Headsets: A Crucial Component of Workplace Productivity

Cisco survey offers insights into the importance of Headsets

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Published: January 17, 2020

Rebekah Carter - Writer

Rebekah Carter

Leading communication and collaboration company, Cisco, recently released an eBook/report exploring some important insights into the communication endpoint environment. Cisco surveyed 1,000 business headset end-users and decision-makers in the IT landscape to create the report. The responses came from the UK, Germany, Australia, the United States, Canada, and various other countries too.

Crucially, Cisco learned that headsets are essential to the business landscape, with 45% connected to a smartphone, 20% connected to tablets, 55% connected to desk phones, and 74% linked to Macs or PCs. Here are some of the valuable insights that Cisco collected in its most recent research.

What Really Matters with Business Headsets?

When talking to end-users and IT decision-makers in the modern business landscape, Cisco learned that the kind of work that a person is doing, and the connected devices that they use can help to identify the sort of connection that people need. For instance, 57% of respondents said that the use Bluetooth to connect their headsets to their devices, as it offers benefits like flexibility and versatility. However, some participants also said that Bluetooth can sometimes lead to interference issues caused by other office devices.

While there are various other connection options available, none of them have the same appeal as Bluetooth. The closest competitor is USB-A connectivity, which is one of the most common plug-and-play options in the market. Around 11% of business users rely on DECT, and only 7% now connect through 3.5mm jacks.

Aside from connectivity, Cisco found that some of the most important features that business users look for when accessing headsets include:

  • Wearing comfort (99%)
  • Voice quality (100%)
  • Noise cancellation (98%)
  • Ability to use in high-density environments (97%)
  • Connectivity (95%)
  • Audio customisation (95%)

Managing Headsets in the Modern Environment

Notably, for decision makers bringing headsets into the current collaborative workspace, there’s more than just the feature set to consider. Businesses need to think about headset manageability too. For instance, headsets should be easy to manage by the IT team. Around 98% of admins said that they preferred an integrated platform for managing everything from phones and headsets to soft clients and collaboration applications.

98% of IT admins need capabilities for diagnosing and resolving headset connectivity issues from within the headset manageability platform. Headsets integrated into a collaboration solution can also offer additional benefits, such as advanced analytics for users behaviour, insights into the entire collaboration environment, and call diagnostics. Going forward, Cisco believes that businesses will need to consider whether their headsets can work natively with their UC solution and whether they can access advanced headset management solutions within their UC stack.

Additionally, brands might need to ask themselves whether they should be buying software that allows them to provision new headsets and monitor inventory. Additionally, there may be a need for tools that allow for updating software, accessing user analytics, and troubleshooting headset issues.

Securing Business Headsets

Having the right technology in place to properly manage business headsets is only the first step too. Companies also need to ensure that they’re thinking carefully about the security that they have in place to protect their devices. Although 85% of users believe that Bluetooth connections are secure, the truth is that an increasingly connected IoT world is making modern threats more sophisticated. Today’s businesses need to think more carefully about how they can protect themselves, their colleagues, and their businesses from vulnerability in paired devices.

Bluetooth security risks can easily intercept communications, infiltrate networks, and takeover hardware. This puts companies of all sizes at serious risk of losing intellectual property, data, and money. Just like any digital transformation strategy, a plan for implementing the right headset hardware into the business landscape needs to come with ideas on how to keep connections safe.

Tools that allow team members to monitor the data that’s moving between headset devices and other tools are a good initial effort for those concerned about security. However, headsets also need to be built from the ground up with a focus on security, privacy, and reliable connections.

Choosing Business Headsets for the Future

Cisco suggests that if businesses want to make sure that they’re getting the most out of the headsets that empower and support their employees today, they need to think carefully about their investments. The right headset needs to be able to extend a secure, and reliable collaboration experience for all users. Cisco headset devices aim to serve the next generation of workplace users, with deep integrations with Cisco devices and applications.

With Cisco Headsets, companies can tap into valuable features, like voice-activated artificial intelligence for extra assistance, and adaptive noise cancellation. Cisco headsets also provide reliable audio via clear voice technology, integrated presence lights, background noise suppression for microphones, and a simple set-up perfect for businesses of all industries and sizes. What’s more, flexible connectivity with wireless and wired solutions mean that Cisco headsets can also appeal to companies with high-density workforces.

In any environment, the unique design of Cisco headsets, backed by intuitive user design, analytics, and robust security, keep users productive and connected to what matters.

Upgrading your Headset Technology

Cisco headsets and other leading solutions in the communication and collaboration marketplace are designed from the ground-up to suit new methods of working. They appeal to the changing business landscape, and provide end-users with the functionality they need, without compromising on security, privacy, and management options.

Headsets from Cisco come with access to the complete Cisco collaboration infrastructure for modern management both in the cloud and on-premises. The complete solution provides businesses with a more robust single platform where they can manage end-points, headsets and applications. Other headset vendors require businesses to download or purchase various pieces of additional software for the management of devices.

Additionally, Cisco headsets come with the enterprise-grade security that today’s brands need to ensure that the data sent between devices remains secure. For businesses ready to step into the new era of the modern workplace, Cisco headsets could be the perfect solution.

 

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