The news follows a raft of other conference technology-related announcements reported on last week’s II, writes David Davies. The new three-year agreement between telepresence/VC solutions provider Polycom and telecommunications giant the BT Group is intended “to accelerate the growth of unified conferencing solutions within enterprises and public sector organisations around the world”.
As a result of the new global agreement, the companies will combine Polycom’s voice and video communications and telepresence solutions with BT’s managed services and high-speed MPLS network. Jointly developed solutions will focus on the enabling of business-to-business collaboration for multinational companies, large organisations and SMEs.
BT and Polycom have already collaborated on a software development that brings BT’s Bridge Connect services to the scalable Polycom RMX conference infrastructure, thereby enabling BT to deliver VNOC and inter-company B2B services through its Global Video Exchange in support of Polycom’s immersive telepresence solutions.
Polycom RMX has also been selected by BT as part of the company’s initiative to upgrade existing video-bridging infrastructure.
Steve Leyland, VP EMEA at Polycom, told II: “The joint venture between Polycom and BT will kick-start a new era in unified communications. It’s a strategic venture for us that will position Polycom as a market leader. [It will allow] us to not only provide our customers with industry-leading solutions but also provide us with an additional revenue stream.”
