Plantronics, an audio pioneer and communications technology leader, has announced significant updates to its software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering with the release of Plantronics Manager Pro v3.10.
Plantronics Manager Pro is a software subscription service that customers and partners can use to manage Plantronics audio communications devices. By integrating with existing managed service offerings, Plantronics Manager Pro helps channel partners create higher-value relationships with existing customers and attract new ones. Resellers gain the ability to remotely manage configurations and push out settings and firmware updates, eliminate known configuration problems and quickly respond to service inquiries.
The new version is open to developers and independent software vendors (ISVs) through the Open Data Access API Suite, allowing them to draw from a deep data pool to create customized business applications. A new dedicated†Plantronics Manager Pro Developer Portal†includes everything a developer or ISV needs to get started, complete with use cases, sample applications, and an experimentation sandbox.
Plantronics Manager Pro v3.10 – New Features
Plantronics Manager Pro has been substantially enhanced based on the feedback from hundreds of deployments around the world. In addition to single-sign-on (SSO) support for IT managers, the new capabilities in Plantronics Manager Pro v3.10 include the Open Data Access Suite option and a†Bluetooth Link Quality Report†in the Conversation Analysis suite, which is an industry first in understanding and managing endpoint insights.
Application Development Portal Enables Creation of Custom Applications
The Open Data Access Suite is a standard set of APIs that gives access to real-time and historical Information in Plantronics Manager Pro. The new offering provides developers with unrestricted access to in-system data for the creation of custom business applications. Channel partners can now offer even greater value to customers by creating these tailored applications and tightening integration of supported headsets into existing service offerings.
“Opening up Plantronics Manager Pro to partners that want to create tailored applications for their customers is the logical next step for the use of the data that can be gleaned from Plantronics Manager Pro,” said Christopher Thompson, vice president, Enterprise Solutions Marketing, Plantronics. “This past February, EyeOnIt completed the first third-party integration to Plantronics Manager Pro with their Agent Q application. Now it is exciting to see CloudAssist developing new visualizations on the Microsoft Power BI platform and Nectar integrating to their Unified Communications Management Platform.”††
“Microsoft Power BI is a suite of business analytics tools that deliver insights throughout organizations, enabling creation of personalized dashboards with unique, 360-degree views of their enterprise. CloudAssist is using Microsoft Power BI to visualize and analyze our data from different sources in easy-to-use dashboards. This Power BI content pack for Plantronics Manager Pro v3.10 provides a new dimension to the valuable reports that are generated by the software for headset management, made possible with the new Open Data Access Suite from Plantronics,” said Sean Brady, director of Cloud Services at CloudAssist. “This API access has allowed CloudAssist to expand the business uses for Plantronics Manager Pro by connecting it to Power BI and presenting this in a single dashboard. The dashboard can then be published by the client, not only to just the IT team, but to others within and outside the organization who are invested in the UC adoption targets and want to gain actionable insights using the interactive tiles.”
Expanded Analytics
Plantronics Manager Pro v3.10 adds a Bluetooth Link Quality Report as part of its Conversation Analysis suite. Now, IT managers can monitor the Bluetooth radio link between a Plantronics unified communications (UC) headset and computer via the USB adapter to help determine the source of any audio issues. This industry-first capability means that only Plantronics Manager Pro can ensure accurate monitoring of a UC solution to this level of detail at the endpoint. The report reflects a Quality Impairment Score (QIS), which identifies users with the worst average call quality, and can drill down to show weekly, daily, hourly and even individual calls.
Support for the Conversation and Acoustic Analysis suites has now been extended to the Voyager 3200 UC, Voyager 5200 UC and Voyager 8200 UC. This means that now, these UC-enabled Bluetooth devices are supported across all four analytics suites provided by Plantronics Manager Pro.
“Plantronics continues to bring industry-first capabilities to the UC-enabled enterprise,” said Alaa Saayed, ICT principal analyst, Frost & Sullivan. “Plantronics Manager Pro v3.10 now empowers line of business owners and IT administrators with actionable insights from select Plantronics Voyager Bluetooth headsets from all four analytics suites, ranging from voice quality to ensuring that knowledge workers have the best headsets for their needs. By opening up Plantronics Manager Pro with APIs, partners can design customized applications to provide even more value to customers’ businesses, including supporting their UC integration initiatives.”
Pricing and Availability
Plantronics Manager Pro is available in 143 countries as an annual or three-year subscription service, from Plantronics Approved Resellers.