Techzine reviewed Plantronics Manager Pro https://www.techzine.nl/reviews/111418/eerste-indruk-plantronics-manager-pro-headsets-beheren-cloud.html and below you will find the English translation
Buying a headset is no extravagance, particularly for those of us who need to make a lot of phone calls at work. But when, within a company, lots of employees use headsets, administering them can be a pain. In such a situation, administration from a central location is more than welcome. Plantronics is a long-established brand selling, amongst other things, headsets for business use. No surprise therefore that this company is now tackling the ‘administration issue’, resulting in Plantronics Manager Pro. We were given a demonstration and share our experiences in this article.
Earlier this year, in our story about the Shure Audio Networking day, we stated that audio/video conferencing is slowly but surely becoming an integral part of the IT environment. This leads to challenges in term of administration. A similar sentiment came to the surface in our recent interview with Dennis van Baaren, Country Manager for Logitech.
The downside of administering audio and video equipment is that it takes a lot of time. A solution had to be found. Part of Logitech’s solution is removing as much administration as possible. No administration is needed for products which are practically plug-and-play. With its SystemOn, Shure has created an environment for the central administration of the products.
Plantronics Manager Pro
Just like Shure, Plantronics has chosen central administration, in the shape of its Manager Pro. This is a vast package which can be used in several versions. Important factors, when it comes to deciding which version to choose, are the size of the company (i.e. the number of headsets which need to be administered) and the required functionalities. Six versions have been defined, ranging from 1-250 sets to more than 10,000. Check the Manager Pro price list below. Later in this article we will explain the various components.
Astute readers have probably noticed that, heading the price list, something called Plantronics Manager is mentioned. This can be purchased for a flat fee of € 1,800 per year, excluding VAT, but is much less extensive.
An additional difference between ‘Manager’ and ‘Manager Pro’ is that the basic version of the software runs locally, while the Pro version is hosted on AWS. With this, Plantronics follows a trend in administering hardware within companies. For example, access points are increasingly administered in the cloud. A good example of this is the company Zyxel, whose Nebula environment we discussed extensively earlier this year.
Running Plantronics Manager Pro in the cloud has a number of advantages over using a local environment for administration. First of all, it means less effort for the company, as Plantronics does all the work. In addition, the almost endless scaling opportunities in the cloud offer a lot of options. The entire platform can be made much stronger and expanded continuously, if desired.
Made for the IT administrator
Plantronics Manager Pro enables IT administrators to do their work in various ways. It can be done per user, or simultaneously for a selection of devices which are in use (or all of them). Important for this is the so-called Company Snapshot. This contains, of course, all Plantronics products, but also those by other brands. It can be read by the software, as long as a Vendor ID is included via the USB connection of the devices. For products such as Plantronics’ own Voyager headsets you can also see which type of connection is being used: the included USB Dongle or Bluetooth.
Equally important for the IT administrator is the overview of firmware users. This shows very clearly who needs an update. When an employee reports a problem, it will at least be clear very quickly if an update suffices. Users who haven’t yet done an update can be notified via push messages.
Silent updates are not possible from this environment. They require MSI files. However, administrators can create MSI packages and integrate these in the workflow. This is possible for both PC and Mac. These packages contain a unique installation file with three credentials: token ID, tennant ID and URL. The latter is needed because the service runs on AWS, meaning there are several zones.
Updates not for security but interesting for features
Updates, which are needed for administered products, are not specifically important in terms of security – as is the case with most other products for which updates are released. The updates for the kind of products we are talking about here mainly offer new features, for example the new version of Office 365. Security is less important because this component is part of the codec which is being used. A manufacturer such as Plantronics cannot change this.
Plantronics Hub
Theoretically, becoming a part of the Plantronics Manager Pro cloud environment is very simple. The only thing you need to do is installing the Plantronics Hub. This software immediately sends the aforementioned components (token ID, tennant ID and URL) to the cloud. Following this, the connected products are automatically integrated in the environment. You can also immediately check on which system the software has been installed, with much more detailed information than what the ‘My computer’ section on your pc offers. According to Plantronics, this extra information helps solving problems when they arise. In addition, you can check the devices’ settings and see which services have been connected to them.
Please note that this will only work when you connect the headset to a pc. If connected to a mobile device, the information is not yet available. Plantronics says that this is a work in progress. An app is already available, but it doesn’t yet send this kind of information either.
Producing policies
Plantronics Manager Pro also allows you to produce policies, standard settings which apply to all devices and can be sent to them. For the time being, this is only possible for a group, not for individual users. If the latter is required, you have to create a group for this person. If you want to push the firmware towards users this way, you can set up regular reminders. You can also push updates when the computer is restarted.
Adjusting settings
In general, you can adjust settings in a cloud environment in a similar way to doing this locally in a Plantronics Hub. Think of number recognition, the way led lights on the devices behave, or which softphones have been switched on. If, for example, you only want to allow Skype for Business, then you can program this remotely. It is also possible to lock the headsets’ settings from a distance, stopping employees from changing settings of their own accord.
Obviously, in order for things to work properly, regular contact between Manager Pro in the cloud and the headsets on location is essential. But don’t expect any real-time adjustments. The polling frequency has a minimum of five minutes. This means that you have to wait up to five minutes before adjustments will come into effect – which is quick enough for the kind of adjustments we are talking about here. Actually, you will probably do all this much less frequently. After all, once the headsets are in use, the main thing to do is introducing updates. This can easily to be done at a fixed time, preferably when nobody is in the office.
Made for managers
Plantronics Manager Pro’s extensive possibilities in terms of administering are of course very interesting. They enable administrators to keep products up to date, remotely, and guarantee a similar experience for all users. Plantronics calls this part of the package the Asset Analysis suite. In the pricier range we find Usage Analysis, Conversation Analysis and Acoustic Analysis. These components of the suite are less interesting for IT administrators, but more so for managers who want to know how their employees perform.
Extra information
Reporting is an essential part of Plantronics Manager Pro, for example to know how many devices are connected. It also provides graphics about the devices, and whether they are active or not. This is also possible for softphones. It provides a good overview of what is being used, in combination with the headsets. You can then correlate this to the employees’ output.
Call Summaries provide valuable information about employees’ productivity. If, in a particular month, somebody should have made lots of calls but in actual fact didn’t, this can be followed up. There is a difference here between received and made calls. When policies for dealing with support requests have been changed, and you expect that this will lead to fewer calls to the responsible department, you can check this quickly. As call summaries go back up to twelve months, this should be enough to spot trends.
Furthermore, via so-called Common Actions you can find out how often a device is on mute during calls. This is quite normal during conference calls, but for other kinds of calls this could be a reason to dig a bit deeper. You can also check how often the volume is adjusted. Quick Disconnect shows if somebody ends a conversation, for example during a support call.
Conversation analysis
Conversation Analysis provides information about who says what and when. This enables you to analyse an employee’s actual behaviour during a call, for example for how long he or she talks, or when he or she talks at the same time as the customer does. This is probably not the desired kind of employee behaviour, but at least it provides you with the necessary information for discussing the issue with the employee in question and maybe provide him or her with extra training.
The Acoustic Analysis suite produces reports, based on so-called Acoustic Events which take place during calls, such as switching on PLT Limited to deal with sudden noise peaks (which are counteracted within six milliseconds). All Plantronics headphones have a limitation of 118 dB anyway. Daily Noise Exposure is related to the EU’s Noise at Work directive, which says that exposure should be limited to within 80 and 85 dB.
The main purpose of Acoustic Analysis is reassurance that your company complies with directions regarding employees’ Time Weighted Average Noise Exposure. In other words, this component mainly deals with employees’ well-being. It can also help to check claims from employees who have fallen ill.
In conclusion…
Albeit based on a demo, and not on an extensive test, Plantronics Manager Pro has left a great impression on us. The fact that it runs in the cloud allows for ‘heavier tasks’. After all, the available computing power is practically endless. This, in addition, enables a substantial expansion of the suite’s functionality in the future. And it relieves administrators from maintaining the environment, as Plantronics takes care of this in the cloud as well.
An interesting aspect of Plantronics Manager Pro is that it not only provides a company’s IT administrators with opportunities, but also managers, helping them to direct a group of employees in a better way. A good example of this is analysing actual calls. Data from Plantronics Manager Pro can be useful to manage a sales person, who has not yet reached his or her targets.
For whom?
There is an obvious question mark over how relevant Plantronics Manager Pro’s more advanced functionalities are. The ‘basic package’, containing almost everything an IT administrator needs, will probably suffice for a lot of companies. It deals with all the ‘fuss’ around administering headsets within an organisation perfectly well. Specifically where a large number of devices are being used, administering from a central location can save a lot of time.
If you want to get further than just administering, the other suites could be interesting, with Usage Analysis as the most obvious upgrade. To us, Conversation Analysis seems most interesting if you provide your employees with a lot of training, while Acoustic Analysis becomes relevant if you have to comply with requirements regarding employees’ well-being.
For more information on Plantronics Manager Pro, follow this link.
