Imagine this hypothetical scenario: You just spent tens of thousands of dollars renovating and updating your kitchen with new granite countertops, stainless steel appliances, sink, cabinets, etc., and have a beautiful new kitchen that lets you cook and entertain more effortlessly and efficiently. But you left out one thing: the faucet.
No big deal, you can simply go to Home Depot to get an inexpensive faucet that will do the job. You find faucets that are moderately priced, but they don't have the enhanced features you want, such as hands-free capability that lets you turn on the faucet without using your salmonella-stained hands. When you find the faucet model, you realize that you didn't budget for it, and may have to get a less-than-optimal faucet instead. Using an off-the-shelf faucet from a big box store doesn't provide the quality experience in the kitchen that you expected, and now are disappointed with the entire remodel.
This is exactly what happens over and over in unified communications deployments. Companies pay tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars on a new UC platform, upgrading their networks, deploying the latest and greatest software platform, but they forget about one crucial element: headsets.
As more and more users move to soft clients such as Lync, Jabber, and others, as well as mobile devices, headsets play an ever-increasing role in the overall end-user experience. A softphone or soft client, combined with a headset, becomes (and replaces) the phone.
The leading headset vendors, including Plantronics, Jabra, Sennheiser, and Logitech, have developed devices that are optimized for various UC solutions, as well as for different types of workers, such as executive, mobile, virtual or remote workers, contact center agents, etc. However, according to the UCStrategies UC Channel Study I conducted last year, most UC deployments don't take into account the role--and cost--of a good quality, UC-optimized headset.
The vast majority of resellers don't include headsets in their solution design and proposals, which means that companies don't adequately budget for the appropriate headsets. Often the end-user organization assumes that it can get basic headsets from Office Depot or other big box stores, but then finds that the overall voice and audio quality suffers. End users ultimately blame on the UC solution, rather than the headset itself.
The UCStrategies UC Channel Study found that most resellers don't propose or sell UC devices as part of a UC solution because it may delay the overall sale, and they don't know the device vendors' products and portfolio well enough to make recommendations. Common themes we heard from the UC resellers we interviewed were around the impact of headsets on the quality of the overall experience. Here's a sample of some of the reseller quotes:
• "Sadly, the folks selling the full UC solutions don't really realize the value of a good headset or how important it can be to the final happiness of their end users. If you have the wrong headset or it's not comfortable, end users will hate whatever you do."
• "We work too much on technology and not enough on the user experience."
• "Most IT guys installing a new system aren't as focused on the end users and the quality of the audio and comfort of the headset. People see headsets as the phone now."
• "The challenge is when customers see consumer grade headsets on Amazon but then find out the cost of a business grade headset."
• "If you put Lync in people's hands and they don't have a good headset, they won't be satisfied with the quality."
• "A lot of companies don't think about devices and think that they're just about $20-30 and don't budget properly for the headset devices. When they get the quote, they put the brakes on the entire deployment since no one told them how much the devices would cost."
The moral of the story is that a quality end-user experience is paramount, and that endpoint devices, while they may seem inconsequential, can make or break a UC deployment.
Businesses purchasing and deploying UC solutions need to consider and budget for not just the UC platform and applications, but also for the endpoint devices, which greatly impact the quality of experience for end users. Resellers need to present the various options and properly set expectations for their customers so that the business can properly budget for good quality devices. Running out to Office Depot for a commodity headset that isn't optimized for UC solutions can be one of the costliest mistakes you can make.
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