Plantronics Updates its SaaS Offering for Better Communications, Collaboration

By Michael Guta
TMCnet Contributing Writer

The communication solutions that organizations must deploy in today’s complex environment has to include a wide range of technologies and bring them together seamlessly. Because of the many different ways in which consumers and businesses interact with each other, each touchpoint has to be integrated to be part of the whole. This has given rise to unified communications (UC), a comprehensive solution that makes it possible for users to communicate and access company resources on desktops, mobile and tablets no matter where they are. Plantronics, provider of comprehensive audio communications for businesses and consumers, has announced the update of its Software-as-a-Service (SaaS (News - Alert)) platform to address the communication challenges organizations are facing.

The company is updating its cloud Plantronics Manager Pro and Plantronics Manager, along with the release of version 3.5 of Plantronics (News - Alert) Hub, with the goal of providing enterprise IT managers and end-users with the tools they need for improved communication and collaboration experience.

While Pro v3.5 lets customers and partners deploy and manage the company’s communication devices, Plantronics Manager stores user-data on premises. Together, they provide enterprise IT managers with real-time control and visibility into their audio environment; and according to the company it is the first audio device management tool to do so.

With an architecture offering cloud and on premises data storage, customers will be able to choose the best option to address company policy or regulatory compliances by quickly and consistently provisioning these devices. They can now deploy client software and device firmware upgrades with a new simplified administration platform, which also enables or disables device settings to meet the requirements of the organization.

The Plantronics Hub v3.5 has been updated to give end-users of Plantronics audio devices more control so they can create an audio communication experience that can be customized to their personal preference. Users can access the status of their device, including battery life, device-level call control with call answer/disconnect, mute, and volume-adjustment capabilities.

“By simplifying the administration of audio devices and empowering users to increase productivity, we want our customers to see the value these solutions bring to extend the investment they have made in collaboration solutions and achieve real business results,” said Bill Loewenthal, vice president, enterprise solutions, Plantronics.

As more organizations deploy unified communications, IT administrators need solutions that can manage their UC environment with more efficiency by leveraging the right sets of technologies. With these new updates, Plantronics addresses compliance with company policy, real-time visibility of users and device-level information to gain new insights into the communication environment installed within the organization.