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Polycom this week outlined a myriad of investments it is making in its channel strategy that aim to boost partner profitability and grab a bigger piece of the growing IP communications market.
Chairman and CEO Bob Hagerty this week at the Polycom Global Partner Summit in Boston said the timing is right for the videoconferencing vendor and its partners to plant a big stake in the market as enterprises look for ways to improve communications between dispersed employees.
"Everyone ran to globalize and put their people out in the world, but they didn't have any way for them to participate in the operations," Hagerty said.
To help capitalize on the opportunity, Polycom is making investments in key areas that will benefit partners, including backend systems, sales personnel and marketing, Hagerty said.
Along with new product rollouts, those investments will help Polycom maintain and improve its market leadership, make it easier for partners to do business with it and boost sales coverage, said David Phillips, senior vice president of worldwide sales.
In return for its investments, Polycom is seeking partner loyalty, he said. While the company doesn't expect partners to drop competitors, it does want its solution providers to lead with Polycom, he said.
"I want to earn the right to be the vendor you lead with," Phillips told the 850 conference attendees during a keynote address.
On the sales front, the company plans to add 150 sales people by the end of the second quarter to focus on growing partner business in global accounts, said Steve Huey, chief marketing officer at Polycom, Pleasanton, Calif., noting that Polycom's sales and marketing budget grew 30 percent for 2007 compared to 2006.
The influx of global account managers is also designed to help Polycom get more visibility among C-level executives so it can compete with rivals like Cisco Systems and Hewlett-Packard, which are selling their high-definition (HD) videoconferencing wares to CEOs and CIOs.
"Pretty much in the history of this company we have never talked to the C-level," Huey said. "It's clear to us now that the C-suite is going to be the tipping point for [HD videoconferencing] and that's why [Cisco Chairman and CEO] John Chambers and [HP Chairman and CEO] Mark Hurd are talking to them."
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