Cable & Wireless (C&W) has announced a deal with Regus to provide the workplace services vendor with Polycom’s HD telepresence platform. The five-year contract is worth over $45m.
Regus claims to offer the world’s largest network of publicly accessible video conferencing rooms with more than 600 studios. The deal will offer the company state-of-the-art video conferencing suites, providing a high definition (HD), surround sound meeting experience.
The company is said to have facilities in London, New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Manchester, Mumbai, Moscow, Frankfurt, Paris, Shanghai, Sydney, Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo.
With companies looking to reduce costs during the recession, video conferencing is one alternative that businesses are looking towards. It is said to offer a cost-effective alternative to flying around the world for meetings.
Mark Dixon, Regus CEO said: “As the world’s largest provider of publicly available video conferencing studios, we know that our customers appreciate the benefits of this leading-edge technology and are excited to use the product. In fact, in 2008 Regus experienced a 40% increase in video conference bookings over the previous year. Companies who utilise this virtual tool will save time and money on business travel while minimising their impact on the environment. We are revolutionising how people meet by delivering services that will optimise their performance.”
The suites are available on a pay-as-you-use hourly basis, so companies to do not have to commit to a long-term contract.
“This will be a new way of working for many businesses, but it’s a method where cost savings and improved productivity are realised immediately. C&W Video Conferencing will provide new customers with the ability to transform the way they work and give existing video users the opportunity to expand their footprint without the need for significant investment in new telepresence hardware. C&W leads the UK market with this product and this deal supports our ambitions for customers to use this product around the world,” said Jim Marsh, C&W CEO, Europe, Asia and US.
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Bob Hagerty, President & CEO of Polycom, said: “By deploying systems that support open standards, Regus gives its customers access to a vast ecosystem of more than 1.5 million standards-based video conferencing and telepresence systems in use today. This provides significantly greater value for customers by providing more opportunities to collaborate with video systems in their locations, and with customers, partners and suppliers.”
