Long Tail Products, LLC, based out of Austin, Texas, is not exactly known for products associated with call center operations. The Bottle Boss, a bottle opener with a lifetime guarantee, and Squish, a microwaveable omelet maker are two of its products that are customer favorites.

But yesterday, the same providers of kitchen gadgets announced the launch of an exclusive line of products that solve the frustrating incompatibility issues between Cisco (News - Alert) IP telephones and headsets. Long Tail is also the manufacturer of Headset Buddy, a provider of headset adapters. After this successful partnership with Cisco, Headset Buddy’s products may remain call center fixtures long after the novelty of the silicon omelet maker fades.

Despite the amount of call centers and other businesses that use Cisco’s IP telephony products, the options for compatible accessories like headsets were limited. The standard headsets used for other phone equipment or PC’s would not work on Cisco’s line. Headset Buddy took note of the specific need for Cisco IP headset adapters, and created an exclusive line of products to accompany a list of Cisco IP phone models.

The launch of Headset Buddy’s new line sheds light on the fact that the reason why many headsets are incompatible with Cisco IP telephones might be because the phones require a RJ9/RJ11 polarity, a factor that specializes the phones for call center and inside sale’s operations. Many adapters are RJ9/RJ11 and standard RJ9 and do not work on these IP phones. The following is the list of models Headset Buddy provides PC Headsets to: Cisco Unified IP Phone (News - Alert) 79XX Series: 7911G, 7931G, 7940, 7941G, 7941G-GE, 7942G, 7945G, 7960, 7961, 7961G, 7961G-GE, 7962G, 7965G, 7970, 7970G, 7971, 7971G, 7971G-GE, 7975, and 7975G.

The new adapters provide many benefits. According to the video description of the product, setting up the adapter is very simple. The adapter is intended to increase productivity and cut back costs because it eliminates the need for two headsets, one for the computer and one for the Cisco IP telephone. The adapters are currently available for purchase for just under $20.