Lifesize®, the original inventors of high-definition video conferencing and creator of the world’s first cloud-based, video-enabled omnichannel contact centre, announced the general availability of Lifesize Connect Plus+, a new DSS feature for its 4K Lifesize Cloud Room hardware.
The new interoperability feature builds on the success of Lifesize Connect to provide seamless multivendor meetings connectivity to Microsoft Teams, Cisco Webex, and Zoom while protecting existing Lifesize hardware investments.
“Hybrid meetings are an essential part of every workplace,” said Trent Waterhouse, CEO of Lifesize. “As companies meet with customers, partners, suppliers, and employees, each audience typically prefers a different video meeting vendor. Lifesize makes it easy to work together across geographic and meeting vendor boundaries so people can focus on the meeting topic and content – not the meeting room technology.”
Every meeting room must be a video meeting room and support multivendor video meetings. Lifesize Connect Plus+ software added to an existing Lifesize hardware environment enables organizations to provide high-quality video experiences whether meeting participants are in the office or working from home. Hybrid work environments are here to stay as businesses embrace flexible work options. Connect Plus+ technology makes it easy for people to work together wherever they are so they can stay focused on what is important – caring for customers, collaborating with partners, managing suppliers, and engaging employees.
“Meeting solutions that support hybrid work arrangements have become a central focus for organizations seeking to meet productivity goals while providing flexible working location options,” according to the Gartner Research Critical Capabilities for Meeting Solutions. “Through 2022, 75% of midsize enterprises will utilize a hybrid model with employees working both from a defined corporate office and from remote locations.”
Sixty-two percent of organizations use three or more videoconferencing applications every day to collaborate. While employees worldwide say they want the flexibility to work remotely and come into the office as needed, collaboration technology has not kept pace with the demands of this complex work model. Connecting and collaborating with coworkers, customers, partners, and suppliers from anywhere can mean using a different app or cloud service for every interaction. Users cite network and technology problems as one of the top reasons to avoid video meetings. And yet, videoconferencing remains the most efficient way for teams to communicate, brainstorm, and solve problems together when all participants cannot be in the same room.
Lifesize Connect Plus+ is built for these times by enabling users to quickly jump from meeting to meeting without switching devices or setups. Face-to-face collaboration over high-quality audio and video, regardless of meeting vendor application, is the next best thing to being there.
Lifesize Connect Plus+ is available immediately as a Device Software Subscription upgrade for existing Lifesize Icon 300 / 500 / 700 cloud meeting room systems.
Lifesize is recognized in the 2021 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Meeting Solutions [1]. Lifesize is also recognized in the 2021 Gartner Magic Quadrants for Contact Center as a Service [2] and Workforce Engagement Management [3]. Meeting solutions blend communications, collaboration, and content sharing to enable hybrid remote and in-person meeting scenarios across various commercial, education, government, and service provider environments. Now every meeting room needs to be video-enabled to support hybrid meetings.
[1] Gartner, “Magic Quadrant for Meeting Solutions”, Mike Fasciani, Tom Eagle, Brian Doherty, Christopher Trueman, October 7, 2021.
[2] Gartner,” Magic Quadrant for Contact Center as a Service”, Drew Kraus, Pri Rathnayake, Steve Blood, August 9, 2021.
[3] Gartner, “Magic Quadrant for Workforce Engagement Management”, Jim Davies, Jim Robinson, Kim Dans, Mark Dauigoy, April 26, 2021.
About Lifesize
Lifesize video meeting and omnichannel contact centre solutions make it easy to Work Together. Founded in 2003, Lifesize created the world’s first high-definition video meetings and cloud-based contact centres. Serving millions of users through channel partners in over 100 countries, the company lives by the philosophy “There Is Nothing More Important than Our Customers”.
Learn more online at lifesize.com.