Alexa for Business Now Supports All Alexa Devices

With its fortunes waning on the consumer side, Amazon is now pushing its less well-known Alexa for Business offering to all Alexa-compatible devices. Previously, this service worked only with Amazon’s own smart speakers and other Alexa-powered devices.

“Customers love using Alexa on Echo devices to simplify meeting room experiences and have asked us to enable the same experiences on their existing equipment,” Amazon GM Collin Davis said in a prepared statement. “We are excited to be working with device makers to bring the power of Alexa to our customers through the devices they already use around the office. Customers get all the benefits of Alexa for Business without having to install any new hardware.”

Amazon launched Alexa for Business in 2017 as a way to bridge its enterprise-focused AWS offerings and its consumer-focused smart speakers. Centralized management of Amazon’s Echo speakers has been core to this offering since then. But this week’s addition means that businesses can now manage third-party Alexa-powered devices in a similar manner. These devices will be shared within an organization and can utilize Alexa skills that are private to that business.

This support requires the device makers to sign-on first, however.

“Device makers can now register their products with Alexa for Business and managed as shared devices in organizations,” the Amazon announcement notes. “Alexa for Business customers will soon be able to centrally manage and deploy supported products with Alexa built-in, whether it’s built by Amazon or third-party device makers.”

Amazon notes that it is already working with brands such as BlackBerry, iHome, and Plantronics, and solution providers like Linkplay and Extron to bring their devices to businesses.