BT Expands Features of One Source for Polycom Immersive Telepresence Solutions

QUINCY, Mass., Feb. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- BT Conferencing today announced the expansion of BT One Source for Polycom Immersive, a complete telepresence managed service. One Source combines Polycom's immersive high-definition systems with BT Conferencing's comprehensive management services and automation to provide customers with an easy-to-use, reliable, and cost-effective immersive telepresence solution.

The new service features provide greater convenience and reliability by enabling customers to automatically launch telepresence sessions using BT's Engage suite of software tools (EndPoint Connect and Bridge Connect).  BT is able to fully automate a customer's telepresence and video conferencing experience with Polycom's bridging products.

This is the first in a series of  enhancements planned by BT and Polycom to focus on the immersive telepresence segment.  BT bridging services and business-to-business (B2B) connectivity for Polycom Immersive products are currently in the product pipeline.

Jeff Prestel, general manager of BT Conferencing's Video Business Unit, said: "With the rapid evolution of the telepresence and video conferencing market,  customers increasingly want greater convenience and flexibility.  BT One Source for Polycom gives our customers a simple, reliable and cost effective immersive video experience."

BT's Engage Tracker tool is also included in this offering. It helps organizations quantify the return on investment (ROI) of their telepresence program by tracking travel cost savings and carbon emission reductions resulting from video usage.  Engage Tracker tallies savings on actual installed and utilized telepresence systems, not on industry averages, estimates or models.

BT One Source allows customers to tailor their Polycom telepresence and video conferencing solutions to meet their specific business needs. It includes planning, design and implementation services as well as customer support services such as BT's One Care Preferred "white glove" services.  For additional flexibility and convenience, customer-owned bridging infrastructure can be located on the customers' premises or housed in a BT co-location facility. 

Michael Swade, vice president of service providers, Polycom, said: "Together, BT and Polycom deliver complete solutions combining products and services that customers require for enterprise-wide visual communication deployments.   Customers also want flexibility and interoperability, and through our relationship with BT, customers receive world-class managed services and support combined with a complete range of Polycom standards-based telepresence and video conferencing solutions to meet their specific business requirements."

BT's expertise in managing telepresence and video conferencing for its customers, coupled with coverage provided by BT's extensive global IP network across 170 countries and 24x7x365 Helpdesk support, helps ensure high quality conferencing services for customers worldwide. BT One Source for Polycom Immersive Solutions is currently available in the US and UK.

About BT Conferencing

BT Conferencing is a leading global provider of audio, video and web collaboration services. We are the foremost player in the UK's growing conferencing services market and the leading supplier of video conferencing services worldwide. Our partnerships with top technology companies and equipment vendors ensure we always have the best and latest solutions to offer our customers.

About BT

BT is one of  the world's leading providers of communications solutions and services operating in 170 countries.  Its principal activities include the provision of networked IT services globally; local, national and international telecommunications services to our customers for use at home, at work and on the move; broadband and internet products and services and converged fixed/mobile products and services.  BT consists principally of four lines of business:  BT Global Services, Openreach, BT Retail and BT Wholesale.

In the year ended 31 March 2009, BT Group's revenue was 21,390 million pounds Sterling.

British Telecommunications plc (BT) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BT Group plc and  encompasses virtually all businesses and assets of the BT Group.  BT Group plc is listed on stock exchanges in London and New York.   

For more information, visit www.bt.com/aboutbt

SOURCE BT