The hybrid workplace, which combines remote and in-office work, has risen in popularity in recent years. As more people have become accustomed to the benefits of working from home, many companies are considering making remote work a long-term option.
This shift towards a hybrid workplace is likely to remain with us for the foreseeable future, as it offers employees more flexibility and enables companies to reduce their real estate costs. However, this new way of working has also presented challenges for IT departments, which have had to adapt to provide a good service to remote workers from any location.
This is especially evident when it comes to maintaining one of the staples of the hybrid workplace, and that’s ensuring effective communication between geographically dispersed employees.
Making Meetings Count
One way to make sure employees can see and hear each other during meetings is to take advantage of the latest advances in unified communications. Microsoft Teams is a top choice for collaboration and communication, especially for hybrid meetings. It offers exceptional communication features that can significantly boost employee productivity, making it ideal for organizations transitioning to a hybrid work model.
Microsoft Teams Rooms, which are meeting room devices connected to screens, cameras and other equipment, take the user experience in hybrid meetings to the next level by enabling seamless collaboration between every participant. AudioCodes offers a range of Microsoft-certified devices for Microsoft Teams Rooms.
But how can IT people best manage all these different devices?
The IT Manager’s Secret Weapon
The AudioCodes Device Manager, part of the One Voice Operations Center, gives IT managers complete control over their organization's Microsoft Teams Rooms devices throughout their whole lifecycle, including installation, monitoring and maintenance, regardless of where they are located.
Beyond all the usual management functionality you’d expect from a premium tool like the Device Manager, here’s just a taste of what it can also do in the Microsoft Teams Rooms arena:
- Pre-staging device introduction and provisioning to enable IT managers to perform device-based management before assigning it to a specific user.
- Provisioning device certificates via SCEP for use cases such as 802.1X, as well as Wi-Fi and HTTP proxy settings with flexible templates.
- Carrying out bulk firmware upgrades on devices, including MTR peripherals.
- Easily performing daily maintenance and troubleshooting tasks through the use of unique alarm sets, which now include new security alarms.
For those organizations with standard vendor management solutions and who use AudioCodes devices, Device Manager is a great way for them to gain full control over their deployment by defining devices even before they are installed in a room.
In addition, AudioCodes’ “from detection to correction” methodology enables IT staff to identify issues with meeting rooms or key personas in the organization and fix them before users become aware of them.
Anytime & Anywhere
The Device Manager’s remote management capabilities allow IT teams to manage and support Microsoft Teams Rooms devices from anywhere, without the need to be physically present in the office.
This can improve IT efficiency, reduce costs and provide better organizational support by enabling them to quickly diagnose and resolve issues, monitor system performance and perform upgrades and maintenance tasks remotely.
Even better, the Device Manager provides IT teams with greater flexibility to work from home or other remote locations, making it the perfect choice for today’s hybrid workplace. Why not try it out for yourself?
