POLYCOM: 3x Groundbreaking Announcements Transforming the Visual & Unified Communications Industry
Polycom Inc. (Nasdaq: PLCM), a global leader in unified communications (UC), today made several significant announcements with its Polycom Open Collaboration Network™ partners that will dramatically change the visual communications and Unified Communications industry.
1. Industry 1st: OVCC (Open Visual Communications Consortium) to drive Video Communication
Polycom announced the revolutionary Open Visual Communications Consortium™ (OVCC™) – the broadest visual communications exchange of its kind, and the breakthrough open video exchange cloud that will enable visual communications beyond corporate firewalls and proprietary video platforms.
14 top service providers (Airtel, AT&T, BCS Global, BT Conferencing, Cable&Wireless Worldwide, Global Crossing, Glowpoint, iFormata Communications, Masergy, Orange Business Services, PCCW Global, Telefonica, Telstra, and Verizon) around the globe have joined forces in OVCC to deliver B2B telepresence and video conferencing communication in the cloud for millions of users across six continents in governments, universities, healthcare institutions – similar to the simplicity of how mobile phones connect today and without networking headaches.
Unlike proprietary exchanges, OVCC members plan to support the full spectrum of video systems from immersive telepresence and room-based systems, high definition and standard definition, followed by desktop clients and mobile devices. As a proof of concept, OVCC members demonstrated the first multi-vendor high-definition (HD) telepresence call that joined 18 standards-based systems across 12 service provider networks on January 28, 2011. Polycom provides the key component of the OVCC’s open video exchange cloud with its Polycom UC Intelligent Core™ infrastructure
2. Polycom Acquires HP’s Visual Collaboration Business
Polycom is acquiring HP’s Visual Collaboration business – including the Halo Products and Managed Services business. The companies also signed a strategic agreement that makes Polycom an exclusive partner to HP for telepresence and certain video UC solutions; and integrate Polycom’s video applications on HP’s WebOS TouchPad product line.
The Polycom-HP alliance extends Polycom’s leadership in video conferencing with HP’s installed customer base of visual collaboration systems and technology.
Under the terms of its agreements with HP, Polycom will provide expertise in software technology and UC infrastructure, covering the full continuum of integrated and secure mobile, desktop, room and telepresence solutions. HP will provide its expertise and leadership in go-to-market strategies for UC solutions and will resell Polycom’s UC solutions including: personal and group UC devices, UC infrastructure, UC managed services, and audio/video software.
3. Polycom and Microsoft Expand Strategic Partnership
Polycom CEO Andy Miller announced the development of two new breakthroughs in enterprise UC where Polycom and Microsoft will expand their joint development and go-to-market activities on multiple fronts.
As a strategic Microsoft UC solution partner, Polycom and Microsoft are already executing on six strategic agreements. Polycom has delivered native integration with Lyncacross Polycom’s UC Intelligent Core infrastructure, telepresence family, and voice endpoints. Polycom previously announced SVC, the underlying technology that enables Polycom and Microsoft to deliver the industry’s most powerful telepresence application to hundreds of millions of Microsoft desktops.
Polycom CEO Andrew Miller says, “Polycom is leading the UC industry to revolutionise the way people communicate via video adoption. With OVCC, our deep partnerships with HP and Microsoft, we believe we have the right strategy in place to enable us to bring the Polycom UC Everywhere vision to life.”
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