The start of Enterprise Connect 2019 has provided the perfect platform for Plantronics and Polycom to unveil their new identity to the world, meet Poly.
Plantronics made the announcement, that it would be acquiring Polycom for around $2 billion, at the end of March 2018, and now a year on the relaunch takes centre stage.
Rebranding after acquisition or merger can often be a complicated process. Deciding on the final name and brand to move forward with is a critical decision which will impact the future development of any business. Many have speculated about what brand would take centre stage in this case.
It appears, however, that Plantronics Polycom have taken this opportunity to completely relaunch a seemingly new business, rather than taking one of the pre-existing brands forward. Joe Burton, President and Chief executive Officer of, the newly formed, Poly agrees.
“Today feels like my first day as CEO of a new company”
There is much more in the formation of Poly than just a new logo and branding. Poly will also have a raft of new focuses around different areas of innovation designed to drive the new company forward into its next stage of development.
Burton believes there is a huge opportunity for Poly to become the ubiquitous brand within meeting and collaboration solutions.
“We see limitless opportunity for how people communicate and collaborate today. With advancements in AI, machine learning and new technologies, we see a future where Poly makes the connection, then quietly steps out of the way to become the one thing you don’t notice in the meeting.”
The specific areas of focus that Poly have announced are detailed below.
- Making workspaces intuitively work for everyone. The modern open office has introduced distraction and noise into the work place, leading to lower productivity and employee satisfaction. Poly offers solutions today to address audible distraction in open spaces as well as technologies that make huddle rooms as powerful as traditional board rooms
- Helping people collaborate, their way. People are now using three or more collaboration solutions in a given day and need endpoints that work with and across those solutions. Poly offers a wide range of solutions to meet this growing need
- Designing solutions that are mobile-first for the modern workforce. Whether it is using a personal smart phone as a “business phone” or navigating through a day where personal and business blend, workers need voice and video capabilities that move with them. Poly’s recently announced Elara 60 recognises this is the new normal and joins Poly’s award-winning mobile headsets to give people high quality tools to be productive from anywhere
- Advancing cloud services that help IT pros and users get more out of their devices. As the macro trend of end user empowerment continues, IT pros are more challenged to know what is being used, and where. Poly is focused on making easy-to-use solutions also easy to manage
A fundamental part of the new brand is its new name, Poly, which is far more than just an abbreviation of one of the previous brands, Polycom. Poly, in ancient Greek, means “many,”. The new brand aims to leverage the traditional audio and video expertise of Plantronics and Polycom as well as the breadth of smart endpoints from the previous portfolios.
Poly’s Amy Barzdukas, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer explains that combining their prestigious history with their ambitious future plans are key to the new brand’s image.
“Our new brand represents the many elements of our history that we bring together to enable people to work the way we all work now, which is anywhere and across multiple collaboration tools”
The new Poly logo also aims to represent the company’s new path forward as well as the history from its previous entities. The lava red colour and angle of letters form a propeller, to reflect Plantronics 60-year aviation lineage, while its three legs are inspired by the design of Polycom’s iconic conference phone.
The original acquisition garnered widespread support throughout the industry from analysts and onlookers alike, with many believing the portfolios synergised well. It will be fascinating to see if the new entity in Poly will be greeted as warmly as it aims to be the solution of choice whenever and wherever people collaborate.
