Following Microsoft’s announcement earlier this week that it will migrate Skype for Business customers onto the Microsoft Teams chat-based service, Polycom has announced that its HD voice and video technology will support this new collaboration platform.
Widely regarded as a competitor to Slack, Teams integrates with the Microsoft Office 365 subscription suite. In early October 2017, Microsoft is expected provide a timeline for when Skype for Business features will be rolled out to Teams users.
“As we have done for nearly 15 years, Polycom will support Microsoft customers in all stages of their collaboration journey, whether it’s Skype for Business, Office 365, or now Microsoft Teams. Polycom solutions will continue to work as they have, delivering the highest quality voice and video solutions to complete the Microsoft collaboration experience,” said Mary McDowell, Polycom CEO.
Quoting author Douglas Adams, a Polycom blog told enterprise customers, “Don’t panic…
Whatever your timing or migration strategy, whether you are looking at on-premises, cloud-based or hybrid, with both voice and video – Polycom has you covered.”
As we have done for nearly 15 years, Polycom will support Microsoft customers in all stages of their collaboration journey.
Mary McDowell, Polycom CEO
At the same time as the Teams announcement, Polycom unveiled Polycom RealConnect Hybrid, described as the first solution to provide video interoperability between Skype for Business online users in Office 365 and non-Skype for Business standards-based endpoints. it achieves this through Polycom’s video interoperability service within the Microsoft Azure cloud platform. “When customers are ready to migrate to Office 365 and Skype for Business Online, they can simply switch to RealConnect for Office 365 subscription,” said a Polycom statement. RealConnect Hybrid will be available in October.
The company has also stated that Polycom MSR (Microsoft Skype Room) Series (pictured) will be available to order in Q4. Available in four versions to cover huddle rooms up to large meeting spaces, its option include Polycom’s EagleEye camera, VoxBox or Trio 8500 or 8800 speakerphones, CX5100 video technology and RealPresence Medialign.
Bob Davis, CVP, Skype business services & Office product group customer experience at Microsoft, said: “We are pleased to partner with Polycom to integrate their core voice and video devices with the Microsoft Teams platform. Microsoft Teams and solutions like Polycom MSR and Polycom RealPresence Group Series will be a powerful combination for customers that need high quality collaboration experiences.”
