By: P.J. Louisemail: PJLouis@PJLouis.com
Polycom is a maker of enterprise communications systems. The company’s product lines for years have supported corporate communications, specifically conferencing systems.
Over the years the company has integrated its systems in corporate telecom networks using a variety of analog and digital technologies. In short the company has been a player for years. What is causing people to pay attention to this company now?
The answers are:
- The recession- The environment
The rising cost of travel for business is preventing companies from doing business. The rising cost of managing multiple office locations is making managing a business expensive. Even with the cost of fuel dropping (at this moment), most people and business are doing everything they can to manage all costs on a long term basis. Fuel costs are obviously going to go up again.
Businesses are seeking ways of maximizing their operations and the way they do business with minimal increase in costs.
Telepresence is the way to achieve higher productivity in this time of rising business costs.
Polycom is seeking ways of increasing the number of endpoints that can be managed at any given time. The number of end points that can be managed is important to controlling the cost of the system. Telepresence technology is not inexpensive. Any investment in the system will cause a business to dig deep into its pockets. Further, because the system itself is really classified an operational expense the system is not a revenue generator per se. Bottom line, the initial investment may sting the corporate budget but it is worth it in the long run.
Telepresence is not a GREEN technology per se but it is being touted as such. Frankly, the idea is worth investing in regardless of the GREEN label.
Polycom will be facing stiff competition. Telepresence technology is still under development. It is more than just a big suped up conference calling system. Telepresence immerses users in the experience – theoretically it is supposed to make it feel like you are sitting across the table from the other party.
Yes, it is still under development but it is a worthy technology investment. I realize investors are skittish about investing in developing technologies but the idea is worthwhile. The only real concern for investors is that they need to do due diligence. My suggestion is hire diligence experts and experts in telepresence.