“It has always seemed to me the real art in this business is not so much moving information or guidance or policy five or 10,000 miles. That is an electronic problem…
…The real art is to move it the last three feet in
face to face conversation.”
— Edward R. Murrow, ABC TV’s “Issues and Answers,” August 4, 1963
It’s interesting that no matter what field of study or industry you dig into, you see this same sentiment expressed. Big ideas always make great press, but success always comes down to deployment, implementation & user adoption – the last three feet. This is where big ideas either persuade listeners to decide to get on board or they get ignored, and all the big plans and ideas come apart. As you probably know, Jabra is a big believer in the last three feet – that’s where we live and that’s where our customers live, too.
Big investments in Unified Communications, Software as a service, or telecom infrastructure of any kind command a lot of attention in today’s business landscape – but it’s the last three feet, the part that touches the user, that makes the difference between deciding to get on board or ignoring the big initiative because it’s too difficult or the user experience isn’t satisfactory.
We believe that devices make experiences – and experiences create the habits that change how we collaborate, communicate, and get the most out of our lives, whether we’re working or playing. This is a theme we’ve been pretty consistent in repeating for a while now because we know how important it is for the future success of our customers and partners. Giving you the ability to cross the last three feet of a UC implementation and connect the user to the UC platform in a positive way, is key to ensuring a positive ROI and overall success of the initiative.
When we open up the conversation about the role and importance of physical devices in a software-centric environment, we’re looking at the relationship between two things: the visual online user experience of the service being delivered and the physical piece of hardware on your desktop, monitor, or in Jabra’s case hanging from your ear. In order to understand the importance of each component we need to break the conversation down into three phases; demo, deployment and adoption.
Commonly within the first two phases of a sale; demo and deployment, the device typically gets ignored. When a partner is out demonstrating the capabilities of Lync, the last thing they are thinking about is showing the call quality with a Jabra headset. They are more concerned with demonstrating the features of UC software platform; voice, video, chat and presence; the exciting technology that allows you to communicate & collaborate with partners, customers and colleagues the world over. But we’re the device makes a difference is at arguably the most important stage within the deployment cycle – user adoption.
When we do our jobs right, our devices disappear – they become invisible parts of what we do and how we do it – so the total experience becomes more natural and intuitive. The right devices bring out the essential value of the platforms you work with. Which in turn creates a positive powerful experience and those experiences increase user adoption and the success of the software being deployed.
If you would like to hear more about Jabra’s Point of view on how Devices Make Experiences and learn how you can receive a free Jabra headset. Send us a note at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
