Poly SOLVING COMMON User Manual
FIVE WAYS TO IMPROVE PRODUCTIVITY AND
USER EXPERIENCE FOR REMOTE WORKERS
INTRODUCTION
Starting in March 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic had IT departments scrambling to help their employees work from home.
Many companies deployed “best effort” solutions using built-in laptop webcams with entry-level headsets and soft-client
based phone apps to support voice and video calls for employees working at home. Forwarding work phone numbers to
employees’ personal cellphones was another popular alternative. Everyone simply made do with what they could find for
this massive, worldwide work from home experiment.
Many companies are now considering working from home on a more permanent basis. A recent Gartner CFO Survey
revealed that 74% of CFOs intend to shift some employees to working remote permanently post Covid-191. It’s estimated
that nearly 40% of all jobs in the U.S. can be performed entirely at home, and that nearly 30% of workers will work from
home at least one day a week even after the COVID-19 pandemic has ended2. So next up for IT is finding optimal solutions
for working from home. For many employees, that will include a VoIP desk phone, upgraded professional headset, and
quality USB webcam.
Cloud communications service providers have an important role to play in supporting their customers’ work from home
initiatives during the pandemic and beyond. That includes helping customers understand work from home challenges and
how they can overcome them.
In this e-book, we’ll look at some typical challenges encountered in work from home situations that a VoIP phone helps
solve. We’ll focus on five of the top challenges:
• Noise at home
• PC issues
• Home network limitations
• Support and deployment
• Business calls on personal devices
After reviewing each challenge and solution, we’ll look at recommended configurations that provide end users the best
overall work from home experience.
1
Gartner, “Gartner CFO Survey Reveals 74% Intend to Shift Some Employees to Remote Work Permanently,” April 3, 2020. https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2020-
04-03-gartner-cfo-surey-reveals-74-percent-of-organizations-to-shift-some-employees-to-remote-work-permanently2
2
Nicholas Bloom, “The bright future of working from home,” May 2020. Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, https://siepr.stanford.edu/research/publications/bright-futureworking-home
CHALLENGE SOLUTION
Unlike mobile phones or PCs, Poly phones have Acoustic
Fence technology that greatly reduces noise problems in
NOISE
AT HOME
Kids, spouses on their own calls, vacuums,
home environments. By picking up the handset or connecting
a supported headset model to the phone, end users can
stop worrying about the blender in the kitchen or zombie
apocalypse outside. With Poly Acoustic Fence, the phone
automatically blocks it all out, allowing you to be heard clearly.
lawnmowers, barking dogs. Noisy interruptions get old
for everyone on the other end of your call and disrupt
communication and collaboration with colleagues.
Noise at home is a productivity killer. In fact, 45% of
WFH employees report that noise inside the home has
an impact on their productivity.
1
Additionally, many Poly headsets—both wired and wireless—
have noise reduction features to help you hear and be heard
more clearly. For example, Close Conversation Limiting helps
to filter out background noise which can be distracting to
listeners on the far end of a call. Together, the phone and
headset make a great combination for reducing distractions
from noise in the home, allowing you to be more productive.
1 Recon Research, “Impact of Covid-19 Survey – Perceived WFH Productivity Impediments,” July 15, 2020.
CHALLENGE SOLUTION
A desk phone is “always on”—no battery limits. These
purpose-built devices don’t compete for PC resources or
PC AND
MOBILE
require app switching like PC soft clients do. Additionally,
dedicated call control buttons and keys make one-touch call
control easy. VoIP desktop phones are always ready for the
next call.
ISSUES
While laptops and mobile phones are portable and can serve
many functions, they present challenges as primary business
communication devices. Call handling on these devices
can be challenging, and you need an external device like a
headset or speakerphone to get the best audio quality. Are
you hearing audio glitches or echoes during calls with so
many apps, windows, and browser tabs open and competing
for PC resources? Left waiting for your PC to reboot or install
an update to get back on your call? We’ve all been there.
Poly phones provide lifelike HD Voice quality, whether using
the handset, hands-free speakerphone or optional headset.
Additionally, they provide full-duplex conversations and
acoustic echo cancellation to ensure you always sound your
best. You get more productive conversations with no one
asking, “Can you repeat that?”
CHALLENGE SOLUTION
An IP phone is a dedicated VoIP device and typically has a
higher network priority by default with most modern home
HOME
NETWORK
routers or mesh Wi-Fi systems. Many Poly phones can
support Wi-Fi. Poly CCX 600 has Wi-Fi built-in and Poly VVX
250, Poly VVX 350, and Poly VVX 450 phones support Wi-
Fi connectivity with the optional Poly USB Wi-Fi adapter. Just
remember, most home offices don’t have PoE (Power over
POLY VVX 250
4 lines
POLY VVX 350
6 lines
LIMITATIONS
Research shows 32% of employees have reported
technical issues while working from home1, and
Internet and Wi-Fi connections are the top culprit.2
Most homes are not wired with Ethernet to every
room, making Wi-Fi the primary connection.
Additionally, spouses or roommates working, or kids
engaged in distance learning (or online gaming) can all
tax Internet bandwidth.
1
YouGov, “The biggest challenges facing those working from home,” April 29, 2020, https://today.yougov.com/
topics/economy/articles-reports/2020/04/29/biggest-challenges-facing-those-working-home
2
New York Times, “So We’re Working From Home. Can the Internet Handle It?” March 16, 2020, https://www.
nytimes.com/2020/03/16/technology/coronavirus-working-from-home-internet.html and “The Tech Headaches
of Working From Home and How to Remedy Them” March 18, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/18/
technology/personaltech/working-from-home-problems-solutions.html
Ethernet), so you’ll want to provide a power supply with the
phone for work from home users.
Poly phones also have adaptive jitter buffers and packet
loss concealment built in, helping to smooth out the network
glitches and improve call quality.
POLY VVX 450
12 lines
POLY CCX 600
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