HB Communications Offers New Unified Communications Solution with Polycom and IBM

Nov. 11, 2010 - PRLog -- North Haven, Connecticut – HB Communications, Inc., as a certified Polycom channel partner, is one of the first in the country offering the Polycom Unified Collaboration Solution for IBM Lotus Sametime. With the market for enterprise UC solutions growing rapidly, HB is pleased to support Polycom’s open and interoperable collaboration solution that gives customers greater flexibility and investment protection for their UC environment.

“Customers evaluating voice and video collaboration tools increasingly require that those tools integrate with their existing unified communications environments,” said Ted Thompson, Vice President of Technology at HB Communications, Inc. “Polycom and IBM have delivered a great solution that puts those tools within the familiar Lotus Sametime applications and interface. Polycom systems are all standards-based and their UC Intelligent Core platform can scale as use grows and as applications evolve. This provides a great migration path for customers as they move toward truly unified communications and collaboration. We are pleased to be among the first partners to offer this solution to customers.”

The availability of the Polycom Unified Collaboration Solution for IBM Lotus Sametime means that users are able to easily connect and collaborate resulting in improved productivity, accelerated decision making and lower costs by reducing the need to travel. The end-to-end solution combines IBM’s feature-rich Lotus Sametime platform with the Polycom UC Intelligent Core visual communication platform and Polycom personal and room telepresence solutions. Polycom, along with HB Communications will offer supporting services to help customers plan for, deploy and manage the integrated offering.

In a recent Polycom press release about the new solution, Joe Burton, Polycom chief strategy and technology officer stated, “Unified communications and collaboration is about making it easy for people to find, connect and collaborate with others. Polycom’s integration with the IBM UC2 environment puts our powerful, productivity enhancing video collaboration tools just one-click away within the Lotus applications that millions of people use every day. This extends the value of customers’ UC investments and drives greater ROI.”

Polycom Unified Collaboration Solution for IBM Lotus Sametime supports Lotus Sametime Release 8.5.1, and provides seamless call routing between the Lotus applications and Polycom room and personal telepresence systems and desktop and conference room video conferencing systems for video calls and unified (voice and video) conferences. To extend collaboration opportunities and help customers drive a fast return on investment (ROI), the solution is interoperable with the broad ecosystem of nearly two-million standards-based telepresence and video conferencing systems in use today.

The Polycom Unified Collaboration Solution for IBM Lotus Sametime provides a comprehensive solution that is easy to deploy and manage. Polycom’s integration with the Lotus Sametime server does not change the user interface, which results in minimal user training requirements. The Polycom Converged Management Application (CMA) allows IT administrators to centrally provision and manage Polycom video networks and systems within their UC network.

The Polycom Unified Collaboration Solution for IBM Lotus Sametime allows users to “Click-to-Call” and “Click-to-Conference” telepresence, video, voice and unified (combined voice and video) conferencing from presence-enabled contacts within IBM Lotus Sametime. In addition, Lotus Sametime Web conferencing users can launch Instant Meetings with voice and video conferences, or include a voice or video conference as part of scheduled web conference.

For additional information on this solution offering, please visit www.hbcommunications.com.

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HB has 60+ years of experience providing innovative AV solutions in the Northeast and beyond. HB’s expertise includes systems integration, videoconferencing, distance learning, broadcast video, IP visual communications, digital signage and more.