Flexible Financing Options to Make UC More Affordable

Flexible Financing Options to Make UC More Affordable

Polycom Announces New Flexible Financing Offerings that Make it Easier for Customers and Partners of All Sizes to Afford and Implement Video Collaboration Solutions


Polycom Working with Macquarie Equipment Finance and GE Capital to Offer Access to Funding on Global Basis

NEW ZEALAND – NOV. 11, 2012 – Polycom, Inc. (Nasdaq: PLCM), the global leader in open standards-based unified communications and collaboration (UC&C), today introduced a series of new customer financing options that put comprehensive, tailored UC&C solutions within reach of more customers. This comprehensive and flexible financing model helps free customers from the limitations of quarterly capital expense budgets, and allows more organisations to implement UC&C solutions that fully meet their needs. Polycom is leveraging Macquarie Equipment Finance’s global capabilities to provide customer financing solutions. In addition, through an arrangement with GE Capital, Polycom is offering its channel partners access to working capital aimed at lessening the burden of inventory carrying costs during customer implementations.

Offered through Polycom Capital, the new customer financing programmes take an “all-in” approach by letting small and medium businesses (SMBs) and enterprises finance their Polycom® RealPresence™ solutions and services, as well as their entire UC&C implementation. Polycom Capital has designed three programmes to accommodate a variety of customer needs:

• 0% for 24 months. For organisations seeking no-interest financing over a shorter term, this option is available to all enterprises, service providers and SMBs, though smaller companies are likely to find it especially attractive.
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• 2.99% for 36 months. This programme is ideal for organisations seeking below-market, longer-term financing.
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• Technology refresh financing. This financing programme is for customers wanting the flexibility of upgrading to next-generation solutions without waiting until the end of the financing term. It provides organisations the option of refreshing their recent purchase at specific intervals within the term of the programme, without financial penalties or fees.
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“These new attractive financing options from Polycom Capital put unified communications and video collaboration solutions within reach of nearly any business, and we believe it will help us sell even more of the full product portfolio to our customers,” said Eric Brown, Polycom Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer. “In today’s market, we’re seeing strong interest from both customers and partners in Polycom Capital. With various payment options and the ability to finance everything – maintenance, installation, services, training and even non-Polycom accessories – Polycom Capital provides a very compelling value proposition for customers and partners.”

“We are excited to help Polycom offer its customers financing options so they can create comprehensive unified communications and collaboration solutions,” said Nicholas Holmes, global head of vendor programmes for Macquarie Equipment Finance.

New Financing Options for Polycom Channel Partners

Polycom Capital is also working with GE Capital to provide Polycom channel partners access to working capital. The programme provides partners with extended payment terms and higher credit lines for their purchases of Polycom products; this gives partners time to install Polycom products and services, and collect from customers before having to pay for their inventory. Depending on geography, payment terms can be as long as 90 days. Longer terms may be available for specific transactions.

“GE Capital is pleased to work with Polycom and its global reseller network to provide the working capital financing necessary to meet the needs of its resellers,” said Tom Grathwohl, senior managing director of global and structured solutions of GE Capital, Commercial Distribution Finance.

Polycom channel reseller partners are part of the Polycom Partner Network, an extensive ecosystem of channel and alliance partners that embrace and extend Polycom’s open, standards-based video collaboration solutions. Together, Polycom and its partners deliver the most complete video collaboration solutions available to more than 415,000 Polycom customers.

The new customer and channel financing programmes give customers and partners access to the full portfolio of RealPresence video collaboration solutions – including all the new next-generation RealPresence solutions announced in early October (see the related press release) – from video software for mobile devices, PCs and laptops; to group systems and executive desktops; to immersive theaters; to practitioner carts for the healthcare industry. The portfolio is powered by the Polycom® RealPresence™ Platform, the most comprehensive and interoperable UC&C infrastructure for universal video collaboration, which provides robust provisioning, management, scalability, reliability, flexibility and security. In early October, Polycom also announced powerful enhancements to the RealPresence Platform, including the industry’s first open standards-based SVC (Scalable Video Coding), with 3X HD multipoint video call capacity for greater scalability, dramatically lower TCO, superior performance, and backwards- and forwards-compatibility to protect customer investments. Through its unique support of open standards, the Polycom RealPresence Platform ensures integration with hundreds of unified communications and social networking applications, and integrates with core networking and security infrastructure to deliver secure collaboration with any number of people across heterogeneous networks.

Polycom Capital financing programmes for customers and channel partners are available through Polycom’s local sales contacts throughout the world. Interested parties should contact their local Polycom sales or Polycom Capital representatives. Alternative financing options are available for channel partners.

About Macquarie Equipment Finance

Macquarie Equipment Finance, a member of Macquarie Group, is a leading global provider of customised financing and asset management solutions for enterprises, technology manufacturers and suppliers worldwide with capabilities on four continents to serve the needs of major multinational organisations through small and midsize businesses.

Macquarie Group (Macquarie) is a global provider of banking, financial, advisory, investment and funds management services. Macquarie’s main business focus is making returns by providing a diversified range of services to clients. Founded in 1969, Macquarie operates in more than 70 office locations in 28 countries and employs more than 13,400 people. Assets under management total $356 billion. For more information, visit www.macquarie.com/mef.

About GE Capital

GE Capital’s Commercial Distribution Finance business provided nearly US$40 billion in financing for more than 36,000 manufacturers, dealers and distributors globally in 2011. Programmes include inventory and accounts receivable financing, asset-based lending, private label financing, collateral management and related financial products. For more information, visit www.gecdf.com or follow company news via Twitter (@GEInventoryFin).

GE (NYSE: GE) works on things that matter. The best people and the best technologies taking on the toughest challenges. Finding solutions in energy, health and home, transportation and finance. Building, powering, moving and curing the world. Not just imagining. Doing. GE works. For more information, visit the company's website at www.ge.com.

About Polycom Capital

Polycom Capital programmes are marketed by Polycom, providing easy, flexible and collaborative financing. With various payment options and the ability to include maintenance, installation, services, training and non-Polycom accessories – Polycom Capital uniquely enables tailored total solutions specifically designed for customers’ business requirements.

About Polycom

Polycom is the global leader in open standards-based unified communications and collaboration (UC&C) solutions for voice and video collaboration, trusted by more than 415,000 customers around the world. Polycom solutions are powered by the Polycom® RealPresence™ Platform, comprehensive software infrastructure and rich APIs that interoperate with the broadest set of communication, business, mobile and cloud applications and devices to deliver secure face-to-face video collaboration in any environment. Polycom and its ecosystem of over 7,000 partners provide truly unified communications solutions that deliver the best user experience, highest multi-vendor interoperability, and lowest TCO. Visit www.polycom.asia or connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to learn how we’re pushing the greatness of human collaboration forward.

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This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the “safe harbor” provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 regarding future events, including statements regarding Polycom Capital helping Polycom sell even more of the full product portfolio to customers. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially, including the impact of competition on our product sales and for our customers and partners; the impact of increased competition due to consolidation in our industry or competition from companies that are larger or that have greater resources than we do; our ability to bring our new products and offerings to market in a timely manner due to engineering, manufacturing or other delays; changing market demands; potential fluctuations in results and future growth rates; continuing disruption to the business due to the realignment of the North America sales organization; risks associated with general economic conditions and external market factors; the market acceptance of our products and changing market demands, including demands for differing technologies or product and services offerings; our ability to successfully integrate our acquisitions into our business; possible delays in the development, availability and shipment of new products; increasing costs and differing uses of capital; changes in key personnel that may cause disruption to the business; our inability to achieve the expected results from adjustments being made to our expense profile; the impact of restructuring actions; and the impact of global conflicts and changing laws that may adversely impact our business. Many of these risks and uncertainties are discussed in the Company’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2012, and in other reports filed by Polycom with the SEC. Polycom disclaims any intent or obligations to update these forward-looking statements.

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.

© 2012 Polycom, Inc. All rights reserved. POLYCOM®, the Polycom 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.

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