For this week’s No Jitter Roll, we catch up on the latest from the Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) event and then see what’s happening elsewhere in the industry, with integrations, virtual agents, mass notification, and customer wins.
ISE 2020 Recap: News from Logitech, Poly, DTEN, Sennheiser, Bose
This week at ISE, Logitech made several partnership announcements and showcased its
previously announced Zone Wired series of headsets. The partnerships include:
- Crestron — Workplace technology provider Crestron and Logitech have partnered to deliver a seamless videoconferencing experience for all room sizes with the pairing of the Crestron Flex C series with Logitech MeetUp, Logitech Rally, or Logitech Rally Plus.
- Lenovo — The partnership will bring together Logitech's videoconferencing management solution, Logitech Tap, with Lenovo ThinkSmart Edition M920 Tiny PC for enhanced meeting room computing power, manageability, and security. The Tap base model featuring ThinkSmart Tiny comes pre-configured with Microsoft Teams Rooms or Zoom Rooms software and will be available this spring, starting at $2,100 and $2,150 for Zoom Rooms solutions and Microsoft Teams Rooms, respectively.
- Barco — Logitech and Barco have teamed up for an all-in-solution that combines Barco's ClickShare Conference wireless conferencing with Logitech MeetUp or Rally conference cam, available for small, medium, and large size rooms starting in April.
Logitech wasn’t the only company to make news this week at ISE. Here’s a look at some of the other announcements made during the show:
- DTEN Zooms In — Video collaboration technology provider DTEN introduced two Zoom Rooms products, the DTEN Go with DTEN Mate and the DTEN On. The DTEN Go with DTEN Mate video bar comes with a wireless controller and allows for interactive whiteboarding and full content annotation, and the DTEN On is an all-in-one Zoom Rooms-certified appliance that features an Ultra-HD display and AI-powered digital signal processor (DSP) sound technology.
- Poly Goes Analytical with Lens — Poly introduced its cloud-based insight and management service, Poly Lens, which gives admins the ability to manage their Poly endpoints and allows them to set configurations and provision upgrades from a single interface.
- Bose and Sennheiser Partner on Bundle — Bose Professional and Sennheiser have teamed up on an in-ceiling UC solution bundle, the Bose ES1 Ceiling Audio Solution, which includes Sennheiser TeamConnect Ceiling 2 microphone and Bose's ControlSpace EX-440C conferencing DSP, the EdgeMax EM180 in-ceiling loudspeaker, and the PowerSpace P2600A amplifier.
- Bose Releases Video Bar, UC Headset — As part of its Bose Work series, Bose Professional unveiled the Bose VB1 video bar and the Bose 700 UC noise-cancelling headphone. Designed for huddle rooms, the video bar features six wideband microphones and supports remote management. The headset is available in a Microsoft Teams-certified bundle and includes a USB/Bluetooth dongle.
RingCentral API Platform Hits 30k Developers, Features Enhanced Integrations
UCaaS provider
RingCentral announced that its Open Platform now has approximately 30,000 developers and 3,000 certified integrations. Among several enhanced integrations announced this week are:
- Microsoft Teams — users can schedule a RingCentral meeting, initiate a call, and view communications within their Teams workspaces
- Salesforce — now includes an integrated dashboard, allowing teams to use call dispositions within Salesforce.
- NetSuite — streamlines NetSuite business communications with click-to-dial, automatic call logging, and call assignment capabilities
Talkdesk Releases Virtual Agent
This week, cloud contact center provider
Talkdesk revealed Virtual Agent, an intelligent assistant powered by Talkdesk iQ. Companies can deploy this conversational intelligence on channels to voice-enable chatbots or for speech-to-text capabilities, Talkdesk said. With CRM data, enterprises can personalize interactions and integrate Virtual Agent into the ticketing system to create cases and schedule callbacks for when an agent isn't available, according to Talkdesk.
Virtual Agent is the first release in Talkdesk's 20-in-20 program, where it plans to release 20 products in 2020 with a series of them to come at its user event, Opentalk 2020, taking place April 22 and 23 in San Francisco.
8x8 Scores a Homerun with Kansas City Royals
Cloud communications provider
8x8 this week signed a multiyear sponsorship deal with The Kansas City Royals Major League Baseball (MLB) team and has become the team’s official cloud communications and contact center partner. With the deal, the Royals will use the 8x8 X Series platform for communications across its stadium, from stadium concession to contact center agents. Additionally, 8x8 will receive signage opportunities behind home plate and throughout Kauffman Stadium, along with receiving radio promotions and on-field and in-stadium promotions.
Mitel’s Mass Notification Solution
Late last month,
Mitel revealed its next-gen mass notification solutions for enhanced emergency responsiveness. With Mitel's notification solution, users and enterprises can customize multimodal communications and program a number of triggered responses, said Mona Abou-Sayed, VP collaboration and applications for Mitel, during a No Jitter briefing. For instance, an enterprise can program a response for anytime an emergency door is opened or when someone presses a panic button on a mobile device, Abou-Sayed said. And while Mitel is touting the solution for its emergency response capabilities, it’s also useful for "typical communications" requiring delivery at scale, she added.
One area that is seeing a benefit from this kind of technology has been the education sector. The press release notes two use cases for the technology:
- Muskogee Public Schools — Muskogee Public Schools in Oklahoma worked with Mitel to deploy a mass notification solution to its 12 schools and one early childhood center. In a crisis, the solution provides calling party information to 911 services, and internal notifications will be sent to the school's police and executive-level staff, according to Mitel.
- Carleton University — Similarly, Carleton University in Canada deployed a Mitel mass notification solution to enable communication in critical events. In the event of an emergency, the solution can issue desktop alerts and send email notification and SMS messages, Mitel said. Additionally, the solution is providing mass notification for daily operations, according to Mitel.
To ensure that the mass notification solution works with an enterprise's existing system, Mitel has built a lot of "hooks" (APIs) for enterprises and has many out-of-the-box integrations. These can help a company meet compliance regulations like Kari’s Law and RAY BAUM’s Act, according to David Lowenstein, Mitel Solutions Alliance Director. While the product is primarily available in North America, Lowenstein said that there is “no reason it can’t expand to other markets.”
