Polycom and BT are bulking up their communications offerings to
leverage Microsoft’s plans for its Office Communications Server
technologies.
The two companies made their announcements during the
first two days of Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference in
Washington, D.C.
Polycom introduced additions to its line of CX IP phones that offer native integration with Microsoft Communications Server “14.”
In addition, BT officials unveiled reference architectures designed to
ensure that customers know that Microsoft and Polycom UC technologies
will operate holistically on BT’s networked IT, voice and professional
services offerings.
“Delivering unified communications services and
solutions to large enterprise customers is demanding and complex, and
the key is to give users a set of simple and convenient tools,” Neil
Sutton, vice president of global portfolio for BT Global Services, said
in a statement.
The new Polycom phones, through their native
integration with Communications Server 14, offer businesses a strong UC
experience, according to company officials.
Polycom’s offerings include the CX500 and CX600
network-based phones, as well as the CX300, which officials say is the
only IP conference phone designed for Communications Server 14. The
phones include such features as Polycom HD Voice sound quality and an
ease-of-use design.
At the Microsoft partner show, Polycom showed off
other UC solutions that take advantage of Communications Server 14,
including the CX700 IP phone and CX5000 Unified Conference Station, and
the company’s HDX personal and room-based HD telepresence products.
"Customers are looking for effective ways to
communicate across their global enterprises, and they want
communication to be as flexible, seamless and user-friendly as
possible," Garry Reichert, vice president of strategic partners for
Polycom, said in a statement. "BT and Polycom combine to offer a unique
end-to-end voice and video solution that is standards-based and
natively integrates with Microsoft's UC platform."
Enterprises are looking to reduce complexity,
increase productivity and save money by converging their voice, video
and other communications onto a single standards-based network. They
also are looking for greater integration among the various solutions.
"Large enterprise customers need to approach UC
solutions from a wide vantage point which includes network, endpoint
devices, professional services, security and other important pivots,”
Yancey Smith, Microsoft’s director of product management of
Communications Server, said in a statement.
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