Vision Net Brings High Definition Video Conferencing to Montana. Why Drive to Meetings When You Can Be Green?

As former Senator Burns said often, "In Montana, there’s a lot of dirt between lightbulbs." We travel great distances to attend conferences and meetings or call on clients when there’s a better green solution.

I had the pleasure of seeing a demonstration of the state of the art in video conferencing today thanks to the efforts of Vision Net http://www.vision.net of Montana.

They’re traveling the state to introduce businesses and institutions to the value of economical HD video conferencing. I’ve included a release from Polycom about the green initiative that’s moving to reduce the travel that many businesses still think is necessary.

If you have an interest, please contact Aslinn Ferrell-Merriman at 406-467-4708 or [email protected]

POLYCOM ANNOUNCES INDUSTRY’S FIRST GREEN SERVICES TO REDUCE CARBON EMISSIONS THROUGH VISUAL COMMUNICATIONS

Program Helps Organizations Optimize Networks, Implement and Track Video Usage vis-a-vis Carbon Reductions; Polycom Survey of Customers Shows U.S. Ramping Up on Green Policies

In conjunction with Earth Day, Polycom, Inc. (NASDAQ: PLCM), the leader in unified collaborative communications solutions, today announced the collaboration industry’s first green services program, Going Green with Polycom. Going Green with Polycom is a three-step program offered through authorized Polycom channel partners that provides companies with Video Readiness, Green Rollout Planning and Implementation, and Tracking and Measurement programs. The program utilizes a comprehensive methodology to help organizations reduce their carbon emissions through increased usage of video applications as an alternative to travel.

Perfect Storm of Economic, Environmental &Tech Conditions Build Video Demand
The unprecedented market growth for visual communications and its associated services including telepresence, is the natural outgrowth of the collision of economic, environmental and technical factors. Globalization has led to the rise of outsourcing, strategic partnering, and the mobile workforce, making timely communications among dispersed employees, customers, partners and vendors increasingly important. At the same time economic uncertainty is high, travel is increasingly inconvenient and costly, and global warming is threatening the planet. Finally, technology has reduced the need for travel thanks to bandwidth-rich IP networks that enable reliable, high definition video communications for desktops, conference rooms and telepresence suites. Companies using video to reduce travel benefit in multiple ways: from maximized productivity and faster time to market, to reduced operating expenses and carbon emissions.

Going Green With Polycom – Innovative New Program Meets Demand
Polycom’s innovative new Going Green with Polycom program meets this growing demand by offering implementation and optimized video usage to reduce travel and improve the environment.

The comprehensive program includes:

• Video Readiness

This service benchmarks service quality, operational efficiency in terms of capacity and resources, and the business benefits resulting from maximum user adoption and experience. This service also helps identify the applications and workflows that are ideal for video, as well as how to optimize conferencing operations.

• Planning Rollout and Implementation or the “Green Assessment Service”

This service establishes a direct link between effective use of video conferencing and reductions in carbon emissions. The service first establishes the role and potential for video conferencing to support overall organizational environmental objectives. Consultants then proceed to examine the current utilization of conferencing and travel patterns to develop effective programs designed to increase the environmentally responsible use of video conferencing technology in existing and new applications.

• Tracking and Measurement

An application called Video-Miles®, from Polycom ARENA partner The Visual Environment, can be licensed for each registered endpoint. The unique software monitors and measures every video conference by automatically and accurately calculating the number of travel miles, the amount of carbon saved, detailed ROI from travel cost savings, as well as the ability to target, drive, measure and monitor system utilization. Results are tracked and available at the click of a mouse in a variety of on-demand reports.

The Visual Environment reports customers experience increases in system utilization of more than 20 percent, increased travel cost savings of more than 30 percent, and carbon savings growing at 25 percent per quarter using Video-Miles. “Decision-making information about video is now available—instantly,” said Calum Miller, co-founder and partner, The Visual Environment. “Our customers like the fact that, for the first time ever, our software lets them be in control of their video conferencing investment and they have the ability to drive what they now class as a valuable asset.”

“Going Green with Polycom is a new addition to Polycom’s suite of Professional Services offerings,” said Geno Alissi, general manager and senior vice president of Polycom Global Services. “Polycom and its partners offer the broadest service and support programs for collaboration and communication in the industry. No one knows more about how to implement collaborative communications solutions into a Unified Communications network than Polycom and its authorized channel partners.”

Polycom Study Finds Sustainability Programs & Travel Cuts on the Rise in U.S.

Europe and Asia have long focused on sustainability, with some governments even mandating environmental policies. A recent sampling of Polycom customers shows that reducing travel for sustainability is now also becoming a key initiative in the United States:

• 18 percent have corporate sustainability programs to reduce carbon emissions and 64 percent of those have had policies in place for over a year. Another 20 percent of responding organizations said that they are currently considering similar programs.

• 80 percent of respondents are reducing operating costs by limiting travel and 52 percent are focused on reducing carbon emission created by ground or air travel.

• The majority of respondents are using video conferencing to either become more green (54 percent) or reduce travel costs (87 percent) and 33 percent have a company travel policy that requires employees consider virtual meetings in lieu of travel.

• 68 percent of respondents have seen increased video conferencing usage – most by between 10 and 25 percent — as a result of decreased travel and sustainability programs.

• Individual contributors use video the most (53 percent), followed by executives (30 percent) and managers (22 percent).

A global customer using Polycom telepresence and video solutions to help reach carbon neutrality is Easynet, the international managed network and hosting division of BSkyB broadcasting and NDS Group, a global leader in digital television technology that is majority owned by News Corporation.

Pricing and Availability

The Going Green with Polycom portfolio of services are available today through Polycom authorized channels. They may be purchased individually or together. Pricing is dependent upon the number of endpoints and locations with prices ranging from an MSRP of US$20,000 to an MSRP of US$70,000.

About the Customer Survey

The U.S. customer data came from an online survey fielded to its membership by The Polycom User Group (PUG), the largest independent association of conferencing IT professionals. The sampling consisted of 61 respondents representing healthcare (34 percent), enterprises with 500 or more employees (26 percent), education (21 percent) and Federal, state and local government (16 percent). Eighty-seven percent of respondents had headquarters in the United States. For more information on the Polycom User Group go to http://www.pug.org.

About Polycom

Polycom, Inc. is the worldwide leader in unified collaborative communications (UCC) that maximize the efficiency and productivity of people and organizations. Polycom delivers the broadest array of high definition telepresence video, wired and wireless voice, and content solutions so people can enjoy the best communications, whether from a real-time collaborative interaction or on-demand streamed video experience. Spanning from the desktop to the industry’s only immersive telepresence suite, Polycom’s high quality collaboration and communications solutions are easy to deploy and manage, as well as intuitive to use. Based on open standards, they integrate seamlessly with leading telephony and presence-based networks. With innovative market-driving technologies, a compelling vision for next generation visual communications, best-in-class products, alliance partnerships, and world-class service, Polycom is the smart choice for organizations to gain a competitive advantage with proven and trusted communication solutions. For additional information, call 800-POLYCOM or visit the Polycom web site at http://www.polycom.com.

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