We can all relate to the struggles that can go on when we need to connect with someone outside of our company (or sometimes even inside our company) and they’re on a different conferencing system. Are you on Zoom? Teams? Slack? Webex?
When it comes time to launch the meeting, you can easily anticipate delays as one participant looks to download the right client, or test their browser, or their audio doesn’t work properly with one of those systems and they end up dialing in by phone.
Bridging the Zoom-Teams Gap
There’s certainly a lot of work left to bridge the many gaps that exist when it comes to connecting across these systems, but that’s the state of play in 2022.
That’s why some news out of Microsoft this week is so welcome: the company is enabling full-blown connectivity between Teams and Zoom. “Today, Teams Rooms on Android offers Direct Guest Join, a one-touch experience that allows users to join a third-party online meeting from their Teams Rooms just as easily as they can join meetings hosted in Teams,” the company announced in a blog post. “This experience helps reduce friction when users are joining calls from external partners or clients who may not use the same meeting provider.”
Great news, with a surprising twist: Microsoft says it worked with Zoom to enable the functionality, which is slightly ironic since Microsoft’s CMO recently asserted that Teams is taking market share from Zoom.
More detail on the collaboration: Teams Rooms on Android will initially offer interoperability with Zoom meetings, while Cisco Webex and other third-party partners are coming soon to the Android platform, Microsoft said.
Microsoft says it partnered with Zoom, Cisco, and GoToMeeting to enable interoperability with Direct Guest Join. Zoom provides an embedded web experience that temporarily allows Teams Rooms users to join third-party meetings and collaborate more freely. The experience provides up-to-date software as well as enterprise-grade privacy and security.
Microsoft and Zoom are even presenting together on a webcast in the near future to give more details about how they’re working together, the blog post indicates.
The two firms have put competitive stakes aside to better serve customers – a great outcome that you don’t always see in the Cloud Wars.
Dell AR App Fuels DIY Computer Fixes, Sustainability
We’ve all been there: Do we attempt a PC or laptop repair ourselves, hire a technician, or just move on and buy a new system? The DIY considerations are the most complicated, of course: Do I have the right tools? Can I pull parts without breaking something? How do I know which component is actually the problem?
Dell has an interesting new take on this problem: a mobile app, the Dell AR Assistant, to walk users through self-initiated repairs on over 100 Dell PCs and servers in seven different languages in augmented reality (AR). Dell is currently working to add over 20 additional systems by the end of the summer.
As Dell describes it, the initiative has two main objectives. First, it enables consumers to repair devices themselves, which removes some of the aggravation. Second, it supports the company’s efforts to improve sustainability by making parts more replaceable and reusable, keeping more circular materials in the economy.
The company fast tracked development of the app for IoS and Android during the early months of the pandemic, when technicians couldn’t visit homes.
Near term, there are some limitations, but this doesn’t diminish the long-term potential of this app or the strategy behind it. Currently, the use of the Dell AR Assistant is dependent on proper diagnosis first, then ordering parts through Dell’s technical support team, the company explained in a blog post announcing the AR Assistant.
Much more detail is available at this FAQ, including all the systems that are currently supported.
Thumbs up for this customer-centric, sustainable initiative from Dell.
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