Telecom Lead America: UK-based technology firm Smiths Group is using Polycom RealPresence video solutions in combination with Microsoft Lync Server 2010 to unify video, voice, and data communications across 400 locations in over 50 countries.
Smiths Group employs over 23,000 people across more than 50 countries to serve diverse customers in a range of industries, including transport, military, petrochemical, healthcare, telecommunications, and equipment manufacturing.
Smiths implemented Polycom RealPresence Room video solutions (including the Polycom HDX 8000 solution) and Polycom’s executive desktop solution (Polycom HDX® 4500 system) in fixed locations, and Polycom RealPresence Mobile 2.0 software for employees on the move.
Smiths is currently expanding the use of Polycom’s RealPresence Platform software infrastructure by connecting it with Microsoft Lync desktop clients.
“Interoperability was an absolute necessity for us to achieve our long-term plans for enterprise-wide unified communications and collaboration. One of the main drivers behind our decision to purchase Polycom RealPresence video collaboration solutions was their interoperability with Microsoft Lync,” said Simon Quintin, director, Workplace Services, Smiths Group.
Smiths are rolling out Microsoft Lync across the entire company with a target completion date of mid-2013. The goal is to drive a different way of working with more engagement, better communication, less travel, and faster reactions enabled by Microsoft and Polycom.
With the combination of Lync and RealPresence, staff can launch video collaboration sessions easily and intuitively from within familiar interfaces and normal workflows, simply clicking a name on their Lync contact list to securely collaborate face-to-face via Polycom video on their desktop or in a conference room-based system.
“Polycom video conferencing has significantly changed our way of working, enabling the company to break down some of the barriers to communicating across a distributed work force whilst reducing travelling costs, improving employee collaboration and increasing efficiencies across business units,” said Simon Quintin, director, Workplace Services, Smiths Group.
Smiths Group deployed Polycom Elite Service, which provides direct access to an assigned Elite Service manager and engineer, as well as 24/7 telephone technical support.
