8x8 has appointed Daniel Arnold as its new senior director of enterprise for EMEA and Christian Laloy as its new country manager for France.
Arnold, will answer into 8x8’s recently-appointed vice president of sales, Joe McStravick, and will continue to grow 8x8’s presence in the enterprise space. He joins from Zoom, where he held multiple posts, including head of enterprise for UK and Ireland. Prior to Zoom, he worked at BlueJeans.
“Enterprise is a key area for 8x8 and the timing couldn’t be better for joining as, especially in the UK where you have the PSTN switch-off as an ongoing opportunity, many companies are still to make the move over to cloud-enabled solutions and experiences for improved customer engagement,” said Arnold. “What excites me about being here is not only the product but the great team that is across not only direct sales but also the channel, showing a true understanding that to succeed in today’s marketplace takes being connected to both.”
Reporting to EMEA managing director, Jamie Snaddon, Laloy will build on 8x8’s increasing presence in France to deliver cloud-based contact centre, unified communications, and CPaaS API solutions with the help of the partner ecosystem.
“Europe is waking up to the potential offered by strong customer experience across engagement channels and France can play a key role in realizing that potential,” said Laloy. “What is great to see is that 8x8 understands that while technology - including artificial intelligence (AI), automation, and cloud-based solutions - is driving this revolution, it’s ultimately about helping people. This goes beyond just the customers but also includes the employees, which is why solutions that augment their roles, rather than replacing them, is so important.”
Laloy joins from Cisco, where he was responsible for the EMEA region including France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Greece and Israel as a CCaaS, CPaaS, AI and customer experience sales specialist. He has also held positions at Microsoft and partner-facing roles at eGain, Flexera and Workiva.
“Our research shows that the leading market segment in France by 2028 will be the 25-250 employee range due to the tools being made available for smaller and more compact contact centres,” said Patrick Watson, head of research at Cavell. “This will continue to be a large potential growth area for the French market in the future. Vendors, such as 8x8, offering an integrated contact centre and unified communication platform, as well as CPaaS APIs, that enables cross-organisation customer engagement are well positioned to take advantage of the French market.”
The appointments come just weeks after Chris Angus, EMEA vice president, was tasked with overseeing sales of CPaaS APIs across EMEA and the US.
“I’m delighted to welcome both Dan and Christian to 8x8,” said Snaddon. “When you see the calibre of people in our key positions, customers are being left in no doubt that we are looking to deliver a solution and product that fits companies of all sizes as we look to grow and scale with them. There’s an exciting future ahead.”