14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft and Polycom have inked a strategic alliance designed to usher in a new range of integrated end-to-end unified communications (UC) for businesses.
The new agreements spans across several years and encompasses products tailored to enterprise, small-to-medium business, and government markets.
According to the two companies, the upcoming Unified Communications solutions will include not only software, but also hardware, networking and services.
The promise from the duo is that the adoption of the new UC solutions will help them cut down costs related to telecom and IT operations, but also travel expenditures.
In the video embedded at the bottom of this article, Gurdeep Singh Pall, corporate vice president of Unified Communication at Microsoft and Andrew Miller, Polycom president and CEO deliver highlights of the new agreement.
"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," Pall said.
"By integrating video, voice, instant messaging and conferencing solutions, Microsoft and Polycom give customers the ability to be present, anytime, anywhere," Pall added.
The new US solutions from Polycom will have Microsoft Communications Server “14” (as well as its successors) at the core.
"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," Miller explained.
"Polycom is 100 percent committed to delivering best-in-breed, standards-based, fully interoperable UC solutions to market, and Microsoft is integral in helping us achieve this goal and meet the needs of our customers," Miller noted.
Microsoft and Polycom also enumerated the new broad base solutions planned for customers:
“- New and next-generation Polycom CX series endpoints optimised for Microsoft UC, featuring Polycom’s market-leading HD video and voice technologies.
- New, innovative room-based video systems designed specifically for enabling direct integration with Microsoft Communications Server “14.”
- Additional interoperable solutions between Polycom’s existing and future video conferencing solutions.”