Article Apr 30, 2021 5 min read

Pexip and Google Meet for a future-proof, hybrid workforce

Andrew Reitter

Apr 30, 2021 5 min read

Andrew Reitter

At Pexip, we talk to organizations across all industries daily about staying connected, both in the present and future, as they plan to return to the office.

No one knows what the “new normal” will look like, but most organizations agree that the new video-centric way of working will continue. While these organizations plan their return to the office and balance hybrid work expectations, the need for video meetings is core to the modern way of working.

For many organizations, the future of work means that teams will be fluid regarding who is in the office and who works from home. This creates the need to ensure that every meeting can be video-enabled. Organizations also weigh the need to continue social distancing in the office, driving interest in more video-enabled spaces. These new spaces will allow those in the office to safely meet with their remote colleagues, partners, and suppliers. The video also helps ensure a level playing field for all employees and prevents a bifurcation of culture based on in-office vs. remote working.

To this end, Pexip is helping organizations that have adopted Google Meet as their meetings platform ensure a smooth transition back to the office while ensuring a long-term collaboration strategy.

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How can Pexip for Google Meet support a hybrid workforce?

Streamline the return to the office

Ensure return on investment for existing video conference devices

Employees will expect that the tools they have adopted at home during the pandemic will “just work” with the tools in the office upon their return. However, Google Meet does not natively support existing video conference rooms from vendors such as Cisco, Poly, and Lifesize, to name a few. The Pexip for Google Meet interoperability solution is the glue behind the scenes to ensure these current and older generation devices can easily connect to Google Meet meetings.
Simple join experience with One-Touch Join

Pexip can also ensure that using these systems with Google Meet is even easier than before.

Schedule the meeting in Google Calendar as usual, including the room(s) with the video conference systems.
Pexip One-Touch Join provides a join button on the systems control interface.
When it's time for the meeting, enter the room and press the join button. The existing Cisco or Poly video conference device will connect to the scheduled Meet.

Connect from Skype for Business

The Pexip Google Meeting interoperability service provides connectivity for Skype for Business to Google Meet, helping provide a smooth transition and ensuring that external parties using Skype for Business can connect. Read more about how to set up Pexip for Google Meet in our documentation

Ensure continuity with external parties

Stay connected with partners, customers, and suppliers

Partners, customers, and suppliers have all been in a similar situation with the pandemic. They would also like to use their existing room video systems. The same Pexip Google Meet interoperability service that supports your internal video conferencing systems also ensures that your partners, customers, and suppliers can use their existing video conferencing devices to join your Meet meetings.

Stay secure - with a virtual lobby

Most organizations have a lobby in their physical offices. Badged employees can bypass this lobby, but guests check in at the lobby and are escorted by their host. There is no reason to forgo this security measure as your meetings go virtual. Pexip ensures that your internal video conference systems can easily join your meetings by bypassing the lobby while external parties wait in the lobby until admitted by the host.

Branding enhances the experience and provides peace of mind

Custom-branded welcome screen

When a person arrives at your physical office, they are often greeted by your brand identity in the lobby. Pexip feels that virtual meetings should be no different. Therefore, Pexip can customize the lobby and other virtual splash screens for video conferencing devices connecting to your Meet meetings. Leveraging your brand for the welcome page is important so guests know they are in the right place. This is especially important now that we are all joining so many virtual meetings across similar platforms.

Your domain is your brand

Enterprises leverage their domain for their employee email addresses to ensure communications are tied to their brand and the recipient's first line of security and peace of mind. Pexip believes a meeting invitation should be no different. Pexip for Google Meet interoperability allows customers to leverage their custom domain for video conferencing invite addresses.

Stay in control with deployment flexibility

There are multiple options to enable Pexip Google Meet.

Pexip as-a-Service - For those looking for the simplicity of a shared public cloud service, Pexip offers a SaaS model to ensure quick adoption with little hands-on IT expertise needed.

Pexip self-hosted software - Pexip believes that not all customers think of “the Cloud” in the same way as a shared public service. Pexip works with many government, healthcare, and financial services customers who expect more control over their environment and data. The Pexip self-hosted option is a good fit for these organizations. It's the same great service but hosted on the customer’s servers on their computer or, more often, in the customer's own Google Cloud Platform (GCP) tenant. This ensures they can leverage the power of the cloud via GCP and retain control of how their video conference rooms connect to their Google Meet service.

As you plan your return to the office, ensure a smooth experience for your users at home and in the office. You get a maximum return on the investment of your existing video conferencing devices. To learn more, contact us today, and one of our experts will be happy to discuss your organization’s unique return-to-office needs.

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