What is the future of the call center? I know where we can find the answer…

The answer is cloudy. No meatballs though.

Covid didn’t cause a change in the future direction of call centers, it accelerated that change. Companies have been on the path of automation, remote working, and cloud for many years now – Covid did sharpen the focus on business continuity though!

At Poly we’re proud of our ability to predict, align to the latest industry trends, and create superbly designed products to exceed customer expectations. And we’re proud to join Chrome OS as they announce fully integrated solutions for call centers.

Chrome OS provides the best platform for a call center.  Enabling organizations to:

• Protect business and customer information
• Increase agent productivity
• Deploy and manage easily

Poly provides the best solutions for the employee, enabling organizations to:

• Make a real connection
• Move to the cloud
• Empower employees

We are working with Chrome OS and our existing partners at Five9, Ringcentral, Vonage, 8×8 and Citrix to launch an entirely new way for companies to provide their critical customer experience, and jointly solve challenges for the hybrid call center:

Flexible Working

• Employees can now work in the home or in the office, so they need light, portable devices that are easily transportable. Organizations need high security with many devices no longer being on premises.

Increase Productivity

• There’s no room for complexity; Devices and interfaces must ensure employees quickly and easily understand the information in front of them, and what a customer is saying to them.

Video Interactions

• With employees working remotely, team meetings and training now need video front and center to keep employees connected.  We’re seeing the rise of video customer interactions – make sure your employees are ready with devices that show their best side.

Retain Employees

• A key global challenge is how to keep your best employees.  Start by making it easy for them, empower them to make the best decisions, and ensure their safety.

When looking for progress, sometimes a revolution is needed, rather than evolution, and this is why we are so excited to see Chrome OS offer a fully integrated solution for call centers. Chrome OS has unique advantages that are particularly suitable for a distributed workforce including built-in security, automatic updating, easy onboarding, and a familiar interface. Combine that with easy IT deprovisioning and redistribution to new staff, and you have a winner that establishes and drives a cloud-first way of working.

However, some things don’t change in customer experience, and that’s where Poly comes in. Our knowledge of delivering an enterprise experience at the edge, combined with our comprehensive portfolio, fit for purpose and fully certified as part of the Works with Chomebook program, means Poly looks forward to maintaining our thought and market  leadership on this new innovation frontier.

For more information on Poly’s solutions for call centers visit Poly.com

How do you provide a consistently great collaboration experience in a work-from-anywhere world?

Microsoft Teams added 95 million new users in 2020 and – from March to June of that year – showed 894 percent growth¹. The driving force was the response to the Covid-19 pandemic, with people suddenly working at home turning to Microsoft Teams meetings to stay connected and collaborate in real time. Our hats go off to the IT Leaders who kept your teams together during this huge surge in video-powered virtual meetings. But what happens now?

Today, as employees are beginning to return to the office, the expectation for video conferencing continues in a new model of hybrid work. In this new reality, some people work at the office, some remotely, and others alternate between the office and home on different days of the week. Maintaining the consistent collaboration experience employees have grown accustomed to presents IT with a new set of challenges:

• How do you equip in-office spaces and remote workers with the right audio and video devices to maintain – or improve – the level of communication and collaboration that employees now expect?
• How do you create meeting equality? By that we mean connecting spaces, people, and devices to provide the same meeting experience for those in the room and those who aren’t.

Regardless of where employees are calling in from, two things remain certain: every meeting now has video, and at least one remote participant.

Helping Everyone Look and Sound Professional

If workers don’t feel like technology equals, the consequences can be severe. Poor audio and video quality can hurt the professional image of individuals and your entire brand. Lack of compatibility and interoperability with Microsoft Teams in meeting room equipment can complicate meetings with customers and partners. And remote employees on the far end of calls can become less productive and engaged.

How do we make remote workers not feel like second class citizens? That’s what our products aim to solve. Making everyone feel like they look and sound their best and like they are in the room.  Empowering people to not just show up to meetings, but to show off in them.

The answer starts with a robust collaboration platform like Microsoft Teams, but it doesn’t end there.  Pairing Microsoft Teams with the right audio and video solutions—for both group and personal workspaces—ultimately determines how your employees experience and show up in virtual meetings.

Professional-grade headsets, speakerphones, and external video cameras are the equalizers that elevate the virtual meeting experience for everyone in a Microsoft Teams meeting—no matter where they work. To find the right equipment, support, and services to create meeting equality, take these key steps:

1. Deploy Microsoft-Teams Certified Equipment

Microsoft Teams certification is a badge of quality for select audio and video equipment. It tells you that Microsoft and its partners have worked together to optimize these devices for high quality user experiences with Microsoft Teams, and that both Microsoft and the device manufacturer stand behind your solution.

2. Match Equipment to Different Workspaces, User Needs

Research shows that 92% of employees can be categorized into six distinct workstyles that represent how and where people work in today’s enterprises.² By understanding these workstyles, you can better match individuals with the audio and video solutions they need for meeting equity—whether they work in cubicles or shared spaces at the office, at home, or on the go.

3. Download our free eBook to Learn More

These first two steps are just part of the best practices that give your users best-in class solutions and support to work anywhere, at any time, and as technology equals. To learn more about creating meeting equality for your workforce, download our eBook Collaboration Best Practices Using Microsoft Teams.

Whether your employees are in the office, on the go, at home—or a combination of all three— create an environment that helps them consistently experience virtual meetings on a level playing field, where everyone can see and be seen, hear and be heard equitably. That’s just not good for them, it’s good for your entire business.

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1. ( Source: Aternity)
2. Source: Poly Persona Research, 2020

Poly and Microsoft go way back. The combination of Poly and Microsoft is indispensable to any organization committed to delivering the richest and most complete collaboration experience for their team members. This long-standing partnership has driven major innovation over the past year as the era of hybrid working has unfolded, requiring a new generation of premium audio and video products so you can have your best Teams meeting—anywhere, anytime, every time.

We’re honored to be recognized as a finalist in the Microsoft 2021 Partner of the Year awards among a global field of top partners for demonstrating excellence in innovation and implementation of customer solutions based on Microsoft technology. Poly is the only Partner in our category that can check all of the boxes for our Customers to help accelerate their journey to Teams from hardware to software, implementation services to support.

Our Teams certified headsets, video and audioconferencing products, desk phones, analytics software and services are beautifully designed and engineered to connect people with incredible clarity. They’re pro-grade, easy to use and work seamlessly with Microsoft Teams. Let’s take a look at the full portfolio…

VIDEO: Poly room solutions for Microsoft Teams, including G-series Teams Rooms on Windows and Poly Studio X30 and Poly Studio X50 Teams Rooms on Android, deliver the familiar Teams interface, combined with powerful Poly audio and video technologies. From the conference room to the home office, Poly makes hybrid working a seamless experience. Poly Studio P Series personal video conferencing devices make the most of video calls from wherever work happens. High-performance cameras compensate for lighting imbalances. Premium audio eliminates distractions. Standalone certified Teams Rooms camera options are also available for the conference room such as the new Poly Studio E70.

VIDEO INTEROPERABILITY: Poly RealConnect enables video interoperability with Microsoft Teams without adding complexity. With RealConnect, it’s easy to connect your H.323/SIP videoconferencing systems to Microsoft Teams (or Skype for Business) meetings. Keep the workflow you’re used to, just add video interoperability so anyone can join the meeting from their personal clients, Microsoft Teams Rooms systems, as well as from video conferencing systems. It’s that simple.

HEADSETS: Poly headsets are beautifully designed tech that let you hear and be heard with incredible clarity, while tuning out distractions. Delivering crazy good audio for your most important conversations. Poly’s Microsoft Teams-certified headsets meet Microsoft’s audio requirements and include a dedicated Teams button to instantly invoke Microsoft Teams to the foreground for streamlined communications. Poly headsets certified for Skype for Business are recertified for Microsoft Teams, providing similar user experience. The Voyager family of Bluetooth® wireless headsets provides seamless, multi-device connectivity for today’s workforce. The Savi family provides a selection of DECT™ wireless headsets that offer best-in-class sound quality and multidevice connectivity, long-range and hands-free mobility and hours of talk time for ultimate efficiency. The Blackwire family gives you a broad selection of corded UC devices that deliver outstanding audio quality and reliability, ease of use and price points to meet any budget.

DESKTOP: In the office, at home or on the go, Poly delivers the broadest set of voice devices for Microsoft Teams. The Poly CCX Series delivers exceptional audio quality and the option to choose a headset or handset (CCX 500/600).

CONFERENCE PHONES: Customers looking for conference and speakerphones for their Microsoft Teams communications turn to Poly when they want high-quality audio and innovative features that transform the conversation. Poly Trio C60, the latest and most powerful Trio conference phone to date, sets the new conferencing standard for Microsoft Teams calls with familiar interface and one touch-to-join calendar integration. Also certified for use with Microsoft Teams Rooms as USB audio device. Poly Sync Family USB/Bluetooth® smart speakerphones provides premium sound, easy connections, and flawless meetings. Poly Sync 20 for personal spaces and Poly Sync 40 and Poly Sync 60 for conference rooms.

SOFTWARE: Poly Lens provides workspace insights and management software through quick device onboarding, inventory management, and intelligent news feed. Get a clear picture of your Microsoft collaboration environments, with a spotlight on how your spaces and devices are being used. Device management puts you in control across your entire organization while the cloud-based architecture gives you security, flexibility, and agility.

SERVICES: Putting all the pieces together for a seamless transition to Microsoft Teams can be a complex endeavor. Only Poly offers a comprehensive line of support services that are certified for Microsoft Teams. For IT managers, this means that they can count on Poly’s global Professional Services team to provide support when it comes time to plan, deploy, operate, and support your Microsoft solution environment — including headsets — all through a single call.

In order to realize the full power of Microsoft Teams, users need the right devices. After 15 years (and counting) of partnering with Microsoft in the collaboration space, Poly has created a one-stop shop for both personal and group collaboration needs. It’s not just about offering the most, or the best, unified communications and collaboration products that power Microsoft Teams experiences (which we also do!). It’s about giving customers a complete end-to-end Teams solution set…. And this partnership is just getting warmed up!

Here are a few easy ways to get started working with Poly to kickstart your Teams journey with clarity and confidence:

• Request a free 20-minute consult and talk to one of our Microsoft Teams experts.
• Visit our website to learn more about Poly Cloud Accelerator Workshops for Microsoft Teams and our complete portfolio of Professional Services for Microsoft Teams.
• Contact TeamMicrosoft@poly.com to accelerate your Poly Microsoft Teams Journey today.

In today’s hybrid work environment, it’s critical that participants who are joining a meeting remotely, no matter where they are working, feel as if they are sitting alongside team members. The key to that seamless connection is professional-grade collaboration gear to level the playing field for all meeting participants.

Poly and Microsoft continue to work together to introduce intelligent hardware and software features that will help all participants feel engaged and empowered on every call. Even if your seat at the table is virtual, it is important that you’re able to pick up on all the small gestures, expressions and body language cues across the room (or across the screen) and feel confident in your ability to be seen and heard from anywhere.

POLY SOLUTIONS + MICROSOFT TEAMS ROOMS

We’ve previously written about how Poly works with Microsoft Teams to deliver seamless meeting experiences, using our innovations in camera technology and Microsoft Teams Rooms. This includes intelligent features like Acoustic Fence, Group Framing and industry-first technology like Conversation Mode and Smooth Tracking to provide effortless video conferencing every time you select Microsoft Teams for your meeting using Poly tools. Today, we’re excited to showcase the Poly Studio E70 as part of Microsoft’s announcements for hybrid work.

“Microsoft is committed to creating experiences that are equitable and inclusive for people no matter where they work,” said Ilya Bukshteyn, GM, Microsoft Teams Devices. “The power of Microsoft Teams Rooms paired with the Poly Studio E70 intelligent camera reflects our commitment to meeting design that helps people truly be seen and heard.”

BENEFITS OF USING A SMART CAMERA

The in-room camera serves as the eyes for remote workers; therefore, it should be dynamic and smart.  Here are some ways that the Poly Studio E70 can power more efficient meetings for hybrid work and put all participants on equal footing:

1. Getting the right view – Everyone has seen the bowling alley view, where you are staring down a long conference table with faces that are difficult to see. You may recognize who they are, but there’s a lot that you are missing by not being physically there. Poly DirectorAI is the brain behind Poly’s cutting-edge video experiences delivered in the Poly Studio camera line, using tried and true video production rules to deliver a great experience. It uses AI and machine learning to deliver real-time automatic transitions, framing and tracking that makes everyone feel like they are in the room together. Poly DirectorAI enhances the hybrid work experience by effortlessly connecting the meeting room to the home office using Microsoft Teams.
2. Quality by design – A smart camera should have a brain, but it should also have intelligent design and be purpose-built for its environment. With the Poly Studio E70, we’ve created a unique two-lens solution that can cover large rooms with ease thanks to life-like video with dual 20 Megapixel 4K sensors. Having both a wide angle and narrow lens means that people close to the camera and those way in the back can be seen equally. Having a fixed EPTZ camera means there are no moving parts to distract participants of a meeting. It also means that we can create high production value with smooth, seamless transitions between different views, like Presenter Mode, that lets a presenter get in the zone and move around freely without the worry of being out of frame. Simply put, the Poly Studio E70 can do things that optical zoom cameras cannot.
3. Feeling like you are there – If a participant feels like an onlooker, they’ll be hesitant to contribute to the meeting. A combination of great audio, brilliant optics, and dynamic speaker tracking allows everyone to feel like they are in the same room, even if they are on opposite sides of the world. A camera like the Poly Studio E70 breaks down the walls between the virtual and physical world, and builds a meeting experience that just works, for everyone.

A CAMERA OPTIMIZED FOR MICROSOFT TEAMS

Poly has always delivered cutting-edge technology, and each day, we strive to create new features that intelligently enable the perfect hybrid work experience. Our shared vision of the future of hybrid work with Microsoft has allowed us to further our long-standing partnership to offer new smart cameras like the Poly Studio E70, purpose-built for today’s meeting environments. And we can’t wait to show you what’s next.

To learn more about how the Poly Studio E70 makes hybrid meetings smarter, please visit:  poly.com/studioE70.

Have we done it again? Hell yeah – Poly smashed the record by winning five awards so far this year. We took home two Red Dot Design Awards, one iF Design Award, and two CompassIntel Spring Awards – and we’re pumped!

Our stylish new Studio P15 video bar, as well as the latest line of Sync Family speakerphones, have bagged the prestigious Red Dot Award for Product Design – recognizing the kickass design and outstanding functionality delivered to customers via Poly.

Our brilliant Studio P15 crushed again, winning another great design award of the year – winning the iF Design Award 2021.

And the praise for our new Poly Studio P Series didn’t stop with its striking good looks. The entire Studio P Series and its compatible Poly Lens software were recognized at the CompassIntel Spring Awards honoring leading companies, products, solutions, and services in the tech sector.

EXCELLENT PRODUCT DESIGN IS OUR ART, OUR MOTTO

The global scene for work as we knew it had to shrink and fit inside our homes in the blink of an eye. We learned how to give virtual high-fives overnight, and now even make time to enjoy an informal watercooler chat or two with our colleagues. What the global scale work-from-from experiment of 2020 truly taught us was how to build our focus zone anywhere – to work from anywhere. This was what inspired the Poly Studio P Series.

We sat down with Darrin Caddes, VP of Design and he explained, “Our approach to design is really quite straightforward – build a product that is ground-breaking yet practical, something that is functional and also beautiful to look at. Primarily, our focus is on connecting people no matter where they are or what’s going on around them.”

GREAT SOFTWARE TO COMPLIMENT GREAT DEVICES

But don’t think these devices are all style without substance. At this year’s CompassIntel Springs Awards, The Poly Studio P Series was recognized as the Top B2B Workplace Device, and the compatible software, Poly Lens took home the award for the Best Enterprise Software Innovation of 2021.

These wickedly smart solutions let you focus on your work and colleagues – ensuring you don’t have to waste time worrying about the meeting technology that gets you there. Forget about fussing over audio issues and refocusing your camera when you’re stretching your legs thanks to that shiny new sit/stand desk in your home office.

Poly’s Studio P Series together with Poly Lens management software for IT offers flexibility and choice with products that are designed to meet the demands of hybrid working for everyone regardless of their location or work style. Poly Lens is a cloud-based service that gives IT departments the powerful tools they need to manage and support devices from anywhere.

For the end-user, Poly Lens allows them to set up and tailor personal devices to their needs or preferences to fit their unique work style. Additionally, through the app, users can keep device and software current and quickly access technical help if needed. Additionally, Poly Lens includes features to improve a user’s workday with personal wellness tips, movement reminders, and nature sounds to help drown out the chaos of home.

WE MAKE SURE THEY HEAR YOU WIN

The one thing that you cannot have a meeting without is audio. It’s the backbone of all video conversations and Poly gets it that sometimes we just need tech that guarantees maximum mobility, performance, and consistent meeting experience. Poly designed the Poly Sync so that not only will you be heard, but you’ll make an impact during your audio meetings. The Poly Sync family of speakerphones — Poly Sync 20, Poly Sync 40, and Poly Sync 60 — meets modern employees’ demand to work from anywhere without sacrificing productivity. Beautifully designed with Bluetooth and USB options, Poly Sync offers flexibility, intelligent noise cancellation, and spot-on speaker voice tracking. Oh, and did we mention that our Red Dot award-winning Sync is also stylish as heck?

To learn more about Poly’s award-winning products, visit Poly.com.

Poly’s global research shows that the vast majority of workers expect they will be working from more than one location even after the pandemic. Yes, this means hybrid working is projected to go mainstream. However, this begs the question, how will organizations ensure all employees are set up for success and working on a level playing field, regardless of where they’re working?

DON’T SKIMP ON DEVICES

To empower all hybrid employees to perform at their best, Poly offers devices certified for Microsoft Teams that have been beautifully designed and engineered to work flexibly in any type of working environment. Poly offers an end-to-end portfolio of Teams certified products for nearly every work style and setting. Today, we’re going to highlight several of our next-gen solutions that bring together home and the office – setting the stage for a hybrid workforce.

By now, we’ve found that taking a “laissez-faire” approach to allowing employees to choose their own devices runs the risk of them choosing products ill-equipped for a professional remote working scenario. Not only can this be a headache for IT, but it also aggravates an already challenging work environment for remote workers and their co-collaborators. Professional-grade technology built to work with Microsoft Teams ensures that all employees can bring their best selves to every meeting.

“We’re living through a watershed moment for remote and hybrid workers around the globe,” said Nicole Herskowitz, GM, Microsoft Teams Microsoft. “Microsoft Teams and Poly have a longstanding partnership focused on providing seamless remote collaboration experiences. We are excited to build on this alliance as Poly continues to roll out new products that meet our Teams Certification standards.”

MORE FREEDOM + FLEXIBILITY TO WORK – WITHOUT COMPROMISE

For organizations or individuals trying to decide what solutions to choose to work with now and in the future, the keyword here is ‘flexibility’ – and what we mean by that is simple, plug-and-play technologies that are easy to set up all while delivering a consistent collaboration experience. Joining the ranks of our popular Teams Certified Poly Studio X Family, Poly introduced the Poly Studio P Series,* three groundbreaking professional-grade personal video devices to elevate your home office game. Additionally, Poly recently introduced the Poly Sync Family of smart Bluetooth speakerphones which boast exceptional audio quality for both ends of the call.

POLY PICKS FOR HYBRID WORKING WITH MICROSOFT TEAMS

For the In-Office Collaborators

Needless to say, the Poly Studio X30 all-in-one video bar has set the standard pretty high when comes to powerful Microsoft Teams collaboration experiences. The audio detection and camera tracking on Studio X30 are so compelling, it’s perfect to capture in-room faces and conversations so remote colleagues are part of the conversation.

For the Hybrid Workers

The Poly Studio P5 is our small but mighty professional webcam that makes sure you look and sound incredible on your video calls wherever you’re working. This compact camera blows your integrated PC camera and speakers out of the water and even hides away a powerful directional microphone that keeps the focus on what you’re saying and not the noises around you. It also includes clever features like an integrated privacy shutter and a magnetic ball and socket that allows you to remove the camera and point it around the room. Just plug the device right into your laptop or connect directly to your favorite headset for seamless Teams* video collaboration experience.

Poly Studio P15 is a powerful camera and speakers combo that is purpose-built for personal use. This high-def USB video bar gives you everything you need to look and sound your best in one device. The Studio P15’s remarkable optics, high-performance 4K image sensor, and automatic low-light compensation bring out your inner star. This is paired with an advanced microphone array, Poly’s patented NoiseBlockAI and Acoustic Fence technology that cut distracting noise. Studio P15 is Certified for Microsoft Teams and available now.

For those of you who looking for a one-stop-shop device, the Poly Studio P21 personal meeting display is our game-changing all-in-one device that provides your display, camera, microphones, and speakers, via a simple USB connection to your computer. The Poly Studio P21 even has a wireless phone charging tray and a single USB cable to help limit desktop clutter.

Finally, the Poly Sync 20, for Microsoft Teams Bluetooth speakerphone and music speaker is your ‘down for anything’ hybrid working sidekick that transitions seamlessly from work calls to playing your favorite tunes. Compact and portable, this little speaker is packed with premium sound and incredible mic pick-up – it’s also dust and water-resistant and comes with a convenient carrying case so you can throw it in your bag and run out the door.

All of these personal devices can be managed with Poly Lens, so IT can comprehensively manage and update all remote devices. They are also available with Poly+, Poly’s new support and software update subscription that has you covered 24/7 for support and the latest and greatest software innovations.

GAME FOR WHEREVER

It has been widely agreed upon by industry experts that hybrid working practices centered around flexibility and a fully equipped distributed workforce are central to business resilience in the ‘new normal.’ Supporting the needs of agile, future-proof organizations will require thoughtful planning around the necessary collaboration platforms and professional-grade solutions that will facilitate everyone’s success. For more information about Poly solutions for Microsoft Teams, visit Poly.com/Microsoft.

*Poly Studio P5 and Poly Studio P21 Microsoft Teams Certification available Spring 2021.

I have worked from home for 10 years. I thought nothing of spending hours a day on video calls and “meeting” colleagues for the first time via Zoom or Microsoft Teams. It was work as I knew it. However, I was the minority at Poly. Although most people worked from home sometimes, the cohort of always-WFH employees was still the minority.

As a WFH-er, there were times when I felt like a less involved part of a large-group in-person meeting. Covid-19 sent us all into the WFH loop, where 95 percent of Poly employees transitioned to WFH. Of course, we were not alone. In fact, we were the lucky ones. We had the meeting equipment needed to maintain communication at enterprise-grade levels. That’s not to say we didn’t have the same dogs barking and kids climbing the walls as anyone (in truth, my kids actually learned how to climb doorways during this time), but we had tools to make WFH work. Every day during quarantine I thanked my lucky stars that I had noise-canceling headsets and a good camera. Most of the time I was able to spare my colleagues from the chaos happening in my home. Amidst the global crisis, however, Poly realized quickly there was a mission-critical opportunity that it was uniquely positioned to fill.

THE CHALLENGES OF WFH

There were two core issues to the pandemic-state of WFH. 1.) People didn’t have the right devices, and 2.) There was no way to centrally manage the devices that were being used. It was from this backdrop that Poly developed its Poly Studio P Series of personal video devices. These devices bring together professional-grade video and audio technology with gorgeous design elements that you would actually want in your personal space. They are USB-connected devices, so they work with all services like Microsoft Teams, Zoom, GoToMeeting, etc. The Studio P Series devices, P5, P15, and P21, work with Poly Lens, a remote management and insights platform geared to giving IT the ability to manage remote workers with the same ease and confidence as they manage conference rooms. Additionally, each of the devices can be enabled with Poly+, a software subscription that keeps the device fresh with the latest software release plus 24/7 service and extended 3-year device coverage.

The long-term value of products like Studio P Series and Poly Lens is strong. According to Metrigy, the WFH trend is almost certain to continue after the pandemic. Their research shows that 74.7% of respondents expect to be asked to WFH or will have the flexibility to choose to. Almost half (48.7%) wish to remain remote due to improved quality-of-life resulting from their new WFH arrangement – this includes avoiding long commutes and having a more flexible work schedule.

WFH plans vary by region, with companies based in the Asia-Pacific region least likely to require WFH and most likely to offer employees choice of work location or require a return to the office. North American-based companies are most likely to offer employee choice or mandate full-time WFH. In Europe, there will be more WFH requirements with less employee choice. (See Figure 1).

Figure 1: Work Location Future Plans, by Region

The timing may differ, but the goals remain the same. Workers need to “show up” in their meetings looking and sounding their best so collaboration doesn’t miss a beat. Low-quality camera, inferior audio devices, insufficient network performance, poor lighting, and background noise disrupt productivity.

As Irwin Lazar, President and Principal Analyst for Metrigy explains in his latest white paper, “Video and audio conferencing are the technologies for achieving work-from-home success. This is true globally, with more than 89% of North American-based organizations viewing video as important or critical, similar to 82% of those based in Europe and 83% of Asia-Pacific-based companies.” According to Lazar, AI-enabled devices offer advancements in audio and video quality to minimize distractions and improve video quality while adding interactive elements to make video meetings more enjoyable. Poly addresses each of these crucial pain points to enable an enjoyable, sustainable, and democratized collaboration environment.

Lazar also emphasizes the need for customers to “evaluate endpoints based on their ability to support present and future planned meeting and calling platforms,” and advises they prioritize “vendor certifications and integrated management approaches.”

Poly is pleased to share the full piece of research with you here.

Poly is on the same journey as the rest of the world. Let us help you and your teams to be their best selves no matter where they are working. We are committed to driving innovation across audio and video technology and lead the vanguard of next-generation meeting experiences that create independence from a location. Whether working from an office, from home, or while mobile, work is no longer a place; work is what you do.

In recent years, and especially in recent months, companies have been tuning into the benefits of their employees working remote. Poly has spent decades fine-tuning the art of making meetings feel more human for everyone in the room and those dialing in. By partnering to develop the next generation of Zoom solutions, we’re making a commitment that every powerful idea, every human emotion, and every spark of genius can be clearly seen, heard, and understood – regardless of where you work.

On Thursday, March 19, join Poly’s Laura Marx, VP of Global Alliance and Product Marketing, Zoom’s Jeff Smith, Head of Zoom Rooms, and Niel Levonius, Product Marketing Lead for Zoom Phone, as they explore strategies for making video and voice communication and collaboration even more simple and effective.

According to Gartner, “by 2030, the demand for remote work will increase by 30% due to stronger preference for remote work by Gen Z”*. Furthermore, when speaking to the present, the partnership between Poly and Zoom is valuable in today’s business landscape as there’s already a profound need for connecting teams spread out various locations around the world.

Experience Remote Meetings Better with Zoom & Poly

Remote working has many faces and respective circumstances. There are jet-setting remote workers that hop around between various places – setting up shop in hotel rooms, coffee shops, or co-working spaces. There are parents with young children that for whom ‘remote working’ means that they don’t need to rely on after school childcare. There are remote teams working in different locations around the world. And, sometimes remote working becomes a necessity due to extraneous circumstances beyond our control. Regardless of the kind of remote worker you interact with, there are three things that make the distances between teams fall into the background: a reliable internet connection, an easy to use video and calling platform, and high-performance communication hardware. When it comes to the first one… well, you’re going to have to figure that one out. However, as for the other two, you can count on Zoom and Poly.

The Power Couple of Communications

In any remote working scenario, you should never underestimate the importance of clear audio and dynamic video. We’ve partnered with Zoom to offer the broadest selection of Zoom certified and Zoom supported end points available – and, we’re proud of it. Poly’s end-to-end solutions cover all working styles and needs, including: the Zoom Rooms certified Poly Studio USB video bar and Eagle Eye Cube cameras, our updated Poly Studio X Family video bars running native Zoom software, and a variety of Poly headsets and audio solutions – including Voyager, Blackwire, Savi and Calisto – that officially support Zoom for Zoom Meetings and Zoom Phone.

The pairing of Poly and Zoom solutions allow for communication between your remote workers that feels natural and therefore, there is a greater willingness to connect and collaborate. While, from a more technical point of view, a seamless experience for users will undoubtedly result in fewer help tickets for your IT Managers.

Join the Webinar

During this interactive webinar you will learn:

• How Poly and Zoom are working together to make communications easier
• The importance of choosing the right device for Zoom Rooms and Zoom Phone
• The next steps to see Poly + Zoom in action

Sign up today!

*Gartner, “2020 Future of Work Hidden Trends: Rising Demand for Remote Work,” Chief Human Resources Officer Research Team, 19 November 2019

Microsoft Teams is the ultimate collaboration tool, bringing everything together in one place: people, conversations, content and tools.  A recent survey conducted by Frost and Sullivan found that 85% of its customers have already migrated at least part of the feature set to Teams, and 40% said Microsoft Teams will become their default choice for communications within the coming year.  However, managing the transition to Teams doesn’t come without challenges, as we’ve explored in past blogs.

Fortunately, we’re here to help!  On February 27^th, 2020 experts from Frost & Sullivan, Microsoft and Poly will be hosting an interactive webinar to share insights and best practices to ensure a streamlined Microsoft Teams deployment.

If you’re still on the fence about migrating your enterprise collaboration infrastructure to Teams, consider these three ways that Microsoft and Poly can foster a culture of collaboration in your organization:

1. Supercharge Your Microsoft Teams Experience with Voice and Video

The role that voice and video play in your experience of Microsoft Teams is huge.  And, the reason for this is somewhat obvious— we’ve evolved to communicate through speaking and listening.  We’ve mastered the skill of interpreting subtle nuances in vocal tone and body language over the course of our entire lives and, although emojis can sometimes help, they aren’t always the best way to go in a professional setting.  This isn’t to discredit the usefulness of the written word.  The Chat function in Teams is great for quick clarifications or to relay high-level details.  However, when it comes time to collaborate on projects, share detailed plans, or even just check-in to build meaningful relationships within your team— speaking and listening are the way to go.  Therefore, when meeting in-person isn’t possible, getting information across clearly and allowing space for collaboration will always be best suited through the use of voice and video.

2. Drive a Culture of Productivity with Teams

The driving force behind what we do at Poly is to find innovative ways to power authentic human connection and collaboration.  Meanwhile, Microsoft is on a mission to create tools that “empower every person and organization on the planet to achieve more.”  The partnership between Poly and Microsoft facilitates a highly dynamic environment where teams can share their ideas with ease.  Teams that have the ability to easily collaborate on live documents, virtually meet face-to-face, present their ideas and more, are better aligned. In order for this to happen, it is of vital importance that your teams are well-equipped to actively shape and participate in a lively corporate culture built around collaboration and productivity.

3. Empower Your People with the Right Solutions

As mentioned above, the right collaboration tools make all the difference in your organization’s culture. The result of running any collaboration tool on suboptimal hardware will result in an experience that is lacking – and, this scenario is true in reverse as well! This is why combination of Poly and Microsoft is essential to any organization committed to delivering the richest and most complete collaboration experience for their associates.

Poly’s end-to-end offering of quality headsets, videoconferencing tools, speakerphones, and software were intentionally designed to work seamlessly with Microsoft Teams. Poly’s extensive portfolio of Microsoft Teams Certified products encompasses the needs and work styles of your entire organization.

Join the Webinar

In this interactive webinar, Frost & Sullivan will discuss evolving trends in the UC market as well as what how you can elevate employee engagement and productivity, boost innovation, increase organizational agility, and maximize ROI.

Key Takeaways:

• Top drivers for UC investments
• Communications considerations for the modern workforce
• The advantages of a full-stack UC solution
• Why integration matters
• Future UC deployment plans–how to get ahead of your competition

Facilitator: Patrick McCrea – Webinar Operations Manager, Poly

Host/Moderator: Laura Marx – Vice President, Global Alliance and Product Marketing, Poly

Presenter: Rob Arnold – Principal Analyst, Frost & Sullivan

Robert works with enterprises as well as the ecosystem of developers, service providers and value-added sales channels to help them understand the direction of technology development, which solutions are being adopted and how they can gain or maintain competitive advantages in the increasingly dynamic global communications and collaboration technology marketplace. He assists clients with their partners in the competitive and market intelligence efforts with the support of Frost & Sullivan’s global market and technology research and fore-sighting processes.

Panelist: Duncan Barnes – Senior Product Manager, Microsoft

Duncan is the Senior Product Marketing Manager responsible for ensuring that customers and partners have a consistent experience from platform to device. Through owning all of Microsoft’s strategic third-party device partnerships for Skype for Business and Microsoft Teams platforms, he’s been able to deliver a consistent message and approach for meetings and callings. Duncan has developed GTM programs and defined Partner Marketing strategies that support increased usage and revenue that align to Microsoft’s business strategy and levers within Microsoft Teams. He also delivers on dedicated devices programs such as Learn and Earn for Microsoft field sellers across all Microsoft internal communities to increase insight and define opportunity engagement within customers.

Panelist: Sherri Pipala – Director, Chief Americas Alliances Evangelist, Poly

Sherri’s dynamic sales career has been focused on marketing and sales collaboration solutions and advanced services in the Unified Messaging space. Her primary focus has been within the competitive enterprise and global account market landscape. She has been an independent contributor as well as a sales leader for over 20 years focused on solution selling, driving hardware and software sales, and virtual and cloud solution delivery models within the enterprise sales space. She is a passionate sales leader focused on executive relationships, business development, as well as partner engagement to support the best solution sales engagements.

About Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan is a leading global research and consulting firm with over 50 years of expertise. We have over 1,800 employees across 42 offices worldwide, who produce ongoing research, and conduct strategic consulting. Our strength lies in providing various types of insight based on global market, technology, and mega trend analysis. We focus on identifying opportunities for growth and innovation.

Sign up today!

Poly Headsets Officially Support Zoom

Over the past few months, we’ve announced several significant milestones in our partnership with Zoom, including the certification of our Poly Studio USB video bar and Eagle Eye Cube cameras for Zoom Rooms, as well as the introduction of our new Poly Studio X Family video bars running Native Zoom software at Zoomtopia 19.

But you didn’t think we were going to stop at video, did you? Of course you didn’t.  Today we’re excited to announce that a variety of Poly headsets and audio solutions – including Voyager, Blackwire, Savi and Calisto—now officially support Zoom for Zoom Meetings and Zoom Phone.  The combined Poly portfolio offers the broadest selection of Zoom certified and Zoom supported end points available, ensuring a seamless experience for users and less help tickets for IT Managers.

A Headset for Every Workstyle

According to Nemertes Workplace Collaboration 2019-20 Research Study, leading organizations are increasingly provisioning headsets by job role to best fit their worker’s environment and maximize productivity across the business.  Poly’s powerful out-of-the-box offerings cover all types of workers from mobile, office to virtual.

Mobile

Explore Zoom supported headsets that give you the freedom to roam: Voyager 8200 UC, Voyager 6200 UC, Voyager Focus UC Series, Voyager 5200 Office and UC Series.

Office

Explore Zoom supported headsets that promote focus and productivity: Voyager 4200 Office and UC Series, Savi 8200 Office and UC Series, Blackwire 5200 Series, Voyager Focus UC Series. 

Virtual

Explore Zoom supported headsets that enable great work, no matter where you are: Calisto 7200, Calisto 5200, Calisto 3200.

Seamlessly connect to Zoom with Poly

No more fumbling around with clumsy technology or losing impact because you sound like you’re at the bottom of a well. With Poly’s premium headsets, you can meet with confidence knowing that your gear is just going work. The seamless experience of moving from a Zoom call to other clients make Poly headsets the ideal choice for customers with a hybrid environment using Zoom with other video cloud services.

Remote call control (RCC) features available on Poly headsets allow users to answer incoming calls and meeting invitations, mute their line, and control volume directly from the headset.  Alleviate low-battery anxiety with mute and power level status easily visible on the taskbar (requires Plantronics Hub 3.14)

Poly Power. Zoom Simplicity.

Poly has decades of experience in understanding what makes meetings more human – for everyone in the room and those dialing in from other locations. By partnering to develop the next generation of Zoom solutions, we’re making sure every powerful idea, every human emotion and every spark of genius can be clearly seen, heard and understood whether you’re in the office, working remotely or running through the airport.