8x8 selling through 400 OfficeMax locations

LOS ANGELES, Sep 3, 2009 -- IT Expo West -- 8x8, Inc., provider of Internet Protocol (IP) communications solutions for business and residential users, today announced that OfficeMax, a leader in both business-to-business office products and solutions and retail office products, is offering the 8x8/Aastra co-branded 6755i Internet Protocol (IP) business phone, bundled with the 8x8 Virtual Office suite of business phone services, at approximately 400 select OfficeMax retail locations in the United States and online.

"Small businesses being hit hard by the economy are actively seeking ways to reduce overhead without changing the way they operate or sacrificing their professional image," said 8x8 Chief Marketing Officer Debbie Jo Severin. "We are very pleased to be working with OfficeMax to offer their business customers a simple and immediate way to not only cut their monthly telecommunications overhead by 50% or more, but to enjoy enhanced features and capabilities not available with traditional small business phone services."

"OfficeMax is committed to offering our business customers products and solutions that add value at an affordable price," said Ryan Vero, executive vice president and chief merchandising officer for OfficeMax.

The plug-and-play 8x8/Aastra 6755i IP phone serves as an endpoint for the 8x8 Virtual Office hosted IP PBX business phone service, currently in use by over 17,000 businesses. 8x8 Virtual Office provides businesses with a complete, enterprise class phone system at a fraction of the cost of a traditional PBX and roughly half the cost of traditional business phone service. The 8x8/Aastra IP phones plug into any broadband Internet connection to allow users to immediately make or receive calls without performing any network configuration or firewall manipulation. In addition, the 8x8/Aastra IP phones deliver enhanced features including corporate directory display and lookup, extension dialing and transfers, intercom paging, shared line appearance and an embedded XML browser.

Aastra USA, a global provider of enterprise communication products, will supply inventory of the 6755i Virtual Office IP phone to OfficeMax (additional models available online at www.officemax.com), while 8x8 provisions and manages the 8x8 Virtual Office service. In addition to full duplex speakerphone functionality, programmable softkey appearances and LCD display screens, all models support "Power over Ethernet" and come equipped with dual auto-sensing switched Ethernet ports to eliminate additional wiring for a computer and simplify installations.