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Polycom's Alliances Leader Offers Details on its Partnership with Microsoft

By Paula Bernier Executive Editor, TMC

Polycom was at ITEXPO (News - Alert) last month talking about its relationship with Microsoft and its Skype for Business solution. At the event in Anaheim, TMC CEO Rich Tehrani sat down with Laura Marx, senior director of alliances marketing at Polycom, to learn more about what the company is up to and get more details on its collaboration with Microsoft (News - Alert).

Microsoft and Polycom have been partners for more than a decade on predecessors to Skype for Business, so their current work together is an evolution of that long-term relationship, noted Marx. Polycom (News - Alert), she explained, has a whole suite of solutions natively integrated with Skype for Business to streamline communications for business customers.

(As I reported last month, Microsoft at ITEXPO hosted a variety of panels and a pavilion focused on Skype for Business. Skype for Business is the new name for the Microsoft solution previously known as Lync. Microsoft continues to expand on the Skype for Business functionality with new solutions such as Skype Meeting Broadcast and PSTN Conferencing.)

Businesses tend to select endpoints first and UC providers later, as Marx and Tehrani noted, so relationships like the one between Microsoft and Polycom are important to ensure those organizations can make the most of their assets. Marx went on to say that Polycom also can help business customers pull their existing video endpoints and Skype for Business solutions into a cohesive experience.

Going forward, Polycom will offer the first third-party IP phone to support the cloud PBX functionality to be added to Office 365 later this year, Marx said. That interoperability was demonstrated at ITEXPO in Anaheim.

In other recent news involving Polycom, there have been reports that hedge fund Elliott Associates is pushing for the combination of Polycom and Mitel. Polycom would strengthen Mitel’s (News - Alert) position in the endpoint (desktop phones) space and on the video front.

Polycom was recently named a market leader in the Gartner (News - Alert) Video Magic Quadrant. The company’s EagleEye Producer and Polycom Acoustic Fence technologies also garnered 2015 Communications Solutions Product of the Year Awards from TMC in September.

Check out the full interview below: 

Edited by Kyle Piscioniere