Polycom Expands ANZ Business and Makes New Hires as Demand for HD Video And Telepresence Increases

SYDNEY, Australia - 21 Apr 2010 : Polycom Inc. (NASDAQ: PLCM), the largest independent global provider of telepresence, video and voice communications solutions, has responded to the increasing demand from Australian customers for Polycom’s HD video and telepresence solutions by continuing to expand its headcount and operations in Australia in 2010, by appointing financial specialist, Mr Emile Hurtel, to the position of Major Account Manager for the banking and finance market.

Mr Hurtel's consultancy and financial market experience will help him in his new role to grow the relatively mature financial market for telepresence and video communications in Australia and New Zealand. Mr Hurtel is currently working with Polycom's banking customers on emerging video applications and solutions that will assist them to be more competitive and improve customer service and satisfaction.

Michael Chetner, Polycom's country manager, Australia and New Zealand, said, "We have already seen that there is a continued business imperative for organisations to look for significant productivity and efficiency benefits in the post-GFC environment. This is particularly the case in the finance sector, which is ideally suited to video-based applications like virtual kiosks and remote business banking," Mr Chetner added.

Additionally, Polycom continues to significantly expand its operations in Australia and New Zealand with greater reach in Perth, Victoria, Queensland and New Zealand. It has also recently hired two new Senior Sales Engineers – Irwin Davis (based in Perth) and Mike McLean (based in Sydney). Mr Davis and Mr McLean have both joined Polycom from Nortel to support the growing customer base.

Underpinning the delivery to customers of these innovative solutions is the recently launched Polycom Open Collaboration Network. Polycom's open, platform-agnostic approach to UC&C makes it the partner of choice for the major global vendors, including Microsoft, IBM, HP, Broadsoft, Avaya, Juniper and Siemens.

"POCN has had an immediate impact in Australia, with organisations contacting Polycom about implementing an open standards approach to Unified Communications, and their video and telepresence investments," said Mr Chetner. "By adding to their existing investment in communications infrastructure with Polycom's open standards-based solutions, customers stand to save significant capital costs over a proprietary ‘rip and replace' approach."

"Standards and bandwidth are the two most common questions we get from CIOs about implementing telepresence and HD video communications," Mr Chetner added.

With visual communication set to go mainstream by 2013, Polycom is also working closely with leading service providers to deliver solutions to Australian organisations of all sizes. Telstra recently launched its video telephony service with the Polycom VVX 1500 Business Media Phone (hosted on a Broadsoft platform), and Optus is similarly launching an offering to deliver Polycom visual communications to customers with the flexibility and support of a managed service.

"The next few years will be incredibly exciting in the HD video and voice market as the business use of video becoming ubiquitous in both large and small sized companies. As the National Broadband Network is rolled out, we will also begin to see dramatic changes in the way health and education services are delivered nationally with tele-health and tele-education applications bridging the rural-city digital divide; as well as supporting more small-to-medium business customers," Mr Chetner concluded.