Polycom Microsoft Unified Communications Partner of Year

Polycom Recognised as 2011 Microsoft Unified Communications Innovation Partner of the Year
Polycom and Microsoft Continue to Deliver Comprehensive UC Solutions That Deliver High Value for Enterprise Customers

New Zealand – June 27, 2011 – Polycom, Inc. (Nasdaq: PLCM), a global leader in unified communications (UC), has been named the recipient of 2011 Microsoft Unified Communications 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. Polycom has received the award for demonstrating excellence in innovation and implementation of customer solutions based on Microsoft technology. Polycom will be officially honoured at Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) 2011 next month.

“Polycom is honoured to receive this award as it demonstrates the momentum of our strong relationship with Microsoft as well as the deep collaboration between our two companies to deliver comprehensive and innovative UC solutions that drive compelling business value for customers,” said Andrew Miller, Polycom president and CEO. “Polycom and Microsoft share a passion for delivering easy-to-use UC collaboration solutions that improve business processes, productivity, and efficiency in the workplace. Together with our partners, Polycom is focused on delivering on our vision for UC Everywhere™.”

Awards were presented in multiple categories, with winners chosen from a set of more than 3,000 entrants worldwide. Polycom was recognised for providing outstanding solutions and services in Microsoft Unified Communications Innovation Partner of the Year. The Unified Communications Innovation Partner of the Year Award honours partners who are building on the extensible Microsoft Unified Communications platform offered by Lync/OCS and Microsoft Exchange, and are delivering innovative solutions that integrate communications within business applications and processes (CEBP). This award recognises Polycom, who highlighted how its solution around CEBP has had a significant impact on how people communicate and collaborate by enhancing the end-user experience, increasing efficiency, or by extending the existing products with unique add-ons.

"Microsoft is pleased to recognise Polycom as Unified Communications Innovation Partner of the Year," said Kirk Koenigsbauer, corporate vice president of Microsoft Office Division Product Management Group at Microsoft. "Polycom has created tangible value for customers through the development of uniquely integrated audio and video conferencing solutions for the Microsoft Unified Communications platform provided by Lync/OCS and Exchange. Polycom's solutions successfully improve communication capabilities and overall collaboration through a variety of enhancements that impact end-user experience and efficiency, enabling true CEBP applications."

The Microsoft Partner Awards recognise Microsoft partners that have developed and delivered exceptional Microsoft-based solutions over the past year. The award builds upon the strategic relationship between Polycom and Microsoft, which was expanded in August 2010 to deliver a complete, standards-based, business class, end-to-end UC solution optimised for Microsoft environments. Polycom and Microsoft’s directly integrated solutions have helped companies ranging from fitness clubs to healthcare organisations lower their total cost of ownership, streamline IT management, and improve redundancy protection while providing an enterprise-level quality of experience and a secure solution. Polycom and Microsoft have collaborated on over 100 global events together and have jointly announced a portfolio of HD voice and video solutions that directly interoperate with the Microsoft® Lync™ platform and recently previewed a powerful Polycom group collaboration system purpose-built for Lync, code-named “Rally,” during Polycom’s June 1 webcast. Polycom plans to make additional enterprise offerings available in the near future.

Polycom works with leading partners across the world, including strategic Polycom® Open Collaboration Network™ members, to deliver tightly integrated unified collaboration solutions that give users easy access to powerful, productivity-enhancing tools while protecting customers’ UC environment investments through established standards and open interoperability.

About Polycom
Polycom, Inc. is a global leader in unified communications solutions with industry-leading telepresence, video, voice, and infrastructure solutions built on open standards. Polycom powers smarter conversations, transforming lives and businesses worldwide. Please visit www.polycom.asia for more information or connect with Polycom on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

ENDS

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