Getronics let's new working work!

Getronics launched five animations in which 5 managers explain their experience with 'The new way of working'.

01 The New Way Of Working - Finance Manager


02 The New Way Of Working - HR Manager


03 The New Way Of Working - ICT Manager


04 The New Way Of Working - Facility Manager


05 The New Way Of Working - Business Manager



The YouTube channel of Taxi YouTube channel can be found here. The mission to create a follow up on the SAM "New way of working".
Created by TAXI Europe. Let me know what you think of it.

It’s all about creating value with business apps

Welcome the Cisco Integrated Services Routers Generation 2 with video-ready architecture, on-demand service delivery and energy savings. Transform your branch office experience and enable Borderless Networks with agile service delivery.

Fourth WikiPodium Event

The fourth WikiPodium meeting will take place on Wednesday 21th of October 2009 from 18h until 20h. This meeting will be hosted by IBM at their offices in Brussels. Please have a look at http://www.ibm.com/be/ibm/en/access/location_brussels.html for instructions on how to reach IBM. The number of seats for the WikiPodium meeting is again strictly limited to 30, so please don't register if you're not certain to be present.


The topic of this meeting is "Enterprise 2.0 of het gebruik van Web 2.0 in de onderneming". Laurent Boes from IBM will share his thoughts on this subject.


If you are interested in getting to know other people working with wikis in a professional context, let them know by email whether you would like to attend this WikiPodium meeting. And if you can not attend this meeting but are interested in being informed on future WikiPodium events, please let them know too (mailto:wikipodium@gmail.com). You can also request access to the wiki so you will have the possibility to update this wiki yourself.

The end of the office hours

Last week this rather mysterious movie appeared on YouTube. While nobody knew what it was referring too, we now discovered it is part of the Getronics campaign on the new way of working.

Review wireless headsets #plantronics

As promised some three weeks ago, Plantronics gave me the opportunity to test and review three of their wireless and mobile headsets. Allow me to discuss each one of them.

Voyager Pro
The Voyager Pro is a bluetooth headset for mobile devices. The manual was clear and also available in Dutch. The headset was immediately detected by the mobile phone and so the activation/installation went very smooth.

I added some pics of the Voyager Pro, because – personally – I like the design more than the Sony Ericsson HBH-PV702, which I had before.

The earsupport of the headset can be easily turned (for left or right ear barers), it is a light-weight and fits very comfortably. The picture shows that the ear extention sticks out quit a bit, which allow it to fit deaper into the ear for more stability, but most of all for better noise reduction.

I found the quality of the headset very good, better than the one from Sony Ericsson and I could move easily up to 5m away from the mobile phone with hardly any quality distortion.

I have been using the headset for about 5 days without recharging, calling about an hour (on average) every day. This seems more than enough to me, as my mobile phone requires charging every two days ;)

For the technical specs and details, please consult the Plantronics product site.

Anyone interested in a Sony Ericsson HBH-PV702? ;)

 

Savi Office WO100

The Savi Office is clearly a professional solution. It is a wireless, DECT based, headset and connects with your PC and your desk phone at the same time. The main advantage of a DECT solution, compared to a bluetooth solution, is of course the fact that you can go further away from your IP Phone or softphone on your PC. You could imagine a few business applications, especially in the arena of service desk or call center applications where you have to consult with other teams, without deconnecting with the customer, this could be useful. As a sales at the office you can walk on the whole floor as if you were talking and walking with your mobile. The specs indicate that you could go up to 100m, but I have not been able to test this.

The installation was simple and straightforward (although I didn’t get the PC audio to be working with the handset, but I have to admit that I didn’t make the time to call the Plantronics support, but the specs say it should be supported). The manual is concise and available in Dutch too. The sound quality is excellent and you have the choice to choose for the earloop or headband.

The DECT base is also a charge cradle and allows for up to 4 headsets to connect to one base, which can be useful for conferencing sessions without the need to activate the speaker on the desk phone and thus disturbing other colleagues in an open space environment.

I would only have one concern. The Savi Office is standard equipped with a telephone interface cable, but it still requires you to lift up the handset of the desk phone manually. This is inconvenient and creates a disturbing echo. You could resolve this, if you buy the optional automatic handset arm lifter (HL10) or the right electronic hook switch (compatible with your phone). Plantronics has been providing me with the hook switch for the Cisco IP Phones (APC-40), but unfortunately they are not compatible with the older Cisco 7940G and could not be tested. Also take into account that the use of an electronic hook switch (for Cisco IP Phones) requires some tweeks at the central call manager configuration and may be a tough hurdle to take in some companies ;)

For the technical specs and details, please consult the Plantronics product site.

 

Savi Go WG101b 
The Savi Go is clearly my favorite. It is a bluetooth headset and has the remarkable feature supporting two bluetooth devices at the same time.

I have been testing the WG101/B, which consists of a BUA-200 bluetooth usb adaptor and a WH100/B headset (the same as the one of the Savi Office).

I decided to install the Savi Go at home. Although the WG101/B is optimized for the use with Microsoft Office Communicator, it works very smoothly with Skype, the Cisco IP softphone and my SIP phone. At the same time I allowed my mobile phone to detect the wireless headset and could use it for both phones at the same time. Great stuff.

The installation went like a charm, the manual is clear and the cradle is ideal for immediate charging. Very convenient. I activated the USB adaptor on my laptop (for the use with the office communicator and Cisco softphone) and on my desktop (for the use with Skype and my SIP Phone). In the evening I simply switch the USB adaptor from my laptop to my desktop from business to personal use. I really love it.

The quality is excellent (as for the other Plantronics headsets), the autonomy is no issue and, as for the Voyager Pro, your reception quality remains impeccable within a range of 5m. Which is more than sufficient to me (at home I work alone ;).

For the technical specs and details, please consult the Plantronics product site.

I did not make these reviews in order to test all technical features, but mainly to check the user convenience and here they all three scored superbly. Thanks to Plantronics for the opportunity to test these. I will certainly advice those to the teams that consults our customers in call center and service desk solutions for the Savi Office and Go and to my colleagues for the Voyager Pro mobile headset solution.