Siemens Enterprise Communications, Polycom Form UC Partnership

Siemens Enterprise Communications Group, a leading provider of unified communications solutions, and Polycom, Inc., a provider of telepresence, video and voice communications services today announced a partnership and reseller deal under which customers can achieve cost savings and high productivity with Polycom’s (News - Alert) telepresence and video conferencing solutions through an integration with the OpenSpace UC environment.

 

The partnership gives businesses that adopt the UC environment the ability to deploy video solutions from Polycom, as well as boost their collaboration and customer responsiveness while they reduce conferencing costs and employee travel, company officials said.

 

'Video communication is becoming a key component of UC, and helps to dramatically improve the productivity of our customers,' Mark Stone, chairman and CEO, the SEN Group, said in a statement. 'Working with Polycom enables us to deliver on our Open Communications commitment and enhance our leading OpenScape UC platform with a full range of UC-enabled video solutions.'

 

SEN Group helps customers enhance their productivity and reduce costs by easing the adoption of video solutions. The technology helps firms collaborate more effectively as part of an overall integrated UC platform.

 

Under the global resale deal, SEN Group will offer Polycom's portfolio of visual communication solutions, including personal, room and immersive telepresence services, video conferencing systems, and desktop video collaboration applications, company officials said.

 

Polycom RMX series conference bridges and HDX video endpoints easily integrate with the OpenScape Unified Communications (News - Alert) Server, a UC platform that takes uses industry standards such as SIP and Service Oriented Architecture. By tapping a data center approach, OpenScape voice and UC services can be over-laid in existing IT or telephony environments, eliminating traditional barriers between communications systems and offering scalability and flexibility when integrating with other enterprise-class solutions and devices, according to Polycom. This lets organizations extend UC features via Polycom conference bridges and video endpoints.

 

The deal also calls for SEN Group to offer customers Polycom visual communication solutions supported by its OpenScale Services, a portfolio of professional and managed services and solutions.

While many IT departments may lack the skill set or resources needed to take on the integration of best-of-breed UC technologies, OpenScale Services help organizations quickly integrate multi-vendor systems, delivering a UC environment. SEN Group also offers around the support network and device monitoring from its global Video Network Operations Center. And in working with Polycom, the company can expand the managed services offering with around the clock maintenance and technical support, the company said..

 

Robert Hagerty (News - Alert), Polycom’s chairman and CEO said organizations are increasingly adopting Polycom visual communication to become more efficient and increase the productivity of employees that are geographically dispersed.

 

 'Teaming with SEN Group, we are able to deliver these powerful collaboration capabilities within the core communication tools that people use every day, and, as an integrated component of the OpenScape UC solution, give customers a scalable platform that is easy to manage and use,” Hagerty said. “This supports Polycom's Open Collaboration Network strategy and gives customers greater flexibility and investment protection for their UC environment.'