biases, workplace diversity and how boxxe can continue to progress. This group brings together employees from across boxxe to discuss and plan companywide activities and initiatives in line with the CIPD DE&I calendar.
boxxe utilises TeamTailor to anonymise applicants and force equality and diversity by making the recruitment process blind. This method increases diversity in ethnic and racial backgrounds, gender, sexuality, and socio-economic backgrounds, ensuring candidates are only judged on their experience and skills.
As a silver accredited Armed Forces Covenant member, we work to help create employment opportunities for ex-service personnel and support staff members with training as military reservists. In signing this AFC pledge, we provide measures to make it easier for our employees to meet their service commitments, such as offering extra paid leave to attend annual training.
boxxe has a zero tolerance policy to modern slavery. We are committed to ensuring there is no modern slavery in our business or our supply chain. Our policy reflects our commitment to acting ethically and with integrity in all business relationships, and to enforcing effective systems to ensure modern slavery is not taking place within our business or supply chains. - Wellbeing
-
Wellbeing
boxxe developed twenty-five (25) family policies for their staff to support their physical and mental wellbeing. The policies include extended maternity/paternity leave, flexible working, home working and many more.
Our Work From Anywhere policy removes requirement to commute to the office daily and allows employees to choose whether they work from home, from the office, or both. This gives employees greater flexibility and allows them to maintain a better work-life balance by removing the stress of managing school runs, attending parent’s consultation meetings and other life events. boxxe’s H&S Officer ensures that all policies are being adhered to, especially in areas of our employee’s health when working from office or remotely.
boxxers benefit from regular workshops to discuss and provide guidance on various aspects of work and life, for example those relating to finance, investment, money worries, wellbeing, diversity, career, yoga, dieting, stress management, hobbies and many more. boxxe invites external speakers to those sessions who provide specialists advice. boxxe also utilise various communication tools, like surveys for staff to identify other specialists’ areas which will bring benefit.
Furthermore, boxxe give their employees a generous allowance of 5% of their time to be used to support local communities. This time can also be used leveraging individual skills and interests of our boxxers in supporting charitable organisations and initiatives. Some boxxers use their gardening skills to help upgrade sensory gardens at schools or organising events for schools and local communities. Allowing boxxers to use paid time to help communities has a positive impact on wellbeing and job satisfaction.
Our Partner Management allows us to choose suppliers who are capable to match our engagement into staff wellbeing, therefore ensuring all our subcontractors in delivery of this framework contracts will be extension of boxxe.
Pricing
- Price
- £7 a person
- Discount for educational organisations
- No
- Free trial available
- Yes
- Description of free trial
- 8x8 is able to undertake to provide a structured and controlled formal Proof of Concept (POC). This would be on a trial basis which would require further scope, measurement criteria and consideration of potential cost implications to be agreed.