Polycom Strengthens UC Collaboration with Avaya While Enhancing Go-to-Market Strategy

When UC stalwart Polycom (News - Alert) kicked off 2010 with the announcement of a grand, new collaborative strategy -- called Polycom Open Collaboration Network - the idea was to strengthen its relationship with UC players like Microsoft, HP, Juniper, Siemens, Broadsoft, IBM and Avaya (News - Alert) for the purpose of interoperability. 

 

Five months later, Polycom, whose technology is at the core of the UC collaboration technology market, with high-definition voice and high-definition video and telepresence solutions, continues to strengthen its relationship with one of its key POCN partners, Avaya.

 

The decision reinforces current strategy behind the Polycom Open Collaboration Network or "POCN" and will well position Polycom for continued growth and expansion in the UC space.

 

Maurizio Caupuzzo, VP of global channel marketing for Polycom, discussed the significance of the news to TMCnet.

"With Polycom's open collaboration network, the crux of the strategy is that we are partnering with leading unified communication players to create an open, platform-agnostic approach," said Caupuzzo. "The premise of this strategy is to work with the key players and leaders in that space to deliver the best-in-class experience to customers, while protecting key network investments. It really is to deliver a full, manageable, scalable solution to customers."

 

In the past, for Polycom video solutions, Polycom worked with Avaya to resell into the Avaya install base. With a stronger tie to with Avaya, "we are taking the next step in its go-to-market strategy," Caupuzzo said.

 

Under terms of the new agreement, Avaya will continue to sell Polycom immersive telepresence, infrastructure associated with ITP and Polycom OEM Avaya-branded voice solutions while supporting Polycom solutions from a services perspective.

 

Furthermore, its relationship with Avaya through the Polycom Open Collaboration Network ensures not only ongoing participation in Avaya's DevConnect (News - Alert) Program but moreover joint research and development. Thus, the company will engage directly with our joint business partners and recruiting new ones where it makes sense.

 

"Interoperability to H.323 world is very important to realize true ROI in any existing environment  and Polycom will offer this possibility through RMX/CMA to Aura Session Manager integration," a Polycom spokeswoman told TMCnet. "Polycom infrastructure will be typically always in the solution sold."

 

The end result is that Avaya/Business Partner/Customer can now rely on Polycom infrastructure for true multi-point, and continuous presence regardless of the endpoint manufacturer, and will have the opportunity to improve their margins by having access to a full range of Unified Communications (News - Alert) solutions (Including ITP if they invest) and infrastructure -- RMX, CMA, DMA, VBP, RSS and offer integrated services (design, configuration, implementation, management). 

 

The breadth of the Polycom Solution portfolio in Unified Communications provides revenue opportunities at increased margins that they could not address otherwise.