Visual Communications Expose at Gallagher Estate

Polycom, Inc. (Nasdaq: PLCM), the global leader in telepresence, video and voice communications solutions, in conjunction with their official local distributor, Kathea, will be hosting a Visual Communications Expose which brings together a host of partners and vendors who provide solutions that complement and enhance the communications experience.

“The purpose of the Visual Communications Expose is to allow Kathea and its vendors an opportunity to showcase their technology to the company’s partner base, as well as key end-users, in a bid to drive solution awareness and proactively build a pipeline for the South African market,” says Venessa Dewing, Kathea’s Polycom Business Unit Manager. “We are very excited to host such an event and believe that by working alongside industry greats, we are certainly able to continue to deliver world-class communication solutions to the market.”

The Expose will commence with Wainhouse Research Senior Partner, Andrew Davis as the key note speaker focusing on today’s video-conferencing market, industry drivers and the future of the market. As the principal editor of The Wainhouse Research Bulletin, Davis has more than 15 years experience as a successful technology consultant and industry analyst and has authored numerous articles and market research reports. Davis specialises in video-conferencing, rich media communications, strategy consulting and new business development. Says Davis; “I am certainly excited to be apart of this Expose as not only is this my first trip to South Africa, but given the dynamics of the market, this is a promising time for Africa as more broadband becomes available and the use of such technologies is set to intensify.”

With industry titans such Microsoft, Wainhouse Research and Frost & Sullivan joining Polycom and some of the country’s leading innovators and commentators in the Open Collaboration space, a panel discussion will be held on the day to debate the appeal and challenges for organisations examining Open Collaboration – a key topic for CIOs locally.

Says Dan Engel, regional sales manager for Polycom; “The Unified Communication (UC) market is in consolidation mode and video and voice collaboration has been elevated as a critical component for a strong UC solution. Polycom is now the largest independent provider of scale for voice, video and immersive telepresence systems and this independent and platform-agnostic position presents us with an opportunity to deepen and expand our partnerships with key UC providers to provide solutions that are higher quality, more flexible, more deeply integrated and deliver a better return on investment than any single-vendor solution.”

“The video and voice industry is built on interoperability among systems from various vendors;” continues Dewing. “For many years, customers have enjoyed the ability to mix and match elements from various vendors and customers therefore naturally expect interoperability with other systems in their Unified Communications network, especially multi-screen/multi-codec telepresence systems, to further enable business to business communication. This event is aimed at not only showcasing the latest technologies and solutions from our partners, but to provide our customers with an overview of and interoperable collaboration solutions that enable full UC integration, while protecting their existing IT investments.”

Concludes Engel; “Polycom is closely aligned with the leading UC technology platform partners through the Polycom Open Collaboration Network to deliver tightly integrated unified collaboration solutions that give users easy access to powerful, productivity-enhancing tools while protecting customers’ UC environment investments through established standards and open interoperability. We believe Polycom’s experience and commitment to the UC industry will certainly offer us the opportunity to continue to build on our strong relationship with experts and develop our strategy further to continue to deliver future business and software benefits to South Africa.”

The Visual Communication Expose will take place on 26 May 2010 and will be hosted at Gallagher Estate, Midrand.