The Partnership with Neowit​

When you think of a Device Management Platform, you likely associate it with updating software, remotely monitoring devices, or deploying new configurations. Seldom, if ever, would you think about building management. However, the two are more closely related than you might think. By analyzing data from devices across the building, one can derive highly useful insights about space and resource utilization in the building. That is why we have partnered with Neowit, a fast-growing Smart Building Management start-up, that creates a single aggregated view of all devices in a building. All made possible by the Lens API.

What are Smart Buildings?​

Smart Buildings communicate with internal systems, devices, and sensors such as HVAC, lighting, alarms, cameras, etc. to self-regulate building operations, minimize environmental impact, while making it safer and more comfortable for occupants.

Powered by Internet of Things (IoT) and Power over Ethernet (PoE) technologies and others, smart buildings are poised to play an ever-increasing role in helping businesses manage the return to office and achieve sustainability compliance goals.

Some interesting examples of what Smart Buildings can do:

• Use people counting sensors to automatically turn off lighting, turn off air-conditioning, and trigger an autonomous disinfection process as soon as meeting rooms are vacated.
• Turn on the building tenant’s allocated space lighting systems as soon as tenant swipes their access card at building entrance.
• Increase ventilation as occupancy increases.

The Poly | HP and Neowit Advantage​

While Smart Buildings hold a lot of promise, without a single cohesive view of the data from the innumerable devices and sensors in a building, it is difficult for businesses to optimize space utilization, reduce carbon footprint and overall make smarter business decisions.

Further, people-counting and air quality sensors can cost anywhere from $1000 to $3000 USD. Poly | HP Studio X Series devices come with sensors built-in, which directly translates to cost savings.

That’s why Poly | HP has partnered with Neowit – a leader in Smart Building technology. Neowit’s flagship product (the Neowit Platform), is a modern, scalable IoT facility management and workplace portal. This platform provides comprehensive visibility into your office space and assets, by aggregating data from various IoT sensors and devices into a single pane of glass.

Lens Integrations – Poly Lens Management & Insights API​

The publicly available Poly Lens Management and Insight API supports all features in the Poly Lens admin portal. You can easily create API credentials right in Lens in Accounts > Integrations. Using these credentials, you can create an access token that in turn can be used to grant access of your Poly Lens tenant to third-party platforms such as Neowit.

Smart Buildings are the Future​

With environmental impact, financial and operational considerations, Smart Buildings are clearly an area of global interest. Making the best use of real estate through insights and analytics, provided by partnerships such as the one between Poly | HP and Neowit, which will undoubtedly deliver a better bottom line for business. Here’s a quick intro video about Neowit.

One of the key changes to the Device Actions page is the new layout. Instead of a single feed of information, the page is now divided into multiple columns and cards for each action, including Offline Devices, Updates Available, and Unassigned Sites. The same filter options are available, but the filter capability is now at the top of the Device Actions page. This allows for a clear snapshot of suggested actions, with simple user interaction.

For each Action card, you'll see the number of device models that need attention. If more than one device model needs attention, you can click on the Action card to see a full list of devices. If you need to filter Device Actions by Site or Device Model, you can do so via the dropdown menus at the top of the page. Included with Poly+ and Poly+ Enterprise, you can trigger automated notifications via email, Microsoft Teams or ServiceNow by clicking the Set Custom Notifications button in the top right corner of the page.

To access the updated Device Actions page, simply click on the Actions card on the Poly Lens homepage or select Actions in the Manage menu (Manage > Actions). For more details visit Poly Lens Help.

• Call Usage: Compare utilization between call providers for visibility into adoption trends
• Rooms Summary: Detect room devices with the most intermittent connectivity issues to better manage inventory health
• Workplace Trends: Monitor average meeting sizes by day of the week for insight into space optimization and productivity

Take a look at the Dashboard from the Insights Menu (Insights > Dashboard), and don’t forget to leave us a note about what you would like to see next.

Built using GraphQL, the Lens Management and Insight API supports all the features you see in the Poly Lens Portal. Visit our new API Marketplace to get support, share ideas, and see a few examples of common use cases such as reporting device inventory, controlling device state, and platform management. There you will also be able to access the built-in API playground to learn, understand, and experiment with each API. Once you are ready to start building, you can easily create API credentials right in Lens. Use these credentials to get an access token that can be used to grant access to a particular tenant.

Ready to start building a custom application using the Lens APIs? Visit our API Guide to get started. We can’t wait to see what you create.

The Lens Desktop features that can be customized include:

• Changing Lens Desktop from Cloud to Local mode
• Allowing for auto acceptance to bypass the Lens End User License Agreement screen
• Supporting firmware updates based on files stored in a designated customer folder
• Allowing for either all or no Device settings to be shown in the app
• Customizable time frame for device end user firmware update app notifications

For detailed instructions on how to deploy in this mode, please reach out to your Poly Sales team.

Microsoft Teams SIP Gateway was launched for customers that want to extend their investment in Polycom VVX / Trio / On-premise Skype phones. Although not immediate, Teams SIP Gateway is intended to replace Teams 3PIP Gateway. Start your migration with Poly Lens today and take advantage of onboarding devices using the built-in Lens Provisioning service and enabling the Policy feature (Device Model, Device Group, Site) to accelerate migrations with significantly less effort to deploy and manage Teams-enabled endpoints in Poly Lens.

For additional information and step-by-step instructions visit: Poly Lens Policy - Microsoft Teams.

Please watch this space for updates and links to download the Poly Lens Mobile app soon.

The Poly Lens Mobile app allows you to manage the Poly Bluetooth headsets and personal speakerphones to help you get the most out of your Poly devices.

The Poly Lens Mobile allows you to:

• Keep your device up to date with the latest software
• Customize your device settings to meet your work style
• Access helpful support
• Keep track of your device with the Find My Device feature
• Available for both iOS and Android

The devices supported in this beta include Poly Voyager 4200, Voyager 4300, Voyager 5200, Voyager 6200, Voyager 8200, Voyager Focus, Voyager Focus 2, Poly Sync 20, and Sync 40.

To get started, you must be a member of the Poly Beta Test Community to be a tester and reside in the United States.

If you are new to the Poly Beta Community, you will be prompted to fill out My Profile and Devices.

Once you complete the registration, you will receive an email with instructions on how to access the Beta app within 48 hours. Register now at https://polycom.centercode.com/key/PolyLensMobile.

These new reports and capabilities in Poly Lens help provide valuable perspectives that shed insight into the many reasons behind your inventory's performance. See an offline device? Now you can click into that device to see for how long, how often, and at what intervals it has been offline so you can determine the best course of action for your organization to get that device online and ensure everyone is up and running.

Need to make informed decisions about room utilization? The new site and room level reports give you the control to see exactly how many people are using which space and when. Filter to a specific year, quarter, month, week, or even day to monitor how your employees are returning to the office or when occupancy is at its peak. Select an entire site, or even select just one room to be well-informed of your workspace usage. These new reports give you the data you need, when you need it, allowing you to see patterns of utilization and act on them.

Here is a Preview:

Site and Room reports can be found under Manage > Sites > Site Name > Analysis, or Manage > Rooms > Room Name > Analysis. Device level reports are also accessible under Analysis by clicking on the Device name within your Inventory or within each Room.

For more details on Poly Lens Insights, check out our Insights Categories on the Poly Lens Help. We are listening to your feedback and are making changes so we can meet your needs in the best way possible. So, keep them coming!

To get started, users must first login to their existing PDMS-E tenant and select the Export for Poly Lens button. A local download of a zipped file will be executed.

Once the zipped file has been downloaded, see the Import and Migrate section in Poly Lens and perform the import process.

Then you will need to point the devices from PDMS-E to Poly Lens. To perform this, please see Device Migration for detailed information. This will ensure your deployed devices will call home to Poly Lens instead of PDMS-E.

And you’re done! Now you can use all the great features in Poly Lens to remotely manage, monitoring and troubleshoot your devices from a single pane of glass in a new modern platform.

A more detailed process to migrate the devices is also outlined in our Poly Lens Help.

To get started: Go to Manage > Policy > Device Model and/or Site. Select the USB device from the Device Model list. Once a software update policy is created, remote device users will be prompted to update their device during the next Poly Lens Desktop polling event.

Policy management is supported on all the same devices that Poly Lens Desktop supports. See the full list of supported Poly USB devices at Poly Lens Supported Devices. Note: This feature requires Poly Lens Desktop V1.1.12+.

For more details visit: Poly Lens Help.

To get started, Poly+ users:

1. Go to Account menu > Manage Accounts.
2. Select an Account from the list.
3. Select Notifications from the side tabs.
4. Select ServiceNow.

For more information and configuration details on ServiceNow Notification Setup see Poly Lens Help.

Understanding meeting attendance is just one example of how these Room Insights might help you make informed decisions about room utilization. Imagine when 5-person meetings keep happening in a large conference room and prevent a bigger group from using the space. This is not the best use of the space, but Poly Lens can help highlight these areas for you and allow you make informed decisions based on how people are using the space when we return to the office.

To Get started go to Insights > Priority or Categories > Rooms tab.

For more information on Room Insights see Poly Lens Help - Room Insights.

We’re excited to open these new Room Insights for beta testing and look forward to your feedback on how these new tools are empowering you to make informed and important decisions. The beta is open now to any Poly customer with a Poly Lens account and a supported device. Let us know how these Room Insights are helping you take action to make the best use of your devices and workspaces.

To get started:

1. Go to Account menu > Manage Accounts.
2. Select an Account from the list.
3. Select Integrations from the side tabs.
4. Select Allow Access.
5. Select Apply.

For more details, visit: Poly Lens Help.

To get started: Go to Manage > Policy > Device Model. Select USB device model from the Device Model list. For full instructions, see Poly Lens Help.
Policy management is supported on all the same devices that Poly Lens Desktop supports. See the full list at Poly Lens Supported Devices.

Deployment​

These updates help onboard devices, activate licenses if using Poly+, and import device policies for easy provisioning.

Device Support​

Over the past few months, the following devices have been added to the long list of devices that Poly Lens supports. Poly Lens now supports, Studio USB, Studio E70, Studio X70, Edge B Series, the latest EncorePro Series, and the Blackwire, Voyager, Sync, and the Savi families.

For a detailed list, visit the Supported Devices page.

Poly+ Licensing Activation​

We have redesigned the Poly+ Licensing experience that enables IT admins to cover the activation and assigning of Poly+ licenses in Poly Lens. Poly+ now supports most Poly devices, making it easy for the customer to opt for premium services.

Manage Poly+ Licenses in Poly Lens by going to Manage > Licensing > Poly+.

Detailed steps can be found at Activate Poly+ Licenses.

Policy Import and Staging​

Now you can import device configurations using a simple .csv file. This allows you quickly change device configurations or even stage device configurations, which helps get devices ready to use faster. Start by going to Manage > Policy > Device Model > Import Settings. Note: This applies to device-level policies only.

Detailed steps can be found at Import Settings.

Change Management​

The following updates allow you to enact Policies at the Device Group and Site level, access USB Device settings in real-time, and access the health of secondary devices connected to primary device endpoints.

Group and Site-based Device Policies are available now!​

Policies were introduced into Poly Lens earlier this year, but this feature now includes a completely redesigned workflow to manage Policies. This feature also includes the ability to add custom-defined groups of devices as well. Together, this gives you the ability to create a consistent device experience at scale across both sites and custom-defined groups of devices.

Access Group and Site Device Policies in Poly Lens by going to Manage > Policy > Site and/or Device Group.

Detailed steps can be found at Policy by Site and Device Group Details.

1-1 Centralized USB Device Controls​

Settings for Personal Devices, like headsets and USB video devices, can now be controlled, in real-time, from the Poly Lens portal once that device is registered to Poly Lens using the Poly Lens Desktop app. This is especially helpful when remotely troubleshooting camera settings or mute alert behaviors. To control a device, navigate to that device settings by going to Manage > Inventory > < Device Name > > Settings.

Secondary Device Support​

You can now inventory and monitor the health of connected peripherals, including room controllers and microphones. The management of these peripherals works alongside a managed video device in Poly Lens. Currently, the following are supported as connected peripherals in Poly Lens: Microphones, Cameras, Room Controllers, Speakers, Remote Controls, and connected IP Devices, like a Trio, or a Studio X Series device. A connected peripheral will automatically show up in Poly Lens once connected to a primary device that has been registered to Poly Lens.

For more information, see Connected Devices.

Inventory Monitoring​

These features are pivotal to troubleshooting when things go wrong, managing remote user devices and getting critical device alerts when they matter most.

Health and Status Reporting​

For easier troubleshooting, supported devices in Poly Lens report detail device information, including SIP and H.323 Service Information and Network Health Information. This is found by selecting Manage > Inventory > < Device Name > > Troubleshooting > Device Information.

Notification Center: Now with Device Offline Alert and Microsoft Teams Integration​

As part of the Poly+ service, the Notification Center has been expanded to include a new alert for Offline Devices with a new integration to Microsoft Teams. Critical device alerts are now delivered right to a Microsoft Teams channel, enabling quick visibility around which devices are offline, software update available, or license expiring. To get started, you can enable Device Alerts in two ways:

• Account menu > Manage Accounts > select an Account > Notifications
• Account menu > your user name > Notifications

For more information see, Notification Integrations.

Troubleshooting and Logging​

When you receive a report of call quality issues, there are numerous possibilities to diagnose, troubleshoot, and resolve the issue of concern. Poly Lens now provides centralized remote access to device logging and network packet capture (.pcap). You can use the packet captures for network troubleshooting and analysis in third-party network protocol analyzer applications.

Device Logs: Select Manage > Inventory > < Device Name > > Troubleshooting > Diagnostics
For more information see Supported Devices for Diagnostics and Diagnostics.

Packet Capture: Select Manage > Inventory > < Device Name > > Troubleshooting > Packet Capture
For more information see Supported Devices for Packet Capture and Packet Capture.

Insights​

These features spotlight the health and efficiency of your spaces and devices by providing intelligent and actionable Insights.

Insight Data Visualizations​

Insights in Poly Lens have been overhauled to include a new way to visualize your data. Time-based charts help you gain deeper insights into device usage and adoption. As a reminder, the following Insights are curated using a machine learning based insights feed.

• Devices Offline: Percentage of devices that are not connected to the network
• Devices in Use: Percentage of devices with at least one call a week
• Devices Not in Use: Percentage of online devices with no calls for more than one week
• Out-of-Service Devices: Percentage of devices that have been offline for more than one week
• Call Usage: Average daily minutes each device was in a call

Call Usage Insights on Poly Lens Desktop [Beta]​

Using Poly Lens Desktop, the new Call Usage Insights provides users visibility to their usage patterns to understand how often and when they use their Poly devices throughout the week. To view, open the Poly Lens Desktop app and select Insights.

Site-level device controls now let you conduct mass device reboots for a whole site of devices, helping to alleviated widespread troubleshooting issues or speed up routine maintenance. This new tool is located in Manage > Sites > select a site > Device tab.
Note: These features are currently in the “Premium Beta” program to help fine-tune these features and gather more feedback. No additional enrollment is needed to enjoy these new features.

• Account menu > Manage Accounts > select an account > Notifications
• Account menu > your user name > Notifications

Poly+ Includes

• Advance hardware replacement: Replace devices the next business day, before returning the faulty device
• Up to three-year product replacement option: Have the products needed to be productive
• Unlimited, 24x7x365 technical support around the world: Help, how and when you need it (phone, chat, web, live video)
• Exclusive Professional Services discounts for members: Specific Professional Services are discounted saving time and money
• Advanced software features through Poly Lens: With Poly Lens and Poly Lens Desktop app you can access insights around network performance and receive email notifications around important device alerts

Poly+ devices can be entitled right in the Poly Lens portal. After purchasing a Poly+ supported device, you can entitle the device by first logging into your existing Poly Lens account or sign up for a new account. Click the Account menu icon (upper-right corner) > Manage Accounts > Poly+, enter your Activation Key(s), and click Activate when complete. Once all the keys have been activated, assign licenses to devices in your inventory. After the licenses are assigned, all the great Poly+ features in Poly Lens will be enabled and the Poly+ services will be qualified.

Poly+ is currently available for Poly Studio P5, Poly Studio P15, Poly Studio P21, Blackwire 3210, Blackwire 3325, Poly Sync 20, and Voyager 4220 UC.
Note: For further instructions please refer to Poly Lens Help.

To manage USB devices, start by first distributing the Poly Lens Desktop app by going to the Account Menu > Select the Poly Lens account you want to add USB devices > Lens Desktop > Send Email Invites. Enter the email addresses of device users you wish to invite to download the Poly Lens Desktop app, so their devices can be managed by the Poly Lens portal. An email invite to download Poly Lens Desktop with a unique URL will be sent to the designated list. Once installed on the host computer, the device users can sign up for their Poly Lens Desktop accounts via SSO or with their corporate email account, and upon account authentication, they and their attached Poly devices will be associated with the appropriate Poly Lens portal account. Once the user is onboarded, you will be able to track inventory and help troubleshoot issues users may have. 

Note: Other onboarding options for Poly Lens Desktop are coming soon. For a full list of devices supported by the Poly Lens Desktop app visit Supported Devices.

• Provider data has been added to the Device Inventory and Details pages to show the mode the device is in. Poly, Zoom Rooms, GoToRoom, 8x8 Meetings Rooms, RingCentral Rooms, and StarLeaf can be displayed as providers and are supported on the G7500 and Studio X Series devices.
• To assist with troubleshooting, the Device Details page now shows when a device is in an active call.
• Device Inventory now has infinite scroll to show the entire inventory in a seamless flow.
• Device Inventory search has been enhanced to find all the devices related to a search result.

To get started, enable provisioning in the Poly Lens portal by visiting your account settings in the Admin menu (under your profile avatar) > Manage Accounts > select the account you wish to onboard devices to > Device Provisioning.

Once provisioning is enabled, you can start to onboard your Studio USB devices. To onboard a Studio USB, use the Poly Companion app to connect the devices to a wireless network, then enter the provisioning credentials created from your Poly Lens portal in the provisioning section of the Companion app. Once configured, your Studio USB devices will be onboarded to your Poly Lens account where you can now manage your device inventory and tailor your device settings and software updates to your organization’s needs.

Admin: Full Access, including the ability to invite and adjust roles of other account members.
Device Manager: Full access to all device management-based features, including device settings, device actions, device software updates, device policies, and site management.
Guest: Read-only access to general areas, including inventory and insights.

Note: With this update, Users are now called “Account Members” and have moved to a new location called “Manage Accounts” under the Admin menu in the top-right corner.

This feature requires Poly VideoOS version 3.2.1 or newer. For more detailed information on how to get started, visit our Poly Lens help documentation at https://info.lens.poly.com/docs/onboarding-provisioning-based#onboard-video-devices-via-dhcp-auto-discovery.

You can add VVX and CCX Series desk phones to your Poly Lens account either individually or using a DHCP service for bulk onboarding. Intelligence built into Poly Lens will automatically update the devices to a Lens capable software version and automatically add them to your account inventory. To get started, enable the new provisioning functionality by visiting the account section within Poly Lens. Once provisioning is enabled, you can start to onboard your desk phones using those provisioning credentials.

Management tools for the VVX and CCX Series include both individual and policy-based bulk management capabilities, for both settings and software management. On top of that, the settings interface couldn’t be simpler. Poly Lens auto-parses thousands of settings into user-friendly categories making searching endlessly for the setting you want, a thing of the past.

Supported Devices Include:

CCX Devices

• Poly CCX 400
• Poly CCX 500
• Poly CCX 600
• Poly CCX 700
  

Note: The Poly CCX Series devices must be upgraded to software version 6.2.11 to use all the features of Poly Lens.

VVX Devices

• Poly VVX 101
• Poly VVX 150
• Poly VVX 201
• Poly VVX 250
• Poly VVX 301
• Poly VVX 311
• Poly VVX 350
• Poly VVX 401
• Poly VVX 411
• Poly VVX 450
• Poly VVX 501
• Poly VVX 601
  

Note: The Poly VVX Series devices must be upgraded to software version 6.3 to use all the features of Poly Lens.

Also, on the main device details page, you can now reset the device back to factory default settings. This will restart your device, end active calls, and the device will be offline for several minutes during this process.

Once provisioning is enabled, you can start to onboard new devices or add those provisioning credentials to your existing supported Poly video devices that you may already have onboarded to Poly Lens.

These new management tools for supported Poly video models include both individual and policy-based bulk management capabilities for both settings and software management. On top of that, the settings interface couldn’t be simpler. Poly Lens auto-parses thousands of settings into user-friendly categories making searching endlessly for the setting you want a thing of the past.

Supported on G7500, Studio X30, Studio X50. Requires software version 3.2+. Provisioning using DHCP coming soon.

• Added tooltips to various device settings to help provide more context
• Fixed an error when the provisioning account hasn’t synced yet
• Made the device registration form even easier to use and fixed a few related bugs
• Corrected the counter when you remove a user
• Made sure the advanced XML editor isn’t blank when you return to it
• Adjusted the colors of the secondary button on provisioning page
• Added friendly names for device time zones
• Fixed a few errors on the user invite tool
• Adjusted the setting section on device settings for Poly Trios
• Fixed several bugs related to adding named rooms to sites
• Plus dozens more that are important, but not as exciting.

• Ability to remove sites and rooms one by one or as group
• Optimized page caching on device counts
• Capability to add and remove rooms directly from the Site viewer
• “Unassigned” field in Sites and Rooms will now only appear when devices are not assigned to a room or site

Note: Devices onboarded using a device pin code are prompted to assign a site during the onboarding process.

Management tools for the Trio family include both individual and policy-based bulk management capabilities for both settings and software management. On top of that, the settings interface couldn’t be simpler. Poly Lens auto-parses thousands of settings into user-friendly categories, making endless searching for the setting you want, a thing of the past.

The insight newsfeed supports the Trio family as well. The intelligent newsfeed ensures the most important and urgent insights are always at the top of the feed, helping you efficiently address any issues that might arise. Today you can view insights around device usage, device status, and what devices need urgent attention. Insights for the Trio family include devices offline, devices in use, devices not in use, devices out-of-service, and call use (minutes).

• Add custom update URLs
• Enable automatic updates
• Set scheduled time slots for updates

Intelligent Insights​

This is your view into Poly Lens. Consider it like Google Earth(tm) for your device deployment – you can pan across the globe to geolocate your endpoints:

Next, take a look at the Poly Lens newsfeed. Right at your fingertips, you can quickly access insights like device health and usage trends. The newsfeed has logic that allows you to quickly identify and prioritize actionable insights without having to hunt through raw data. The newsfeed ensures the most important and urgent insights are always at the top of the feed, helping you efficiently address any issues that might arise. Today you can view insights around the number of devices that are in a disconnected state, connected but unused, call minutes per week, and more.

As you can see above, the newsfeed displays device data including:

• Device usage. Understand what's working and what needs attention by clearly viewing device usage trends and devices out of service.
• Device health. Identify and monitor parameters that require urgent attention including device health and connection status.

Device Management​

Management within Poly Lens is simplified on multiple fronts, from device onboarding to configuring settings, to getting software upgrades. With a few clicks of the mouse, you can configure settings such as displays, call server settings, network quality, update software, and more. You can also ensure your Poly devices have the latest Poly MeetingAI features and capabilities by updating the device software with the click of a button. And it all happens right from the Poly Lens portal.

Supported Devices​

Poly Lens represents the first step in simplifying our cloud-management solutions, starting with video. Poly Lens now supports Poly G7500, Studio X30, and Studio X50.