Give us some insights into the products and solutions presented at GITEX for your partners as well as the enterprise customers

One of the unique things about Poly is the breadth of its portfolio. From individual or personal communications to enterprise-level applications are offered to customers from Poly. E.g., headset devices for personal use and webcams-integrated video bars for video systems of the large meeting rooms.

Do you still see the relevance of remote work solutions when companies are returning to the office?

Our recent research tells that 82% of the people want to work at least one day a week from home and 69% of them want a greater number of days to work from home. That underlines the fact, not everyone wants to go back to the office all of the time. Companies also have significant advantages subscribing to the hybrid model of work and that the future.

Paul Clark, Senior VP – EMEA, Poly

What impact do you think the COVID-19 pandemic has created in the industry?

Although COVID-19 had negatively impacted most industry verticals, it has allowed some to bring the most competent and innovative products for video collaboration as the medium further democratized – Poly Video Bar solutions are the ideal example for it.

Give us some idea about the kind of software that can be used with Poly’s video collaboration tools.

You can connect to whatever services that you use. Whether it be Zoom or Microsoft Teams or plus, we have our tools for easy conferencing or collaboration.

Speak about the industry verticals you concentrate on

We have an interest in all verticals including healthcare, education, and finance. One of the verticals we have witnessed major changes in is financial markets. These are the markets that historically didn’t support even broad-basis flexibility and remote work as there have been security concerns. Considering the need for business continuity, the finance sector started to embrace the latest technologies after strengthening security up to the most sophisticated standards.

How easy Poly solutions are to install and use?

Our products essentially are designed to be plug-and-play. A little complexity typically comes in during the implementation in an organization. We are closely working with resellers to get that part addressed.

What size of enterprises you would be interested in?

We are interested in all the business. In large businesses, there are bigger complexities and challenges. With smaller customers, they are probably going to see the most change, because historically they’re the ones that were most resistant to change thinking there was not another way. Many of them going to change how they work and we see an enormous opportunity in the paradigm shift.

How do you influence the potential customers amidst tough competition as there are others too offering similar solutions?

We assure quality and consistently focus on innovation because we have the challenge to handle. We won’t have the market ourselves and that is hugely beneficial to the end. Our products are being developed, not because we think of something. But because we know there is a business. So, competition is a good thing.

The post For Personal or Group Communication, Poly Has Ideal Video-Integrated Devices appeared first on The Integrator.

Remote work and video collaboration have been new norms of the market. What Jabra has to offer for the rising remote work needs?

Jabra can build on 150 years experience of its mother company GN who addresses medical, professional and consumer segments with innovative audio solutions. With the Jabra PanaCast series we are now offering intelligent video conferencing solutions – including the PanaCast 50 videobar with integrated audio for conference rooms and the personal camera PanaCast 20, which is best accompanied by a professional and certified Jabra headset, such as the Evolve2 75. What companies all over the world need are technical solutions that enable their hybrid workforce to work and collaborate from anywhere. Jabra supports them with crystal clear voice and natural high-definition video.

What is special about Jabra’s video collaboration tools?

We released PanaCast 50 and PanaCast 20 – AI-enabled video collaboration devices which are set out to become the dominant players in the market. What makes them stand out is the unique experience they deliver. Immersive virtual and hybrid meetings and natural dynamic collaboration made possible by their rich intelligent feature set.

What makes you think they are going to attain dominant stature?

Jabra presents intelligent video with its videoconferencing devices that are unique in the video collaboration arena.

Abraham Mammen, Director – VC, Eastern Europe, Russia, CIS, Middle East & Africa at Jabra

In 2019 GN acquired Altia Systems, a Cupertino start-up who created a “surround” videoconferencing device and software called PanaCast designed to replicate the panoramic, immersive experience of human vision. This acquisition helped Jabra to further develop this innovative video technology and combine it with our expertise in audio.

Jabra PanaCast cameras stitch visual inputs from three cameras, covering 180 degrees, and bring them to a single frame intelligently. As they are AI-enabled, edge processing devices, they can handle pinpoint and shift focus to a speaker, capture whiteboards, screen-in-screen feature, count the number of members in a conference room, and calculate the time they spend on a meeting. All these actions seamlessly happen on a single screen.

With a Jabra product, be it a PanaCast or a professional headset, users also get a future-proof solution, because Jabra constantly works on improving their devices, adding new features and fine-tuning current ones.

What are the advantages of these professional and certified headsets?

These headsets are specifically engineered for the modern needs of hybrid and remote workers. Online meetings, video conferences and working from a variety of different locations, including noisy surroundings, are part of every da work life. Unlike consumer-grade headsets, professional headsets can handle surround noise extremely well – thanks to advanced microphone technology meeting participants at the other end of the line won’t hear anything but your voice. On top, the passive and active noise cancellation of Jabra headsets enables employees to work concentrated and focused in almost any situation.  In addition they are approved by leading video collaboration applications developers. Jabra devices can be attached to any of the video collaboration applications including Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Skype, and Webex as they are application-independent.

Which are the industry verticals that Jabra wants to focus on?

Finance, Education, and Medical are the industries in the prime focus of Jabra’s enterprise business. Thanks to the digitization there are huge opportunities in these markets – such as remote medical consultations, which are becoming more popular as well as remote and hybrid teaching. Partnerships with other big brands and strategic alliances will help us to achieve our goals. We are optimistic to make an impact in every sector we involve as we invested all possible resources in innovation and integration of technology.

The post With Intelligent Video and AI-Enabled Camera, Jabra Attempts to Crack the Video Collaboration Market appeared first on The Integrator.

COVER STORY

The cover story closely examines the scopes and challenges of hybrid work, the new model incorporated into work environments, worldwide.

Hybrid work has become a new norm worldwide. The COVID-19 pandemic hit has structurally changed work conditions in most enterprises invariable on their size and strength. Working remotely wasn’t new to the tech industries. However, keeping the lowest and adequate strength at the office and letting the rest of the workforce contribute from the feasible locations could be the newest idea in the business.

The lessons learned during the pandemic are important for companies for any devastating situations of this kind. Therefore, steps are taken to configure and facilitate work and keep that unaffected in similar situations.

Workplace Shifting and Hybrid Paradox

Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft rightly said, “The ongoing workplace shifting, hybrid paradox, and the great shuffle can be compared to nothing that happened in the last hundred years.”

The lockdowns imposed all over the world made workers shift from offices to homes overnight. The majority of businesses and enterprises were not prepared to handle the paradox that had been created. The workforces of these companies were uncertain about how, when, and why they work. The fascinating thing is these concerns have been addressed with technology and solutions within the past 18 months. Not only did they learn to conduct work or enforce business continuity but also reskilled the workforce and found ways to fix issues remotely.

Secure Work Environment

The concept of hybrid work hasn’t been brewed after the pandemic hit although the pace of work towards the model has been accelerated due to it. Tech companies in the US and elsewhere in the world suggested the model of work, in which employees can collaborate and contribute to respective projects irrespective of their work location.

Mr. Amanulla Khan, Managing Director of Linksys – META says, “the work culture started to change well before the pandemic. Solutions that accommodate office and remote work have been in development for a while now. However, business continuity plans of the companies after COVID-19 hit accelerated the need for remote working solutions, increased discussions on cyber security, and significantly blurred the line between consumer and enterprise, across the globe.”

When employees work from remote locations and access office networks from numerous devices, information security becomes a major concern. While traditionally rigid verticals, incorporating financial, healthcare, and educational enterprises, also have subscribed to remote/hybrid work options, the cybersecurity and information security solution providers also find new landscapes of business.

Coordination and Collaboration

Coordination of the workforce is highly important when it comes to working from remote locations. Similarly, customers also feel connected with service providers or product suppliers. Integration of efficient hardware and software is required to facilitate seamless communication between all stakeholders.

Microsoft, Cisco, Google, Zoom, and TeamViewer have been showing strength and dominance on the software side. Whereas, Jabra, Logitech, Epson, Poly, and numerous others including niche players influence the market with their hardware solutions.

Apart from the regular call, meet, and message features, the software applications host digital whiteboard, real-time collaboration, co-create, and content share within them. Similarly, hardware manufacturers trying to create intelligent videoconferencing enabling cameras with AI and machine language.

“Unlike static webcams, Jabra PanaCast cameras stitch visual inputs from at least three cameras, covering 180 degrees, and bring them to a single frame intelligently. They can handle pinpoint and shift focus to a speaker, capture whiteboards, screen-in-screen feature, count the number of members in a conference room, and calculate the time they spend on a meeting. All these actions seamlessly happen on a single screen,” said Abraham Mammen, Director – VC, Eastern Europe, Russia, CIS, Middle East & Africa, Jabra quoting the devices released by the company.

Desktop and Cloud Infrastructure

Hybrid work collaboration can be implemented successfully only if the supporting environment shows competency. Edge service platforms, virtual desktop infrastructure, cloud-native solutions, and data management tools play a vital role in this segment.

Large enterprises signaled that until 2025, they want to concentrate more on digital infrastructure than physical at offices. It appears the phenomenon persuades small and medium enterprises also to choose similar actions within their organizational range. Online huddle rooms, displays, and video walls are extremely becoming popular among companies that embrace the new-age technologies.

Solutions providers have diverse approaches on this matter. In the SME sector, Zoho helps companies to digitalize entirely with their 50+ pre-developed solutions after reviewing their business constraints. At the same time, VMWare, Infor, and some other companies offer end-to-end ERP solutions with single or multi-cloud support. SAP, Microsoft, Amazon, and Google are competing in the top-line market. Resellers and product or (and) solution distributors offer both suggested and tailored solutions to businesses.

Conclusion

The unprecedented pandemic has impacted every sector. Initially, every business faced operating troubles. Some industries were competent to reorganize and ensure business continuity in the best possible way. However, customer satisfaction, reassuring of data security, and keeping up with profitability had dealt with their own challenges. The latest technologies and solutions have combinedly covered most challenges and inculcated top practices for the evolution of the new age in the tech and professional world.

The post Hybrid Work: The Beginning of a New Age and Sophisticated Practices appeared first on The Integrator.

Although enterprises chose the model for business continuity in the COVID-hit markets, it eventually had become a phenomenon worldwide. The elite videoconferencing has turned out to be a democratic and compulsory collaboration method and a lifeline that keeps human interactions alive.

Outside the corporate world, educators, doctors, attorneys, consultants, scientists, anyone and everyone had embraced new technological products and solutions to continue work and socialize. When workers access office networks from numerous remote locations, security, data protection, and privacy have become major concerns. Consequently, solution providers tailored their services to save networks from infiltration and phishing.

The GITEX Technology Week 2021 held at Dubai World Trade Center in October had witnessed a plethora of solutions and products facilitating hybrid work and online education. The November edition of The Integrator carries a detailed analysis, exclusive interviews, and selected stories on the hybrid work.

We are a step ahead of our counterparts in the industry when it comes to educating business customers and introducing the right products and solutions to them.

We continue doing it sincerely. Read and support!

Murali Margassery
Assistant Editor, The Integrator

The post Hybrid Work: Remarkable Resilience in Times of Crisis appeared first on The Integrator.

How was the event and what outcome do you foresee it?

At GITEX, we showcased our top video collaboration solutions for SMBs and large enterprises in conjunction with our partner Avientek. The event is very important for us to demonstrate our video collaboration solutions and it also gives our partners the chance to meet with end-users.

It has been a long time since we met customers face-to-face or attended any of these events due to COVID-19 so it was a great experience to reconnect with the market, partners, customers, and our peers. We saw a very positive reaction to our solutions at the event.

Loubna Imenchal, Head of Video Collaboration, META and Central Asia

How do you evaluate the customer reactions to Logitech Rally Bar and other solutions?

Enterprises are keen on adopting hybrid models of work and they need the best video collaboration solutions to efficiently connect and coordinate with their workforce. That’s why we brought out Rally Bar, our next-generation portfolio of video conferencing solutions for small, medium, and large rooms. Rally Bar is a portfolio of appliance and PC-based solutions that work with today’s leading video conferencing services such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom.

We also demonstrated Logitech Scribe, an AI-powered whiteboard camera for meeting rooms and classrooms. Compatible with leading services like Microsoft Teams and Zoom, Logitech Scribe broadcasts whiteboard content into video meetings with incredible clarity, virtually transporting everyone into the same room.

With Logitech Scribe, AI enables the device to render the user invisible, so that they don’t get in the way of the content they are creating on the whiteboard. It’s a truly unique product. It’s ideal for education and we’re excited about bringing it to the Middle East.

Which verticals are especially important for Logitech in terms of video collaboration?

The education sector can benefit hugely from video collaboration solutions. With Rally Bar Mini, we want to help both the educators and students have seamless classroom sessions.

Most schools and colleges were not prepared for the pandemic but the learning process can’t be stopped either. As a leading solution provider, we felt responsible to provide the technology and solutions to facilitate collaboration and provide ultimate flexibility in engagements. We hope Logitech Rally Bar and Logitech Scribe will become the future of teaching and learning.

Speak about how small, medium, and large enterprises can make use of these products

Video collaboration has never been so important. Organizations across the region have experienced the importance of keeping their teams connected during the past two years, and there is a growing awareness of the advantages of using enterprise-grade solutions. Even as many people venture back to places of work and education, hybrid models are now an established mode of operations for many organizations, and Logitech sees continued high demand for solutions that aid collaboration.

The post Logitech Videoconferencing Solutions for Seamless Enterprise Collaboration appeared first on The Integrator.

In what has undoubtedly been a transformative time for the video collaboration industry – one that has pushed us to innovate and continue to raise the bar – Logitech Video Collaboration has taken the lead.

Loubna Imenchal, Head of Video Collaboration, AMECA, Logitech

First, according to Synergy Research, Logitech has ranked #1 worldwide in video conferencing hardware.* Fueled by the acceleration of remote work, Logitech experienced its strongest years to date. According to Synergy’s Research, Logitech accounted for nearly fifty percent of all video conferencing devices sold in the Q1 FY21, and over thirty percent of the industry’s revenue.

In addition to this #1 position, Logitech has been named the Market Leader in Video Conferencing Devices by Frost & Sullivan, recognizing the company that has achieved the greatest market share resulting from outstanding performance, products, and services. To make its assessments, Frost & Sullivan identifies companies at the innovation and growth forefront of their respective industries that most effectively address new challenges and opportunities.

According to Roopam Jain, Frost & Sullivan’s Senior Industry Director, Connected Work, “In Q1 2021, Logitech surpassed its closest competitors to become the number one vendor in revenue market share in the business-use video conferencing devices market. This was the communication giant’s first time reaching that milestone. Logitech has long dominated the video conferencing devices market in unit shipments. Its recently earned revenue leadership position is a further testament to its unique design-led approach that focuses on creating meaningful products with a clarity of purpose and clear benefits to the users in delivering simple, effortless communication experiences.”

As technology continues to reshape work, Logitech is uniquely positioned to help address emerging and evolving hybrid work trends. Raising the bar on meeting room solutions and optimizing video conferencing for the hybrid worker, our products have become a hallmark for frictionless user experiences and scalable deployments for every meeting space. We owe our success to our customers, who believe in the quality of our VC products, from conference cameras to complete room solutions.

Loubna Imenchal, Head of Video collaboration for AMECA region (Africa, Middle East Turkey, and Central Asia), said: “The results of recent surveys are very encouraging and confirm what we see in the field here in the Middle East. Organizations increasingly recognize the value of high quality, seamless video collaboration, and with the ongoing shift to hybrid working and learning, we look forward to helping teams collaborate with our best-in-class video collaboration tools.”

Logitech Video Collaboration is on a mission to elevate video conferencing for all – and we aim to keep leading the way.

The post Logitech Video Collaboration Takes the Lead appeared first on The Integrator.

Tell us about the importance of video collaboration for organizations.

There is no doubt that organizations across all verticals have accelerated their digital transformation journey since COVID-19 hit. Hybrid models of operating have become the norm, and teams have been forced to work and collaborate in more innovative ways. As part of their broader transformation plans, and given the current scenario, organizations increasingly understand the value of video collaboration tools to keep teams connected and collaborate effectively — with each other, and with partners and clients.

Loubna Imenchal, Head of Video Collaboration, Logitech

In the current situation, with restrictions on people’s movement having an impact on the ability of organizations to collaborate, video collaboration tools have an important role to play in helping organizations execute their plans effectively, and they can overcome these obstacles by investing in the right video conferencing tools for their needs.

How is this playing out in the Middle East?

As the Middle East begins to emerge from the pandemic, we expect to see demand remain strong. While organizations will no doubt return to having some face-to-face meetings and limited business trips, video conferencing will remain a pillar of communications and hybrid work.

Organizations will also scrutinize the value of face-to-face meetings and business travel with more zeal than before, and management will be acutely aware that executives can take part in more video conferencing meetings than face-to-face meetings on a given day. The potential productivity gains and cost savings are enormous.

In terms of engendering a culture of collaboration, video conferencing tools are also an important tool for keeping your workforce active, engaged, and connected with their colleagues. This is important for people working remotely and can have an impact on an organization’s ability to retain talented staff.

What plans do you have for GITEX?

Logitech is excited to showcase a range of high caliber solutions at GITEX, with demand for collaboration tools remaining high across the region as organizations continue to embrace hybrid working models.

We will showcase our top video collaboration solutions at GITEX in conjunction with our partner Avientek, which is exhibiting in Hall 3, stand 8A.

Among the products on show will be Rally Bar, our next-generation portfolio of video conferencing solutions for small, medium, and large rooms. Rally Bar is a portfolio of appliance and PC-based solutions that work with today’s leading video conferencing services such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom.

We will also demonstrate Logitech Scribe, an AI-powered whiteboard camera for meeting rooms and classrooms. Compatible with leading services like Microsoft Teams and Zoom, Logitech Scribe broadcasts whiteboard content into video meetings with incredible clarity, virtually transporting everyone into the same room.  In addition to exhibiting products on our partner’s stand, we will also hold meetings and 1-1 demonstrations at a dedicated meeting room in the Conrad hotel, close to Dubai World Trade Centre.

Any last thoughts to share?

Video collaboration has never been so important. Organizations across the region have experienced the importance of keeping their teams connected during the past two years, and there is a growing awareness of the advantages of using enterprise-grade solutions. Even as many people venture back to places of work and education, hybrid models are now an established mode of operations for many organizations, and we see continued high demand for solutions that aid collaboration.

We look forward to meeting with customers at GITEX to demonstrate the advantages of our newest innovations and how they can help companies boost efficiency, innovation, and employee and customer satisfaction.

The post Logitech Video Collaboration Tools to Keep Teams Connected and Collaborated Effectively appeared first on The Integrator.