{"id":16154,"date":"2024-01-11T15:59:40","date_gmt":"2024-01-11T14:59:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.voss-solutions.com\/?p=16154"},"modified":"2026-04-14T13:12:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T12:12:30","slug":"optimizing-the-new-hybrid-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.voss-solutions.com\/blog\/2024\/optimizing-the-new-hybrid-office\/","title":{"rendered":"Optimizing the New Hybrid Office with VOSS"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Optimizing the New Hybrid Office<\/h1><\/h1><\/div>

Cisco and Microsoft collaborate to deliver exceptional meeting room experiences – Enhance the experience with VOSS<\/h1><\/h2><\/div>
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Author: Tim Jalland
\nSolution Manager, VOSS Solutions<\/h4>\n

Thursday January 11, 2024<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Are you planning for a return to the office in 2024?<\/h4>\n

The holiday break is always a good time to reflect on what took place last year and what\u2019s in store for 2024. Flexible working and investment in platforms such as Microsoft Teams are clearly here to stay. But what about the office in 2024? When it comes to your office layout, its purpose, its function, and your workforce\u2019s experience, what are your plans?<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a trend for people to move back into the office, if only part time. Increasingly, time spent at the office is in meetings with colleagues. However, 98% of meetings now include remote participants and so this \u2018hybrid\u2019 meeting experience of in-the-office and out-of-the-office is increasingly important to productivity and business outcomes.<\/p>\n

Supporting this, organizations are refurbishing and investing in quality meeting room equipment from vendors such as Cisco, Polycom, and Logitech, who continue to push audio and video boundaries. Analytics is becoming vital to ensure everything works seamlessly together.<\/p>\n

On a broader topic, analytics around UC, usage, occupancy, and meeting performance are helping shape our decisions on office space reconfiguration, making more room for hot desking and drop-down zones, and introducing more huddle spaces and more expansive boardroom and classroom facilities.<\/p>\n<\/div>

\"Young<\/span><\/div>

Creating a superior meeting room experience for everybody<\/h4>\n

Where to get started?<\/p>\n

Many customers have invested in Microsoft Teams as their primary meeting application provider (43% – according to Metrigy) and this includes certification for meeting room hardware, offering choice from an approved range of vendors, and supporting meeting rooms of all shapes and sizes. You\u2019ll find the link at the end of this blog!<\/p>\n

The good news is that Cisco (working closely with Microsoft) also now has meeting room hardware certified (technically MTR certified). That means, whether it is through preference or choice, or you\u2019re looking to get more out of existing Cisco meeting room investments, you can now bring these into your overall Teams meeting room experience with confidence. The best of both worlds!<\/p>\n

Bringing it together with a single coherent solution<\/h4>\n

Those are the core building blocks \u2013 a collaboration platform such as Microsoft Teams, supporting a population of remote workers, with in-the-office workers joining meetings and collaborating through well-equipped meeting rooms. Simple on paper, complex in practice, where user expectations are high and IT managers are left with the disparate and basic tools provided by the vendors themselves \u2013 such as Microsoft\u2019s Pro Portal and Cisco\u2019s Webex Control Hub.<\/p>\n

Larger estates particularly, with many meeting rooms, warrant an investment in suitable administration and analytics tools to deliver the right overall level of performance.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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IT leaders often adopt management tools only after realizing that they need additional management capabilities beyond those provided by their software vendor(s). Among those using Microsoft Teams Meetings, just 16.8% say they’ve had video-quality issues, which they primarily attribute to a lack of adequate network services, including Wi-Fi, LAN, and WAN.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/span><\/blockquote>

<\/span>Source: Metrigy<\/strong>, <\/span>Assuring Success for Microsoft Teams Rooms - Q1 2023<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Next steps<\/h4>\n

Here are a few ideas on what should be on the checklist for such a toolset, along with a few screenshots from the VOSS toolset:<\/p>\n