Solution: Hosted Phone Service (UCaaS / XCaaS)

Provider: Vertical Communications

Vertical Communications / 8x8 Hosted Phone Service

Vertical Communications, in partnership with 8x8, delivers a comprehensive, enterprise-grade cloud communications platform purpose-built for the needs of education, government, and not-for-profit organizations. As an EdgeMarket contract awardee, Vertical offers EdgeMarket members a fully managed, end-to-end hosted phone service, from design and implementation through ongoing support, all under a single, accountable relationship.

Unlike traditional resellers or agents who hand customers off after the sale, Vertical owns the entire customer experience. Vertical engineers design, install, train, and support the solution. This model has earned Vertical recognition as 8x8's 2024 North American Resell Partner of the Year and their designated state, local, and education (SLED) partner, and it's reflected in a customer retention rate of less than 1% annually.

About Vertical Communications

Vertical Communications has been delivering communications solutions since 1981 and has been deploying cloud solutions for over 15 years, including six years as a wholesale reseller of 8x8 services. Their team of PMP-certified project managers, solution engineers, and certified technicians averages more than 11 years of individual experience, with over 820 years of combined background and 1,120 individual technical certifications across the team.

Vertical's focus on government and not-for-profit clients means deep familiarity with regulatory requirements, procurement flexibility, and the operational realities of public-sector institutions. Their proven Steps to Success implementation methodology and nationally distributed Network Operations Center (NOC) support model have produced a lifetime customer Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 83.

Vertical Communications highlights:

• Wholesale reseller model -- Vertical owns the full customer lifecycle from contract through support
• Specialized focus on SLED and not-for-profit organizations with hundreds of successful deployments
• 8x8's designated SLED partner and 2024 North American Resell Partner of the Year
• Less than 1% annual customer churn
• NPS score of 83 -- a benchmark for customer satisfaction in the industry

About the 8x8 Platform

The 8x8 Experience Communications Platform is the industry's first and only XCaaS solution, combining Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) and Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) in a single, integrated platform. It runs on a global footprint of 35 data centers, including four in the United States, and uses patented Global Reach™ technology to deliver high availability and mitigate common cloud communications challenges.

8x8 is the only cloud communications provider to offer a financially backed, platform-wide 99.999% uptime SLA across both UCaaS and CCaaS, a guarantee it can make credibly because of its fully mirrored, geographically distributed data center architecture.

8x8 platform highlights:

• Single platform for all communications -- voice, video, messaging, and contact center in one unified environment
• Unified administration -- one console for license management, provisioning, user configuration, and system monitoring
• Single integration framework -- connect to Microsoft Teams, Salesforce, and hundreds of other CRM and productivity tools through one integration layer
• Cross-platform AI and analytics -- real-time reporting, speech analytics, and unified journey analytics across all channels
• 99.999% uptime SLA -- the only provider offering this guarantee platform-wide, backed by 35 geographically diverse, redundant data centers
• Instant failover -- in the event of a disruption, new calls route immediately with no gap in service
• 13x named a Gartner Magic Quadrant Leader for UCaaS; 9x recognized for CCaaS
• 57,000+ global customers across 59 countries

Method of Procurement

• Competitive procurement (RFP) under EdgeMarket

Bid, Award and Contract Documents

• Bid and Award Documents
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To Contact Edge

For more information about this bid, awards, or this contract, contact: edgemarket@njedge.net