Poly is designed to provide a new joint identity for the Plantronics-Polycom combination. In addition to new pipeline product announced at Enterprise Connect this week, the company also emphasized new and expanded strategic partnerships which have more joint offerings on the way.
Plantronics sees the HP Elite Slice G2 Audio-Ready as providing formidable conference room advantages, including the elimination of cable clutter from tables, and is transitioning from the Polycom MSR series to these Polycom + HP SRS Bundles for Microsoft room systems.
They include earlier integrations with Lakeside Software and PrinterLogic, which have been available as custom orders, but which are now part of the basic IGEL OS.
The newly announced ones are the Voyager 4200 UC, aimed at the ‘corridor warrior,’ and the Savi 8200, which extends the range of the Plantronics line that supports deskphones, mobile phones and PCs. They also recently announced the Elara 60 series, which is a mobile phone station.
Sennheiser is targeting the burgeoning unified collaboration market for headsets with a type of competitor displacement promo which is a first for the company in North America in recent memory.
Plantronics reworks its channel program to give greater emphasis to implementing their SaaS management solution, and to selling their hardware within broader solutions rather than simply as peripherals.
Plantronics moves far beyond headsets by buying Polycom, which brings them into three additional businesses that are synergistic to their headset core.
Among the changes coming to IGEL’s own hardware and software roadmaps, one of their thin clients about to be refreshed will see a switch from an Intel to an AMD processor.
While Plantronics Manager Pro originally had only an Asset Analysis analytics capability, the new version adds Usage Analysis, Conversation Analysis and Acoustic Analysis.
Attendance at the D&H Toronto event was up significantly this year among both vendors and resellers, with the show floor having a high-number of gaming-focused companies pitching VARs for their business.
Plantronics’ newest member of its road warrior-focused Voyager line is aimed at people who need a headset optimized for occasional travel into especially noisy areas.
The Voyager Focus UC becomes the top of the line model in Plantronics’ noise cancelling office products line. It also features Dynamic Mute Alert feature, which senses and alerts users when they are trying to talk when muted.
A key theme with these releases is the adapation of superior noise cancelling technology, which was originally deployed in the consumer space, for enterprise products.
Revised partner program from Plantronics includes formalized channel education and a new rewards program.
