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Polycom RealPresence Ready & New Cloud Offerings Powered by Polycom UC Software Make Business-Grade Video More Flexible &Affordable Than Ever for SMBs

Posted on Monday, July 18, 2011

PLEASANTON, Calif. - Jul 18, 2011 : Polycom, Inc. (Nasdaq: PLCM), a global leader in unified communications (UC), today announced new video offerings designed for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) that make it easier than ever to purchase, install, and operate high-quality, business-grade video collaboration solutions from Polycom. Today, Polycom introduced Polycom® RealPresence™ Ready, its new comprehensive open video collaboration solution optimized for SMBs that delivers the highest quality video collaboration at the lowest total cost of ownership (TCO). Polycom is also introducing with its partners new cloud-based offerings powered by the Polycom® UC Intelligent Core™ software platform to deliver affordable and secure video solutions on demand. Tailored for the tighter budgets and leaner staffs of emerging companies, these cost-effective solutions are integral to Polycom's strategy to offer SMBs a fast on-ramp to the benefits of video collaboration and a flexible expansion path in line with their business growth.

"Polycom has built a strong business in the SMB market over many years with tens of thousands of customers across many industries that choose Polycom for our commitment to interoperability, highest quality and lowest TCO," said Susan Hayden, executive vice president, Polycom. "As the demand for affordable and easy-to-use video solutions continues to grow, we're doubling down on our SMB initiatives and accelerating the pace at which we'll bring innovative software solutions to market—delivered on premises or from the cloud to any end point: room systems, desktops and mobile, while ensuring the best video experience at the most compelling price point. When customers choose Polycom open solutions, they can be assured that all their communications systems will work together seamlessly today and as their businesses grow."

Polycom Video Solutions: The Best Choice for SMBs

Polycom RealPresence Ready is a comprehensive video solution for SMBs that delivers business-grade performance in terms of quality, reliability, security, and scalability at an affordable price and with the ease-of-use that growing businesses need. Demonstrating Polycom's commitment to assuring interoperability with open standards-based solutions, RealPresence Ready is fully backward and forward compatible with any communications system customers have today or may purchase in the future.

Comprehensive and easy to use. Makes it easy to purchase, deploy and manage business-grade video with a complete system that includes two Polycom HDX® 6000 room systems, one Polycom HDX® 7000 system, and five Polycom Telepresence m100 software licenses.
Business-grade quality, security, reliablity. Delivers high-quality, reliable and secure conversations with Polycom UltimateHD™ technology and patented innovations that ensure great experiences even in congested networking environments. Polycom video is the highest quality available with the lowest consumption of network resources – using H.264 coding and compression technology that delivers life-like video experiences while consuming up to 50 percent less network bandwidth than alternative products.
Cost-effective for the lowest TCO. Combining a competitive entry-level price with the lowest total cost of ownership, Polycom RealPresence Ready can be financed for less than the cost of one business trip per month. Polycom solutions are modular so that SMB customers can add innovative components such as Polycom® Eagle Eye Director, Polycom telepresence m500 for tablets, and Polycom VVX® 1500 business video phone down the road – bringing the full Polycom video experience to SMBs as they expand. To assure interoperability with other systems and products that SMBs may have in place, Polycom systems are based on open standards and provide native integration with industry-leading partners and products, including Microsoft Lync. With Polycom, SMBs can interoperate with the broadest range of video collaboration systems, and be assured of a cost-effective growth path.

"There's something about seeing the person you're working with that a voice alone can't provide," said Gene Crosby, chief operating officer at Jackson Spalding, an Atlanta, Georgia-based firm of 80 creative professionals who develop advertising, media, and public relations campaigns. "We need to be able to communicate face-to-face, internally and with our clients, even if we aren't in the same place. When looking for affordable, high-quality and secure video conferencing capabilities, we needed to weigh the investment carefully. Choosing Polycom telepresence solutions was easily the smartest purchase we made last year, and we've seen amazing results. Polycom improves our productivity and the work we do, and our employees and clients feel much more engaged."

Polycom's Go-To-Market Ecosystem Expanding to Meet Growing Demand from SMBs

Polycom's SMB customer base is growing from virtually every corner of the SMB market, across a wide variety of industries including financial services, manufacturing, professional services, education, retail, non-profit, and media and entertainment. Polycom continues to aggressively build out its successful telesales program to reach more SMB customers and to simplify the purchasing and deployment of video communications systems through VARs and service providers. Polycom's partner ecosystem and open collaboration network include thousands of partners and resellers with deep expertise in meeting the unique needs of SMBs around the world, offering flexibility and choice in products and services that customers can be assured will interoperate.

Polycom also works with companies such as Regus to enable travelers and businesses of all sizes to reserve Polycom-equipped video conferencing rooms. This service is especially helpful for SMBs with mobile employees or offices that do not have dedicated video conferencing space and limited IT resources, providing yet another affordable deployment option for SMBs.

Cloud Solutions from the Polycom Ecosystem

Launching this week, a new cloud-based "Virtual Room" service from 8x8, Inc., enabled by the Polycom UC Intelligent Core software platform, will include Polycom HDX video solutions and Polycom VVX business media phones. 8x8's "Virtual Room" service allows users to join meetings via video and audio devices as well as web telephony and smart mobile phone clients.

Another new offering from Polycom's ecosystem is BroadSoft's BroadCloud™ Video service, a cloud-based, hosted infrastructure that integrates with existing service provider offerings and Polycom UC solutions to create more video conferencing service-option packages for SMBs to choose from. Additional Polycom service provider partners plan to announce cloud-based video solutions in the coming months.

Polycom, in concert with the Open Visual Collaboration Network, is also working with many partners and service providers to offer cloud-based video conferencing services to companies of all sizes with a common vision to make video collaboration between people and devices as simple and reliable as making a phone call – regardless of network, provider, end-point or technology.

Availability

Polycom RealPresence Ready is available today in North America with prices starting at US$17,999 and service options starting at $2,385. For more information, call 1-800 POLYCOM (765-9266).