8x8 2010 Annual Report Download - page 13

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11
Huw Rees, Vice President of Business Development. Huw Rees, age 49, has served as Vice President, Business
Development since November 2008. From January 2001 to November 2008, Mr. Rees served as our Vice President, Sales and
Marketing. He served as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Company’s wholly owned subsidiary, Centile, Inc.,
from July 2001 until September 2003. Additionally, he served as Vice President, Sales and Business Development of Centile
from March 2001 to July 2001. He served as Vice President, Sales of the Solutions Group of the Company from August 2000
until February 2001 and as Director, North American Sales of the Company from April 1999 to August 2000. He previously
worked at Mitel Corporation as Sales Manager of the Western Region and also in sales management roles at GEC Plessey Inc.
and Marconi PLC. He received a B.Sc. (Hons) from the University of Manchester, Institute of Science and Technology in
Electrical and Electronic Engineering and a M.B.A. from the University of LaVerne.
Debbie Jo Severin, Chief Marketing Officer and Vice President of Marketing. Debbie Jo Severin, age 50, has
served as Chief Marketing Officer and Vice President of Marketing since March 2009. From 2003 to March 2009, Ms. Severin
served as Vice President of Marketing for Covad Communications. From 1998 to 2003, Ms. Severin was Vice President of
Marketing for PrimeOne Tele-TV, Northpoint Communications and Valiant Networks. Between 1986 and 1998, Ms. Severin
served in various marketing roles for BellSouth Telecommunications and Pacific Bell. She received a Masters Degree in
Mathematics and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Alabama, Birmingham.
Ramprakash Narayanaswamy, Chief Technology Officer and Vice President of Engineering. Ramprakash
Narayanaswamy, age 45, was appointed Chief Technology Officer in April 2010 and is responsible for our research,
development and engineering operations. From February 2005 to April 2010, Mr. Narayanaswamy held multiple numerous
engineering roles including Vice President of Engineering. Between 1992 and 2005, Mr. Narayanaswamy served in various
engineering roles for Nextance Inc., Bluelight.com and Sun Microsystems, Inc. He received his Masters degree in Computer
Applications from National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirapalli, India.
ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS
If any of the following risks actually occur, our business, results of operations and financial condition could suffer
significantly.
The impact of the current economic climate and tight financing markets may impact customer demand for our
products and services.
Many of our existing and target customers are in the small and medium business sector. Although we believe our products and
services are less costly than traditional telephone services, these businesses may be more likely to be significantly affected by
economic downturns than larger, more established businesses. Additionally, these customers often have limited discretionary
funds, which they may choose to spend on items other than our products and services. If small and medium businesses
experience economic hardship, it could negatively affect the overall demand for our products and services, could cause delay
and lengthen sales cycles and could cause our revenue to decline.
Although the majority of our billing arrangements with customers are prepaid, we regularly monitor the percentage of
customers who cease to pay for our services due to closing or downsizing their business. Even though our customer churn
rates improved in fiscal 2010, a larger percentage of our total customer churn was due to these economic issues and we cannot
guarantee that we will continue to experience the same improvement in churn rates given current economic conditions.
Additionally, the combination of our sales cycle coupled with challenging economic conditions could have a negative impact
on the results of our operations.
The success of our Company is dependent on the growth and public acceptance of 8x8 Services.
Our future success as a Company depends on our ability to significantly increase revenues generated from our 8x8 services. In
turn, the success of our 8x8 voice and video communications services depends, among other things, upon future demand for
VoIP telephony systems and services. Because the use of our service requires that the user be a subscriber to an existing
broadband Internet service, usually provided through a cable or digital subscriber line, or DSL, connection, slow or limited
adoption of broadband Internet service could adversely affect the growth in our subscriber base and revenues. Although the
number of broadband subscribers worldwide has grown significantly over the last five years, VoIP service has not yet been
adopted by a majority of consumers. To increase the deployment of broadband Internet services from broadband Internet
service providers, telephone companies and cable companies must continue to invest in the deployment of high speed
broadband networks to residential and business customers, over which we have no control. In addition, VoIP networks must