The Sennheiser Business Communication team has a clear and ambitious vision: To develop the next generation of audio solutions for efficient and reliable team collaboration regardless of location. Major progress has already been made with products such as the Sennheiser Control Cockpit software for controlling and monitoring microphones and the TeamConnect Ceiling 2 conference room microphone for ceiling installation. And since August 2019, there has been another milestone: TeamConnect Ceiling 2 is now officially certified for Microsoft Teams. But what exactly does that mean for its users?
Microsoft has announced that Skype for Business will no longer be available from July 2021. The international hardware and software developer therefore advises switching to Microsoft Teams as soon as possible (integrated in the Office 365 Office Suite). By giving plenty of notice, Microsoft wants to give corporate customers enough time to make the transition. In terms of functionality, the technology offers users far more than Skype for Business: Microsoft Teams combines chat, video, telephone and document collaboration functions in a single, integrated app, opening up a whole new way of working for users. Microsoft has worked with customers over the past two years to improve Teams. It is a major milestone for Sennheiser to be part of the solutions certified by Microsoft. “We are very proud that TeamConnect Ceiling 2 is now one of the Microsoft Teams devices,” said Ron Holtdijk, Director of the Business Communication Segment at Sennheiser. “TeamConnect Ceiling 2 is one more step toward a completely new way of working together.”
But what exactly does he mean by a completely new way of working? The team working on Team Connect Ceiling 2 are all too familiar with the concept, because they were already putting into practice the methods proposed by Microsoft during the certification phase. Thanks to virtual real-time team setups and asynchronous work in sub-teams, it was possible to implement all the necessary measures for certification in the shortest possible time. Where linear, traditional project management revealed its limitations, the team developed new virtual and cutting-edge approaches to project work, which ultimately became the blueprint for future projects. So if anyone understands how we can improve team work for the foreseeable future, it is the Business Communication team.