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CIO forum hosted by IDG Media

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Today I had the pleasure of participating in a global CIO forum hosted by IDG Media (publishers of Computerworld and CIO magazines), entitled LEVERAGING UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS FOR INCREASED PRODUCTIVITY AND ROI. This forum brought together over 80 participants in San Jose, Washington DC, Seattle, Beijing, London, Sydney, Singapore in a real time, world spanning meeting through the use of Polycom’s Immersive Telepresence technology. The meeting brought together panelists who are leaders in shaping the UC industry including:

• Andrew M. Miller, President, Chief Executive Officer & Member of the Board, Polycom, Inc.

• Joseph B. Burton, Senior Vice President, Chief Strategy & Technology Officer, Polycom, Inc.

Gurdeep Singh Pall, Corporate Vice President, Office Lync & Speech Group, Microsoft

• Ali Shadman, VP & Chief Technologist, Global Technology Consulting, Hewlett-Packard Company

First, I have to say that the meeting experience was exceptional. Hats off to the Polycom videoconferencing technology and to the Video Network Operations Center (VNOC). The voice and video clarity was extremely life like. During the discussion sessions, we were able to see all 80 participants on the screen at the same time which helped see peoples’ reactions and participation. During the panelist talks, their rooms were displayed in full life size representation so you could really see the details of the presenter. This all happened fluidly. Additional services like live translation helped to include participants from all over the globe in real time.

Below are some of the key messages that I took away from each of the panelists:

• Gurdeep – Gurdeep began by praising the experience of this meeting and stating that this is the communications wave of the future. He also stressed the desktop as a critical component of meetings like this and the desktop will truly be what expands UC. Furhter, he commented that the value of integrating communication into business processes is latent value that has yet been unlocked. Unlocking that value reduces organizational inefficiency. Organizations need to unlock the power of the technology pieces that they already have deployed – Sharepoint, Active Directory, Exchange, OCS. Finally, from a personal note, he talked about how communications mobility has changed his (and other executives) ability to conduct business. Communications tools following you where you are at any time unlocks huge potential. “[sic] Microsoft is not a software company. It is not a communications company. Microsoft is a productivity company. It just happens that the latest wave of increasing productivity is via real time communication like voice and video.”

• Joe – Joe’s message was quite simple – there are 3 things organizations need to do:

o Create a vision of what you want from your communications strategy

o Take an inventory of what technologies you have already deployed

o Develop a plan to integrate all of this using standards based technology and class leading integrators

• Ali – HP’s customers are looking to HP to help them understand the dynamics of not only their technology, but more importantly their business. They count on HP to help transform both of these to get the maximum return on investment. HP provides a business value assessment service. They evaluate and explain business areas that can be impacted by technology, and help the customer understand the actual value they can achieve. They work with their customers to set the vision, plan and implement solution, and finally drive the value. “[sic] Communications technology is no longer tactical, it is strategic”. Finally, he stressed the need to design serviceability into the solution from the beginning. This allows HP to provide superior class of service.

• Andy – Andy stressed the need for native interoperability to truly enable the technology to provide business benefits. The partnership of Polycom, Microsoft, and HP provides the full solution to customers using best attributes of all 3 customers – the best HD voice and video, the best desktop experience, and the best consulting, implementation and service.

Finally, there was a case study presented by Chris Clark, CIO of Brookfield Multiplex, from Sydney. Brookfield is a global real estate investment, development, and management company with major locations in Canada, US, Australia, Europe and the Middle East. Communications was a key during the recent merger of Brookfield (North America) and Multiplex (Australia, EMEA). OCS was the core of the communications integration across the companies via federation. They have implemented OCS at the desktop as well as integrating Polycom video with OCS. They have multiple video rooms at their sites and most are booked solid. “[sic] UC has strengthened our ability to quote, plan, and deliver a building. If we can deliver a building ahead of schedule, that’s how we make money. UC helps us do that.” The sessions were highly interactive with all CIO’s present getting the opportunity to share their views and experiences with UC and to ask questions from these experts. This format was far better than a standard canned presentation and truly engaged all participants actively. It highlighted the value of high quality, real time voice and video communication for sessions such as this. One of the most interesting things to see was the interaction between the panelists from HP, MSFT, and Polycom.

The messages were quite clear and the discussion points were handed off between the companies seamlessly. You could see that they were on the same page and very comfortable discussing the UC market together. It was evident that there is a genuine relationship between them. Too many times, in partnerships like this, you can clearly see that the executives are not very close and don’t understand the partnership’s value proposition. It was great to see that the relationships between Polycom, HP, and MSFT runs far deeper. Together, we have developed a clear vision for the UC industry. Our customers will truly benefit from our unified approach to the market.

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