Skype for Business Opens New Experiences for End Users

[Laura Marx Klopfer (Laura_Marx)]

There’s no denying the video landscape is heterogeneous. Polycom has always pursued the vision that collaboration solutions should be as easy as picking up the phone. Decades ago, making a long distance phone call was difficult. If you were a subscriber of one long-distance carrier, there would be a significant charge assessed to you if you desired to speak with someone who subscribed to a different carrier.  Furthermore, you had to rely on a switchboard operator to connect the call for you.  In today’s high-collaboration world, the old phone environment seems difficult to imagine.  That is until you think about how disconnected the video world can be. 

Until recently, the video industry was faced with that very same issue. Users could easily connect via video with other users in their company who were using the same software or hardware.  Or, there was a cumbersome middleware operation that would bridge the gap between devices and platforms.  This meant a stressful and complicated disruption to a user’s workflow. 

When Polycom released RealConnect last year, things changed for users. Lync and non-Lync users could easily and happily collaborate via video and content without breaking from their workflows. Now, the same thing is possible with Skype for Business. Skype’s core goal is to connect anyone and everyone with skype video or voice.  Polycom’s RealPresence Platform now provides RealConnect for Skype for Business, thus expanding the opportunity for users in all shapes and sizes of organizations to experience high-quality and natural video, audio and content collaboration no matter if they’re connecting from a conference room or mobile device.

A heterogeneous marketplace is imperative.  Interoperability and the ability to connect between platforms and devices is the only way to get things done in today’s world.  A “walled-garden” approach is unrealistic for so many reasons – expense, delay, frustration, the list goes on. 

By working with Microsoft, and building solutions that seamlessly connect users via the platforms and experiences their used to, Polycom, in a sense, is opening up the long-distance phone lines from years ago.

These solutions will be on hand as Polycom participates this week at Microsoft’s World Partnership Conference in Orlando.  Please stop by booth #1501 for demonstrations.

What experiences have Polycom and Microsoft brought to your workspace?

Related Resources:

• Read more about our Video Solutions for Microsoft and Voice Solutions for Microsoft
• Blog: Win a Polycom CX5100 at WPC! Visit booth #1501
• Blog: Channeling the Opportunity at Microsoft World Partner Conference 2015
• Press Release: Polycom and Microsoft expand relationship through new series of video collaboration solutions for Skype for Business.