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Polycom Announces New Strategic Relationship with Microsoft

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Polycom Announces New Strategic Relationship with Microsoft

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August 10, 2010

By Anil Sharma, TMCnet Contributor


Polycom (News - Alert) Polycom, Inc., a major player in unified communications solutions, has signed a multi-year, strategic global agreement with Microsoft Corp. to deliver integrated end-to-end unified communications (UC) and to improve customers' business productivity.


Officials with Polycom said that under the agreement, the company plans to develop and market standards-based UC solutions that span the enterprise, small-to-medium business, and government markets, that will encompass software, hardware, networking and services, and will enable customers to improve business productivity and reduce travel, telecom and IT operating costs.

Polycom and Microsoft (News - Alert) share a vision for business productivity solutions built on standards-based platforms that work with the tools and applications people know and use today.

Company officials said that the companies' strategic agreement is a major step towards streamlining communications across messaging, video and voice with connected applications and devices.

"Microsoft and Polycom solutions play a critical role within our current and future unified communications strategy," said Martin Smale, IT director at NDS, a News Corp (News - Alert). company, in a statement.

Smale said that the company is already benefiting from improved collaboration, increased productivity, and significant ROI based on the existing UC network, and the company is looking forward to leveraging the expanded offerings from two of the most valued vendors in the UC space.

"Our research shows that nearly 70 percent of the companies considering a unified communications solution are thinking of deploying Microsoft Office Communications Server," said Brent Kelly (News - Alert), senior analyst and partner at Wainhouse Research.

Kelly said that these enterprises need seamless integration and interoperability between Office Communicator on the desktop and personal, group, and telepresence video solutions like those offered by Polycom for executive offices, meeting suites, and conference rooms.

He said that by working together, Microsoft and Polycom are making it easier for organizations to have a true end-to-end unified communications environment, which includes high definition video.

Offering a broad portfolio of integrated solutions spnning voice, video and application integration for Microsoft UC, this agreement makes Polycom a member of Microsoft's key strategic global alliance for the company's UC business.

Company officials said that as part of this long-term strategic agreement, each company is investing in product development, sales, and marketing.

Through resources, investments, and strong field engagement, Polycom and Microsoft will deliver rich, compelling UC solutions, offering customers the flexibility to deploy the features that help them lower their costs, improve productivity and meet their unique business needs.

"Microsoft and Polycom are committed to a roadmap that will deliver interoperable UC solutions with choice and innovation in video conferencing and customer devices that will help transform enterprise communications," said Gurdeep Singh Pall, corporate vice president of Unified Communication at Microsoft.

Pall said that by integrating video, voice, instant messaging and conferencing solutions, Microsoft and Polycom give customers the ability to be present, anytime, anywhere.

"Polycom and Microsoft deliver a winning combination to our customers around the globe by delivering seamless, easy-to-use, high-definition communications at the click of a mouse," said Andrew Miller, president and CEO, Polycom.

Miller said that Polycom is 100 percent committed to delivering best-in-breed, standards-based, fully interoperable UC solutions to market, and Microsoft is integral in helping to achieve this goal and meet the needs of the customers.


Anil Sharma is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Anil’s articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Erin Monda

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