Polycom best positioned to support vertical businesses amidst digital transformation

[Marco Landi (MarcoVLandi)]

I remember visiting Bunessan on the Isle of Mull in Scotland a few years ago. The town was very small and did not have many restaurants or even bank branches in the area. As a holidaymaker visiting a quiet town, I was fully prepared with cash in hand which I made sure I withdrew before travelling out. To my surprise in this remote town a mobile bank showed up every morning without failure so people and holidaymakers could withdraw money or complete other general financial transactions.

Fast forward to today and we see this convenience-at-fingertips flourishing for customers as more and more business processes get digitalised. Adopting video, voice and content collaboration technology is a part of most digital transformation projects. For example, banks have started launching video contact centres which are making lives of their customers a lot easier. The technology is becoming business-critical and it is being used by all types of vertical businesses that touch customers’ lives several times during their lifetimes.

Just like many of you, I enjoy theatre now and then too. Our customer Royal College of Music in London pushed creative boundaries using Polycom to bring together dancers and musicians from Barcelona, Helsinki and Copenhagen in one theatrical performance. This is something extraordinary and an excellent example of vertical business benefits converging with customers’ lives.

Another essential touchpoint for all of us is healthcare. Recently, our technology enabled patients from Lancashire and Cumbria in the UK to self-dialyse in the convenience of their own home in order to remove the hassle of frequently visiting specialist dialysis centres, and free up more time for work and personal affairs.

Extensive usage could be seen across engineering and manufacturing industries too. Buro Happold engineers can review complex designs and conduct structural analysis in real-time using video and content sharing. While SRG Apparel PLC are staying ahead in the fast-paced, highly competitive, fashion industry by swiftly moving from design concept to prototype sampling phase using live models so they can deliver the manufactured goods on time for the season.

Vertical applications of video, together with voice and content collaboration technology, are helping drive the true proliferation of Polycom solutions. This is what keeps us going as we want to help as many customers as possible even if it requires going an extra mile and identifying a new way in which they could benefit from using the collaboration technology. My team is spending more and more time with customers during the exploratory phase to understand what is critical for their business. This knowledge allows them to offer a solution, and not just a product, that suits their business needs.

To make the technology and its usage even easier for the customers, we have developed adjacent new solutions some of which are plug-and-play, and can be used for just voice purposes, or voice and content sharing purposes or for the combination of voice, video and content sharing. A solution like Polycom® RealPresence Trio™ didn’t exist before last year. This solution extends our reach to businesses of different size within each vertical segment. The solution is reasonably priced and could be a good purchase for small businesses or enterprises looking to adopt collaboration technology for the first time or a new huddle room solution for team collaboration. 

The other major innovation of ours is the new era collaboration solution Polycom® RealPresence Centro™ that allows human beings to interact in a natural way to brainstorm, ideate and solve problems. The popularity of our new solution speaks for itself as is evident from the first deployment of this solution for the defence industry customer NATO.

In addition, services wrap can help customers protect their investment further. The global asset management and reinsurance company Scor has done just that with Polycom® RealAccess™, to continue focusing on delivering the top-of-the-class services for its customers and leave the actual servicing of the collaboration platforms to the experts.

We are constantly thinking about making our solutions more innovative and there is no stone that we will left unturned to design and define the best solutions for our customers.