Plantronics Receives 2013 Visionary Innovation Leadership Award from Frost & Sullivan

Market research firm Frost & Sullivan (News - Alert) recently honored Plantronics, a global leader in audio communications for businesses and consumers, with a Visionary Innovation Award in recognition of its accomplishments in the areas of unified communications and collaboration (UCC) and customer care. In order to win a Visionary Innovation Award, a company must demonstrate its ability to "identify key mega-trends and proactively address unmet needs with disruptive solutions that can greatly improve business performance as well as individuals’ work and personal lives," according to Frost & Sullivan.

Indeed, as Frost & Sullivan's director of Unified Communication & Collaboration, Elka Popova, said of the company, Plantronics (News - Alert) has remained a leader in the area of headset innovation since its formative years, successfully aligning its product development roadmap with various mega-trends. Popova went on to identify the company's focus on software development and contextually aware communications as key elements to its success.

“This award validates our impact on unified communications and the importance of delivering products that are easy for people to use,” said Ken Kannappan, president and CEO of Plantronics. “We appreciate the recognition of the contributions we have made delivering exceptional audio and playing a critical role in improving productivity.”

It's not just Frost & Sullivan who has branded Plantronics as a visionary, as the company also received a Visionary Award from TMC (News - Alert) back in December at the WebRTC Conference and Expo. That same month, Plantronics became a preferred solutions provider in the unified communications category of the Cisco Developer Network program.

However, while TMC CEO Rich Tehrani (News - Alert) identified Plantronics' WebRTC integration as the reason for branding the company as a visionary, Frost & Sullivan specifically pointed to the Voyager Legend, and its industry-first Smart Sensor technology, as the reason for Plantronics' award win. Indeed, aside from delivering a number of important features — mobile and soft phone support, caller ID/announcement, voice command capability — the Voyager Legend's Smart Sensor technology allows the headset to sense whether it is on or off the user's head, handling calls appropriately.