Polycom Co-Founds UCIF To Advance Unified Communications Interoperability

Forum leverages open standards for UC interoperability and multi-vendor collaboration

PLEASANTON. CA - May 19, 2010 - Polycom, Inc. [Nasdaq: PLCM], along with HP, Juniper Networks, Microsoft, and Logitech / LifeSize, today announced the co-founding of the Unified Communications Interoperability Forum (UCIF), a non-profit alliance of worldwide technology leaders working together to deliver open unified communications (UC) solutions. The UCIF is dedicated to providing customers with standards-based, cross-vendor interoperability of UC hardware and software solutions that span enterprises and the service provider cloud to enable organizations and consumers to seamlessly communicate and collaborate.

Recognizing that interoperability based on open standards is a key requirement to drive UC further into today’s enterprises, UCIF members will collaborate to facilitate the widespread UC adoption and deliver a reliable and rich UC experience from mobile, to desktop, to immersive telepresence solutions.

“Polycom’s heritage is providing customers with the ability to communicate without boundaries through standards-based, open collaboration solutions,” said Andy Miller, Polycom president and CEO. “As the cornerstone of our Polycom Open Collaboration Network strategy, we deliver an innovative portfolio of high-quality, platform-agnostic voice and video solutions that interoperate with the leading UC platforms, providing flexibility and protecting the investments of our customers. The UCIF sole purpose is to drive open, standards-based solutions, and to squelch any efforts to promote proprietary solutions against the interests of our customers. We’re delighted to be a founder of UCIF and its noble mission to promote interoperability throughout the UC industry.”

“Interoperability is not only critical to customer success for deploying unified communications but intrinsic to the delivery of legacy, current and next-generation UC tools, services and infrastructure from multiple vendors. Until now, efforts to achieve interoperability have appeared ad-hoc, which has given customers little assurance that their existing and planned investments are protected and will deliver the value promised,” said Jonathan Edwards, research analyst, Unified Communications, IDC. “I’m delighted to see Polycom take a leading role by joining the UCIF. Together, these companies will help drive industrywide adoption of open standards and develop programs that put accountability on the vendors and provide peace of mind and investment protection for end customers – something that will surely accelerate adoption of UC technologies.”

The UCIF will utilize existing industry standards and define new standards to eliminate the gaps between current protocols and broad-based interoperability. UCIF membership is open to hardware and software solution providers, service providers and network operators. For more information or to join the UCIF, visit www.ucif.org.

About the UCI Forum

The Unified Communications Interoperability Forum (UCIF) is a non-profit alliance of worldwide communications technology leaders working together to realize the potential of unified communications (UC) by increasing efficiency, decreasing implementation costs and improving the interoperability experience for UC customers. The UCIF’s vision is to enable interoperability of open, standards-based UC hardware and software across enterprises, service providers, and consumer clouds, as a means of generating incremental business opportunity for all stakeholders in the ecosystem and of increasing the business use of UC technologies and services. The UCIF creates and tests interoperability profiles, implementation guidelines and best practices for interoperability between UC products and existing communications and business applications. Visit www.ucif.org to learn more.

About Polycom

Polycom, Inc. (Nasdaq: PLCM) is the global leader in telepresence, video, and voice solutions and a visionary in communications that empower people to connect and collaborate everywhere. Visit http://www.polycom.com for more information and follow us on Twitter @AllAboutPolycom.