Polycom is one of the most popular, and well-known companies in the Unified Communications industry today. Their focus is on simplifying and enhancing the communications world, with strategies that promote stronger, and more secure voice and video for companies and enterprises of all shapes and sizes.
Today, more than 400,000 institutions across the globe access Polycom products as a way of improving their time to market, boosting productivity, and upgrading customer service. Part of how Polycom ensures that it can continue to deliver the best features and services to their client base, is through a carefully-selected partner ecosystem, packed full of enterprise-grade solutions for almost any environment.
I spoke to Glynn Jones, the man responsible for Polycom channels in EMEA, as well as the "Advanced Technology" group, which includes alliances with third parties like BroadSoft and Microsoft. As a Polycom Veteran with more than 17 years of experience, Glynn had plenty of advice and insights to offer in our conversation about 2017 and the possibilities and challenges that might emerge in the year ahead.
What Has Polycom Learned in 2017?
For almost all companies in the UC sector, the year of 2017 has been one defined by huge amounts of disruption and digital transformation. Not only have we begun to realistically explore options all the way from AI to virtual reality, but many organisations are also starting to make the move more aggressively into cloud-based situations. I asked Glynn what lessons and changes Polycom have been aware of this year.
"Perhaps the biggest change for us this year is that at the end of 2016, we went from being a publicly-listed company to being owned by private equity. What that meant was that we could step back from the standard quarterly hamster wheel that we had been on before, and start thinking about how to strategically grow our business going forward."
"Part of that has been learning that we needed to be a bit less "precious" about owning everything in the UC marketplace, and understanding that we needed to partner more with third-party organisations that we might have seen as competitors in the past."
For Polycom, 2017 has been about embracing collaboration, and consolidation to offer their customers a more complete end-to-end solution. This fits with the trending idea that UC companies today simply can't provide a complete solution without some strategic partnerships. Glynn told me that the company sees their third-party connections as catalysts for delivering a UC solution into a broader market.
"Our long-term relationship with BroadSoft and other companies have been incredibly useful when driving business for the brand. We recently announced a relationship with Zoom in May, and we'll be making sure our video endpoints are properly integrated into their solutions too. In Europe particularly, we've been driving forward with other partnerships, and we recently completed a soft launch of an announcement with BlueJeans too."
How are Polycom Supporting Channels and Customers?
Polycom's decision to embrace strategic partnerships with other companies has helped them to become more competitive throughout 2017. Glynn told me that their development as a brand hasn't just been about embracing interoperability, but integrating new solutions to make their brand an easier choice for customers in search of a combined, convenient solution.
"We've seen a lot of really positive feedback in terms of what we've been doing strategically to make sure that we really own the room experience in the UC world. It's about understanding that if a customer wants a complete experience, we need to connect with other third-parties to make sure that they get everything they need. Our aim is to make sure that we're the end-point of choice in this changing marketplace."
Glynn went on to say that while connectivity is important to any UC brand, Polycom also focuses on creating a user experience that's "second to none". He told me that:
