Choosing the right cloud communications strategy for your business can be a complicated process. After all, there are so many different vendors to choose from, and countless factors to think about too. You need to find a system that’s going to give you the high-quality VoIP you need, along with excellent support, and a range of helpful collaboration solutions.
Two of the top contenders in the SIP Endpoint marketplace today are Yealink and Polycom, a pair of brands that have earned a fantastic reputation for their top-of-the-line SIP endpoints and conference phone solutions So, how do you choose between the two?
Polycom Vs Yealink: Introducing Both Brands
In 2018 Plantronics announced the acquisition of Polycom.
Polycom currently works with around 400,000 companies worldwide, helping them to access secure and engaging video, content, and voice solutions to enhance internal productivity and go-to-market. Polycom’s global partner ecosystem delivers a broad range of flexible collaboration solutions designed to suit almost any organisation, and they’ve been innovating ever since they first launched in 1990.Polycom’s video and audio endpoints are easy to use with intuitive interfaces and powerful resources for customer experience and business productivity. Smart-pairing technology allows users to control meetings with the swipe of a finger, and there’s the option to tap into speed dial and calendared meetings with a single click.
Yealink is another global leader in the world of unified communications, best-known for their voice and video communication solutions. Founded a little later than Polycom in 2001, Yealink has transformed the market with their focus on high-productivity and easy collaboration. Currently, Yealink serves customers in more than 100 countries, and they’re number one in the Chinese market.
Yealink offers a comprehensive range of end-to-end conferencing solutions including IP phone and video endpoints. These IP phone deliver exception audio and video quality, as well as highly-customisable systems for every user. Yealink users can also access UC soft terminals on their smartphones to support the rising trend for remote working.
Polycom Vs Yealink: Collaboration Systems
As the meeting room environment continues to evolve with more immersive technology, remote workers, and even the rise of huddle room spaces, it’s important for today’s companies to make sure that they have the best systems in place for clarity during conferences.
The Yealink Meeting Server
The Yealink Meeting Server is one of the most popular Yealink meeting room solutions. This distributed cloud-based conferencing system is tailor-made for HD video conferencing and workplace collaboration. As a powerful all-in-one service, the YMS brings technology like SIP Trunking, WebRTC servers, and directory servers together to offer users a low-cost solution for an enjoyable meeting room experience. The system works seamlessly with room systems, mobile phones, video phones, and personal computers too.
Polycom RealPresence
As meeting rooms continue to grow and expand around the globe, RealPresence is Polycom’s approach to the meeting room server, designed to keep everyone in a team engaged and productive. Connecting staff through RealPresence ensures that everyone can share ideas regardless of the device or technology they might be using. The system supports cloud, on-premise, and managed cloud deployment, and works with any device, anywhere. It’s ideal for huddle spaces, conference rooms, and immersive telepresence solutions, and comes with Skype for Business integration.
Polycom Vs Yealink: Conference Phones
Sometimes, an entire meeting room system isn’t necessary to bring the members of your team together, but that doesn’t mean that you don’t need a clear and reliable solution to help you connect with everyone from remote workers, to shareholders. Both Polycom and Yealink offer a range of conference phones for quick and simple communication.
Yealink CP960 Conference Phones
Just one of a line of exceptional conference phone devices by Yealink, the CP960 conference device is an enterprise-grade solution for mid-to-large conference rooms, with audio elements crafted with Harman. Yealink’s conferencing facilities are all about setting new standards for voice quality in the ever-evolving conference room environment. With these devices, end-users can rest assured that every participant will enjoy clear and balanced sound quality, with Noise Proof technology.
- 5-inch multi-touch screen
- 5-way conferencing
- 3 microphone arrays built-in
- Noise-proof technology
- Yealink Pentagon meeting room
The Polycom Trio Family
One of the latest and greatest releases from Polycom into the conferencing endpoint market, the Polycom Trio portfolio offers some of the most advanced HD voice performance in the market, combined with enterprise-grade video and content sharing facilities. The Trio is intended to help companies move beyond standard audio conferencing with quick and simple connectivity to a video system that’s set up to capture the whole meeting room or huddle room space. The Trio has the broadest interoperability features of any conference phone. Features include:
- 360-degree microphone coverage
- Certified with Microsoft Skype for Business and Office 365 Cloud
- Local five-way HD Videoconferencing
- Secure connectivity
- Content sharing interoperability
Polycom Vs Yealink: Video Conferencing
As remote workers and dispersed teams around the world look for more immersive ways to communicate and collaborate, the video market is progressively growing larger. Both Yealink and Polycom have their very own video services to offer in a wide portfolio of endpoints, each designed to meet specific end-user needs.
The Yealink VC800 Video Conferencing System
To help companies reduce long-distance communication costs and satisfy the need for multi-endpoint conference spaces, Yealink has created the VC800 room system. Designed with first-class video and audio technology, the system delivers more efficient and effective collaboration experiences. The VC800 comes with an intuitive user interface that makes it easier to control meetings, and it takes advantage of the Yealink Meeting Server for seamless meeting scheduling and one-touch access too. The VC800 supports HD video and can be divided into 2 virtual meeting rooms, perfect for the diverse needs of the modern workplace. Features include:
- 24-site multipoint with ability to split into 2 virtual rooms
- 1080p HD Video
- 2 DECT wireless microphones
- Super video packet loss recovery technology
Polycom RealPresence
“RealPresence” is the system from Polycom that’s designed to create an immersive environment where every detail helps to establish a more powerful collaboration experience. The “Immersive Studio” comes with 4K Ultra HD video for next-generation images, as well as high-quality audio to ensure that important conversations are heard loud and clear. There’s the opportunity to share content easily and flexibly with Polycom Visual Board technology, and even add in the optional RealPresence Content Sharing Suite for flexibility during multi-point conferences. Featuring:
- Acoustic fence technology to avoid distraction
- Backlight compensation to improve video quality
- Industry-leading audio codecs
- Easy provisioning and authorisation of up to 50,000 individual users
Should You Choose Yealink or Polycom?
Ultimately, the decision of whether you’d be better served by Polycom or Yealink endpoints and systems will be one that you’ll need to make based on the needs of your team and the goals of your business. Yealink offers one-stop communication solutions for the unified communication markets, with excellent compatibility and interoperability. Polycom offers exceptionally user-friendly communication solutions that are easy to adopt and integrate for a diverse range of companies.
Both Yealink and Polycom have systems compatible with the Microsoft Office 365 framework, which is perfect for those who want to continue using Skype for Business or migrate to Microsoft Teams.
If you’re buying endpoints for a BroadSoft based platform then Polycom and Yealink equally are very popular choices and provide guaranteed interoperability.
