CX300 R2 Support for Microsoft Teams

[Chris80]

Dear @SteffenBaierUK,

If I would not be frustrated with this situation and the Polycom way of handling this, I would maybe even be amused by your answer.

You are saying that Polycom cannot do anything and that your customers have to sort this out with Microsoft themselves.

From my point of view, you let your customers down. Of course you could do something and protect the investment of your customers by lobbying at Microsoft instead of giving the responsibility to the customers. Why would I buy any time again from Polycom, knowing that you don't fight for your customers? Of course "we" are the end-customers, but you are a Microsoft customer as well in this sense (and one with bigger mass and power) as a representative of your customers.

And the above is not the only thing you can do as Polycom. There are also possiblities of technical solutoins, e.g. providing a middleware software that can be the logic between OCS/Lync/SfB Interface and Teams Interface. A virtual device that implements the Teams inteface but provides the old interface towards the CX300.

Kind regards,

Chris

[SteffenBaierUK]

Hello @Chris80 ,

welcome to the Poly Community.

Again I am unable to state more than what I actually already have. Nothing on our end has changed on this Microsoft developed Device.

The "Client" you are using the device with has changed and therefore the Client supplier aka Microsoft needs to make a change to ensure compatibility.

We, Poly, cannot start to attempt and provide an interface between our working device and the nonworking client as we, Poly, would have to take responsibility and ensure this works in every OS and different languages etc. as well.

Unfortunately, your login credentials will not allow me to identify the organisation you work for and as you have not provided us with any details if you have 1 device or a 1000 or purchased this last month or 6 years ago I cannot even forward your complaint to a Poly sales engineer.

What would you do with a Printer or a Scanner that is no longer supported by the Operating System?

Best Regards

Steffen Baier

[Luca Vitali]

Hi Steffen,

you are formally right, this is a problem caused by MS.

What @Chris80 said is that, from a customer point of view, Polycom seems to completely loose every connection with Microsoft. The CX300 is not the only one Polycom product that have problem with Teams (I refer to Trio and RP Group for example).

Many many customers loose trust in Polycom because many devices stoped to work with Teams. It's not your fault but many think that you have not fight enough or provided good workaround, like for example a little program that help CX300 to work with Teams (just to be in scope).

Best. Luca

[SteffenBaierUK]

Hello @Luca Vitali ,

Welcome back to the Poly Community.

Lets just hypothetically assume we could provide such a driver. 

What would happen if Microsoft makes a change to the Teams client which would break the functionality?

Microsoft needs to fix this if users assume the CX300 is compatible with Teams. Every user can via their Account Admin raise a ticket within Teams as outlined >here<

I am unsure of your other comment regarding Trio and RP Group.

• The Trio can run Teams mode and to my personal knowledge, any Teams related issues are currently addressed by our Partner Microsoft
  
  
• The RealPresence Group was never advertised to be compatible with Teams but Poly offers people who require compatibility into Teams our RealConnect service for free up until June next year.

Best Regards

Steffen Baier

[Luca Vitali]

Hi Steffen,

please do not think that we are against each other, we are "on the same boat" here.

- The "driver" is simply an idea, a proposal to workaround a problem.

- Trio devices loose completely the video features (with Visual+) moving from SfB to Teams

- RP Group was fully native SfB client and now it's mandatory to use Cloud Video Interop solution to allow RP Group to work with Teams.

You can say that are MS problem, and you are right from many point of view, but sad to say, right or wrong, these devices are branded Polycom, not Microsoft, so from your point of view you have the most interest to make everything to avoid that customers stop using these devices with Teams.

That's my general advice.

I was here to find if CX300 was suitable for Teams, they are not and I'm sad not because I've a new customer that love these devices and want to buy them for Teams.

Second advice: create a brand new "CX300 for Teams", this could be a huge sell success!

Best. Luca

[SteffenBaierUK]

Hello @Luca Vitali ,

First of all, I am not the official Poly spokesperson so anything commented, as outlined in my signature, is my own personal opinion.

We, Poly, cannot simply create a product and use it with our Partner Microsofts infrastructure. We have to go through a qualification process and have to have their approval.

• The Trio in its known form using Skype for Business can utilize the Visual+ or VisualPro and is fully supported as advertised.
  
  
• The Trio running Microsoft's Teams application is a standalone audio device. It cannot be paired with a Visual+ or VisualPro. I cannot comment if this would be technically possible.
  
  
• The RealPresence GroupSeries in its known form using Skype for Business is fully supported as advertised. I cannot comment if Teams running on the GroupSeries would be technically possible.

We never advertise the Trio with a Visual+ or VisualPro or a GroupSeries to be compatible with Teams. We cannot control what people assume should work.

We, Poly, offer a free service so customers can bridge this gap and keep using this until June or so next year. After this period a customer would have to pay.

I believe we discussed everything there is to say and I am closing this topic to avoid further conversations.

Best Regards

Steffen Baier