MUMBAI, India - May 21, 2012 : Polycom, Inc. (Nasdaq: PLCM) the global leader in open standards-based unified communications (UC), today announced that Essar Group recently selected Polycom® RealPresence® video solutions, including Polycom® RealPresence® Immersive systems and the Polycom® RealPresence® Platform, as the hub of the company's enterprise video collaboration network. Now, executives and employees across seven of the company's major offices around the globe can connect and collaborate with each other "face-to-face" via secure, high-definition Polycom video. Essar is looking at increased productivity, including faster decision making and reduced travel and downtime costs, and ensured business continuity, to result in a rapid return-on-investment (ROI).

 

With so many dispersed teams, Essar values communication highly and looked to Polycom to transform how teams collaborate, creating a new collaboration culture in which high-definition video is considered an essential tool across the company. Essar is deploying Polycom in its head office in Mahalaximi; three offices in Mumbai; Hariza Gujarat; Vadinar Gujarat; London, UK; and New York City, USA; with plans to expand the solution across all of its offices.

 

The company selected the Polycom® RealPresence® Immersive (RPX™ 400) Series, a fully immersive video experience with an all-inclusive meeting space that brings HD video, audio, and content-sharing to a cinematic video wall. The meeting experience is so lifelike that users can completely forget about the technology and focus solely on the people for a natural and dynamic meeting experience.

 

Essar's implementation will also include the Polycom RealPresence Platform, selected due to its robust provisioning, management, scalability, reliability, and security. Because of Polycom's focus on interoperability, the RealPresence Platform transforms islands of employees and fragmented communications systems into a seamless video enterprise, which makes enterprise-grade video easily and securely accessible to all authorized personnel whether they're mobile, remote, or on-site.

 

In addition, due to Polycom's many patented innovations (Polycom holds more than 800 patents) and use of the H.264 High-Profile open standard, Polycom RealPresence video solutions use as much as 50 percent less bandwidth than competing solutions, helping to lower total cost of ownership and accelerate ROI.

 

"Polycom's solutions are best-in-class, offering the most comprehensive unified communications infrastructure," said Mr. Jayantha Prabhu, Group CTO, Essar Group. "In the current competitive landscape, businesses such as ours are pressured to find the most efficient and effective ways to increase productivity and accelerate operations at a faster pace. Video collaboration is mission-critical to Essar Group, and we have chosen Polycom for its expertise and leadership in delivering innovative, secure, reliable and easy-to-use video collaboration solutions that satisfied all of our business objectives."

 

"Polycom is focused on making it possible for everyone to use video as their preferred way to collaborate, from the boardroom to the desktop and on mobile devices," said Mr. Neeraj Gill, Managing Director, India & SAARC, Polycom. "We are pleased that Polycom will help Essar to achieve increased productivity and more effective collaboration and engagement across their global operations."

 

Polycom partnered with Systems Integrator AGC Networks Limited to enable the complete end-to-end video collaboration solution to meet Essar's requirements. "We are pleased to be working together with Polycom to deliver and integrate the video collaboration solution across Essar's global offices, and enable them to streamline operations and reduce travel expenditures," said Mr. S. K. Jha, MD & CEO, AGC Networks Limited.

 

Essar is also exploring ways to drive further competitive advantage with Polycom video collaboration solutions, including connecting Polycom video solutions and Microsoft® Lync™ environments for a seamless experience across all communication elements from IM, to presence, call control, web conferencing, video, and voice collaboration.

 

The company is also looking to incorporate mobility solutions into their communications environment, with Polycom® RealPresence® Mobile. RealPresence Mobile delivers enterprise-grade video on tablets and smartphones, extending the reach of video collaboration beyond the office and allowing mobile employees to participate in group or one-on-one video meetings on the device of their choice.