There is nothing like ‘being there’ via high-end telepresence and HD videoconferencing when it comes to meaningful interactions between employees and customers without the costs and lost productivity of travel.

Supply chain solutions leader Manhattan Associates (News - Alert) is proving this out by shortening its sales cycles, cutting costs and strengthening relationships with its more than 1,200 customers via a global video communications network powered by Polycom.

Manhattan Associates links 2,000 employees working from 20 offices in 11 countries. An extensive Polycom (News - Alert) voice and video solutions customer, Manhattan Associates recently upgraded to Polycom HDX room telepresence solutions and Polycom video network infrastructure for multi-point conferencing, centralized management and secure intercompany collaboration.

Manhattan Associates now uses the Polycom RMX 2000 real-time media conferencing platform, which facilitates multipoint bridging and scheduling and the Polycom Converged Management Application (CMA) which simplifies the provisioning and management. Legacy Polycom video systems have been replaced by the Polycom HDX 8000 room telepresence solutions. Meetings with clients have also ramped up following the HD deployment. This has been assisted by Polycom's Video Border Proxy (VBP) firewall traversal solution, which the company deployed both domestically and overseas to enable connections with external parties.

“Now is a particularly good time to invest in updating our video infrastructure since the company is focused on reducing travel and increasing productivity,” said John Drummond, director of Global Communication Systems for Manhattan Associates.

The Polycom HD solutions offered Manhattan Associates significantly higher quality user experiences, says Drummond, than previous systems. The company's 25 Polycom HD video units are located at facilities in the U.S, U.K., France and India. It makes one feel like that they are talking to a television set, he explained. If you move a hand or get up from the table, the motion is fluid.

“It's night and day between HD telepresence and legacy video conferencing,” said Drummond. “I was on a two-hour video call with a colleague in Indiana and he looked like he was sitting in the next room, there was no jitter or latency like you used to see. His voice was clear, his movements were fluid.”

Manhattan Associates’ goal has been to replicate what you see on TV, and now that it has been replicated with Polycom HD video, people want to participate in video calls. Video network usage has increased since deploying the new telepresence units, which are being used most frequently for interviews with remotely located candidates and distance learning within the company. At this point, 70 percent of its employees have either held their own video conferences or participated in a video call. This has resulted in a very active network that logs upwards of 300 calls per month.

“The systems seem to be in use constantly for interviews,” said Drummond. “Those are real time savers, with the HD-quality video; we are able to see facial expressions and body language, which tells a lot about how the candidate is reacting.”

“[HD video] is one of the few tools that are used all the way from the CEO's office to the R&D programmer and the business analyst,” added Ken Rabun, chief information officer. “We’ve got a tool that users are really, really happy with, and that makes my job easier.”

One of these users is Heather Mahan, a sales account executive. She said the Polycom network is speeding up the firm’s design sessions, demonstrations and sales process.

“Not only can we do things faster and more efficiently, but we’re able to develop really strong and deep relationships without even having to be on site,” said Mahan.

More such positive results are on the way. To further enable video collaboration across the organization, the company is piloting and considering a limited roll-out of Polycom CMA Desktop, a scalable, cost-effective video collaboration application for PCs that works seamlessly with the other conference room systems.

“I think Polycom CMA Desktop is going to be very successful for us,” says Drummond. “People like the ability to jump on a call right at their desks. Rather than scheduling a conference room and spending an hour on a call, they can stay at their desks and even multitask during that time.”