PLEASANTON, CA--(Marketwire - Dec 5, 2011) - [ Polycom, Inc ]. (NASDAQ: [ PLCM ]), the global leader in standards-based unified communications (UC), today announced that it has expanded interoperability with Microsoft^® Lync^™ to additional Polycom SIP-based wired and wireless voice products. Polycom also announced the availability to order the [ Polycom® CX7000 ], the first room video collaboration solution custom-built for full integration with Microsoft^® Lync^™, the UC platform that unites voice communications, IM, and audio, video, and Web conferencing. The Polycom CX7000 is the first video collaboration solution to be qualified by Microsoft as "optimized for Microsoft^® Lync^™." In addition, Polycom is testing [ Polycom® RealPresence™ Immersive ] room systems for Microsoft^® Lync^™ interoperability. The announcements made today offer customers a broad set of choices -- more than 40 systems -- to enhance their Microsoft^® Lync^™ environments to make collaborating by video, voice, or content-sharing easier, from the board room to the desktop or on-the-go. On Tuesday, December 6, Polycom will co-host a [ webinar ] with Microsoft to discuss collaboration trends in the enterprise and show how Sprint has made their business more productive and effective with UC solutions from Polycom and Microsoft working together.

"We are excited to expand our strategic relationship with Microsoft by extending our broad solution portfolio with interoperability for Microsoft^® Lync^®. Polycom's strategic relationship with Microsoft enables customers across the globe to multiply the return on solution investments they have in place today and will need in the future," said Sue Hayden, executive vice president, Strategic Alliances, Polycom. "By directly interoperating with Microsoft^® Lync^™ across a comprehensive range of HD video and voice solutions, Polycom delivers a true UC experience that enables users to be much more productive and collaborative."

Connecting Microsoft and Polycom solutions for IM/presence, web conferencing, video, voice, content-sharing, and other UC applications into an interoperable environment enables users to quickly find each other, launch video and voice calls easily and intuitively within Microsoft^® Lync^™, and share content via Microsoft^® Lync^™ to Polycom HD video systems.

Polycom CX7000
The [ Polycom® CX7000 ] unified group video collaboration system -- the latest addition to the company's groundbreaking Polycom CX line -- takes the Microsoft^® Lync^™ experience customers are familiar with on their PCs and recreates it in the conference room to provide a higher level of business collaboration and productivity with enhanced simplicity for end users. The solution offers all of the Microsoft^® Lync^™ features customers want (presence, IM, online meetings, content collaboration) coupled with Polycom's industry-leading room video collaboration solutions in a single plug-and-play system. With especially tight integration between the Polycom and Microsoft solutions, customers get an intuitive interface, a simplified UC experience, and a seamless HD video experience. Users are able to click on a calendar event to instantaneously join meetings and, with simple conference leader controls, users can easily see presence and drag-and-drop participants into the call for more productive and efficient meetings.

"The Polycom CX7000 delivers a competitive advantage for us, helping to drive company-wide gains in productivity, efficiency, and innovation," said JJ Brantingham, partner and CIO at Sebesta Blomberg & Associates, a national leader in providing full-service consulting and engineering services, and a Polycom CX7000 beta customer. "The Polycom CX7000 solution simplifies the UC experience and offers seamless HD video. The group document collaboration feature allows multiple people on the team to make edits to a single, shared document while on video, regardless of which office they are in, ensuring we are all literally on the same page."

Polycom's extended interoperability with Microsoft^®Lync^™spans four key areas¹:

• Standards-based Polycom wireless telephones.[ Polycom® KIRK® Wireless DECT ] and [ Polycom® SpectraLink® Wi-Fi ] solutions are the first wireless phones to display and share call and directory information via Microsoft^® Lync^™. Polycom SpectraLink WiFi also features presence and instant message information. Offering the first on-premises wireless solution for Microsoft^® Lync^™ in healthcare, retail, manufacturing, and hospitality, Polycom wireless phones are mission critical to improve productivity and speed up workflows, from the emergency room to the factory floor.
• Standards-based Polycom desktop and conference phones. Select [ Polycom® SoundPoint® IP ] desktop, [ Polycom® SoundStation® IP ] conference, and [ Polycom® VVX® ] business media phones can now deliver rich, clear, HD voice and seamless functionality with Microsoft^® Lync^™, so customers of Polycom voice devices can seamlessly upgrade to get more value out of their existing investment.
• Polycom RealPresence Immersive. Polycom is currently testing the first immersive video solution for direct connection to a Microsoft^® Lync^™ server to offer presence-based dialing and HD video in Microsoft^® Lync^™ calls. With this release, Microsoft^® Lync^™ users can find [ Polycom® RealPresence™ Experience (RPX™) ] and [ Polycom® Open Telepresence Experience™ (OTX™) ] immersive systems, check their availability, and then make a direct video call.
• Enhanced support for video deployments. Polycom is also testing support for the bandwidth management policies of the Microsoft^® Lync^™ interoperable communications solution across all Polycom video solutions, as well as the [ Polycom® RealPresence™ Platform ], the most comprehensive software infrastructure for universal video collaboration. By supporting Microsoft^® Lync^™ bandwidth management policies across an entire spectrum of video solutions, Polycom enables network administrators to confidently design and deploy Microsoft^® Lync^™ video networks and Polycom video solutions knowing that they can be managed under a single policy to avoid oversubscription or call degradation and help ensure critical applications remain unaffected. This means a better overall experience for users and administrators alike, leading to wider adoption of efficient, cost-saving video collaboration to help connect people in additional ways, virtually anytime, anywhere.

"Polycom's innovative solutions -- such as the CX7000, custom-built for full integration with Microsoft^® Lync^™ -- are an ideal complement to Microsoft^® Lync^™ environments and help to deliver on the promise of truly unified communications," said Kirk Gregersen, general manager, Microsoft^® Lync^™. "Polycom and Microsoft are furthering the adoption of video collaboration and Microsoft^® Lync^™ by delivering comprehensive UC solutions that help enable a rich video collaboration experience and improved meeting productivity."

Polycom was recently named the recipient of the 2011 Microsoft Unified Communication Innovation Partner of the Year award for the company's leadership in delivering innovations that provide powerful, enterprise-grade UC and visual collaboration solutions for customers.

Pricing and Availability
The Polycom CX7000 system is currently available for ordering starting at US$9,999 through Polycom authorized solution providers, direct market resellers, systems integrators, service providers, and distributors and will be shipping by year end. The Polycom KIRK Wireless DECT solution is currently available starting at US$1,195. For all other Microsoft-optimized solutions, please contact your Polycom sales representative or reseller for pricing and no cost software upgrades for those with existing solutions under a service contract. For more information, visit: [ www.polycom.com/microsoft ] or call 1 800 POLYCOM.

About Polycom
Polycom is the global leader in standards-based unified communications (UC) solutions for [ telepresence ], [ video ], and voice powered by the Polycom RealPresence Platform. The RealPresence Platform interoperates with the broadest range of business, mobile, and social applications and devices. More than 400,000 organizations trust Polycom solutions to collaborate and meet face-to-face from any location for more productive and effective engagement with colleagues, partners, customers, and prospects. Polycom, together with its broad partner ecosystem, provides customers with the best TCO, scalability, and security -- on-premises, hosted, or cloud delivered. Visit [ www.polycom.com ] or connect with Polycom on [ Twitter ], [ Facebook ], and [ LinkedIn ].

¹ Depending on the product line, customers only need to update server or handset software.

NOTE: The product plans, specifications, and descriptions herein are provided for information only and subject to change without notice, and are provided without warranty of any kind, express or implied. Polycom reserves the right to modify future product plans at any time. Products and related specifications referenced herein are not guaranteed and will be delivered on a when and if available basis.

© 2011 Polycom, Inc. All rights reserved. POLYCOM®, the Polycom "Triangles" logo, and the names and marks associated with Polycom's products are trademarks and/or service marks of Polycom, Inc. and are registered and/or common law marks in the United States and various other countries. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

Editor's note: Polycom and Microsoft executives will host a webcast featuring a Sprint executive discussing the power of collaboration to transform business on Tuesday, December 6 at 11:00 am ET. To register, please click [ here ].