Plantronics – Ensuring The Voice of Business

Thursday, September 2 2010

The workplace has changed.

The nine-to-five office is disappearing.

The earth itself has become a vast workplace, as flexible, mobile workers communicate more and more device-to-device and less and less face-to-face. In the urgent need to stay connected, the voice has become the critical tool of business communication. Research proves that tone of voice is far more critical to communication than the actual message in voice-only calls.

Fact: In face-to-face discussions, 7% of a conversation’s importance is attributed to the message, 38% is tone of voice with body language at 55%¹. In voice-only calls, 13% is attributed to the message and 87%² accounts for the tone of voice.

So it is absolutely imperative that the spoken voice be delivered with consistency, quality and clarity, wherever that human voice travels.

Unified Communications unifies workers. Clear, consistent audio makes it happen.

Emerging technologies empower, but they can also confuse. Workers in the new mobile landscape struggle to manage communications with cell phones, landlines, VoIP calls and different voicemail boxes, email, IM, text messages and social networking applications.

Unified Communications is the answer. Unified Communications is the bridge between all these proliferating communication systems—helping manage communications with one interface.

But there is an audio downside. The emergence of PCs and cell phones over landlines has come at the expense of audio quality.

So just as voice is the cornerstone of business, the headset and other audio endpoints have emerged as the cornerstone of Unified Communications. The headset is the device that ensures clear, consistent voice presence across all communication channels.

As Gartner analyst Steve Blood stated in a September 2009 note, Improve the performance of your Softphones for Unified Communications: “The use of a headset is the first and most important step in improving the performance of softphones (phone applications).”

This is why 100% of the Fortune 100 rely on Plantronics headsets*.

And as the new world of UC evolves, so must the technology people rely on to stay connected. That’s why Plantronics designs ingenious headsets, speakerphones and a variety of audio endpoints powered by the world’s most advanced acoustic technology, designed to optimize the audio experience. Plantronics technology delivers perfect sound everywhere sound must travel: from offices to homes, from PCs to cell phones.

When the world itself becomes an office, with workers traveling, driving, telecommuting and sharing open office spaces, noise becomes a serious occupational hazard, and comforts a necessity. Plantronics ergonomic innovations in comfort, and industry-leading noise canceling technology, provide solutions for this new workplace without walls.

Plantronics noise-canceling microphones help eliminate the intrusive background noise.

On outdoor calls, microphones with WindSmart® technology reduce disruptive wind sounds. And Plantronics AudioIQ2 technology automatically adapts listening levels so that users are heard clearly.

To ensure that conversations remain uninterrupted, Plantronics SoundGuard® instantly reduces loud noises to a more comfortable level, the perfect barrier to acoustic shock from fax tones, feedback or other sudden loud noises.

Finally, Plantronics headsets are designed for wideband enabled voice networks and IP desk phones, delivering a broader audio frequency range than older narrowband systems can carry. This boosts the high frequency signals often lost by ordinary headsets. The result? Dramatically richer and more natural sound, with enhanced intelligibility and reduced listener fatigue.

Plantronics engineers are as obsessed with ergonomics as they are with acoustic quality, because if the headset isn’t comfortable, UC won’t be comfortable.

Fact: According to a University of Surrey study, the right headset design can improve productivity by 23%.

Plantronics engineers have perfected the weight balance between the headset battery and boom. This balance allows Plantronics headsets to remain comfortable the entire day.

The widest range of audio solutions for the widest range of users.

Savi®

The wireless Savi Series bridges the gap between traditional telephony and PC communications, with a system that does it all from a single wireless DECT™ headset.

Voyager

Plantronics Voyager® PRO UC is the perfect solution for mobile UC workers. It is designed for PC and mobile phone management and offers on-the-go professionals the most advanced noisecanceling Bluetooth® headset available.

Blackwire®

The portable Blackwire Series offers the full range of audio USB corded headsets that provide exceptional voice clarity and comfort on PC audio anywhere that work happens.

Calisto®

For those transitioning from traditional to PC telephony, the Calisto Series includes USB phones and speakerphones that help users easily manage their PC calls. Calisto phones combine ease of use with exceptional audio quality.