Polycom Delivers Video Integration for Microsoft UC
Polycom Inc. (PLCM) has announced an expansion of its integrated visual communication solutions for Microsoft (MSFT) Office Communications Server 2007 and Microsoft Exchange with capabilities that make it easier for organizations to deploy, manage and use Polycom telepresence, high-definition (HD) video conferencing and desktop video collaboration within Microsoft unified communications (UC) environments.
Polycom offers a highly scalable infrastructure platform for enabling reliable, broad-scale video deployments across organizations; telepresence, HD video conferencing and desktop video collaboration systems that enable people to work more effectively across distances; integrated recoding and streaming for capturing and sharing conferences and video content, allowing teams to use real-time communication to create video assets; and a complete line of VoIP phones designed specifically to leverage the presence-based contact capabilities of Microsoft Office Communications Server to simplify everyday communications.
As part of its expanded offering for Microsoft UC environments, Polycom is introducing a video scheduling solution for Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft Outlook.
Polycom Conferencing for Outlook ties productivity-enhancing and cost-saving visual communication capabilities directly into the normal Microsoft Outlook workflow for users. Users can now simply incorporate telepresence, unified voice/video conferences and desktop video collaboration into meetings and enable invited participants to join with a single click of the mouse or remote control. In addition, users can easily record video meetings and make the recordings available for on-demand playback for people that missed the meeting or as a public record – a requirement for some meetings in health care, government and legal industries. This capability can also be used to cost-effectively create HD video content such as training materials, company announcements, customer support videos, etc., by leveraging the Polycom video endpoints as recording capture stations, allowing customers to speed return on investment while driving consistent communications and information flow deeper into their organizations.
Polycom is also significantly enhancing its integrated solution for Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 with enhanced network scalability and reliability, simplified management and provisioning, advanced security and improved support for remote workers and inter-company collaboration. New developments include extending scalable and reliable video networks; Polycom HDX endpoint provisioning; advanced security through SRTP media encryption; seamless exchange of presence information; and improved support for inter-company collaboration and remote workers.
The enhanced Polycom solution for Microsoft Office Communications Server and the Polycom Conferencing for Outlook solution are planned for availability in the second quarter of 2010.
