CRN Interview: Plantronics' Ken Kannappan

Plantronics wants some respect in the channel. As a dominant manufacturer of handsets, Plantronics is trying to sway solution providers to put more focus on bundling headsets with PCs connected to telephony applications. As part of that effort, the company recently showcased wireless headsets that can be used with VoIP applications. In an interview with Editor in Chief Michael Vizard, Plantronics CEO Ken Kannappan talks about why a market that grew 40 percent last year,with Plantronics shipping more than 14 million units,is going to keep expanding.

CRN: Just how underserved is the market for headsets, in your opinion?

Kannappan: Over 90 percent of the people that are on the phone two hours or more per day aren't using a headset. We're always looking at what the people are telling us they want. They want wireless products. And there is a whole bunch of things that people never thought of that they're finding out in terms of what a wireless headset means to them. For example, you'll see [people] in a lot of companies using them inside the office, not just outside. People go from meeting to meeting and they have trouble getting back to their desk. A lot of people are in cubes and they have no opportunity for private communication unless they walk away to another phone. It turns out that a wireless headset basically solves all these problems. On a personal basis, it's a really nice solution for people. On a business basis, it means cycle time for employees and it cuts down on voice-tag messages.

CRN: What is the channel's role in all this?

Kannappan: The channels are making really nice margins on this product, especially if you're doing something that includes a speech functionality-type application. If you're talking about a call center with thousands of agents and you want them sitting at their desks, you're not necessarily going to buy them all a wireless solution. But if you're talking about a call center supervisor in that application, then wireless makes sense. If you're talking about a help-desk application,and a lot of them are applications where people need to go check a particular product configuration,then this is ideal. We're seeing a lot of penetration into those sorts of applications, but it depends on the environment.

CRN: Can any office worker make use of a wireless headset?

Kannappan: We're developing a wireless headset with voice-dialing capabilities. You could be 100 yards away from your phone and have inbound and outbound calling. So if you have on the low end a receptionist in a small company delivering mail, [he or she] can still answer the phone. IT people are a big target group for this because they are constantly being asked support questions and they're moving around and you can't reach them. For office people, freedom is about having your hands and your feet and being able to go wherever you want to go.

CRN: What kind of margins can people in the channel make on headsets?

Kannappan: We don't set end-user prices and not every sale is reported ... so I don't always know the actual prices that people are selling at and the actual margins they are making. I met with five channel partners recently and what they told me was that the dealers were generally making in the 30- to 35-point range in terms of margin. We're hearing about entire sites where everybody has to have it, even the people who don't need it, because they want to be cool, too. And when you sell equipment for a lot of people, there is a certain replacement cycle of the equipment. If you've got a new employee, they don't want %85 somebody else's headset.

CRN: Plantronics carries more than 6,000 types of headsets. Why?

Kannappan: In the computer world, it's all open systems, which is wonderful. But a lot of phones are not open systems and we need to have [variations]. A lot of countries have individual regulatory requirements, and so you need to have variations for them.

CRN: What new applications do you expect to see driving interest in headsets?

Kannappan: As you start to see more integration of entertainment applications, it creates a great opportunity for our category. For some time a wired solution will be cheaper than a wireless solution, but %85 other than price and recharging, there's no benefit to having a wire.

Also, on occasion in winter I get frost on my car. Right now what I do is I go out and I turn on the car. I'd rather just turn it on and let it defrost and warm up before I got in there. [Likewise], I'd rather turn off my security system with a voice print than have to go in and rush when I'm carrying groceries or whatever else. There are a lot of appliances that would be easier and more convenient to use your voice to command. And finally, you're certain to see more school systems embrace this because of the the integration of speech recognition into educational systems. They think it's an ergonomic benefit for kids who have to use keyboards.