CASE STUDY

8x8 and E-Rate Program Help Charter School Expand to 70+ LocationsLearn4Life, personalized learning charter schools

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CASE STUDY

8x8 Enables Rapid Expansion and E-Rate Subsidy for Charter School Educator Learn4Life

Learn4Life is an education pioneer with a life-changing mission: to

provide personalized learning for the 50–60% of students not served

by the traditional school system. Because these at-risk kids cannot

attend regular classes, Learn4Life uses a distance-learning model that

depends on rapid deployment of phone, Internet and video services at

each location. When a previous VoIP provider could not keep up with

Learn4Life’s expansion, the company turned to 8x8 to deliver the

scalability and reliability it needed.

Founded 13 years ago, Learn4Life began

in Lancaster, California, as a new education

resource for disadvantaged children who

cannot attend traditional full-time schools.

Typically these kids have dropped out—or

are at risk for dropping out—because they

must work to support their families, have

experienced teen pregnancy, are in foster

care, or lack transportation.

Learn4Life addresses these barriers by

setting up charter schools (or “resource

centers”) close to the students’ homes.

The schools go up quickly in nontraditional

spaces such as churches, boys and girls

clubs, and empty storefronts. Students

receive personalized learning plans that

allow them to do their schoolwork at home.

Many also receive vocational training to

help them find jobs. Phone, Internet and

videoconferencing services enable students

to connect with teachers remotely.

“The kids we’re dealing with cannot attend

school five days a week or travel more than

2.5 miles to get to school,” explains Skip

Hansen, senior vice president of Learn4Life.

“Some have jobs; others have babies to take

care of. Typically students spend just one

or two days a week in our resource centers.

That’s why we’re constantly creating new

ones right in their neighborhoods.”

Wanted: “Unified Communications That Can Scale with Us”

Learn4Life needed highly reliable unified

communications that could support both

its rapid expansion and its distance-

learning model. The company had grown

to 800 employees and more than 70

sites in Southern California, and has plans

to expand to Texas, Ohio and Northern

California over the next two years.

Hansen had already recognized the

limitations of traditional landline

phone service and had implemented a

VoIP solution subsidized through the

federal E-rate program, which supports

telecommunications modernization

and upgrades at qualifying educational

institutions. The problem was, the

company’s VoIP provider could not deliver

the uptime or scalability required to fulfill

Learn4Life’s mission.

“We need a service provider who can keep

up with us,” says Hansen. “Unless we can

roll out reliable communications quickly, we

have to delay the opening of new sites—

and that’s not in line with our mission. Our

goal isn’t just to teach kids; we’re trying to

save their lives. Time to market is key for

us.”

Customer Name: Learn4Life

Industry: Education, charter schools

Location: 70 locations in Southern California

Number of Students: 14,000–18,000

Website: www.learn4life.org

8x8 Services: Virtual Office

Favorite 8x8 Features:

• Scalability and rapid deployment

• E-rate participation

• Videoconferencing

• Mobile services

• Group paging

Current Setup: 250 extensions

Time to Deploy: 1–2 weeks per site

Vendor Replaced: CallTower

Primary Reason Chose 8x8: Scalability and reliability

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CASE STUDY

Hansen and his IT team began searching

online for a replacement communications

system. Their selection criteria included

videoconferencing to enhance distance

learning, scalability and customer support

to enable faster expansion, and E-rate

participation to ensure the new solution

was affordable.

“A lot of VoIP providers charge extra to add

advanced features like videoconferencing,

“says Hansen. “We were looking for

somebody who could deliver unified

communications and scale with us. They

also had to provide customer support that

could accommodate our rapidly growing

organization, because we are opening 15-

20 branches every year.”

E-Rate Subsidizes up to 95% of Communication Costs

After researching a number of vendors,

Learn4Life’s E-rate consultant helped

Hansen zero in on 8x8.

“8x8 has a lot of respect in the industry,”

notes Hansen. “But more importantly it has

the scalability to grow with us and meet our

needs as we continue to add locations and

staff.”

What closed the deal though, was 8x8’s

participation in the E-rate program. Hansen

estimates that Learn4Life recoups 85–95%

of its actual communication costs through

the program, making 8x8’s participation

“essential” to his organization’s success and

growth.

“8x8’s ability to help us through the E-rate

process was invaluable,” he says. “Applying

for federal subsidies is not easy, and having

a knowledgeable vendor who understands

the process makes all the difference in the

world.”

“We need a service provider

who can keep up with us.

Unless we can roll out reliable

communications quickly, we

have to delay the opening of

new sites—and that’s not in line

with our mission. Our goal isn’t

just to teach kids; we’re trying

to save their lives. Time to

market is key for us.”

Skip Hansen

Senior Vice President at Learn4Life

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CASE STUDY

8x8 Expedites the Opening of New Schools

In late 2012, Learn4Life began rolling out

8x8 unified communications. Within a

few weeks more than 50 sites were fully

deployed—and more are coming online all

the time.

“Since switching to 8x8 we’ve been able

to open new resource centers much faster.

With our previous VoIP provider, deployment

would typically take six to seven weeks.

Our staff was constantly overwhelmed

because equipment would arrive and not

be configured properly,” recalls Hansen.

“Imagine having 25 kids waiting and you

can’t open their school because your phone

system isn’t working! With 8x8, our phones

and routers are preconfigured and ready to

go.”

Meeting and Collaboration Features Support a Mobile Workforce

Learn4Life now uses 8x8’s built-in meeting

and collaboration features on a daily basis.

Conference calls and especially video calls

help teachers stay in touch with students

and their parents. 8x8’s bandwidth-efficient

cloud infrastructure supports video without

degrading phone, Internet or other IP-based

services.

“Being able to see the person you’re talking

to instead of just hearing their voice makes

remote communications more effective,”

explains Hansen.

Group paging enables employees at all

sites to hear company announcements

through the intercom feature on their desk

phones. A mobile app for iOS and Android

devices allows them to access 8x8 features

through their smartphones and tablets

wherever they are.

“Teachers and staff are spending more

time collaborating and less time dealing

with phone system problems since we

switched to 8x8,” observes Hansen. “The

mobile app keeps them close to students

and parents even when they’re working off

site. Employee productivity has definitely

increased.”

In fact, Hansen credits 8x8 with enabling

his mobile workforce of teachers to work

remotely.

“Years ago I implemented VoIP at another

company, and it was a much more laborious

process. We didn’t have a mobile app or the

ability to take our phones home, plug them

in and keep our business going. Now with

8x8’s rich feature set, we have employees

who can actually work from home, which

is a first for us. Schools that looked at VoIP

in the past and thought it was too limited

should take a look at what’s possible today!”

Ongoing 8x8 Support Keeps Schools Open

Because Learn4Life’s distance-learning

model depends on its communications

system, ongoing support from 8x8 is

extremely important. Hansen and his team

are very pleased with 8x8’s responsiveness

when issues arise.

“If we have a problem, which is very rare,

we just pick up the phone and call for help.

Usually it’s a network problem on our end.

8x8 gets in right away and finds out exactly

what’s happening. Typically they just make

a tweak, and everything’s fine again.”

Day to day, Hansen’s IT team appreciates

the ease of 8x8 system administration,

which enables them to make changes

whenever necessary.

“8x8’s ability to help us

through the E-rate process

was invaluable. Applying for

federal subsidies is not easy,

and having a knowledgeable

vendor who understands

the process makes all the

difference in the world.”

Skip Hansen

Senior Vice President at Learn4Life

CASE STUDY

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“One of the great things about 8x8 is that

the system is easy to use and administer,”

says Hansen. “A web-based interface

provides the tools you need to quickly go

in and make changes for immediate impact.

It’s as simple as that.”

8x8: A Long-Term Partner for Educators

Hansen notes that his organization is

large—and growing—with more than

700 employees. But in his view, any size

organization can benefit from 8x8.

“I constantly get calls from business owners

asking us about our phone system. I tell

them whether you have two employees

or 2,000 employees, 8x8 is the answer.

It’s very easy to roll out, the service is

inexpensive, and the ROI is immediate.”

Hansen also believes that 8x8 offers

significant advantages to educators, who

typically have less budget to work with than

their business counterparts.

“If I were a school administrator looking for

a new communications system, I’d certainly

be looking at 8x8,” he says. “8x8 lets you

quickly implement cloud communications

that will make a difference in students’ lives

today—without all the expensive hardware

you don’t have the time or resources to

maintain.”

But given the number of VoIP solutions

available to educators today, what makes

8x8 stand out for Hansen?

“We had a lot of choices and 8x8 was

certainly the right one,” he says. “I would

give this advice to any educator looking at

VoIP solutions: Make sure your provider can

scale with you. 8x8 has the capabilities,

backbone and redundancy to ensure our

communications services are always up.

They understand our business and will be a

long-term partner as we continue to grow

and help disadvantaged students.”

“If I were a school

administrator looking for a

new communications system,

I’d certainly be looking at 8x8.

8x8 lets you quickly implement

cloud communications that will

make a difference in students’

lives today—without all the

expensive hardware you don’t

have the time or resources to

maintain.”

Skip Hansen

Senior Vice President at Learn4Life

To learn more, call 1.866.879.8647 or visit www.8x8.com