Polycom Announces Second Phase of Strategic Alliance with Microsoft For End-To-End Collaboration
PLEASANTON, Calif. – March 8, 2005 –Polycom®, Inc. (NASDAQ: PLCM), the world’s leading provider of unified collaborative communications solutions, today announced phase two of its multi-year joint marketing and development alliance with Microsoft Corp. to deliver business-quality, rich collaboration solutions across communications devices, applications and services.
Expanding on solutions introduced last year that integrated Polycom’s widely-installed MGC™ voice and video bridges, conference and handset phones, and desktop and group video conference systems with Microsoft Office Live Communications Server and the Windows Messenger client, Polycom now adds support for Microsoft’s latest versions of those products as well as Microsoft Office Live Meeting Web conferencing service and Microsoft Office Communicator 2005, Microsoft’s new enterprise integrated communications client for Live Communications Server 2005. The new integrated solutions, which are scheduled to roll out in the next 90 days, will provide end-to-end, high quality voice and video multi-point collaboration for enterprises and service providers from desktop to conference room to the telephony backbone.
For service providers, Polycom is announcing the integration of its industry-leading reservationless ReadiVoice® audio conferencing bridges with Live Meeting, easing the deployment of audio conferencing for service providers and enabling Live Meeting end-users to have full control over the audio conference portion of their Live Meeting sessions. Through the Live Meeting’s enhanced desktop interface, end-users will now be able to click on a participant list and initiate, join, control and monitor the conference audio. Many of the world’s largest service providers who currently use ReadiVoice will now be able to offer that same functionality for their Live Meeting customers.
For enterprises, Polycom currently enables users to instantly initiate high quality, multipoint voice, video and web conferencing calls (in any combination) by clicking on contact lists and connecting to other users, Polycom SoundPoint® and SoundStation® IP handsets and conference phones and ViewStation® EX, FX and VSX™ desktop and group video conferencing systems. This is possible through the integration of Polycom™ conference portal and the MGC video bridge, which enables PSTN, ISDN, H.323 and SIP devices to communicate. Polycom now extends the same communications experience to Communicator users. Communicator integrates desktop telephony and VoIP with instant messaging, presence availability, and conferencing applications. Polycom’s solutions integrated with Communicator now allow real time collaboration to extend from desktop to conference room to the telephony core, both within and between enterprises.
“The continuing integration of Polycom’s market-leading voice and video communications endpoints and bridges with our real-time collaboration platforms gives customers the ability to share and collaborate on issues, information and ideas with virtually anyone, anytime from anywhere on any device,†said Taylor Collyer, senior director, Real-Time Collaboration Group at Microsoft.
“Polycom is committed to bringing customers the ultimate communications experience and unleashing the productivity of dispersed and remote workgroups,†said Phil Keenan, senior vice president and general manager of the Network Systems Division at Polycom. “By working together we are accelerating the deployment of these business critical applications which lead to increased productivity, faster decision making, improved relationships, lower costs — translating to a competitive advantage for enterprises and service providers alike.â€
About Polycom
Polycom, Inc. is the worldwide leader in unified collaborative communications (UCC) that maximize the efficiency and productivity of people and organizations by integrating the broadest array of video, voice, data and Web solutions to deliver the ultimate communications experience. Polycom’s hiqh quality, standards-based conferencing and collaboration solutions are easy to deploy and manage, as well as intuitive to use. Supported by an open architecture, they integrate seamlessly with leading telephony and presence-based networks. With its market driving technologies, best-in-class products, alliance partnerships, and world-class service, Polycom is the smart choice for organizations seeking proven solutions and a competitive advantage in real-time communications and collaboration. For additional information call 1-800-POLYCOM (765-9266) or +1-408-526-9000, or visit the Polycom website at http://www.polycom.com/.
Polycom, the Polycom logo, SoundStation, SoundPoint, ViewStation and ReadiVoice are registered trademarks and VSX, WebOffice and MGC are trademarks of Polycom in the U.S. and various countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
