Polycom Addresses the Importance of Video and Unified Communications

Unified communications has been of no small matter at ITEXPO (News - Alert) West 2011 in Austin, TX over these last couple of days, and the discussion surrounding about how best to “unify unified communications” continued today at the keynote address delivered by John Antanaitis (News - Alert) from Polycom.

Antanaitis noted that Polycom is now moving away from developing devices, per se, and looking more towards integrating them. In exploring “how to do unified communications right,” he brought up the enormous participation and consideration of video.

Video usage is exploding – that fact is undeniable. Antanaitis cited several studies from Gartner and Forrester Research, one of which stated that YouTube (News - Alert) has witnessed an increase in video streaming by 31 percent. His citing of the important growth in video was ultimately to say that unified communications providers cannot underestimate.

The speaker noted that, “collaboration has become mission critical.” It is vital to maintain business continuity and drive customer intimacy.

He continued, “I think the fundamental background for unified communications is taking those solutions and integration them with applications and business processes…Unifying unified communications is about breaking down barriers to social, video, and mobile communications, connecting UC environments for seamless, worldwide collaboration.”

As a leader in unified communications, Polycom has partnered with Jive Software (News - Alert), a leading social business solution, and revealed a partnership to integrate Polycom HD video into Jive's social business platform. To boost his keynote speech at ITEXPO, Antanaitis made mention of this partnership to enhance his point that, “Video is being consumed, driven, and demanded across all of these working communities. Choose the right ecosystem, choose the right partnerships.”

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO West 2011, taking place NOW, in Austin, Texas. ITEXPO offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations. It's also where service providers learn how to profitably roll out the services their subscribers are clamoring for – and where resellers can learn about new growth opportunities. To register, click here.

Juliana Kenny graduated from the University of Connecticut with a double degree in English and French. After managing a small company for two years, she joined TMC (News - Alert) as a Web Editor for TMCnet. Juliana currently focuses on the call center and CRM industries, but she also writes about cloud telephony and network gear including softswitches.

Edited by Rich Steeves