Today’s communication stack is evolving drastically for the average business. The world has moved beyond basic desk phones and PSTN connections into a world powered by the cloud, omnichannel communications, and ever-more intelligent devices.
As a result, business leaders have much more to consider when making their technology purchasing decisions in the modern world. Not only do you need to make sure you’re choosing the right flexible, scalable, and feature-rich software for your team, but you also need to consider the endpoints required to empower your transforming workforce.
The good news for today’s business leaders is that there is no shortage of fantastic endpoint vendors on the market, offering room kits, plug-and-play video bars, headphones, and speakerphones for the contemporary team. However, with so many options to choose from, it can be difficult to figure out which vendor is right for you.
Here’s your guide to finding the right endpoint vendor in 2022.
Step 1: Consider Your Workforce
The first step in any successful endpoint investment in 2022 isn’t checking your budget – it’s making sure you know the needs of your team. Increasingly, over the last couple of years, companies have discovered just how important it is to empower their employees with the best possible experiences.
If your team members don’t have the tools they need to communicate effectively, they can’t deliver the results your business needs. Today’s modern workforce is made up of a host of different “employee personas” – staff members with different working styles, requirements, and specific demands when it comes to hardware and software.
Making a list of the kind of team members you need to equip, from your off-site video conferencing remote workers to your in-house executives, will help you to determine what kind of endpoints are most crucial to your team. If you’re not sure exactly what your team members need from their endpoints, reaching out to different people from across the workplace and asking for feedback could be an excellent first step.
Step 2: Look at your Deployment Options
Once you’ve considered the needs of your workforce, you should have a relatively strong list covering all of the crucial endpoints you’ll need to invest in going forward. This list could include everything from headphones and microphones to touch-screen surfaces, digital whiteboards, and sensors for your COVID-safe meeting rooms.
The next step is figuring out where you want to go to access all of these tools. There are a few different options available here. You can consider a best-of-breed approach, where you shop around with different vendors for a range of options, mixing and matching tools from Poly, AudioCodes, Jabra, and various other big names.
Alternatively, you can start by looking at your software, and work from there. For instance, if you’re already using a Microsoft Teams ecosystem for communication and collaboration, you can access the endpoints you need through the Microsoft Teams partner network. This can give you a wider selection of potential tools to choose from, which are all guaranteed to work with the right software.
